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Later in the day we reached Bacau, where we were told to register at the Hotel Flamboyant.  It was completely deserted, the rooms and sheets were full of gecko shit, mould was growing on those parts of the carpeting that had not completely decomposed and there was no running water.

Was this the same place as in the photos back in Dili?

We agreed to two horrific rooms and went on our way.  With the hairs still quivering on the backs of our necks, we stopped for a bit of lunch at a small roadside restaurant.  My colleague (and I am forever indebted to him for this) noticed that this place had rooms for rent upstairs.  It was, comparatively, The Shangri La-di-da!  I never got photos of the Hotel Flamboyant, unfortunately, as I expected to take some the next day after what was sure to be a sleepless night in the pits of hell.  We of course never returned to the pits of hell but rather stayed in the warm and homey embrace of  this - The Aquina - rooming house.  There we were told that the Hotel Flamboyant was turned into a 5-star tortur chamber for the unfortunate Timorese prisoners taken by the Indonesian forces.  That explains why it is now deserted.  The nuns of the convent across the street were apparently kept up at night by the wails of agony from those prisoners still unfortunate enough to remain alive after their beatings.

My eyes were beginning to open.


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