Timor-Leste Quiz — 20 Fascinating Questions

Test your knowledge of this fascinating country with this quiz about Timor-Leste

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Transcript

Jonty: 0:06

Bondi. Welcome to exploring Tim Este, the podcast that talks about Southeast Asia's best kept travel secret. I'm your host Jte, and I'll share firsthand insights, expert interviews and practical travel tips. Whether you're a traveler, a cultural lover, or just curious about places rarely covered in the mainstream. You're in the right place. Let's explore two more. Less day.

0:31

this episode is a quiz about Timor Less days. So I've got 20 questions to test your knowledge of the country. See how many you can get, right? Question one. When did Timor Lesse become an independent country answer in 2002, following a transitional UN administration after the Indonesian withdrawal in 1999. Question two. How many times has the Pope visited Timor Lesse? Answer twice. Pope John Paul II visited in 1989 and Pope Francis in 2024. Question three. Where can you fly to Timor-Leste from as of mid 2025? Answer four places you can fly from Bali in Indonesia, from Darwin in Australia, from Singapore, or from Kuala Lumper in Malaysia. Question four, how many tourists visit Timor-Leste each year? Answer about 25,000 in comparison, Bali gets well over 6 million visitors a year. Question five, what are the main sources of income for Timor less estate? Answer oil and gas primarily it is according to the World Bank, the most oil and gas dependent economy in the world. In distant second place. Are coffee, tourism and remittances from Timorese living overseas. Question six, what are five things that you can't do in Timor Less estate? Answer number one, you can't catch a train. Timor Este is one of only 27 countries in the world without a rail network. And unlike many, it has never had one, two golf. There are no golf courses in the country putting it amongst only 37 countries in the world that don't have any golf courses. There is, however, a driving range top golf in Dili. Three skiing as there is no snow despite the highest point being close to 3000 meters above sea level. Timor-Leste is too close to the equator for snow four. Timor-Leste doesn't have any formal botanic gardens, but there is plenty of beautiful and lush greenery throughout the country, particularly during the wet season. And five, you can't visit a UNESCO World Heritage Site as there are NNT more or less. They currently, but they have taken the first steps to prepare a bid for the Nino Cones, Santana National Park to be declared one that's to the east of the country, including loud term and Jaco Island. Question seven, what is the average C temperature? Answer, the ocean stays warm all year round, averaging between 27 and 29 degrees Celsius, or 81 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Question eight, what is the main religion of Timor Este? Answer Catholicism with 98% of the population Catholic, the second highest in the world after the Vatican City. Well, The Vatican City has a population of about 800 people, and Timor Lesser has a population of about 1.3. Million people. Interestingly, despite being occupied by Portuguese for about 400 years, it wasn't really until the Indonesian occupation that Catholicism became as dominant as it is, similar to say Poland under Soviet rule the church was seen as an important institution against the Indonesian occupation. Question nine, how long have people lived on the island of Timor? Answer at least 44,000 years. And they found over 30 rock arts sites in the Nino Cones, Santana National Park in la, dated back many tens of thousands of years. Question 10. How many public holidays does Timor less? They have answer at least 18, although some fall on weekends. And they also have things called tolerance days, which are effectively ad hoc holidays recognized by government departments sometimes announced the day before they take place. They tend to line up with public holidays to allow people to travel to get to the municipalities, the regions for the holiday itself. Question 11, should you bring anti-malarials to Timor? Answer, probably not. The only areas where reported cases are those next to West Timor, so that's acoustic Bob and Valima and they're still very low risk. And they're not the places that lots of tourists tend to visit. So you do need to be careful though for other mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever and chicken gya, but you can probably leave your anti malarias at home. Question 12, how do you say hello in tetin, the local language. Answer, you can say either Bandi Orti. Which depends on the time of day, so you can't just say hello It's very time specific. Bondi is good morning which is before 11:30 AM. But daddy is the afternoon, which starts at around 1130 and finishes around 6:00 PM and then ti is in the evening. Obviously that's influenced by the Portuguese language as well. Question 13, how many languages are spoken in Leste? Answer at least 30. Although the two official languages are tein and Portuguese and Bahasa. Indonesian is widely spoken, followed by English, and then there are many local dialects out in the regions. Question 14, how do you address a team of ease? Answer typically for your peers, you'll use the phrase man or mana, so that means brother or sister. So I might say Maun, Antonio or Mana Maria. Or for elders or more formal situations, you might use UR or ura. So sir or madam, question 15, what are foreigners called in Timor? Este answer, Malai. And that is a term you will hear frequently as a visitor, particularly from kids especially if you're visiting a more remote area, if they see you, they'll get screaming out. Malay. Malay is quite an unusual kinda sighting. So the origins of the word date back to they believe Malaysian traders from kind of 16th century. But these days, Malay is used to refer to you non timur, question 16, what is the highest point in Timor-Leste answer, Mount Ramala at 2,986 meters. And that is in the, pretty much the center of the island. Question 17. How did communicate with each other Answer. Facebook and WhatsApp. I believe they have some of the highest rates of Facebook usage in the world, and pretty much everybody is on WhatsApp. Very few people would have email. WhatsApp and Facebook are free and once you get a critical mass, everybody's on it. And that's the way people stay in touch and understand what's going on in Timor. Question 18, what proportion of Timorese live in urban centers? Answer only about a quarter of the population live in cities or towns with most people living in villages or hamlets in often quite rugged and remote areas. Question 19, how large is Tim Oreste answer 14,919 square kilometers. This is comparable in size to one fifth of the island of Tasmania in Australia, or it's a similar size to Hawke's Bay. Region of New Zealand a similar size to the state of Connecticut in America or, a similar size to the British County of Yorkshire. Last question. Question 20. How many crocodiles live in Timor? Estee? Answer, the estimates are between three and 4,000 saltwater crocodiles, which is probably a 10th of the number that live in in Australia. As these are salt water crocodiles who, who need to lay their eggs in fresh water. And there's actually surprisingly few areas of fresh water in Timor, less state. There are some lakes, far fewer than you'd expect to see. There's primarily estuaries and creeks particularly on the south coast. That's where most of the crocodiles live. They are quite niche questions and niche answers, but hopefully that's giving you a bit of an insight for some unusual facts about this beautiful country of Timor-Leste.

Jonty: 9:28

Thank you so much for listening to exploring Timor Less Day. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a rating or review. It really helps more people discover the show. If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email at exploring Timor lessDay@gmail.com. Until next time, or Bodo ADEs.