Blacksnail\’s Blog

Summary of what i’ve done when i was 27

1. I travelled to China with my whole family (Dec 2007) and I was massaged and pedicured by a Handsome and well built masseaur :”)

2. I organised Milk awareness Campaign and being the main speaker for several Schools, there were altogether 8 sessions.

3. I self-directed a short clip and the wedding organiser for Sister’s wedding

4. I attended Money and You.

5. I drove to Miri myself for the 1st time

6. I cried for a comic – Crayon Shin chan

7. I backpacked to Laos, did a river swing in Vang Vieng, Laos and tubed in a cave, took a 9 hrs bus in Laos, I swimmed under the Kuangsi Waterfall in Laos and  jumped from a tree into one of the lagoon of Kuangsi Waterfall

8. I overtalked and missed a flight from KL to Brunei.

9. I Admited in Hospital for 4 nights, and got dripped for the very first time.

10. Joined the Mandarin Singing Contest organised by Radio Television Brunei and E-Huawang.com. Made it to the Top 20 but didn’t made it to Top 8. Somehow i was treated like a star, many thanks to family and friends. I love to sing on stage!

11. Joined AFC Talentime, we danced a XinJiang dance and Won!

12. MC for a Singing Contest.

13. Cut my hair short then shorter

14. Backpacked in New Zealand and Took the longest flight (10hr only) ever in my life

15. I saw snow and Skiied for the very first time.

16. Ride a bike for 33km at Otago Trail

17. Attended Tour Guide Course and Officially a Tour Guide Now!!!

18. Provided Consultation to 5 friends on Japan Trip Planning.

19. Got Interviewed and broadcast on Radio and on web.

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3

20. Hired a Personal Trainer for Gym Sessions and gained 4kgs in 2 months time

21. Someone norminated me as the Board Members for the Buddhist Associations.. but wasn’t selected..

22. Being Sent to KL and stayed in the hospital to take care of a Dengue Fever Patient for few days.

23. I’m 52KG now… 3 more kgs to go for my ideal weight!

24. Turned down an invitation for a vacation to Hawaii… (still can’t believe that)

25. Recovered from the Milk Scandal’s Depression.

26. I’m an Auntie to my little niece – Avril 🙂

Little Avril

27. I saw Proboscis Monkeys (Biggest Monkey on earth) while doing Mangrove Tour.

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Referring to Blacksnail’s Lifelist #47 – be a Tour Guide. Why Tour Guide? it started up when i flung my air stewardess 2nd Interview (more), and i think Tour Guide is the closest job to Air Stewardess because both bring tourists a holiday and you get to meet people.

I attended the tour guide course since July, we have classes twice a week, sometimes once a week, it involves studies about Brunei’s history, customs, statistic, periodically we have to stand in front of the class to present what we learned, sometimes we were given a topic and have to talk about it for minutes without preparation. We did have classes on Bus, and field trips. After i have more understanding about the job, Tour guide is more than bringing the tourists around.

A tour guide has to:

• have knowledge on almost everything, Tourist might not have interest in the history that you know, they might ask you questions on economies of Brunei.
• Update with current News, Tourists might had read the latest news on brunei before they arrive, so the info given to the tourists have to be updated
• Time Management – When the itinerary said you can only be in that place for 20 mins and you have to arrive at another place at certain time, you have to ensure you do.. else it will cause other groups to delay in the schedule too!
• Customer Management – Sometimes you told them not to go out of the boundary, they will still do it or they will tell you they saw some tourist went there too.. ( i did that before while i follow some tour)
• Nursing – There are older tourists who walk very slowly and have problem going up steps.. we have to hold their hands and walk with them patiently.. Its really good to train our patience to take care of people.
• Entertainer – Sometimes tourists will demand you to sing and keep singing..
• Waiteress – Serving Drinks and food… to ensure excellent service, we have to refill drinks for them and bring trays of foods to them..
• Complaint Handling – Its unavoidable to receive complaints from tourists, they can complain about the Microphone, the itinerary, the place, the toilet, and even “why can’t we enter the king’s palace?” . we have to give the best answers to avoid them for bringing the complaints home.
• Avoid any liabilities – in the case if tourist fell down by accident when you holding their hands, they can sue you until nobody business…
• Attend more courses – we can’t be a Brunei Tourguide forever, we have to go into other specialties to be a successful tourguide..

The Class started with about 40 people and we left only 8 of us. the rest quited because of other commitments, phobias, and pressurised. Its been 4 months since we been doing this training, and i can’t afford to do a bad job and i have to do my very best. I went to some places of interest on my own to study into every single little things… Brunei Resources has been a great website for me to learn our history.

Our Class Outing at Temburong

The first day when i worked as a tour coordinator, I got so excited when i see the tourists coming down from the cruise… musical instruments were played to welcome them. Thru out the journey, i Observed my senior Guide on how she ran the tour, and wrote down info that i didn’t know, help out here and there.. and i tell you.. i really wanted to grab the Microphone from her hand! i can’t wait to give commentary and run the whole tour! After the tour, i called adam and told him how eager was I to run my own show..

The Cruise

I dreamed about me becoming a real tour guide. I was late, and i didn’t get to do headcount, didn’t have an itinerary, didn’t know the name of the driver and so on. I can remember the commentary i designed for my first 5 minutes in my dream. I dreamed that Lunch break before the first places of interest, Adam gave me a form to fill in regards to bus no, no of guests, bus driver name, i didn’t have any info on that. After the Lunch break, everyone got into the bus, but i didn’t know how many ppl it should be, and i didn’t know who should be in the bus. Some passengers left the bus halfway then only i realised they are not my tourists!! and out of sudden a group of chinese at the back requested me to speak in mandarin. The Tour i had in my dream was a complete screwed up!

2nd Dec 2008 is my Big Day, is the first time i handle a tour group by myself! Its the Singapore Army Group, these guys were having their 3 weeks tough training in Temburong and were all exhausted. My Group has 44 of them and they are all GUYs.. got young got old ones. They requested me to sing for them, and i chose a Song from Singaporean Singer – Tanya Chua – 陌生人。Experience is important, but i think the most important thing is the Passion and sincerity that you wanna bring a good vacation to your guest. Although this is my first time, but i know i didn’t look like one, i had great time today, although some of them slept (because of their training, not my boring commentary), but i was still able to make them laugh.. and i’m looking forward for the future tours. 

So far, I was an observers Twice, and bringing my own tour once, and all these three times i was arranged to be on the Same bus and Same driver – Hj Maidin. wat a coincidence!!

My first Guests: Singapore Army

Thanks to Mike for all the tips on how to get the boys responsive.. and Special thanks to Adam for the training.

One of my guests took pictures of me using his Lomo Toy Camera, I wish my mic can be seen in this picture.. thank you very much, Sharif..

Esjay the Tourguide

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