Timor is an island at the far south-eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, sitting between the South China Sea to the north-west and the Indian Ocean to the south, and quite close to the north coast of Australia. It is politically split in two, which is the main thing to know about it. The eastern half is East Timor, an independent country — its own government, its own flag — which became fully independent in 2002 after a long and violent struggle, first against Portugal's colonial rule and then against Indonesia. The country's own name for itself is Timor-Leste ('leste' is Portuguese for 'east'), and you will see that form in newspapers and at the United Nations; East Timor is the everyday English name for the same place. The western half is part of Indonesia. The name also shows up in 'the Timor Sea', the stretch of water between the island and Australia, which comes up in news stories about oil and gas. It is a proper noun, so always a capital T, and it takes no 'the' — you go to Timor, not to the Timor.