Shopping

ON THIS PAGE: GROCERIES | HOUSEHOLD GOODS | SOUVENIRS | SPECIALTY | SHOPPING TIPS

If you’re going to live in Dili, you’re going to have to buy a few things. However, it’s an island, right? Plus a developing country. So, the range of goods available might be limited – or just different. You might have to go to five places to find everything you need, ahem, want.

Speaking of wants, Dili Guide encourages expats in Timor to find fulfillment more in experiences than in stuff. Hang out around Dili long enough, and you’ll see where no-longer-needed stuff often ends up – in the ocean and on the beach.

But still, ya gotta eat, so… We’re happy to provide some suggestions below of where to find Groceries, Household Goods, Souvenirs, and other things you might need from Specialty Shops – all to help your Dili life be comfortable and fun. Scroll to the bottom for some shopping tips, too.

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GROCERIES

♦ SUPERMARKETS ♦

Basic Home
Relatively new on the scene, this stylish supermarket in Formosa is known for importing European goods. DG Tip: Best place to consistently find delicious Bonne Maman jam.

Centro
Beach road location takes the stress out of buying with an ocean view at the till. Also has a small pharmacy and imported toys section. Second location is in Formosa. DG Tip: When their beach-road Australian corner is restocked from a recent container, buy up!

Indian Store
Small shop with imported, authentic subcontinent basics. Best place to buy lentils and other Indian-cooking ingredients. DG Tip: Use the “Indian Store (new)” Google Maps listing – at least until it moves again.

Korean markets
At least two small shops are dedicated to importing and selling a variety of goods from Korea. One is on the main floor of Timor Plaza, just inside from the Cheers liquor store. Another is below Nari’s Korean restaurant.

Leader
Comprehensive supermarket on the main road beside Timor Plaza. Ground floor is food and kitchen items, upstairs has household goods, and downstairs is furniture. DG Tip: Back-room fruit and veg area has consistently good imported, non-tropical fruit.

Lita
Closest major supermarket to Metiaut. Has all the usual grocery items, plus a decent kitchen goods section. Their Cold Store down a nearby side road specializes in frozen goods.

MeiMart
Asian-leaning supermarket ‘chain’ with at least 3 locations. Most prominent ones are in Timor Plaza and on main road near Australian Embassy. DG Tip: Aus Embassy location has a large household goods section upstairs.

P&K Mini Store (formerly Plaza Mini Mart)
Importer of random Western and Asian goods, best place to find a brand or product you can’t find anywhere else. Timor Plaza location closed in August 2023, find them now on the main Nicolau Lobato road across from military HQ. DG Tip: Items can appear and disappear quickly.

Pateo
Portuguese supermarket in Dili’s only automatic-gate parking lot compound. Has a deli meat counter (very rare in Dili), Portuguese cheeses, coffee/pastry/sandwich counter, and extensive wine selection. DG Tip: One of few places that consistently has whole wheat flour; also offers whole wheat/brown artisanal loaves in their bread case.

Qulina
Specialty imported goods shop with 3 locations: Timor Plaza, Osteria compound, and Timor football association street. DG Tip: Consistent spot for Western cheeses and frozen berries.

Seara
This frozen foods brand has a variety of supermarket locations around Dili, the most prominent being on the beach road at Pertamina Pier. Best view ever from a fruit and veg section.

W Four Supermarket
W Four is a standard chain with a number of stores around Dili. Most likely locations for expats are at Timor Plaza and in the small strip mall across from the ferry port.

♦ LOCAL MARKETS ♦

FarmPro Fresh
Similar to the CSA (community-supported agriculture) concept in the US and Europe, FarmPro will drop a box of fresh produce at or near your house every week. Look them up on Facebook for a trial box.

Lecidere fruit and veg
On the beach road across from Lita grocery store, find a roofed produce market that’s an expat favorite for local fruit.

Manleuana market
Near the hills and the Comoro, this large market has vegetables, plants, shoes, and more. Most known for a large ‘dead man’s market’ – second-hand clothes brought in from affluent nations.

Taibesi market
In the southeast corner of Dili near the hills, Taibesi is in effect the city’s central vegetable market. Anyone who lives in Dili must visit at least once – it’s an education in itself.

A corner near you
Dili has many small street-side markets and tiny storefronts, where you can find local vegetables, meat, dairy, and more. Keep your eyes open, ask around, and see where the sellers congregate. Trying your Tetum words and your Bahasa numbers will go a long way toward getting a nod or a smile at these busy, basic locations.

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HOUSEHOLD GOODS

Bamboo Institute
Located in Tibar, this Timorese government initiative processes bamboo and makes good-looking furniture and other small items.

Basic
This aptly named store has the basics for setting up a house, furnishing your office, or finding a random gift for someone. Locations in Formosa and on the street running from Timor Plaza to the sea. DG Tip: Usually has a rotating selection of inexpensive books in English.

Supermarkets
Many supermarkets have a section, or sometimes a whole floor, of furniture and household goods. Leader and the MeiMart location on Nicolau Lobato road are prime examples.

Vinod Patel
The closest Dili comes to a Western-style home improvement and decor store. Tools, paint, and other building/home products downstairs, furniture upstairs.

Timor Plaza Mall
Inside the mall at Timor Plaza, there is a large office supply store (Office World) that sells plenty of household goods. Tucked in a corner of the ground floor in the back, there’s also a small shop selling a modest selection of what passes for specialty imported items in Dili.

You can also look out for secondhand goods being sold by other expats in the Dili Expat or other Facebook groups.

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SOUVENIRS

Boneca Atauro
This island-based community economic effort has a Formosa-area shop where they sell stuffed animals, jewelry, and other goods made on Atauro.

Casa Vida at Aroma Restaurant
Aroma Restaurant in Lecidere supports Casa Vida, an organization sheltering and empowering women in Dili. They have a small shop with local crafts.

Projeto Montanha
This restaurant and art residence in Aileu (an hour up the mountain from Dili) has a small shop with local handmade crafts and art.

Rede Soru Na’in
Well-kept shop in the Pateo compound that sells nice tais and other handmade Timorese products. Opened in 2023, the store is operated by a network of women tais weavers.

Tais market
A small set of shops down a Colmera side street, you can see tais being made – and buy one for yourself. T-shirts, jewelry, hats, and other souvenirs are also sold.

Things and Stories
Upscale souvenir shop in Hotel Timor selling only the best local, handmade goods. Great stop for quality gifts and keepsakes. DG Tip: Look for the line of surprisingly elegant jewelry made from recycled plastic.

Timor Plaza
The main ground floor mall area at Timor Plaza has a small aisle-cart selling handicrafts, and a corner by the stairs that sells a rotating selection of artfully designed #HauTimor T-shirts.

Impromptu markets
Special handicraft markets can spring up, in Dili and elsewhere, any time – but especially in the runup to Christmas. DG Tip: Look for the local wood sculptors and recycled plastic artists/jewelry makers, whose work can be hard to find elsewhere.

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SPECIALTY SHOPS

Alcohol: Most supermarkets have an alcohol section. Wine tends to come from Portugal and Australia, though you can find rare bottles of California, South American, and French wine if you look hard. Beer choices are not wide, and Asian lagers rule; Qulina sometimes brings in bottles nearing craft quality. Liquor is basic and not all imported, as there are a couple of ventures distilling in Timor. The Cheers liquor store chain is the best place to look for anything specialty.

Bikes: United Bike, near the Presidential Palace, is the best place to look for a bicycle and bike-related parts. If you have a quality imported bike, fix it yourself or take it to Maun Orlando at his bike shop in the Benfica Sporting/Doce Tentacao complex. TIO Hobbies and Sports sells and rents bikes and bike items, plus they do repairs.

Books: International books can be hard to find. TIO Hobbies and Sports is also a bookstore selling English, Portuguese, and Bahasa titles. Pateo sometimes has a tiny collection of Portuguese books. A small bookstore in Timor Plaza sells a variety of works. Basic often has kids books in English. Beachside has a bring-a-book-take-a-book setup. Avid readers will find a Kindle useful.

Clothes and footwear: Let’s be honest, a lot of expats buy most of their clothing and shoes outside of Timor. That said, Timor Plaza has a number of shops that sell these items – browse and see what you can find. Some people enjoy shopping the second-hand clothing markets, big and small, that can be found around town. If you’d like to have clothes made, ask your connections for tailor recommendations.

Construction/tools: Building supplies and tools can be found in a variety of construction-focused outlets. Global Air Con & Electrical Trading in the Colmera business district is an oft-cited example. Other places are often simply called “Chinese stores” after the nationality of their proprietors – look for the wheelbarrows and other building items set outside open-fronted shops. H & W Trading House is a hardware store with quality items from Singapore that is a go-to for some expats. Vinod Patel also has house-project items.

Electronics: Timor Plaza is the main place to buy and repair phones, and the shops on the second floor there have computers, cameras, printer cartridges, home appliances and TVs, etc. Electronics shops abound around the Colmera intersection and tend to have larger items. Stores already mentioned under “Household Goods” often have small electronics sections. Other specialty shops can be found by those who look.

Musical instruments: Tarkastamo Music imports a small variety of musical instruments and has music lesson rooms. The electronics shops around Colmera often sell a few instruments, such as basic guitars.

Pet supplies: Basic’s household goods locations and most expat-focused supermarkets have some pet goods. Pet Paradise in Metiaut is a dedicated pet store that offers boarding and grooming services.

Pharmacy/drug stores: Pharmacies are small outfits scattered around town. Let locals or a doctor recommend the best places to go if you need something important. If you are unlucky enough to end up in the hospital, your friends might have to scour town for anything unusual needed. Some medicines may have to be brought in personally. Qulina and Centro usually have a small amount of imported over-the-counter meds.

Plants: Manleuana market has a decent plants section, with both green and flowering options. Family-owned plant nurseries line the road to Dare, up above Dili. Plants can also be bought roadside as you travel around Timor.

Office supplies: Office World in Timor Plaza has probably the best selection. Household goods sections in supermarkets often have a small stock of things such as paper, tape and fasteners, and kids crafts. Small local stores with the basics can be found around Dili.

Toys: Basic has toys, as do most of the supermarkets with a larger household goods section. Office World inside Timor Plaza has a toy aisle, and there is a dedicated toy store on the mall’s second floor. Qulina sometimes sells a few higher quality toy choices. Beach-road Centro maintains a small room of decent imports. Nevertheless, many expats plan ahead and bring kids gifts in from outside.

Tips for shopping in Dili

• When you can, buy local products from a small seller – especially fruit and veg, tofu, and other items that are actually grown/made in Timor.
• Try to reduce consumption of single-use plastics (and plastic in general), and encourage businesses to do the same. Bring your own reusable shopping bags, including ones for bulk produce.
• Bulk products, like unpackaged vegetables and fruit, will usually have to be weighed and stickered by someone before you go to the checkout.
• Smaller shops and street vendors often won’t have change, even for a $10 bill. Carrying some coins helps. And a $5 bill? Treat that thing like gold!
• You might need to join the computational challenge, now and then, when the cashier is calculating how much change to give you.
• You can always try to bargain, though you might be rebuffed. Locals even say, sometimes, that one should bargain at the shops in Timor Plaza! You’ll get a feel for when price gouging might be going on, because you are a “malae,” and when angling for a reduced price is appropriate.
• The old developing-country shopping proverb applies in Dili, which goes something like: “If you see a treat you can’t live without, buy a bunch, because it might not be there next time.”
• There are periodic shortages of imported basics, like The Great Butter Shortage of Christmas 2020, or the Terrible Tonic and Soda Water Scarcity of early 2023. You just have to ride these things out with a smile, more or less, and then stock up when someone gets a container in.
• Maybe this isn’t important to anyone else, but – broccoli and strawberries can be found, though only randomly/seasonally. Once in a while, there’s blackberries from the mountains!