Sawasdee and Aloha Kim and Paul,
Thanks for your kind comments. We do our best and I hope that every trip we run is just a little bit better than the last.
Longevity is the key to our guide team. My original hire of 20 years ago is still with us and we have several guides with 15+ years of experience. In fact, Oh is the New Kid on the Block, with four years experience. He used to work for one of the noisy companies, but saw the light and moved over with us.
Your comments make me cry. I left a high profile career in Hawai'i, where people still stop me on the street whenever I can return, to bring the Environmental ethic to Asia. I preached volume limits, professional standards, and quality. Quite frankly, I wasted the 20 most productive years of my life chasing windmills, starting the first Community-Based Tourism program I've ever heard of, winning six major Ecotourism awards in five years, always putting the awards in the company name and not mine.
After 12 years, my protégé fired me, saying "I'm tired of being professional, so I've decided to use your name and reputation to lower our quality and make a lot of money. Since you gave away all the shares for free and didn't keep even one for yourself, technically you are just an employee. You are fired!" My trump card was the logo, which is still legally registered to me. "I'm going to use your logo whether you like it or not. Complaining is dangerous for your health."
I was headed back to Hawai'i, but 23 of 30 staff asked me to stay so we can prove that Thai ecotourism programs can be as good as anybody. Five of those who stayed were relatives and two power-control jerks who were not invited.
My theme at John Gray Sea Canoe uses kayaks and local fishermen to create low-cost CBT programs that benefit a village, reduce urban migration while encouraging natural history education and provide above average-income jobs. But by that time, Phi-Phi/James Bond speedboat operators figured that if they cut their costs to the bone and kept their prices just below ours, they could get rich. And they did. (We have never made a profit).
Speedboats and kayaks go together like oil and water, especially 2-stroke, which they all are. Speedboat owners could care less about environment, dignity, or the quality of their own country. Over the years I've pulled 8,531 garbage bags of rubbish out of the bay - many plastic bottles with their logos - and they just laugh at me for actually caring.
Privately, these guys laugh at me, saying I'm a fool for caring about quality and the environment, and making them rich. They pay corruption instead of taxes and park fees, and pull underage kids out of school to get around the minimum age, "John, you spread sheet everything and keep your quality high and profit low. We compete to see who can be the worst. Our trips are really worth B600-700 so we can come up close to you and make almost B3,000 free money per booking - times 200-500/day. My mansion is B20 million, his, 17, his 15, etc. We all drive Mercedes while you are homeless and don't even own a motorbike."
None of these people kayak, care about the environment, and I've never seen another owner or manager in the bay. Many companies have had fatalities, and they don't even stop for a day to assess their "safety" practices.
Did you go into the "Mangrove" hong? I gave it the name because of the thick, healthy mangroves. The other companies use it as a playground, and now the mangroves are almost gone, many by sitting in them for a photo op, playing Tarzan, walking or kayaking over Brugeria pneumataphores. Our first copy-cat discovered auger shells around the Hong’s decaying trees. While we quietly explained their role in the Hong’s ecosystem, they brought a bucket, had a B-B-Q and destroyed the composition of the hong forever. They don't know, and could care less.
See you on the water, Ling Yai (Thai for 'Big Monkey') AKA John Caveman Gray
No comments:
Post a Comment