DILI, Timor-Leste: Singaporean Veon Lim first visited Timor-Leste in 2023 to volunteer with underprivileged communities. She planned to stay a few months. Three years on, she is still there.Travelling across the country, which lies north of Australia and shares a land border with Indonesia, Ms Lim found herself mesmerised by landscapes largely untouched by mass tourism.“I was thinking, this is so beautiful, even the colour of the soil to me looked untouched,” she said. “The first time I arrived at the beach, I saw starfish, huge starfish, during low tide.”
She later obtained a long-term visa through a non-governmental organisation to run art therapy and food programmes for locals, and now spends most of her time in the country.What began as a volunteer mission soon evolved into something unexpected: encouraging fellow Singaporeans to visit.“Because I kept posting all the beautiful photos on social media, my friends and ex-colleagues – even people I haven't met for 20 years – they started to contact me, saying: ‘Hey, I want to come, you need to help me’,” said Ms Lim, who is in her 40s.
Veon Lim, founder of Sojourn Timor-Leste (right), and a local tour guide (centre) speaking to a local living in the highlands with his family and Timor pony. (Photo: CNA/Justin Ong)
