East Timor Turns the Corner

It had been 10 years since my last visit to East Timor and when we wandered onto the dusty tarmac after the flight from Bali, it did not appear that much had changed.

The road into town was a bit better and there were more businesses, most notably, I suppose, Timor Plaza, the country’s first shopping mall, which locals with money hail as an outpost of qu…