The project was officially organized by People’s Committee District 1 on June 8th 2013, originally named Volunteer Tourist Guide Team. There were groups of 2-4 students at 3 areas: T-junction of De Tham – Pham Ngu Lao St., crossroad of Bui Vien – De Tham St. and at 262 De Tham St. with 2 shifts a day, 8-11 am for the first one n 2-5 pm for the second. The only thing we do is to help, whatever foreigners need, we try all the best to fit them.

Here is a day of being a free tour guide of me, with fun and experiences :”3 Okay, I will show by a slide of pictures, of course taken by me and blended by Instagram app ~

I got there at 7.50 am, by taking a bus No. 11 directly from home. Actually this fuckin’ bus took me 15m to wait and 30m to go on it, while I just need no more than 20m by riding my motorbike at usual.

When I came, I joined with a friend, two of us can’t find out where the car/xe-đẩy was. After a long time struggling, we still can’t open the lock =)) Everything turned funny when we brought all of things we needed while it was still locked. The one who invented this was really a genius.

Having opened umbrella, set up brochures and a big-sized banner “Free Tour Guide” on desk n several chairs for us, we began our morning with breakfast. Saigon here but we tried Hue food instead.

This is called mixture of bánh bèo, bánh bột lọc and another type I forgot the name.

Other two girls on duty with me, the only boy was holding the camera =))

As you can see from our hands is “100 interesting things in HCMC”, it is really helpful while all of us were not sure about this city. What a shame !

We started our shift by looking at the list of things travelers usually asked for. Many funny questions or requests we found, such as “What is giựt-cô-hồn means ?”, “How to go to Ăng-co-vát?” or a unexpected fight between visitors and so on. Sometimes we laughed because no one knew the exact ways to handle. And then we meet our first customers.

Unfortunately, an American attracted by our free maps came to us and asked for one. And without asking any questions of the city ~

One of our customers suggested we should change from “Free” to “Donation”, we found out from notes someone took before. Very kind of him. However, we all think it is helpless. Because we had been waiting a long time until the 2nd customer came. My view is that it is very rare when a foreigners got lost or impossible to find a hostel/hotel/restaurants or they just didn’t trust us. We turned hopeless and suspected our abilities and necessities. Aigoo, really hard feelings ~

Right just before we prepared to finish our morning shift, 3 groups of customers came. A Indian woman asked us to draw the route to many historical destinations, included War Remnants, Ben Thanh Market, Bitexco Tower, Jade Pagoda (the first time I heard of this) and Chinatown. Next, a man needed instruction to Ben Thanh Market. I forgot the last one.

We also introduced the project and our university to her. I thought I was a little bit proud when I was doing that. Yeah, my active university ~

Lunch time, tada >O<

It totally costed 34k each, a pizza n a cup of cola. We joked that we spent all the money received today =)) It came true when we need to spend more 5k for an ice-cream at KFC, also for a clean toilet inside. Actually included the bus fees =))

Chocolate covered ~

After having lunch, we determined to go along the park with the banner to attract visitors who need help. Finally, we were all too shy and put the upside down ~

The afternoon shift was not as interesting as the morning. A lot of people just took the map.

We set the big map on desk for delighting the purpose of us.

There was a man who came to us with a big n a little funny smile. He also made a funny question “Where should I go ?”. It suddenly turned us confused. He said he had gone around District 1 and wanted to try more attractions. Hard to find out the page in the book above which pictured the sight of Crescent Mall n Crescent Lake. I suggested him to go there. He still smiled and seemed so strange. Was he joking us ?

We met a old xe-ôm rider who was very kind to us. He helped us a lot with his various knowledge, showed them the bus stop and buses passing there n the ways to go somewhere.

Another man asked us how to get “Backpacking Club Hostel” at De Tham St. The exciting thing is he got a complete map. But it is at a small alley so he was confused. It is originally on the right hand from us, whereas I showed him to find on the left side. Aigoo~ very big mistakes of me >_<

A groups of Malaysian wanted to get “Thai Binh Market”. OMG, I don’t have any ideas of it. Finally I told them to go along the street and they would see it. Ah ha, I was true at last =))

A group of Korean needed free maps. I greeted them with Korean “Annyeong haseyo”. The feelings was so strange, a little bit happy =))

Many people thanked us in Vietnamese, the way they sounded “Cám ơn” was so sweet and appreciated :3

The work finished finally.

I wrote a sentence in the notebook: “A hard-working working day is completed with fun and experiences”.

Yeah~ I am a tour guide today LOL