First Experience of Tour Guiding

Love locks on fence at Namsan Tower

June 18 - June 20, 2012. A three days tour guiding a family from Indonesia around Seoul area. There were a mother and two daughters, one is a 10-year old. This was my first time to be a paid tour guide. I was really nervous and afraid if I could not satisfy them. But it turned out well and I pretty much enjoyed it. I hope they did, too. Equipped with my experience wandering around Seoul, verbally-ok Korean language skill, and a smart phone with smart map, here is the story.
My client were pretty much shoppers. I actually made a list of what to do from the first day until the last day, but it turned out that we did not go according to the list. They decided to go to Namdaemun market (남대문시장) on the first day, to shop. Therefore, I took them to Namdaemun market after I picked them up at Gimpo International Airport. We spent the whole day just to shop. I translated what the seller said and what they wanted to say to the seller. Also, upon request I tried to convince the seller to give discount for them, which happened many times. I do not know if I do good in bargaining, but we did get discount like at least KRW 1000 for cheap things. Sometimes up to KRW 20,000 (They bought 8 pieces of DVD which originally costed KRW 100,000 but after bargaining they ended up paying KRW 80,000 only). I did many "moves" to convince the seller to drop the price for them. For instance, I said that they came from far away and it is pretty sad if they have to pay a lot, or sometimes I said something funny to them, you know, to make the atmosphere good, and we did get discount. They bought a lot of things especially clothes. Later that day, since the hotel that they were sleeping at was really close to Myeong-dong (one of famous shopping centers in Seoul), one of the daughter wanted to go to Etude House, a cosmetic shop, at Myeong-dong, so I took her there.
The next day was another shopping day at another famous shopping center in Seoul, Dongdaemun (동대문시장). Dongdaemun is a pretty organized and modern shopping center than Namdaemun. They are inside buildings so it was much convenience to shop around. I did nothing new this day since it was only taking them around and translating what they wanted to say or what the seller wanted to say. They said Dongdaemun was better because it was cheaper and the quality was better than the ones in Namdaemun.
The last day was finally a bit of non-shopping visit. Even though before I met them they did a little shopping (yeah, they shop hard!) we went to Namsan Tower. There were some traditional instrumental and martial arts performances and we watched it before going up to the tower. I think they were pretty impressed by the love lock on the fence. I was impressed to when I went there for the first time. The other thing that I think was pretty impressive for them was the view from the bus window on the way to Namsan Tower. They pretty much enjoyed the trip on the way to Namsan Tower. We took cable car from Namsan tower down to Myeong-dong. Then, we went to a cathedral. This was my first time to go to a cathedral and I went inside. It was really beautiful with ornament on the wall. There were people singing and praying. I think it was beautiful. Before going back to the hotel and making payment to me (^_^) they did again go shopping at Myeong-dong.
I felt so good after tour guiding. I want to do it again! Interested with my service? contact me!

angga | 앙가


PS: They paid me KRW 60,000/day and paid for food but it is negotiable, lol.