Saipan

Travel educates?

The other day, we went up to Kalabrera Cave to show our five-year-old arround. and snap some shots. After a couple of minutes, a bunch of young, Japanes e tourists came up to the cave, surrounded by a night-club-noise-level. We asked them to be quiet, reminded them on the birds nesting around the cave. The noise died out immediately.

While looking around in the cave and mostlikely wondering what was that special about that cave, and who in his right mind could take pictures of cave walls, the best wife in the world just grabbed them to show them around in the cave, especially the petroglyphs on the walls.

The Japanese looked at them in awe. Intrigued they listened to the explanations of the wife. I still don't know how much English these folks understood, but the enlightenment in their faces told us a lot.

Minutes later we parted under many polite bows and "thank you's" in broken English from the Japanese. One could easily see that they took something home they could tell their grandchildren about.



For us, it was also time to leave. Just when we exited the cave a group of Chineses came up. Ten, fifteen or more ... noisy as a crowd at the Super Bowl. Again, we tried to quiet them down, and asked who their tour guide was - shrugged shoulders the answer. On the parking lot, we found the local drivers of the trucks that brought the tourists up there at a pugua break. We asked them to quiet down the group to not disturb the wildlife around, and to show some respect to this place. Again, shrugged shoulders the answer "we don't speak Chinese", until my wife talked to the guys in Chamorro. I don't know what she told them (my Chamorro is as bad as her Japanese), but all in a sudden the drivers moved and got the crowd quiet.

What am I aiming at? It is not enough to bring the tourists in and just dump them at the sites "You have ten minutes to take pictures". You want to give them something they'll remember.
When they show their pictures back home, a "well, that is that one cave, but we don't have a clue was going on in there" always sounds worse than a "that's Kalabrera Cave. Look at them petroglyphs. They explained us everything in that cave .... man, those old Chamorro must have been something!"
Maybe that talks their friends into wanting to see these petroglyphs with their own eyes....

A Chamorro is proud of his culture and heritage. Show this pride to the tourists (and not just rip them off or burglarize their cars). Show them around in your culture. Therefore, tour guides are needed. But a tour guide should a professional, just like a lawyer. S/he should know the island and the island's culture for the tourist's education, but most of all should be able to explain the tourists that should be respectful at the sites and not see them as a spectacle.

posted by Claus @ 2:51 PM 0 comments