‘Dear Phuong,
Let me say at the outset that over all we were very pleased with the way the whole trip went. Your flexibility right up to the very end made a huge difference in making the experience really work. Also, Judy and I cannot say enough about how super the guides were as companions and caretakers. They made the trip very real and personal. Thank you again…’
- Mrs. and Mr. Levine (USA) -
Tour: Indochina Holiday 25 Days
Number of clients: 02
Nationality: USA
Name list:
Mrs. Judy Levine and Mr. Stephen Levine
1. Guides:
In Siem Reap: Mr. Heng Temshaw - he was terrific. He, like all of your people, was efficient without being controlling. He was open with us about himself, his history, and what we were seeing. (The fact that most of the guides had been teachers seems to work well both in terms of their comfort talking with others as well as their knowledge of history and culture.)
In Luang Prabang: Mr. Somchan - “John,” as he suggested we call him, was a lovely gentle man who made our time in Laos interesting and successful. He guided us to lovely places to eat and provided us with sticky rice offerings for the monks. He joined us that early morning for the ritual. He, too, was quite flexible in adding in a river trip and visit to some villages.
In Hanoi and Ha Long: Mr. Dan - was great. We spent a lot of time with him. He and Judy got along wonderfully. He even sang some lovely Vietnamese songs to us in the van as we road back from a performance. He made sure the train connections worked smoothly and that Halong Bay worked as well. It was his first review of our itinerary that alerted us to that badly conceived too long day and allowed us (with your help) to make the necessary changes. What a huge difference that made.
In Sapa: Mr. Son - Another of Judy’s and my favourites. We enjoyed our time with him on the long drive to the tribal market, the walk through the Hmong villages in Sa Pa, and later that day, he arranged for two motorbikes to take us into the countryside. Lovely man.
In Hue and Hoi An: Mr. Vinh - was quite conscientious and very informative. We enjoyed our time in Hoi An with him and had a lovely meal at a small eatery run by someone he knew. He also directed us to 41 Le Loi St where we had some clothes made. There were, however, several instances (on the boat ride in Hue and on the trip to Hoi An) were we found ourselves being offered things for sale that we weren’t interested in.
In Ho Chi Minh City and Mekong Delta: Mr. Quyen - “Tommy” was a “treat.” He was funny and open and smart. He also helped make our itinerary fit our needs better at the last moment. We had a lovely time with him in the Mekong area, especially the bike riding.
++ Everyone one of these men made sure our hotel registrations were in order, that we had our passports when we left, that our flight arrangement were in order. This took all of the anxiety out of the trip.
2. Accommodation:
In Siem Reap: Angkor Village Hotel - we loved this hotel and could have spent a week there.
In Luang Prabang: Sala Prabang Hotel - Also very nice although our papers said we would have a river view but instead we ended up with a small room in the back of the courtyard.
In Hanoi: Golden Lotus Hotel - Worked out very well. Best sheets of the whole trip! The flexibility around luggage and coming in and out after the train trip was great.
In Sapa: Bamboo Hotel - Fine. Simple. Incredible views.
In Ha Long: Huong Hai Junk - We loved this trip and the boat. It would have been such a shame to have missed this and done a half day trip.
In Hue: Ngoc Huong Hotel - Worst single night on the trip. They changed the room the second night but the location and the feeling of the hotel under renovation wasn’t so good. Lovely breakfast room overlooking the city.
In Hoi An: Hoi An Riverside Resort - Another winner. Could have stayed there a whole week.
In Vinh Long: Cuu Long B Hotel - OK for what it was. A little raunchy.
In Can Tho: Golf Hotel - Given the last minute changes, fine. A strange place.
In Saigon: Vien Dong Hotel - Nice hotel, lovely staffs.
3. Transport (Land, water and air):
In Cambodia: The boat rides on Tonle Sap and to Preak Toule sanctuary were among the highlights of the trip. The canoe trip into the sanctuary was amazing.
In Laos: Pleasant Mekong boat ride.
In Vietnam: Overall, all vans and drivers were fine. Halong Bay cruise was very fine. Mekong Delta trips were very interesting. We enjoyed the bicycle riding in every instance.
4. Restaurants:
In Cambodia: Food at Angkor Village was good. It was a nice way to begin the trip.
In Laos: Lovely meal at Villa Santi. Nice breakfasts at Sala Prabang in open air restaurant on the river.
In Vietnam: Got a little tired of the tourist menus after a while. Judy didn’t. When we told Tommy about our wish for more variety, particularly vegetables he was able to make that happen. I think there is an idea that tourists have to have protein. There was plenty of fish and pork. Not enough vegetables. The meals we had on our own were generally fine. When we had opportunities to try regional specialties, like the pancakes and Cao Lao (I don’t think I got it right, sorry) in Hoi An and we enjoyed that. We both liked the cooking class although it seemed expensive for what it was.
5. Places you visited:
Angkor Wat lived up to its reputation, as did Halong Bay.
Hue was a little disappointing. Perhaps if we had more time. The Imperial City and the Mausoleums were quite interesting.
We saw too many pagodas in Luang Probang and were glad not to have travelled all the way to Tra Vinh for more Kmer pagodas.
Hoi An and the Chinese merchants houses was interesting. As were the markets. In fact, we liked the markets everywhere, especially in Sa Pa.
I think we felt a little overwhelmed by Hanoi and would have needed more time to get to know it. We had really no time in HCMC. I would have liked to have gone to the War Museum.
I liked the Ethnography Museum, Judy didn’t.
We liked the various villages we visited in Luang Probang (weaving, pottery), Hanoi (ceramics, painting), Sa Pa (minorities).
6. Design and management of your tour:
As I have already said, you did a great job. I’m glad we dropped the national park and created another two day stay in Hoi An. Too many one night stays gets tiresome. We were ambitious and saw a lot of the country. It is always a trade off between covering ground and more relaxed travel. We really enjoyed our trip but were quite tired out by the end.
7. Are there any recommendations or criticisms of services, restaurants, shops, visit sites and so on that you’ve visited on your own?
I think I’ve shared most of our impressions. We didn’t think we would have clothes made in Hoi An and surprised ourselves. We enjoyed getting fitted for clothes and liked the things we bought.
In the end it didn’t feel like we had much time on our own. The afternoons after we left the guides were spent just relaxing or strolling around.
8. It’s highly appreciated if you could send us some of your photos taken during your journey as we’ll need them for our new brochure and updating our website.
Judy took almost 2000 pictures so when she has figured out what to do with them we will send you some. I have given your name to several other people who I expect you will hear from.
One other thing. We were very moved by the workshops for the disabled people and Agent Orange children. We would like to make some kind of charitable contribution to a school or orphanage or other worthy program. It is difficult to know how to do that. Charities often take a big percentage of donations for administrative costs and little of the money actually gets to the people in need. Do you have any suggestions.
Once again, thank you for all your help.
Stephen and Judy
Please send us an email if you wish to have the itinerary of Mrs. and Mr. Levine for reference. |
