Everybody must be thinking, what’s so extra-ordinary about the Tour Guide?
Let me explain, our tour guide for the well-known 白楊步道 was a dog. That morning, we woke up at 4am+. The moment we stepped out of the resort, one of the many stray dogs laying outside got up and started to follow us. As we walked, the dog started to walk ahead of us.
Along the trail, we’d stop and snap pictures here and there.. We soon noticed the dog would stop and wait for us. While waiting for us, it even went “down the steep hill” to the riverside, it apparently saw some rubbish. It picked them up, came back up and discard it by the roadside. We then continued our journey.
It was really amazing as we found the dog would not let us out of its sight. But it never barked or hurried us to move on. It’d just wait patiently…
As we walked through the trail (and tunnels), we found that the final portion of it was closed due to earlier earthquake causing it to be too dangerous to proceed. Before we turned back, we played with the water along the river.. As I was having fun with the cold water, I splashed some at the dog (I was not being cruel, just wanted to play with the dog!!). Guess what? It actually went behind my friend to take cover!!! SMART huh!?!?!?!
Since we were not able to proceed further along the trail, we told the dog, “let’s go back! We can’t go further. It’s too dangerous.” It actually understood us and brought us back to the resort. It didn’t go away until it saw us entered the resort safely.
The whole journey up and down the trail took us about 5 to 6 hours.
Back at the resort, we shared our experience with the Hotel Manager. He said there were other guests in a nearby resort having similar encounter too. We were all so amazed that it happened to us. Lastly, I gave some money to the Hotel Manager in order to get some food for our tour guide as a token of appreciation (not compulsary tipping required by our tour guide, of course!)
This was really the most amazing trip and encounter I’ve ever had!!
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