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Comment by itake | Hacker News Reader

PNG is on my list to visit. It’s relatively complex to get to. Most flights either leave from Australia or Jakarta, they don’t run frequently enough to where you will probably spend the night in Jakarta or Australia in order to catch the flight the next day.

I visited Timor Leste earlier this year and what an interesting country

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It seems astonishing to me that a "relatively complex" intercontinental trip these days means "have to spend a whole night waiting for the next flight".

the additional complexity is visas and immigration for that country.

I’m American, so I have to pay $35 every time I enter Indonesia and I’m limited to the number times per year I can enter the country.

Australia is easier. Just need to fill out ETA for a $20AUD fee.

The extra night also eats into your limited vacation time. 18 hours in addition to the 20 hours flying means you’re losing almost 4 days of your trip just transiting.

Also, my flights aren’t intercontinental. I did this monkey dance going from tp hcmc to Timor Leste.

That is funny. I am Turkish and my government charges me about 30 usd every time I leave the country

I read about a Japanese flying to Indonesia in 1959 (the president of the country was courting her). She flew from Tokyo to Hong Kong, then to Bangkok, then to Singapore before making the last hop to Jakarta.

That would have been right around the time that airlines were transitioning to jet aircraft. Back before jet travel it could take a whole week to reach the far east.

I tend to fly cheaply with multiple transfers/layovers. What I figured out recently is that it is nice to combine the flights in such a way that one of the layovers is _longer_.

When the airport has a good connection to a major city then 12 hours during the day are enough, but I'm happy to bump it to 2-3 days.

I have managed to visit some Chinese and Canadian cities this way and it was both more interesting and much cheaper than taking a direct flight.

Some travel tools allow you to search for 18+ hour connections.

I visited Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Hawaii, and Turkey at almost no extra dollar cost. If I like the city I go back.

It’s not a place for most visitors to go off-piste, unless you’re like MacAffee or that British lad Mike who does a hitch-hikers YT travel channel. They both were/are quite a-tuned to where they are think on their feet and are adept at escaping tough situations. Most people ate not like them.

Any cool facts to share about Timor Leste? My usual go to - wikipedia - does paint a rather mundane picture of it.

What's your criteria for mundane? Basically every decent sized island in that part of the world is going to have beautiful beaches, coral reefs, mountains, and jungles.

Crypto scammers have long operated in Cambodia, Philippines, Myanmar after being kicked out of China, and were looking to go to Sri Lanka and Timor Leste next - but Timor Leste's politicians and population got together and fought back successfully, it seems:

https://theconversation.com/asias-scamming-gangs-target-timo...

(More on those scam factories: https://theconversation.com/it-seemed-like-a-good-job-at-fir...

And from The Economist - lamentably paywalled: https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/scam-inc)

I actually visited abandoned scam centers a couple weeks ago in Bavet, Cambodia. It’s really eery now.

All the units had air conditioning units, which I thought was sweet, considering many Cambodians don’t have that. But the prison bars on the windows and barbed wire surrounding the complex was a bit uncomfortable to see.

Wtf. How come you ended up in such a compound?

I live in Vietnam. Bavet is a popular border for visa runs for expats. Normally, you don’t actually leave the Cambodia border building or you just take a bus all the way to Phnom Penh to wait for a visa was approved.

I was curious about the town, because it’s famous for casinos, scam centers, and Chinese manufacturers.

Interesting, did you take pics? Most living quarters (小区）in China have electrical fences and most windows have been barred. Left over from the 80’s when crime was high. Nowadays the bars prevent pets and children from falling out of the window (plus the cage like construction allows for some extra storage space)

I wrote a quick blog post about my experience and included the photos that I took. I was traveling alone and I knew the area was not safe, so I really didn't take enough photos, but the best one is at the end.

https://www.kcoleman.me/2026/09/08/Cambodia-Scam-Centers.htm...

Thank you so much, what a great write up (did you submit it here?). Surprised you took any pictures to be honest. Some great observations! Those barred windows def look familiar. Correction:on a second look, these do not look like the typical chinese square tubing bars!

There have been big crack downs in Cambodia and Myanmar just recently. Thousands arrested.

That's great. Apparently that's why they're trying to move on to Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, etc.

I wish I could share photos. Food is insanely cheap. I had street fried chicken, rice, and I think two sides for literally one US dollar.

Their primary currency usd.

They have all the child labor problems that other countries in the region have.

Everybody seems to know each other.

Unlike French colonialized countries, Vietnam, Timor Leste is proudly and vibrantly Portuguese. Similar to Macau but not as wealthy.

The public transit system is basically a tiny van that just drives around in loops around the city. You wave the driver down, jump in, and then tap your money against the metal framing when you’re ready to get off (there are no bus stops). I don’t know if you’ve been to Kenya, but it was like very similar to the vans in Kenya, except even smaller.

It sounds like it is easy to get to Port Moresby (which is apparently a bit of a dump and very dangerous), but difficult to get anywhere else.

PNG has changed very rapidly. Parts of the country were in the Stone Age within living memory and are moving over.

ChatGPT advised me to not even leave the Port Moresby airport and to fly immediately to one of the small domestic fishing towns for safety reasons.

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