the tour
Hi Allan, may I call you Allan? I still think of you as "Mr Tok'ra"
The Tour
Did they do a good job? I think they did a poor job. Most of the people on the bus were not from Canada and many have never been to the west coast of North America, so I think the tour experience could have been enhanced by a (even a tiny!!!???) travelogue of the local history and geography. The explanation or description of the areas the bus went through were minimal and almost embarassing and ,occasionally, insulting; for example: "This is Chinatown", not that the Vancouver Chinatown is the third largest in North America behind San Francisco and New York; "This is Gastown", not that Gastown is the beginning point of Vancouver over 150 years ago and expanded from there to be a metropolitan area with a population of 1.5 million people; and "This is Stanley Park, a very big park", not that Stanley Park is the largest original old-growth forest park in North America; and "this is downtown", not that the West End is the most densely populated area in North America at 70,000 people in one square mile. See what I mean????
And the guy had an "attitude"; he disparaged the Vancouver Chinatown; he said that it had stores and restaurants but if you want better stores and restaurants, go to Richmond which has Oriental Malls and better stores (my thought: is he getting a kick-back for this?). He complained that UBC (the local big university) charged too much for student parking ( the guy was a music student; hairy big deal! Don't air your grievances while you at work. It's not professional! And we don't want to know about it!) He said that Coquitlam was east of Surrey and on the south side of the Fraser River, which it is not! Max was incensed!!!!! She is from Coquitlam. And so on and so on. He was not upbeat about my most favourite city on Earth and knew little about it enough to be an ambassador or tour guide. My 15 year old sister could've done a better job.
Was the service good? Yes, they (our tour guide and student tour guide who just moved to Vancouver two weeks ago!!!!) did a good job entertaining us with trivia questions on "what movies were filmed in Vancouver" and "do you know the characters from X-files and Highlander. They did show us a few location shots for X-files and Highlander (Scully's apartment, Highlander's dojo). And it was great to meet the alien actor from "One False Step".
But I wanted a Stargate Tour and promotion of my city. (I love my city! Can't you tell?) I did e-mail to Richard about being involved in a Stargate tour way back earlier this year. Maybe I should have been more insistant? I actually wanted to take a few people in my car for a tour because there are a few places to see that may not be accessible from a tour bus. If you want to do a tour next year, I can be persuaded to participate in the planning.... (Oh boy, just what I need, more commitments in my tight schedule.....)
Feedback, please, Allan......
