Sandhya/bharti, UK citizens, came to Vietnam on 22 Oct 2009
HTML clipboardhi Nga, hope you are in good shape.
as promised, here's partial feed back. i've thought over the north vnam
bit.
hanoi-- hotel location not excellent. hotel good. due to traffic from the
airport we lost a lot of time. am not sure we saw enough of hanoi.
halong bay---good. jujk boat/staff very good.
sapa!!! we didn't have a good experience.
hotel--good location. but we had a major problem with the bathroom
leakage.
train to sapa transfer --no problem
breakfast that morning was a disaster. the guide took us to a very shady
restaurant, half way up some steep slope.apparently this was the guide's
personal choice, as he works there part time and kept referring to this as 'my
restaurant'!!
very dirty. i ended up in the kitchen checking/cooking my own breakfast as
they didn't understand anything, everything was filthy and even the fresh fruit
was all dirty and stale.and i didn't trust anybody.
lunch--yet another disaster. local family lunch not a good idea.the guide
had planned to cook for us as we are vegetarians. there was no family around. we
sat on benches doing nothing. there were random people around. after the
breakfast experience, we didn't want any lunch anyway. we didn't see the local
home/architecture--no people--no daily lifestyle--no exclusive customs. TOTAL
WASTE OF TIME.
we feel the whole idea should be scrapped and instead more time should be
spent trekking and enjoying the natural beauty.
dinner-- we were going to self arrange and told the guide we are eating
European food. he PARTLY paid the bill. we paid the balance.
NEXT DAY-----
there was no organised day here. we had a short walk down to the waterfall
and returned by jeep. started around 9.30 and were done and waiting for the jeep
pick-up by 11.45. back to hotel by 12 noon. no trip to hydraulic power station!
there was no picnic lunch and anyway we didn't trust the guide with food
anymore.
there was no further trekking to sia chai or up to the foothills of
fansipan. in fact we didn't see the fansipan/guide never mentioned.
ON THE WHOLE, A WASTED JOURNEY DUE TO YOUR LOCAL GUIDE/LOCAL TOUR COMPANY.
THERE WERE A LOT OF OTHER CAPABLE GUIDES AROUND. MAY BE YOU WANT TO LOOK INTO
THIS.
FORTUNATELY, WE KEPT OURSELVES AMUSED AND KEPT THINKING POSITIVE AND OF
FORTH COMING PLACES.
THE TRAIN JOURNEYS WERE GOOD.
PLEASE NOTE, WE ARE NOT COMPLAINING.OUR VIETNAM EXPERIENCE, ON THE WHOLE,
HAS BEEN WONDERFUL. WE WOULD GLADLY RECOMMEND YOUR COMPANY TO OUR FRIENDS. THIS
FEED BACK IS OUR VIEW/EXPERIENCE AND IN CASE IT HELPS YOU IN IMPROVING/CHANGING
THINGS WHERE NECESSARY FOR CLIENT SATISFACTION.
will send you feed back on central and southern vietnam later.
sandhya/bharti
