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I Am Augustine Lopez, Your Tour Guide In Kerala. I Have 15 Years Of Experience In The Tourism Field In The State Of Kerala, India. I Am An English Speaking Tour Guide In Kerala. I Also Speak Hindi, Malayalam And Tamil. I Can Manage, 'A To Z' Activities Of A Tour Group Of Any Size From Airport Arrival To Departure.
Private Guide in Shimla:
I am deeply associated with the Tourism industry for the last sixteen years. Having traveled extensively in India I consider it privileged to introduce myself as a Professionally Qualified and an Experienced Tour Companion.
After completing my Graduation from Maharishi Dayanand University – Rohtak in 1990 in two major subjects, Geography & Military Science, I found that my passion lay in promoting nature. My future lied somewhere in the hills. So I owe debt of gratitude to a close family friend of ours who had retired from the Tourism Department of Himachal Pradesh. He suggested that I should first earn a Diploma in Tourism Management from Delhi University which I completed in 1992.
Thereafter, there was no looking back for me. I joined Imaginative Tours (P) Ltd. Delhi as a Tour Executive in 1993 and another company called Connexions in 1996. Both were Inbound Tour Operating Companies based in Delhi whose basic market lay in Germany, Finland and USA. I was required to prepare itineraries, cost them and then send them to agents in foreign countries. Escorting tourist was another essential part of my assignment.
I left them and returned to Shimla, my hometown in 2000 and began to work as a freelance Tour Escort and Heritage Tour Guide.
My Believe – As A Guide to Heritage Buildings in and around Shimla : I have a vast store of knowledge of Shimla. I started working here as a Heritage Tour Guide in 2000 and have Studied in detail the Origin & History of this British Himalayan Town. This 190 years old town was entirely set up by British Officers. They arrived here in 1815 and decided to use it as a Summer Capital of British Empire in future. Interestingly my clients are those British who come to see the old houses built by their parents and Grand Parents. Many of them were born, grew up and studied here. I maintain most of the records available of Shimla that helps me finding the Old Houses, Churches, Cemeteries where their forefathers are buried, Nursing Homes where they were born, Records of the Churches where they were Baptized, The roads on which they walked and the offices they worked in.
My Believe – as A Tour Escort : A visitor who comes from a far away place to see our country, deserves to be given an insight into the knowledge of everything he wants to see, know or visit.
In last Sixteen year I have accompanied and assisted a number of Tourists from different parts of the world. Escorting for me is not only Accompanying Tourists, Helping them Check into hotels, Coordinating with the Local Agents, Guides & Cab Drivers, Buying Entrance tickets for visits such as to Museums / Monuments and other sightseeing attractions or Looking after the meals being served in time, but it is also to interact with them on topics such as Religion, History, Lifestyle, Culture, Cricket, Politics, Judiciary, Education, Military, Police, Marriages, Society, Partition, Militancy, Tourist Arrivals, Old Age Homes, Heritage, Challenges of Tourism, Traffic Problem, Maintenance of Roads – The list is endless.
Tourists want to know more and more and they deserve that too. Guides are available only at the Monuments and other sightseeing points where as an Escort remains with the tourists all the time.
An Author : I am a proud author of two books. They are as follows :
Shimla – A British Himalayan Town : This is the first Coffee Table Pictorial of Shimla which I have authored. The book tells you the complete history of the town and the present lifestyle through its various chapters.
Shimla Bazaar : I call myself a Nature Writer as I write Short Stories collected from Nature and incidents involving daily life of people, which provides spice to the reader . A book on short stories, which I have authored, is on shelves .
