The first question I got asked for Annie’s #AMA (Ask Me Anything) challenge earlier this year, was from Lou Plummer in which he asks:
“If you could work as a tour guide in one of the places you’ve traveled to, where would you pick? And why?”
Of course, for me, there is only one place and that’s Singapore. An island that was a huge part of my impressionable childhood years, those years from 8 through to 11. As an adult I’ve dreamed of and yes schemed to get back there for a visit, though it’s true the island I remember has changed, vastly, in the intervening years. And what was once a place of idyll life for me, is now a roaring metropolis of the 21st century, a tech hub, a tourist mecca, but still … As a tour guide? Hmm …
All those flashy hot spot amid the history and splendour of a place I remember maybe gives me a different perspective to be a Tour Guide. One able to recount the history in a way others cannot. I remember the riots during the 60s, I remember the civil unrest, I remember people being shot at, the undeclared war going on in the shadows between super powers like the US and UK, pushing to influence a people who wanted nothing to do with the colonialism of the day.
It’s easy to be a tour guide taking people to the Botanic Gardens, or to the Raffles Hotel, or one of the latest landmarks … but what about the advance of the Japanese on Singapore during WWII, or what happened at Changi prison? Or that, as a child, my parents and I met the Prime Minster of the day, Lee Kuan Yew.
I wonder if I would be an interesting tour guide or not, given maybe the average tourist probably wouldn’t want to know any of the painful history of this tiny nation island.
But then again, who knows.
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
I mean, I’d hire you as a tour guide. I kind of want to right now. How interesting, Alex! I didn’t realize you lived in Singapore and now I realize that I know very little about you and I am DYING to know more! Future blog topics, if you will?
My husband and I watched a movie called Christmas in Rome and it was the nicest, most soothing warm hug of a movie. It involved a woman who was a tour guide who showed tourists different and interesting parts of Rome, and of course there is a career-driven guy involved, and of course it all works out in a lovely way in the end. Anyway, where was I going with that? Oh yes, tour guides who show off-the-beaten-path things! I love that so much. I always want to see the interesting, out of the way sights.
Oh, well there you go. I now have a job. Haha! Problem is, my information about any of these places is probably decades out of date. I can tell you all about them, historically, and maybe, about my time while living there (the antics me and my family got up to.)
If that really interests you I’ll think about a series of posts to do. I think I started such a series way back last year, recounting my time in the military. Maybe I can share a few of those posts in the meantime.
But yes, I know what you mean about tour guides in general. If you get a good one, they are invaluable.
Hmm… now my brain’s working overtime on post ideas.
What an interesting tour guide you would be! And think of it, in order to be current, you’d get to live there for awhile before starting your duties. All of this would be paid of course, you would need to not have to worry about funds, so you could show tourists all of the interesting sights and the history.
Oh, now I like you thinking and logic. Yes, yes I would have to live there and do a little more research. And wouldn’t it be perfect if I had a benefactor who subbed me. Now that’s a Bucket List job if ever there was one.