The Blind Masseuses of Malang

From Yogyakarta I travelled briefly to Solo. The tourism industry here has declined severely as fewer tourists are visiting Indonesia and those who do usually just go to Yogya, which has most of the same tourist draws – a Sultan’s palace and local dance performances. It doesn’t help that many of the guest houses in Yogya encourage visitors to skip Solo and stay longer in their town. I’m afraid I didn’t stay long in Solo, just long enough for lunch before catching the next bus to Surabaya. After Jakarta this is the second biggest city. The city has a few highlights, like a fascinating China town and an old district full of crumbling Dutch buildings, but it is mostly business people who visit this city. At the inexpensive guest house I stayed at, I was surprised in the morning to find the courtyard full of men in suits sipping tea.

Again I did not stay long in Surabaya, but hopped a bus to Malang. I am now entrenched in East Java, the least populated of Java’s province. It is also home to several of Java’s finest parks and volcanoes, including the popular Mount Bromo. On the short 2 hour ride from Surabaya to Malang I could see acres of forest out the window. Malang itself is full of Dutch architecture, as its sometimes cool temperatures made it a favorite destination for European vacationers during colonial times. While many of the buildings date from the Dutch era, like most places one can still find McDonalds and a few other global chains.

Traditionally the tourism industry specializes in providing lodgings and transport to tourists, but a “linkage” is when the tourism industry encourages growth in supplementary industries as well. Throughout SEA massage industries have taken off as an accompanying industry in many tourist destinations. While sometimes these massage parlors bring unforeseen negative social impacts, they can also be used to positively impact a community. In Malang I discovered Nuansa Fajar, a massage place that trains and employs the blind. In the back of a store, several rooms are set up where masseuses give 1 hour massages. I visited Malang during the offseason, so at the time I visited there were few other tourists and I didn’t have to wait long for a masseuse. As the blind lady used strong fingers to get out all the kinks I’d developed during the last few days of travelling, I could hear a local band on the street strumming away. After the massage, it was at this place that I saw my first and only other Caucasian tourist in the town, and he too was getting a massage.