Sir, yes Sir!

Imagine you're lying on a deserted beach somewhere in Asia, let's say in Malaysia. Everything is so quiet, and you fully enjoy yourself. Aside from a tidal wave, what is the worth thing that could happen to you and spoil this very special moment?

--> an organized tour tidal wave...

Since I've spent quite some time on various Islands and touristic spots in Asia, I've noticed many of those groups of tourists traveling on an organized tour. And by "organized", I mean that each and every second of the day is organized.

You can't miss those groups if you go to the Perhentians Islands, they love this sea paradise. They are easy to spot: first they are numerous. Most of those tours gather at least 10 people. That kind of tourists likes to be surrounded by his fellows, he feels protected against all the dangers threatening him when he is so far away from home sweet home. Especially on the Perhentian Islands, this is really dangerous place. And they will always stay close to each other. It's like a school of sardines: strength lies in unity.

You can usually recognize them with their T-shirt: since they are very proud of belonging to the same tour, they make their travel a real event: they give themselves a name, they find a motto and they created a dedicated T-shirt for their group. It's mandatory for them that they wear it all the time. It's actually very clever: in the unlikely event that one of them get separated from the rest of the group, if you find him totally freaked out and lost, thanks to the name on the T-shirt, you can bring him back to his owner. You might get a reward for it.

Finally, since this is an "organized tour", well... it has to be organized, right? This is serious business. The captain of the group usually carries a loudspeaker to regularly give instructions to the group. Thanks to the captain, the tourists don't need to worry to much about what to do and where to go. The schedule is very detailed an a laminated hard copy is given to all the participants. They are told when to go to the bathroom. The captain is the master and his authority is respected: the only case when it's hard for him to keep control over the group is when it comes to food, especially when it's a buffet. In order to guarantee the ROI (Return On Investment), the participants will rush to the buffet and get as much as their plastic plate can carry. Who cares if they can't eat it all, as long as they consumed as much as possible. It's usually a real mess, and there might not be enough food for the weakers of them who couldn't reach the buffet on time. The captain is also in charge of telling jokes in the bus and of ordering them to watch through the window when the bus is passing a landmark. Gosh, a travel must be so boring without a good captain!

But the most funny part is that they don't swim without a bright orange life jacket and two large buoys around their arms. Yes, in the Perhentians. You know, this paradise tropical Island where the water is like 28°C , shallow, quiet, protected by coral reefs... I'm not kidding, that's for real!!!

As you can see, I'm not a big fan of those tours and I'm getting a bit mean. Echoing Nicolas' post (fr), I think that this type of tourism is more or less responsible for spoiling natural wonders...

Well, that said, believe it or not I was myself part of such kind event last weekend!!! Yep, I got enrolled in the Perhentian Island challenge 2007... I teamed up with sport addicted Louis and we both went through a great sport challenge in spite of the "organized tour" background.

The race consist in a mix of kayaking, running through the wild jungle, swimming (yes, with the bright orange life jacket geared up ;-), climbing steep hills. Four and a half hours of constant physical effort around noon, when the sun is the brightest and when the temperature reaches 35°C. It was really tiring but we were determined and we found the guts to finish the race and our rank is 10th out of 83 teams. We won a great medal and a money prize! There will be a one hour coverage on TV Tiga (Malaysian national TV channel 3) in October, I'll try to blog it if I can find it.

Thanks Louis!

Louis was too tall to fit in the kayak...













They didn't play La Marseillaise...