Testimonials from our FORMER CLIENTS

Hi Thao,
We arrived home safely and had a great time in Indochina. Your organisation of the trip was wonderful and we enjoyed the whole experience. We have already recommended your company to our friends.
My comments about our experience:
The hotels were all good. We particularly enjoyed the boutique hotels. Our favourite was the Silverland Yen Hotel in Saigon closely followed by the Nam Bo Boutique hotel in Can Tho. The least favourite was the Okay Boutique hotel in Phnom Penh, it was away from the centre of the city. Our room in the Hanoi Allure hotel in Hanoi was noisy as it fronted on to the street. Most of the hotels were well located making exploring the areas easy.
The guides were all good and knowledgeable and most spoke English quite well. Terry who guided us in Hanoi was hardest to understand as he spoke quickly. He also walked fast which rushed us a bit.
We enjoyed our time in Laos. The 9 kilometre walk through the jungle to the waterfall was enjoyed by me, but Pene found it too long and if we had realised it was 9 kilometres she would not have done it. We did not realise it at the time but we missed out on visiting the cave and the Khmu village of Ban Thapene.
The 7.30 am start in Phnom Pehn  was too early as the hotel breakfast did not start until 6.45 and then we had to wait for the palace to open as it was only a few minutes away and did not open until 8 am.
We found the pace of the tour good (being a private tour we were not held up by the slowest person on the bus) as it gave us time to ourselves to relax etc after each days experiences.
Our favourite parts of the tour were:
– The visit to the La Chu village,
– The time in the Mekong delta,
– The Vespa scooter evening in Hanoi,
– The elephant ride in Laos.
Because it took us over 2 hours to obtain our visa on arrival in Vietnam, I would recommend that visas be obtained before entering the country. Visa’s on arrival were no problem in Laos and Cambodia.
Thank you for all your help, the trip exceeded our expectations.
All the best,
Norm Day

Norman group x2
Inside Indochina 18 days

Hello Vy,
Sorry it has taken us a while to get this email to you.
Anyway, please rest assured that we have been singing your praises to all our friends because your arrangements for us never missed a beat and worked beautifully.
After arriving at our first hotel and meeting our first guide and driver, we never had any concerns whatsoever that anything could go amiss. You had our full trust.
As from our completed evaluations you can see we were very happy with all of our tours, accommodations, guides and drivers.

Hoi An was a peaceful stay after busy HCMC and we loved the quiet canal walking and cycling & Old Town areas. The Lantern Making was a nice surprise and we enjoyed the cooking lesson. And we did enjoy our boat visit to Cham Island, a bit of snorkelling, and lunch on the beach.
We thought that your arranging for us to have the compartment to ourselves on the train trip to Sa Pa was very thoughtful. It would have been very cramped if we’d had to share the space with two other travellers.
We had expected Sa Pa to be a smaller town, and were surprised at how busy the it was – on a weekend there were very large groups of tourists. It was good to experience walking the narrow lanes and fields past farms and workers into the smaller villages, and the scenery was gorgeous.
We tried many different snacks on our drive from Ha Noi to Ninh Binh and on to HaLong Bay which our guide shared with us. Our 2 nights cruise on Dragon Legend was wonderful – the food superb, the crew very welcoming and the towering rock/islands amazing.
After a very busy Ha Noi, we found Luang Prabang to be a wonderfully peaceful area where the pace of life slowed down for us. Despite being active each day, our time there felt restful, cruising along the delta, visiting elephants and visiting many Buddhist temples.
In Siem Reap we were busy visiting Wats/Temples but we were shown the differences which made them more individual. We enjoyed a quick swim in the pool at the end of each day, before strolling out to find another tempting supper to enjoy, and market areas to browse.
As you mentioned, the drive from Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne is at least four and a half hours and the traffic and road conditions make it less than relaxing. We guess there is no alternative other than to take a flight to some other beach area. The Cliff Resort in Mui Ne was very busy on the Saturday that we arrived and we found the restaurant with all the people that night to be quite noisy.
Having obtained our Viet Nam evisas in advance, this made things easier when going through the airport immigration. In fact, when we departed Siem Reap for Ho Chi Minh the first thing the airline rep there asked for was our Viet Nam visas. We wondered whether we would have been allowed on that flight without them?
We would have absolutely no hesitation in asking you to arrange any of our travel in SE Asia when we next visit.
With our sincere thanks,
John and Stella

JOHN group x2
Indochina Odyssey 29 Days

Hi Thao
We had an amazing holiday – we were so grateful for all your suggestions which worked out perfect. Happy to recommend your company – where do you suggest? Trip advisor?
We had a good four days in Singapore after Saigon (which we loved but my favourite is still Old Hanoi!) the last resort in Phu Quoc was fantastic. Flight home was long but good and we only took a day to recover!

We now think we may return in two years to attempt Vietnam central and go into Laos. Our sons have O level exams and so perhaps it’s a treat for family in 2020 or 2021. Definitely will contact you again.

Btw hotel in Can Tho was adorable!! We got Xmas presents from hotel – a scarf and two ties/cuff links for boys – how sweet!
The trips to coconut factories was great – my husband did so many photos for teaching his students (he does Agriculture and Law). We have been posting all photos on our Facebook for friends.

Thank you for everything and I hope you have a wonderful 2019. And as I said above – happy to recommend or write reviews for your website.

Best wishes
Uma

Mrs. Uma _ groupx3_Vietnam In Depth_12 Days

Hi Thao,

We leave Cambodia today, and I want to thank you again for a well-planned trip, and outstanding service while we travelled. Every guide was wonderful, every driver was prompt, courteous and skilled. The hotels were excellent, and yhe food was great. We could not have asked for a better trip.

We especially want to thank you for checking in with us along the way, and offering alternatives when the weather didn’t cooperate. Your willingness to change our flights from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap, change hotels, and still have a driver meet us, all with less than 24 hours notice, was way above anything we could have expected.

We will definitely recommend you and your agency to everyone we know. Thank you again!

Indochina Expedition – 20 days -4 pax
Mrs. Eileen Hirsch _ groupx4_Indochina Expedition_20 Days

Eva & Henry Price – Thoughts on our 12 day “the Mysterious Tonkin of Vietnam”.

November 2018

Arranged by Jennifer

Booking– Email exchanges for booking worked well.  The promptness of Jennifer’s replies was much appreciated.

Some difficulties & added expense with paying through our usual credit card facilities.

Planning –  Jennifer was very helpful.  We ended up with a” perfect trip for us”.  We had a good balance of great scenery, village life & simple accommodation to more sophisticated accommodation & dining.  Everything ran smoothly as planned. It was reassuring that Jennifer called us occasionally to check on our progress during the trip.

Driver-  Chung was always punctual, polite & helpful.  His driving was cautious & considerate on some very challenging roads.   He had a good rapport with Khue our guide, which meant his lack of English did not exclude him from conversations.

Guide – Khue was always enthusiastic & enterprising in terms of what he showed us. He was always punctual & organised. He was able to develop an instant rapport with locals at the various stops so that we were able to enjoy some unexpected moments with people going about their daily lives – sharing tea or rice wine, rice paper production, candy making, villagers preparing for a wedding.

In more complex contexts his English could become a little hard to understand but this was always compensated for by his energy & enthusiasm.

Accommodation& meals – Standards varied.  Our two homes stays were very good in terms of accommodation & meals.

Our first room at the Noble Boutique hotel was cramped but the room on the 20^th   Nov was much more comfortable.

La Vien was very good.

Duc Tai Local Hotel was tired & a little dusty.  Breakfast was simple.

Hoa Cuong in Dong Van – room was very good.  Breakfast was very simple& spartan.

Tam Coc Ricefield Resort Bungalow was great but resort was too far out of village & difficult to get transport to & from.   Restaurant was underutilised & quality of food was ordinary.

Moon Garden experience couldn’t be faulted.

At our lunch stops along the way, Khue did a great job in introducing us to a variety of local foods we would never have dared order or try.  We thank him for that.

We hope this feedback helps with future planning.

We are very pleased with our Tonkin Travel experience & will not hesitate to recommend them to our friends.

Bill & Eva group x2
The Mysterious Tonkin Of Vietnam 12 Days