Tour Guide Extraordinaire

Meet Alan Danker, touted as one of the best tourist guides Malaysia has had.

He is credited with raising the standard of the guiding profession in the country — for which he has been recognised, nationally and internationally.

Because of his experience and knowledge as a tourist guide, he was approached by Tourism Development Corporation Malaysia and Mara to conduct tour-guiding classes for students enrolled in tourism courses.
Danker, who undertook a variety of guiding roles, including sightseeing coach tours, walk-abouts in towns and cities as well as visits to mosques, cathedrals, stately homes and museums, passed away quite suddenly, on Aug 30, shortly after his 51st birthday.

He is recognised as a guide who gave tourists an impressive image of Malaysia, being proficient in subjects like Malaysian history, geology and the monarchy — and even the gestation period of the orang utan.

He earned the "Best Tourist Guide" award from TDC Malaysia in 1993.

Born Alan Gerard Danker in Alor Star on Aug 27, 1957, his father Benedict was of Eurasian-Dutch descent who was an air traffic officer at the Alor Star airport and his mother a teacher at the local convent school. The family lived their early years in Kedah, before moving to Petaling Jaya.

A fragile baby at birth, Danker had a bone deformity in his sternum. It would have been fatal if he took a hard blow or knock around his rib cage. Corrective surgery was done, at the Assunta Hospital in PJ, when he turned five.

He schooled at the La Salle Christian Brothers school in PJ, from primary until Form Five, and was an outstanding student, a class monitor during his junior years and a prefect in his senior years. His was also a commanding voice in the school's Literary and Debating Society.

Outside school, he was involved in church activities, serving as an altar boy during his teens, a youth choir master and a member of the Assumption Parish Youth Club. He was a church warden in his later years.

On completing his education, Danker joined the Kuala Lumpur Equatorial Hotel for a few years before becoming leader of a three-piece Country and Western band called The Moonshiners.
They performed at various hotels and resorts around Malaysia in the Eighties. The exposure gained from going places and meeting foreign tourists gave him the confidence to become a tour guide, a job he felt he was cut out for.

It was during his rounds as a musician that he met Cindy Cecelia Lai, whom he married on Jan 6, 1990. They have two girls, Bianca Rowena and Helena Geraldine — the second named after his schoolteacher mother Helen Ivy Hayden, who died on July 7 (see A Life Remembered, Aug 5).
Though being a tourist guide kept him away from home for long periods, Danker never failed to spend time with his family on his days off.

Birthdays of family members and Christmas were occasions for celebration, besides Chinese New Year, at his Balakong home.

Danker spent his 51st birthday with his family in Malacca. Two days later, at home during lunch on Aug 29, he suffered hemorrhaging of the brain. He slipped into a coma from which he never gained consciousness, and passed away the next day.

Danker was one of nature's gentlemen, emanating kindness, courtesy and humour. Above all. he was a family man who had many friends, local, national and worldwide.

Sources : The Malay Mail 11th Sept 2008

P/S : Mr. Alan Danker was my model tour guide for the Kuala Lumpur city tour when I took my tour guide course in the year 1993. This is a special dedication for someone and tour guide super super extraordinaire. A real pity that Malaysia lost one of its talents...