Super VIP Group ( Guang Dong )

On the 10th Sept 2009 to 14th Sept 2009 I was assigned to take a group from Guang Dong. Following is their itinerary:

10th Sept Arrival from Hanoi at 1.20pm KLIA. Lunch. Transfer to Istana Hotel.
11th Sept Lunch. KL City tour. Dinner.
12th Sept Send the group for meeting at Shangri La hotel at 9am. Transfer back to Istana Hotel and dinner.
13th Sept Lunch. Transfer to Melaka Renaissance hotel. Dinner.
14th Sept Melaka City tour. Lunch and transfer to Tuas, Singapore at 5pm.

No of pax : 8 + 1 ( Using a whole 40 seater tourists bus )

Here I would like to share my experience with these so called Super VIP tourists from Guang Dong, China...

Firstly, for your information, I was having fever from the day I recieved the guests till the final day I sent off the guests. It is very important for tour guides to know that once we are assigned to a group, we are attached to the group and we should take the responsibility no matter we are in what kind of situation. So, I was down with fever but still I have to lead the group.

On the first day, my travel agent boss and I were all the way in the KLIA terminal to recieve these Super VIP guests. Upon recieving them, the guests are sent to the 5th floor Eden restaurant for their lunch. After lunch, I have to transfer them to the Istana hotel.

While in the bus on the way to the hotel, as usual, I am giving my introductory commentary on Malaysia generally. Then suddenly, the boss of this group, put up both legs right on top of the front seat. And worst of all, using his fingers to dig into his nose. ( A good tolerance for tour guides... a very common bad habit of China tourists where they like to take off their shoes and put up their legs on right on top of the seat. )

At night, sent the group for dinner. Only 2 of the tourists turned up for the dinner. I was told the others were having their own arrangements since they have their friends entertaining them here. While at the dinner, I was told by the tour leader that the boss loves to eat salted fish. So, if possible try to arrange salted fish for every meal.

From here, I realised that in most of our Chinese restaurants, it is rather difficult to get salted fish as part of the meal. Seems that hardly Chinese will go for salted fish for the meals.

The next day, I was early to prepare to take the VIP's for lunch and city tour. Only 3 of the guests and my tour leader turned up. So, I sent them for lunch.

After lunch, I was told they did not want to go for city tour. I have to send them to KLCC and wait for them there. Then send one of them to Shangrila for a short meeting and send the rest back to the hotel. Then wait for information for dinner.

While waiting for the group for dinner, I was told by my tour leader, I have to arrange part of the guests to go for dinner at Seremban and the boss for dinner at Concorde hotel. I told the tour leader, I can only arrange one group whereby the other group has to arrange it himself.

Finally, it was decided that I have to send the group to Seremban for dinner and the boss will go to Concorde hotel himself. The guests were having dinner at Seremban and we reached hotel only at about 11pm.

The next day, 8.30am started the journey to Shangrilan for the meeting. Everyone was very punctual. I was told by the tour leader I have to standby at 11.30am to send the boss to the hotel to rest.

But after waiting and waiting, at 1pm, the tour leader called and asked me to send them back to the hotel. At 2.30pm, again got to send them back to the Shangrila. Then at 3.30pm send them back to Istana hotel again. And finally wait for instruction on what time to take them for the dinner.

Later, I was told by the tour leader that I have to make arrangements for the boss to have dinner at One World hotel and also dinner for the rest of the guests.

I had a discussion with my travel agent boss. It was agreed that the bus driver will send the boss and tour leader to One World hotel whereby I will use my car to send the rest of the guests for dinner.

The boss supposed to have dinner at One World at 7.30pm. I have told the tour leader, its best to be early at 5.30pm to start the journey there. But my tour leader insisted its too early and she did not want that the boss reaching there too early. I told her it will be very jam and its far away from the hotel. But she insisted on going at 6pm.

Then, at 7.30 suddenly I recieved a phone call from my tour leader asking me whether the driver know the direction to the hotel. And the driver told me it is terible jam every where and he could do nothing about it. The tour leader was blaming me for not organising it properly for her. I was very angry for getting the blame.

Later I was told by the tour leader, the boss is not going to Melaka with us. He has a dinner in KL and he will need transportation from KL to Melaka. So, I was asked to make the arrangement.

The next day, while waiting to take them for lunch, suddenly the boss said that he need not transportation arrangement from KL to Melaka. I told the tour leader to better make sure of this because once the transportation is cancelled, I cant help him any more at the very last minute. The tour leader told me to give her another hour before deciding on this matter.

So, while having lunch, the tour leader later told me the boss decide to have the arranged transportation from KL to Melaka again.

The boss did not join us to Melaka. Only 5 tour members joined us. One of the tour members has gone back to Guang Dong at the last minute. While on the way to Melaka, we made a trip to Putrajaya.

Reached Melaka at about 5pm. Then took the group for dinner at Nyonya Suan restaurant. Wanted to get something special for them, so I thought its good that I can arrange a baba and nyonya food for them.

Too bad that the tourists do not really enjoy the food. The good thing is that they told me that they are not used to the food. ( M saying this is because if its for those normal China tourists they will be saying the food is not tasty. But maybe because these tourists are more exposed and travelled a lot, they were saying the proper thing that is they are not used to the food. )

However, luckily that upon their requests, the owner of the restaurant managed to prepare a big bowl of porridge and salted fish for them. So, they basically enjoyed this simple meal.

While on the way back to the hotel, the assistant boss inquired me if I can make arrangement for him to play golf. I was told by the hotel staff I can only find out from the concierge captain at 7am the next morning.

So, I have no choice, arranged my own 7am morning call. Then I personnally went down to look for the concierge captain to inquire about the golfing. I was told that it is Sunday so I cant make any golfing arrangement. I waited till 7.30am and called up the assistant boss to inform him that I am sorry that I cant make the golfing arrangement.

At about 9am, I suddenly recieved a phone call from the concierge requesting me to call up the assistant boss to inform him that the golfing arrangement cannot be made. ( It is very usual of the China tourists for not believing tour guides even though we have put in the effort to make the arrangement for them. They will some way some how try to make arrangement on their own. )

The final day, we are going for Melaka city tour and then transfer them to Singapore.

When we were stopping our bus near the Sam Poh temple, everyone was waiting for the boss to make a decision whether to tour the temple. Finally, the boss decided to get down to have a look on what is there in the temple.

Even though, I tried hard to give commentary about the temple and about Cheng Ho, but the boss and the rest just refused to follow. I have to follow them instead. I had a hard time to explain to them on what is there in the temple.

When we reached at the red house, the boss decided not to go for the Dutch buildings tour. So, we went for lunch at the Beijing Restaurant.

While having lunch, one of the tour members told me that the boss is not feeling well. The boss needs to look for a Chinese medical shop to buy some medicine. I told him I will try my best and it is not easy as it is Sunday because most of the shops are closed.

So after lunch, I told the driver to drive to Jalan Bunga Raya to see if there is any Chinese medical shop available. While driving slowly, I finally found there is one Chinese medical shop open.

So, the bus was stopping by the road side and I follow the boss to go to the medical shop. The boss just took his own sweet time to list down the herbal and did not even bother if the bus is blocking the rest of the vehicle. Finally, I have no choice but to call up the driver to ask him to make one round.

The businessman packed the medicine as requested by the boss. And we started our journey to Singapore. We finally reached Singapore at 5.30pm.

Please take note that for such VVIP China groups needs lots of tolerance on the part of the tour guides.

The guests will behave as if they are the kings and are very demanding. Their requests and needs changed all the time.

All the guests are really afraid of the boss. They will all bow and only listen to the boss. As a foreigner, you will be very surprised the way the subordinates treat the boss. They are so afraid of the boss and meet every demand of their boss.

Its one of a torturous group for me as a tour guide to tolerate the ever changing wants and needs of these guests. The five days with them is just like years with them and the time is so difficult to past compared to the normal group.

However, finally I am happy that I finally achieved to send them to Singapore happily without any bad incidence.