A prayer mat and a little reminder...

An Indonesian family of 8 entered our reception one day. Taken aback as we were not expecting any group check ins, and that the family included an elderly makcik (granny) who seemed to be rather stressed out…. our host quickly checked with the daughter if they might have made a mistake with their booking or were at the wrong hotel...

As it turned out, it was just the 3 in the group who did booked for the night, while their elderly parents and siblings came by to seek refuge from the unforgiving afternoon heat. They were due to catch a return flight to Jakarta later in the evening.

As with any guests, we welcomed the whole group to stay on and hang around at the lounge. Or in other words… enjoy the free air conditioning! :)

A few moments later... seeing that we also noticed how her mother was looking increasingly distressed and near to tears, the daughter hesitated for a moment and then politely asked... “I’m sorry but is it ok for my mum to pray here? If you don’t allow… it’s not a problem too…”

And that’s when we finally understood why the makcik was looking so uncomfortable. (For a quick moment, I did wondered if it might be the many colours on our wall… or too many teddy bears perhaps that made her uncomfortable…)

So we responded to that request as how I believe any hostels would.

We said “NO it’s not OK to pray here”.

“but… let’s find her a more comfortable and private spot where there are less noise and distraction”.

Sadly the high rental cost in Singapore requires that we maximise our floor space… and as such a prayer room or spare room is too much of a luxury for a simple business like us. Nevertheless we managed to find an unoccupied dorm, handed the key card, switched on the A/C and led the elderly lady to the room. “Take your time makcik!”.

....

Please excuse this rambling random post. I happen to come across this prayer mat that we kept while tidying up the store room and somehow was reminded of this encounter with the nice Indonesian family. We did nothing great or out of the ordinary but this along with the prayer mat that we somehow kept in our store room (can't remember why/how we have it) serves a good reminder of simple respect and what a true backpacker hostel stands for.

No... not the flashy designs... not the loud music and parties... not a wall full of pretentious travel quotes...