UPDATING EVERYTHING ON MY NEW NOTEBOOK

Doing lots of updates on my new notebook…….and testing, installing, testing…….

Lots of hard work leh and learning to use and familiarise with Windows 7

CLIPMARKS

WOW......Surprise upon surprise....... Stumble upon this website and information about me as a tourist guide.......interesting.....!

clipped from www.ourexplorer.com

#1
Kota Kinabalu
Tour Guide &
Kota Kinabalu
Sightseeing Tours - Book the best before you go – 10% deposit

Grace is full of enthusiasm and knowledge about the wildlife and cultural makeup of Borneo and she really brought our trip to life. She was very entertaining during the car journeys with plenty of stories and anecdotes about the region! In terms of cost, we felt it was good value for money compared to the organized tours. Plus, she contacted us at our hotel prior to the trip to confirm details, which was helpful. Thank you Grace for a fantastic day! Paul + Michelle, London

Best-Kept Travel Secrets – Tour Guide to the Rescue

An article to highlight the benefits of getting a good local guide when on tour. Very good information.

A NEW MILESTONE

Finally, found the time to revive my Blog again!!!!!!!!

Ever since April, have ventured into providing guiding services for FITs, that is, free travellers not joining any groups.

Since June, have been doing quite well through getting quite a bit of tours from the Ourexplorer website and others through recommendations.

A new way of getting guiding assignments and also challenging while satisfying.

I can also get direct feedbacks from the guests too which are also very encouraging.

Well, wish me luck and do visit my page on Ourexplorer website as follows:
http://www.ourexplorer.com/tour-guide-grace-leong-1665.aspx

FLOODS CREATING HAVOC and MY FIRST TIME!

There's always a first time for everything. It was my first time to bring my own guests to Pulau Tiga, my first time to witness the flood coming in at the new road that leads to Menumbok (but we were lucky, cos, it was not that bad when we crossed that stretch), my first time to have to look for transport to take us to Klias as our van got stuck queing at the other side of the Menumbok jetty (the flooded stretch was impassable since the previous night and was under several feet of water!), my first time to travel to Klias with my guests in a rented van with the driver driving with his kid seated infront of him! My first time too to use the service of Klias Wetland Adventure (by Jack Koh, a friend), my first time too to be the only guests here with my group. And.........my first time to experience the quietness of Klias, cos, WE ARE THE ONLY ONE ALONG THE RIVER! Not even a fisherman was in sight!

Then, it was my first time too to travel back to Menumbok, my first time to take the small ferry to cross to the other side with my guests and luggages. My first time to walk down the road on the other side in search of our van which was still very far away down the road, waiting for us, the first time to see such a long queue of cars here. My first time to have to point out to my guests and to see fireflies on the road side trees at such an environment! And finally, my first time to reach the hotel at last at 10pm !

And yet, dsepite all these first time with me..................., am I glad that my guests enjoyed themselves and no COMPLAINTS!

HERITAGEWALK for STUDENTS

Conducted a Walk on 08th December for 32 students + 4 teachers from Omman. Very interesting group of students. I've got 4 Heritage Guides to do the Walk for them while I tagged along to take some videos of the Walk. The Walk was slightly different as there were more questions in the Treasure Hunt to add in more fun for the students. Luckily, there's a winner for all the 4 groups of them. All in, its a satisfactory Walk with our very experienced Heritage Guides, C.K Leong, Lillian, John and Gwenda.

SURPRISING AND ENCOURAGING GIFTS FROM TOURISTS小珍妮送的画

!The above picture is a drawing done by the cute little girl from my last group. Her photo is featured in my last post. This picture is presented to me as a gift together with something else as a token of appreciation.

The little boy featured in my last post had also presented me a gift as well. I was truly encouraged by them and their family to strive for service excellence.

好感动哦。小珍妮送给我的小礼物。还有妈妈的马币一百呢！给了我非常好的推动力来提供最好的服务。

A VER..........Y GOOD GROUP OF TOURISTS

Have just finished doing guiding for a group of 16 Taiwanese for 5 days which includes overnight at Pulau Tiga. The whole group though comprises of 6 families are all very nice tourists and they truly appreciate my services and the DVD and group photo which I gave them as gifts. The DVD is photos and video clips taken of them during the tour here. Their appreciation really encourages me to strive for service excellence. There are 2 kids in the tour who I also truly like. One is a little boy aged only 11 who apppreciates nature and wildlife tremendously. The other is a little girl who is just immensely cute.

KK HERITAGE WALK - IT HAS TO START SOMEWHERE!

It has got to start somewhere! After doing several groups of media, tour agents introduced by Tourism Malaysia and FITS now and then, finally, a Taiwan tour agent decided to add my Heritage Walk into their tour package! Odd.................It has to come from Taiwan? What happen to the Australians and English? I thought they should be more interested as our history had a lot to do with them! Arh........... well, like I say it has to start somewhere. I am truly grateful to this Taiwan agent and the local agent Skyzone to do the tour.

Outcome and Response?..................... Fantastic! The guests like the walking tour very much and truly appreciate it. For this group ,I actually have to split the tour and the tea break due to time constraint. We had the tea break at the Museum Kopitiam on the last day, which was yesterday 05th April, 2008 and they loved it. This is definitely the better way to end the their last day in Sabah with our traditional coffee break!

Getting a bit bored last couple of days lazing around. My last tour assignment ended on 29th September and the next tour will only be from 9th-13thOctober. Then I would have to go to Penang with a group of about 15 tourist guides for an educational visit for 4 days from 19th-22nd Oct.

The weather was terribly hot these few days. I would sweat even sitting down doing nothing. This weather is making me very lethargy and killing me..................

Managed to upload some photos on Pulau Tiga (Survivor Island), Wetlands of Sabah. Actually found out that I don't have that much of photos collection. Have to put some efforts.

Also, pondering how to design my blogs so that it is easy for readers to access to the posts on the tour destinations of Sabah. Sigh.........................again found out that I am really a loser as a blogger too. Any help out there??????????????????????????

WHAT A DISASTER !

2 Days ago I try to make some changes to my post on Pulau Tiga and..............WHAT HAPPENED?
Sigh......................... I deleted the POST !!!!!!!

Now I have to rewrite the post again.

Experienced Guide's Confusion

Have been doing some day tours and transfers for the same tour operator the last one week. The problem is that it's a mixture of 2 big conference groups (one certain group has 900 pax) plus a cruise ship. The weather for the last one week had also been very, very hot and humid. I have been to the Monsopiad (HEAD HUNTER !!!) Cultural village, of course, we get to see the 300 years old skulls at the skull house. I also took the guests to the Wildlife park where they saw the highly endangered sumatran rhinoceros, orang utans and of course the proboscis monkeys and many others wildlife. However, we need to walk under the hot sun for 1 1/2 hours. Guess what, I was at the Wildlife Park for 2 consecutive days!

Yesterday, I guess the tour operator sympathized me and assigned me to do a city tour for the crusie ship. However, at the State museum, I still need to escort the guests to the Heritage village to visit the replicas of our traditional houses and was it HOT............? Mind you, no air conditioning of course. So......, after a short 30 minutes stop at the Handicraft market (very hot inside too and both me and John, another guide, down a big coconut each), it was a totally refreshing stop for us at the Atmosphere revolving restaurant for tea break with the tourists.

I woke up this morning at 9am thinking I could sleep in today when it suddenly dawned on me that I have yet an airport transfer to do at 9:30am! This is the very first time that I actually became confused with my itinerary! However, I was ready in 15 minutes and once again, felt relieved that Magellan Sutera Resort is only 6 minutes drive from my apartment when no traffic jams, of course!

Finally, I'm back home now and writing this blog at 1:30pm, Malaysian time. Well, I am taking a good rest untill tommorow.

I'll be with a group of 22 Taiwanese from 04th-08th April and we are going to Survivor Island on the 5th for overnight tour. Will tell you more then.

Wondering what are those tourist attractions I have mentioned? Monsopiad Cultural Village, Wildlife Park, State Museum, Handicraft Centre and Survivor Island?

Follow closely my postings in this blog and you will defintely find out more!