June 28, 2009: Though the Guides’ Association of Bhutan (GAB) was formed in 2006, it couldn’t even register a single member as the man who formed it joined politics.
“It is all because of me, the GAB crashed after I joined politics,” said Garab Dorji, the defeated Gelephu candidate of the People’s Democratic Party.
But now GAB is back.
With 200 members registered and support from the Tourism Council of Bhutan, GAB under Garab Dorji hopes that the membership will increase to 400 in another month.
Often quoted by the guides themselves, a guide is the first and the last Bhutanese a tourist will meet in Bhutan.
But think of this. What if the guide is shabbily dressed, stinks of booze and has doma stained teeth.
If there are any such guides, GAB is determined to change them.
“Guides are unofficial ambassadors of Bhutan. What we portray of the country to them (the tourists) is what they take back with them,” said Tashi Tenzin, a cultural guide.
Getting tips in green notes, being called the guy who walks around with white people, many guides wear a prince-from-fairyland aura.
This is what presumably makes a tour guide’s job attractive.
However, life as a tour guide is not what it seems to be, says Phurba Dorji, another guide.
Their job gets tougher when they have difficult tourists to take around, and that includes taking a lot of troubles with the hotel owners too.
With about 1,300 tourist guides in the country, only a handful has chosen guiding as a full time career. Most have still opted for it as a part time job.
“It’s a seasonal job,” said Thinley Wangchuk who has been a part time guide for the last five years. “I run a small business and work as a tourist guide when it’s tourist season,” he said.
However, the GAB is looking into promoting guiding as a full time career.
“We will create better opportunities to make guiding a permanent career,” said Sangay Phub, the secretary general of GAB.
The GAB has plans on organizing training programs and refreshers’’ courses. The association also plans on having advanced specialized courses.
“We will imbibe professionalism in the career, which we don’t have right now,” said Garab Dorji.
No matter how glamorous or difficult the career seems to be, there has been numerous complaints about how down and dirty guides get.
A driver for a private vehicle said while he was on a tour to the east with a group of university students, the guide was trying to fix a drug deal with them.
“He was selling them marijuana, that too for a very high price. He told me he charged the guest three times of what it is worth,” he said.
In the second bi-annual general meeting held by the GAB, the president of the Hotel Association of Bhutan (HAB), Ugen Wangchuk, said the hotel owners have often complained about the misuse of facilities.
He added that the guides often harass the hotel staff and at times even demand for free rooms and meals.
There have been cases of theft and drug dealings reported against the guides.
A handicraft owner, Dhondup, said some of the guides take their guests away from their shops if they do not give the guides a hefty commission.
“There was a time when a tourist bought a silk on silk kira for a high price,” he said.
“The guide came back and asked for 25% commission, we had a fight,” he added.
Complaints about guides getting drunk while on duty has also been made, punctuality has been a big problem for many tour operators, and male guides trying to lure women tourists into bed have been reported.
However, with the reformation of GAB a lot of things will be taken care of, said Garab Dorji.
The GAB will represent the guides and uphold their interest.
“We will protect the guides, some of them have gone through a lot of bad experiences,” said Sangay Phub.
The association will also look into the safety of the profession and reassure them of their job security as a guide.
The GAB has also drawn a code of conduct for the guides and defaulters will be penalized.
However, they are also facing a lot of fundamental problems.
The president of GAB said the definition of a guide in Bhutan is still unclear. He added that even civil servants and corporate employees take leave from work to go as a guide.
Another major constraint is the fund for which the GAB has approached the Tourism Council of Bhutan.
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