![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/East-Java-Indonesia.jpg\")
<\/a>The rooftop view from our hotel in Malang, Indonesia<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cHi,\u201d we respond, half-engaged and ready to see our hotel room. \u201cWhat are you three doing today?\u201d he asks quickly, sensing our reluctance. I\u2019m not having it. I\u2019ve seen this before. A stranger approaches you on the street, asks you friendly questions about where you\u2019re from, and once you\u2019ve formed a connection, hits you with the sales pitch. Mike and Dan are less skeptical. They tell him we just got back from our Mt. Bromo hike and plan to spend the day recovering. He informs us that he\u2019s an English teacher in the neighborhood, and always checks hotels like these for friendly tourists who\u2019d be willing to meet his students. He continues to explain that he can provide us with a full day\u2019s worth of activities for free and that we would be face to face with a tiger by the end of the day. My red flags are firing off on all cylinders at this point. I\u2019ve heard this story before. Tourists go off with a local for an \u201cauthentic\u201d experience and end up dead or kidnapped. I look expectantly at Mike and Dan, trying to gauge where they\u2019re at with his pitch. We\u2019re waiting for the catch.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo catch,\u201d he says through what seems to be a genuine smile. We thank him for his time and tell him we\u2019ll consider it, but that we\u2019d love to go rest up for the day. He says “no problem” and introduces himself as Mr. Tasi. He says to come to the front desk at 7:00 AM the following morning if we\u2019d like to join him for the day. We say bye and shuffle off to our room.<\/p>\n
The day is spent laying in bed, snacking on Indonesian junk food from the market, and watching Indonesian soap operas on TV. We discuss the pros and cons of Tasi\u2019s offer and debate whether or not it would be worth it. Finally, after agreeing that a reputable hotel wouldn\u2019t allow a scammer to hang out at its front desk, we decide to go along with it. We rest up, shower, and head to sleep early.<\/p>\n
The Next Morning<\/h2>\n
We wake up early the following morning, shower and have a quick breakfast at the hotel lobby. Rushing to grab our packs, we head over to the information desk to meet up with Tasi. He\u2019s standing there, once again, looking very put together. He beams when he sees us, and welcomes us warmly, thanking us for agreeing to his itinerary. We follow him outside and around the block as he hails a tuk tuk. Still unsure of where we\u2019re headed, the three of us get in the cab and squish together in the all-too-familiar metal cube that\u2019s clearly not built for four.<\/p>\n
Mr. Tasi, holding onto the side of the cab for support, begins explaining our day\u2019s itinerary.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Go to his house & have lunch<\/li>\n
- Join him in the mosque while he prays<\/li>\n
- Teach at his English school<\/li>\n
- Teach at the other school he works at<\/li>\n
- See a tiger<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
It\u2019s difficult to ignore the elephant — or tiger — in the room; the one activity that doesn\u2019t fit in with the rest, but Mr. Tasi dismisses our concerns. He waves his hands and says that we\u2019re in for a really great day. We nod, half excited, half concerned, as the tuk tuk stops.<\/p>\n
Mr. Tasi\u2019s House<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Nasi-Goreng-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Nasi Goreng, an Indonesian staple, as prepared by Tasi\u2019s wife<\/p><\/div>\n
We get out of the tuk tuk on a suburban street, obviously far from the city center. There are houses everywhere, small and gated, and pressed tightly next to one another. It\u2019s quite clear this is a lower-middle-class neighborhood; some of the roofs are patched together with aluminum plates, and there are chickens clucking about on the sidewalks. We follow Tasi\u2019s brisk pace down a side street and stop at one of the houses. It\u2019s freshly painted and in good condition. You could tell it was his just from the exterior. We slip off our shoes and head inside.<\/p>\n
The house, unsurprisingly, is tidy and well-kept. There are Muslim psalms framed on the walls, and pictures of what I assume are ancestors on every tabletop. Tasi points us to a couch in the living room and introduces his wife. Like him, she\u2019s slight and small. She\u2019s covered with a hijab and has a warm smile of her own. She walks into the kitchen and returns with four plates of Nasi Goreng, a dish we\u2019re quite familiar with. We\u2019ve had it for almost every meal in Indonesia. But my God was this one spicy. Politely hiding our melting lips, we chat with Tasi about where we\u2019re from, what we do, and how we\u2019re enjoying his country so far. You can tell he gets a lot of guests like us, but he\u2019s remarkably good at showing interest and treating us like the first ones.<\/p>\n
We finish up our lunch, down a glass of water to cool the heat in our throats and wait patiently as Tasi changes into his prayer clothes. He leads us out the sliding door, we grab our shoes and head down the block.<\/p>\n
The Mosque<\/h2>\n
Tasi\u2019s mosque is anything but showy. It\u2019s an unassuming concrete building pressed between two houses, unfinished and undecorated. He tells us, as he\u2019s rolling out his prayer mat, that the building is under construction and will be really grand and beautiful once it\u2019s finished. He seats us on the stairs facing the window and he begins praying. Having never seen this before, and having grown up in Israel, this was particularly interesting for me. I\u2019ve never been inside a mosque at all, let alone during a prayer service. Tasi finishes up rather quickly and changes back into his street clothes. We leave the mosque and walk a few blocks over to the first of his two schools.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tasi\u2019s English School<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/School-House-Indonesia.jpg\")
<\/a>Mr. Tasi\u2019s self-built English school. – Malang, Indonesia<\/p><\/div>\n
Just a few blocks away, we come to a clearing in the densely packed street. Flanked on both sides by rows of potted plants is a raised tile floor sitting under a black shingled roof. It\u2019s bare bones for sure, but it\u2019s nice — clean, tidy and orderly, just like the carefully arranged plants around it. In the covered terrace are ten plastic chairs — the kind you\u2019d find at Costco or a barbeque– and a whiteboard. As we walk through the garden, Tasi tells us about the property. He funded the whole school on his own — the land, the construction, the maintenance — and doesn\u2019t charge students or their parents to study with him. To him, he says, it\u2019s important that the kids learn English so that they can open the doors to better and higher-paying careers when they grow up.<\/p>\n
We wait around a while, enjoying the late afternoon sun when Tasi\u2019s students start showing up. Eight kids, ranging from ages 12 to 18, greet us one by one with limited and broken English. You can tell immediately from their body language that they treat this like an obligation – the way you would an after-school job or volunteer work. Teenage angst, it seems, is an international phenomenon.<\/p>\n
We sit down in a circle and Tasi introduces everyone — us to the students and the students to us. He asks that we all speak English the entire time, and begins his rounds with the kids, asking them simple questions like \u201chow are you today,\u201d and \u201cwhat is your favorite food?\u201d The kids respond impressively well, with most having near-perfect grammar. Tasi then asks Dan, Mike and I to each explain our careers back home and tell the kids how much money we make. I\u2019m a bit taken aback. At home, it would be really rude to put someone on the spot like this, but it quickly becomes clear, as Tasi calculates the exchange rate for his kids, that this is meant to incentivize them. He wants them to know how useful English can be — how if they work hard and study English, maybe they can make it to the US and get paid a salary they\u2019d never come close to seeing in Indonesia. The kids seem really engaged at this point in the lesson, and Tasi chooses to end on a high note. We thank the kids one by one and shake their hands, and they take off home.<\/p>\n
The Prep School<\/h2>\n
Without much explanation, Tasi herds us into another tuk tuk. We didn\u2019t really get to this part of the itinerary during the explanation, so Dan, Mike and I shrug to each other. We\u2019ve made it this far without being kidnapped. Might as well ride it out.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Teachers-Indonesia.jpg\")
<\/a>Me, Mike & Dan with Mr. Tasi & his students<\/span> – Malang, Indonesia<\/p><\/div>\n
After 30 minutes of driving, we arrive at what looks like a prep school. Teenagers — kids no more than 5 years younger than us — armed and dressed in uniform, open the gates for us, and we drive in. My heart starts racing. This is it. This is the part where we die. We get out of the car.<\/p>\n
Tasi greets us once again with his warm grin and walks us over to a table in the courtyard. The school is impressive — three floors of brick surrounding a massive concrete courtyard. We\u2019re seated at the table and are met with a smile and a handshake from another Indonesian man. You could tell immediately that this guy owns the place. He radiates<\/em> money. Imposing but kind and wearing a purple sarong, he shakes our hands and takes a puff of his vape. Using Tasi as his translator, he asks us the usual questions — where are we from? What do we do? How do we like his country? And he repeatedly<\/em> asks us our impression of his school. Politely and apprehensively we say that it\u2019s lovely, not exactly knowing all that much about it. But as the questions keep coming, Tasi whisks us away to teach another one of his classes.<\/p>\n
In a similar fashion, this class is comprised of plastic Walmart chairs seated in a circle. The kids, this time dressed in uniform, come join us, and we repeat the steps we did earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow are you today?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is your favorite food?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you do?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cHow much money do you make?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
Only this time Tasi asks us about our hobbies lights up when Mike and Dan mention that they love music. Grabbing a guitar, he asks them to play a song for the kids. After playing Dave Matthews (which apparently isn\u2019t played out yet in Indonesia), the kids erupt in applause. It\u2019s almost weird to see the kids act like kids — the good behavior and dress code make it easy to forget their age. Finally, we finish up the class and thank the students one by one again in English, and Tasi scurries us back to his boss.<\/p>\n
The Tiger<\/h2>\n