Of travels & travails

MANILA, Philippines - As a young boy, Hamish Wallace got interested in foreign languages because he thought they were codes. When his parents were going to talk about money or something they didn’t want him to understand, they spoke in Spanish.

“I was five, I thought it was a secret code, I’ve to find out what it was,” Hamish  says. “It was like magic words.”

One of the many things that set a Trafalgar trip apart is its people.

Hamish was our tour director on a recent trip. He speaks five languages, switches easily from his native British English to French, Italian, Spanish, and German.  A dream that he thinks will remain unfulfilled is to add a sixth: Chinese.

Imagine a bus full of tourists in a country that they know a lot of things about or know nothing at all — and they are in the hands of the tour director. 

Where do you begin to understand a foreign city? To spot the nuances of its people, of life there, little odds and ends that are not in the guidebooks? Where do you get the gossip? And, a more pressing issue, where are the toilets?

It begins with the tour director.

They get you excited over a monument or a mountain, over some gossip in the 19th century that has very little to do with the 21st — and, dammit, they make you laugh as your bus rolls along, crossing cities and borders, seemingly crossing worlds.

They are part-historian, part-secretary, part-psychologist and part-shepherd. They are probably the most patient people in the world (except for Buddhist monks) and they have to deal with a bunch of strangers and organize their luggage and their meals.

Hamish has been a tour director for 25 years, 15 of them with Trafalgar.

“I love going to Nice and St. Paul de Vence,” he says. “I like taking people there and blowing their minds away. I take them to Venice, to Rome, to Burano, where we have a blowout meal and the houses are all different colors. They say, ‘Thank you, Hamish, what a great day it was.’ Isn’t that a great job? No one wants a loud, arrogant jerk, but you can be humble and quiet, and say, ‘It was my pleasure. And it really was.’”

The travel bug first bit him, he says, when he was seven and he was collecting stamps. “I saw these Toucans on the Nigerian stamps.”

To date, he has been to 45 countries in the world — but when you see something for the first time, you feel he’s seeing it for the first time, too.

Excerpts: 

THE PHILIPPINE STAR: What’s the destination that surprises people the most and changes their perception?

South of France on a sunny day, which we had. The French can be very particular, but if you get the timing right and the weather, people will see the attraction there. I think people are impressed with Vienna, Rome, Prague and Budapest, Berlin and Granada.

If you were to decide on a Trafalgar trip for tourists who have never been to Europe, what would you recommend?

First of all, I would like to know their background because I wouldn’t generalize and say all people are the same. Some want an awful lot, their money’s worth, and they’re prepared to sit in a coach and get up early, and others are from different cultures and things are slower. There are fast trips and there are tourists for whom time keeping may drift a bit.

For middle-class, educated tourists who can afford a 10- to 14-day tour.

I’d do a panorama first. It’s a great introduction — the flavor of France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Your first trip should be like a smorgasbord. Imagine all the food in the world laid out on tables, and you get 15, 20 minutes to have a bite each. You have one mouthful of tandoori, one mouthful of beef Burgundy stew, one mouthful of fish and chips. They are an introduction to cultures.  A lot is explained to you — history, geography, banks — basics, middle and top. You cover all of it. Then you return to do a regional.

One reason I do this job is because I change and countries change. I go to Vienna today, and next year, and year after. And Vienna’s not quite the same in my mind.

What’s the continuing appeal for you? Doesn’t it get to be a routine after all these years?

Not really because you deal with different people and you have social interaction with them even in the bar or restaurant. There’s a dialogue, a narrative. I see new people and I get them to see things they haven’t seen before. I don’t get bored. You got different seasons and different problems, road works, and different group dynamics, different mini-stresses. Psychologists have told us that we need a little bit of stress. Too much stress, you break down; not enough, you’re bored. Doing this gives me enough stress and problem solving to make me happy. And I see people experience things and I share it with them and I enjoy it. I don’t think you can fool people. I love it.

It takes a patient man to deal with a lot of people all the time. Like Sarte said, “Hell is other people.”

But he was a miserable man! I like people. There’s the other side of the coin, heaven or a great day is you sitting around in the garden with other people you like.

Why do you like history?

Because it explains how we got to where we are. A crucial part of one’s identity is held by one’s memory. It’s the same with a country and its history. I like art, I like architecture, I like history and landscape, and trying to understand it and share it with people. People can be stressful, but it’s a chess game, you have to get the pieces in the right order. You walk around after two days or 20 days and people shake your hands and say, “You’ve done a great job, Hamish.” That gives me a kick.

Where do you get all this stock knowledge?

I read books all the time.

What was your first trip like?

Not very successful. It was in another company. The first trip was like a training, they saw it as a write-off. Nowadays the market’s changed. They will give you a training, you’ll sit in on a tour for two weeks and watch somebody who’s experienced and learn how they do it, and you take notes. So you hear the travel director talking about history, geology, a nice lunch. Trafalgar takes a lot of people who have a lot of experience, those who do a great job.

Are there things you don’t talk about on a trip?

I don’t get personal, I don’t get into religion or politics, I don’t get into anything negative. People want me to talk about myself because I am taking them around and they’d like to know who I am. I talk about myself in an acceptable level, it shouldn’t be indulgent, but to make them feel safe and in good hands.

How do you deal with conflicts between tourists? These are essentially strangers who are thrown together quite by chance, and you don’t always like other people for no other reason than you just don’t.

We don’t have that many problems to be honest. People come on holiday to have a good time. The older you get, you do acquire experience, you just have to keep your mouth shut and wait. Sometimes they will burn off steam, you listen, and then they tell you, “None of this is your fault, I’m going to take a walk,” they say, “I’m going to buy you coffee later.” And you haven’t done anything! The clever thing for you is to shut up. You’re a bit of a psychologist. They tell you something and you just listen.  People need attention, validation, to get things off their chest.

Do you do a study of the group that you’re touring?

Only by looking at them: who’s confident, who’s not, who’s shy and who’s not. Well, I’ve been to 45 countries, done this for 25, so I’m aware that Muslim people don’t eat pork, so that’s not exactly something I have to research.

I mean, do you change your spiels?

Yes, absolutely. That’s the challenge. You have to be specifically and culturally aware of languages, metaphors and references. Once upon a time, tour guides would have just given information, but we have become more equal with our guests, we are customer-friendly. In former years, tour guides thought they had to talk about the French revolution or history for two hours. We’re seeing younger tourists with their pads and on Twitter. Years ago, when you got to your hotel their biggest concern was their luggage, now they want to know what the WiFi password is. It’s a Facebook and Twitter generation.

What’s the best travel advice you have ever been given?

I would say don’t judge and don’t assume. Those are two different things.

And what travel advice would you give to tourists?

People should photocopy their credit cards and passports, make sure their family knows where they are, their banks know they’re going out of their zone. Have two or three credit cards instead of one. Make sure you read the itinerary and don’t assume.

Do you still buy souvenirs?

Once in a while, yes. I like art. Something funny, a stupid fridge magnet, some woven things, paintings or batiks. I collect art and trivia, and weird-shaped stones. I think people should buy things that mean something to them, not things that they think they are due to collect.

What are some of the most memorable trips you’ve done?

Oh gosh. China, to see the Great Wall of China for the first time. In Iran, we did a series of trips around carpets and weaving and natural dyes. That was a mind blower. It was fantastic. I did my own personal tour of Burma, I lived half a year in India, I lived in Berlin for a year — that was amazing. Culture, getting a feel of a place, knowing the rhythms — they get up at this time, they go to that bakery and then they get on the Tube with a sandwich and go to work as the sun comes up. In China, some people were just walking in the streets and eating their breakfast from rice bowls… and everyone wore blue in those days. A few days later, it’s a different world.

Why do you love France?

I don’t know. They’re a very particular people but if you approach them right, it works. I like the Austro-Hungarian empire. I like Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Vienna. Italy is sort of a bipolar world for me, but there are tremendous treasures there — and I wouldn’t want anyone not to see them. You have to do the best of Italy and the best of France once in your life to really get a grip of Europe. You have the British Isles and panoramic tours around Europe for an introduction, then you got your regionals.

Are tourists getting more difficult or easier to handle?

I think people are people, they are possibly getting more civilized. To be honest, they’re getting better, so it’s a win-win. People are more exposed to stuff and they are better prepared.

Is there a destination you haven’t visited but would like to?

South Africa, Brazil, Vietnam and Uzbekhistan I’m interested in. And there are destinations I would like to go back to —  India and Sri Lanka. I haven’t been to Peru or Bolivia. And I would like to go back to Argentina. Lots of places to go with people or on your own, and if you’re lucky, with your family.

Finish this sentence: You know you’re a travel director when…

God knows. You’ve some love of travel, desire to be with people, curiosity in solving problems, an appreciation of history, culture and food and language, and finding out the mysteries of life in regional settings, and over time you piece them together. You start to get in an area, and you understand how it functions to some degree, and you take people there and show it to them. It’s discovering a little mystery and you’d like them to be in on it. Like a teacher, but not stand-on-a-soapbox way, but to say, “Look, we can pull the curtain back and see how it’s done.” I think that’s what our role is: to take people, make them feel safe and comfortable, get them down to authentic experiences, get them to things that are really good and enrich their lives and give them memories to cherish.