Where Are Ron and Ellen?
Indonesia: 30 November 2010 - 15 March 2011
Ron and Ellen in Bau Bau, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Bira Beach and Makassar, 7-14 March 2011
Last week in Sulawesi Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Sunday 13 March 2011Dear Family and Friends,
Last Monday, 7 March, Amir had a meeting near Makassar, and after his meeting he picked us all (Ron, Ellen, Thierry) up at our hotel and took us back to Bira. We arrived around 9 pm to a fine welcome and a late dinner. We had some lazy beach days again, with us lounging about and walking on the beach and Thierry doing some snorkeling, and all of us enjoying the company of the other guests and our hotel "family."
On Wednesday Ron and Thierry went with Amir into Bulukumba (1 hour away) to take appropriate papers to the coroner's office so a death certificate for Mattheo could be prepared. We aren't sure who alerted the tourist office in Bulukumba, but Amir said that office wanted to meet with Thierry and Ron, so they went there as well. They were somewhat surprised to find an office with 40 people employed - a lot of people for about 2400 international visitors per year plus a lot more domestic. Further, there was only one person of the 40, a young woman, who spoke any English. Ron and Thierry are not sure if they were able to convey the fact that if only the one person speaks English, the international language of tourism, and there is very little in the way of long range planning to attract tourists, there will not be a big increase in the number of visitors. The people in the office really wanted us to look at another beach about 20 km from Bira that they said was being developed for tourists, so the next day 8 people from the office came to Bira and we all (we following in Amir's car) went to look at the other beach. It was pretty, and a set of nice bungalows was being built under the coconut palms near the beach. The tourist people (with the one young woman as spokesperson) said the government was building the facility, but Ron and Thierry talked to a man there who said he was the owner, had bought the land recently after working in a number of cities around Indonesia, and that he was building everything himself. Ron and Thierry found the builder to be more credible, but once again, we felt the lines between public and private development were blurred.
On Friday Amir went back to Bulukumba to pick up the death certificate, and we went with him and took a bus from Bulukumba back to Makassar so we would have time to do some shopping (we both hate shopping, and had done none before this point!). Thierry stayed for another day in Bira, then came to Makassar on Saturday with Amir, Ana, and Muli. On the way, they went up into the mountains north of Bira to drop off Ana's mother, who had been visiting in Bira. They dropped her at a town that was the closest one can get by car to her village, where she was met by Ana's brother and a pack horse. They loaded the horse with assorted things purchased in Bira and Bulukumba, then set out for their village, a two hour walk from the road.
This morning (Sunday) Ron and Amir have gone to the FedEx office to send a packet requested by the American consulate in Surabaya containing Mattheo's passport, the death certificate, the coroner's report, and other paperwork. The only office is at the airport and it was closed so Amir will do this tomorrow after we are on our way to Singapore.
While Amir, Ana, Muli and Thierry were driving to Makassar yesterday they learned by telephone that Mattheo's ex-wife had taken over the Guest House so there are going to be some more legal entanglements for Amir to resolve after we are gone.
Tomorrow we fly out (very early - 7 am!) to Singapore, where we will spend the night before flying home on Tuesday (15 March) and tomorrow evening Thierry flies out to Kuala Lumpur and then home to France.
Ellen has been working a bit on selecting photos to post to the Web page after our return, so at some point we'll send a message to the list telling everyone they are ready for viewing.
Thanks to all who have followed along and commented upon our adventures!
Love to all,
Ellen and Ron
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Last updated: 28 March 2011
