TOUR GUIDE CUM TRANSLATOR

It is such a great experience to be a tour guide and translator for 42 Vietnamese. Only 3 of them are monks and the chief monk is my sifu’s disciple. So, my master helped them to organize this trip and made it as economic as possible. The worst thing is; my camera hp spoilt during the trip. Miss out a lot of nice sceneries and images. So, I can only post up a few pictures that I have. Hope that those pictures still safe in my hp.

Strawberry farm in Cameron

I went to my sifu’s temple in Kampar on 15th. On 16th, we picked them up from the airport. We had lots of communication problems. They can speak neither Chinese nor English well. At first, we were quite sure that Air Asia flights from Ho Chi Minh suppose to reach LCCT. After waiting for 30-60 mins, they called us. After a long conversation that both sides didn’t really get what each other is saying, we went to KLIA after one of them told us they are in INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. Upon reaching there, we still not managed to find them. After looking for them for a long time, they told us that they are in front of Old Town Kopitiam (which is located in LCCT, KLIA doesn’t have Old Town). Thus, we returned to LCCT to pick them up. By that time, it was already 3pm and we had our lunch half an hour after that.

On 17th, we went to Cameron Highlands. The funniest part about Cameron is the route to the highland. The tour guide stopped at the road side for them to take some pictures since the scenery there is superb nice. Some of them got down of the bus and urinated around some bushes. The tour guide caught in surprise. He had not experience this before. For them, it is common to urinate by the roadside at highways because their highways don’t provide R&R like in Malaysia. Visit Vietnam and you will know about that.

In rose farm

On 18th, we went to Genting Highlands. They “lied” my money. I just put my money on the table and they took it away. So bad... I’m not sure how they feel about Genting. But for the youngsters, they do enjoy there. Accidentally met with a few youngsters in the casino. Maybe because they can speak a bit of English, that’s why they can go around Genting on their own.

Before my hp spoilt

After checking out from Genting on the 19th, we had a city tour in Ipoh. The next day, we went to my hometown, which is PENANG. They visited Kek Lok Si, Sleeping Buddha and Burmese Temple etc. But they didn’t stay there for a long time because we had to rush to Thai border.

On 21st, the Thai tour guide brought us to Songkla. The food there didn’t really suit us (unless you like very spicy food). The beach there is quite nice. I tried coconut bird nest too. It costs 200 Bahts. But I don’t feel it is that nice anyway. In the evening, we had our free activities. At night, the tour guide brought those who want to watch “SHOW” to the venue. Any idea what show is that??? It costs 400 Bahts. But I didn’t follow them. I just followed my sifu and walked around the streets there. I think I haven’t been to Hat Yai for a couple of years since bombing incidents erupted there. I found it quite different when I went there this time around. Maybe last time I’m too young to understand. There are a lot of massage services. But I’m wondering whether those massages are real massages or “unreal” massages. Because the advertisements shown don’t seem to be providing massage services ONLY.
Those are all the pictures that left after servicing my hp

We check out from Hat Yai on 22nd. I heard from the Thai tour guide that 70 tour buses from a company are coming to Malaysia for a visit. Plus the screening for H1N1 disease. That is why the immigration process took us about 1-2 hours. After that, I stopped at the Juru R&R and my family picked me up from there. Actually, their journey didn’t end there. They are going to KL and will overnight in KL. On 23rd, they will have a city tour in KL and will only return to Ho Chin Minh on 24th early morning.

3 Vietnamese with my sifu

In this trip, I do learn and enjoy a lot although sometimes it is a bit hard to communicate and control the crowd. Many of them didn’t punctual and didn’t listen to our advice or instruction. That is why sometimes we wasted a lot of time unnecessarily. Anyway, I do enjoy this trip and look forward to meet them in Vietnam the next time I go there. And it is very grateful when people appreciate our hard work. They sang a Vietnamese song for me before I left and gave me a small gift (they collected some money from all of them). But I don’t receive that gift as I feel that what I did is on voluntarily basis and I don’t want to receive any money from them. But I do receive a “fo2 zhu1” (don’t know how to translate that, it is the wood pieces that we wear on our wrist) from a Vietnamese monk. Do enjoy the happiness and stress during this trip.