Saturday, August 9, 2008

Motorbike taxi team for tourist in resort city

Fantastic! Only in Viet Nam!” – that was the comment from David, an Australian tourist, about the motorbike taxi team for tourism in the foggy city Da Lat.
That is a special riding team of 78 members undertaking long-time tours through Viet Nam, some of which are roughly a month. All of them are very fluent in English. Some can even speak German, or French. The team also owns a quite ‘western style’ website: http://www.dalat-easyrider.com.vn/
The outstanding figures
It is quite difficult to arrange a meeting with these motorbike riders as at this time they are on Hon Khoai Island of Ca Mau Province, another time they are exploring Nguom Ngao Cave of Cao Bang with tourists.
At last, we scheduled a meeting with them, not at a certain street corner or sidewalk, but at a deluxe café specialized in serving foreigners on Phan Dinh Phung Street, Da Lat City. ‘Rocky’ Thien, a member of the team, told us while busy with his computer, “Our daily task is to check our e-mail and Web site to give advice as well as to accept booking requirements of tourists to any places in Viet Nam.”
“At first, we were quite afraid when encountering foreigners since we are only good at their languages, not at cultural and historical knowledge of Viet Nam or other countries. However, because of the urge to earn our living as well as our passion for traveling, we trained ourselves in those fields and our tourism competence, thus becoming very professional”, rider An said.
Rides take tourists to Dac Lac, Nha Trang, Phan Thiet, and Ninh Thuan and help them get accustomed to the job. Their salary is now more than enough for the daily needs of their family. The team operates in an orderly way with a captain, a vice-captain, a discipline board, a financial board, and a money keeper. ‘Rocky’ Thien said, “They are solely to ensure an effective operation. They take no salary for these tasks.”
‘Rocky’ Thien was born in 1979 and got acquainted with the job of a taxi motorbike rider when he was still a tourism student at Da Lat University. From a part time job, it has become his main pursuit until now. Other team members from different areas have done various jobs before: ‘Rocky’ Thien used to be the owner of two restaurants, Mr. Duong was once a soldier, Mr. Long Duc used to be the leader of an interpreter team for Vietnamese workers in Germany, and ‘professor’ An was a French language teacher before 1975.
Many interests

more info-->>VietNamNet - Motorbike taxi team for tourist in resort city

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