THE TOUR GUIDE

Even though the Tour was booked in the US, Mr Ho, our tour guide, was a Singaporian Chinese fellow. He could speak three or four languages but his accent was so strong when he spoke English that I found that if I didn’t look at him and read his lips when he spoke it was all a jumble of words. He also left too many gaps in the commentary because we drove for hours at times wondering, for example, what the rows of neat little hedges in the paddocks were, only to find out when we arrived at a traditional tea house that they were green tea plantations. His formula, of which he constantly reminded us, was to give us the information when it would make the most sense.

The crunch came when we were all asked to place the customary $US 60 tip each into an envelope with our names on it. Peter and I had problems with this and decided to include a little note saying that as we are Australians and tipping is not part of our culture, we feel uncomfortable doing it except when we receive exceptional service, and then it is purely voluntary. Tipping is also not a thing in Japan, but as this tour was arranged in the US and with a predominantly American tour group, he thought he could get away with it. We compromised though and gave him $30 each.