I am lucky to have some chances to travel
overseas. It is interesting to see how tourism in other countries works.
However, I sometimes get annoyed by the instructions of certain Vietnamese tour
guides.
One
time in Paris, when we were driving pass a long bridge, a tour guide said to
us: “Please pay attention! This bridge has several spans but vehicles can run
smoothly. In Vietnam, bridges are bumpy, which exhausts us.”
When we
cruised upon the Seine River, the guide started to mention the Nhieu Loc canal
in Saigon: “Ho Chi Minh City has plans to turn Nhieu Loc canal into a tourist
site like the Seine, but we will probably have to wait for a few generations.”
Another
time, when we visited the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia, a tour guide
reminded us: “There are a lot of visitors here so please go in a group. Anyway,
it is easy to spot Vietnamese tourists: they are those who only look at goods
without buying.”
When we
were walking on the clean streets of Singapore, we were told: “There is a great
penalty for public littering. Sometimes people have to hold garbage in their
hand for a long time before finding a trash bin. Vietnamese are not so patient
so they just throw it on the street. ”
Every
time they introduce a foreign culture, local Vietnamese guides tend to bring up
something negative about Vietnam. These are bad comments, derogative remarks,
and scorn towards the country they come from.
I do
not know how a tour guide is trained in school and at a travel agency. They
were born, brought up and are working in Vietnam. Why can’t they express some
love for their homeland, show some sympathy and confidence in the future here?
It is
lame to compare Vietnam and other developed countries we travel to. Vietnam
still has a lot of difficulties and many people are still living in poverty.
Despite the many drawbacks that we see every day, we cannot deny the positive
changes in the country in recent years. I hope the tour guides will stop
comparing and putting negative messages into tourists’ minds.
-------------------------------------------
Don't
take it so hard Thao, you should simply tell them that its also easy to spot a
Vietnamese tour guide, they are the only ones standing around complaining about
their homeland.
Written by Class Clown , 5 April 2012 09:42
-------------------------------------------
People
who travel are constantly making comparisons to "back home" which can
be quite irritating. But for guides, it's better for them to just keep to the
facts and let you make your own impressions. Of course, approaches to bridges
in Vietnam are bouncy and it would be nice if one day the Nhieu Loc Canal could
be another River Seine, but why bother pointing this out and ruining your mood
and enjoyment? (Of course, if you want to know why the Seine is so clean, then
ask the guide how they do that.) In other cases you cite, such as your example
from Petronas Twin Towers, perhaps the guide was just trying to be funny. I'm
sure most Vietnamese guides in these countries are self-taught and are not
required to have any special accreditation or special knowledge.
Finally,
since you're paying for their service in the first place and seem quite content
to write Tuoi Tre readers about this, why don't you simply tell the guides that
you are not happy with their attitude? (You can tell them discreetly one-to-one
or publicly embarrass them in front of your entire group who'd probably jump up
& down and give you a good cheer! No tip either.) Finally, if you're not
happy, by all means write a letter to the tour company and local provider
telling them that in the future you'll simply take your business - and that of
your friends - elsewhere. They'll get the message. Carl Robinson, a regular
contributor to City Diary from Brisbane, Australia.
Written
by Carl Robinson , 5 April 2012 08:32
-------------------------------------------
You can
put all fruits in the same bag but can not campare an apple with orange
Written
by bob do , 5 April 2012 02:37
Was
anything untrue?
Written
by James ,
-------------------------------------------
THAO
PHUONG
TUOI
TRE
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