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Every year, Wanderlust magazine hosts the World Guide Awards. This year G Adventures’ Chief Experience Officers, otherwise known as CEOs, triumphed with both the Gold award and the Bronze award. Katherine Lawrey meets both winners.
When the chips are down, the best guides – or Chief Experience Officers, as G Adventures likes to call them – really demonstrate their worth. As Bopha Sok proved when a client from New Zealand collapsed from dehydration on one of his tours and he needed to find a clinic fast to give him the life-saving fluids he lacked. But what about when the guide is injured, and a client themselves has been responsible? Sem Sem Saied was walking on a plank between felucca boats in Egypt when an excitable client jumped on his back. “I fell and hurt my leg, but I didn’t want her to be upset so I put some ice on it and carried on the tour as normal. It was only when I went back to Cairo and couldn’t handle the pain any more that I discovered it was broken. The client still doesn’t know to this day.”
Client feedback is the foundation for judging these awards and it’s clear these two have dedicated fan clubs. It’s the first trip to London for them both, and Bopha is spending the weekend at the home of a previous client in Ascot, who is taking him to an England football match at Wembley. Two G Adventures guests from Canada have flown in to catch up with Sem Sem, and he had two more from Ireland and three from New Zealand return to Egypt for his wedding. “You make friends for life in this job,” he says.
Sem Sem has been guiding for 11 years now. He joined G Adventures in 2009. That was a boom time, he says: “There weren’t enough hotels [to satisfy demand].” But on January 25, 2011, the Egyptian revolution rocked the country’s tourism industry. The subsequent drop in arrivals was compounded by a second revolution on June 30, 2013. “Between January and June 2014, we didn’t have any clients coming to Egypt. That was really tough,” he says.
In a show of solidarity, G Adventures’ 10 Egyptian CEOs decided to split the available tours equally between them to prevent any from losing their job. As a result Sem Sem has led seven tours this year.
“We have no space to be selfish,” he says resolutely. ‘What goes around comes around. Together we are stronger.”
But with a nod to the stabilising situation, he adds: “Nowadays, I have to queue to buy tickets, which is amazing.”
Coming from Cambodia, Bopha’s compatriots have had their share of heartache too. If his clients want to delve deeper, he won’t shy away from it. “I can help share some very real, personal stories,” he says, referring to life when the brutal Khmer Rouge was in power. “Most people appreciate it because they never expect to hear these stories from local people.”
He used to be a taxi driver, but was given his big break by NGO New Hope, which is supported by Planeterra, the charitable arm of G Adventures. “It was my dream to do guiding,” he admits. “I grew up in the countryside and yearned of a better future.”
And what’s the secret to earning this prestigious recommendation from Wanderlust?
“You have to love what you do and the people,” says Sem Sem. He also tips patience and acceptance as key qualities, and says that honesty is rewarded with respect. “If you’re genuine, people feel it, and if you’re fake they will.” Bopha puts his success down to wearing a big smile “whatever happens”.
He also acknowledges that while he assures his clients that he is available 24/7, he can’t do his job properly if he stays up late partying. “My first trip, I stayed up late but I soon realised I wouldn’t be any good to my groups if I was exhausted. You’ll see me dancing, just not getting drunk.”
And they both credit G Adventures with trusting them to make their own decisions to enhance the tour experience. “They give us the freedom so we can show the real-life communities untouched by tourists. That’s where you get the warmest welcome and the most natural smiles,” says Bopha. “We don’t go to destroy their culture – we go to give something back.”
