Jeff Elliott
Feedback on Mekong Delta Tour

My daughter and I joined a tour of the Mekong delta aboard the Le Cochinchine during the early part of June.

We very much enjoyed the trip, the accomodation on board was very good (we appreaciated the air conditioning!)

The food was good and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

Overall, it was a fantastic expereince which was well organised and executed. I would not hesitate to use your services again.

Regards

Jeff Elliott

Corrado Ariaudo & Carla Vidra
Dear Mr. Dzung Trinh

Dear Mr. Dzung Trinh and Mr Danh,

For the time been everything was absolutely fine and the assistance from your organization has been very professional. We will certanly advise our friends in Italy to address to TNK Travel for their holidays in VietNam.

Corrado Ariaudo & Carla Vidra

Hermann Frey
Cao Dai and Cu Chi Tunnel Day Tour

We were booking the Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi tunnel tour for 26th of December 2011 on the Internet.
I had some correspondence with the sales executive (Ms. Hang Vo) before to get the booking right.
So we were eventually picked up at our hotel a bit outside but on the way. The pick up was sharp on time and the bus with reasonable comfort, although full.
Our friendly guide (unfortunately I'm not so sure about the name any more) could speak quite good English. He did a lot of efforts to explain backgrounds and history during the day.
Lunch was in a simple countryside restaurant but with good Vietnamese food.
The temple is a bit far but getting known to this tradition and attending lunchtime prayers gives the right contrast to the martial afternoon visit of Cu Chi.
At Cu Chi it is very interesting to learn what smart ideas the Vietcong implemented in order to cope with a technological superpower.
Of course, the Americans have done a lot of wrong things and therefore are still being perceived as the bad guys but in my opinion Vietnamese should learn more to differentiate the facts of the cold war.

Overall an enjoyable and good organized tour!

Annikki and Pierre
Indochina Customized Tour ( Nov 11th 06 ) /Mr. Pierre Herbert / Tour Report from Pierre

Hello Mr Dac Danh,

Annikki and I hope you are very well and we wish you, according to our western calendar, a very Happy New Year for 2007 and a lot of success for TNK Travel.

We came well home thru Malaysia and have been very busy since. But we promissed you a short report and comments on our beautiful trip thru your country and the two neighboring ones. Here it is:

First we must thank you again for a well organized tour, showing many highlights. Also, we have to confirm that the tour guides you selected for us have been very punctual, very friendly and had sufficient knowledge of the place and customs to make us enjoy every day.

Nhi for the Mekong Delta, Heng for Phnom Penh, Phin Borey for Siem Reap, "Jack"for Houen Xai to Loang Prabang, Khamtam in Vientiane, Tranh in Hanoi, Thinh in Lao Cai, Huy in Hue and Tong in Ho Chi Minh City, all have been doing an excellent job.Some were very knowledgeable in history like Phin Borey and Huy, which is always very appreciated by us.

The hotels were confortable enough. Luxury is not what we wanted but being in a genuine local environment. But in Chau Doc, the Ben Da Nui Sam Resort was situated in front of the loudspeaker broadcasting political news at night and early in the morning, which made resting impossible. In the early morning, at breakfast, the staff was bringing a very frugal breakfast and refused to bring a second cup of coffee...That hotel we cannot recommend. In Vientiane, the Lane Xang hotel is old and we got a small, rundown room. We called the agent Max and he rectified for a Superior room. In Ha Noi, the Army Hotel was OK but a bit "cold"! All hotel were situated at convenient distance from points of interest, so that was a plus.
We can especially recommend the Asia Hotel in Hue for its friendly atmosphere, its situation on the Perfume river, its comfort and breakfast.
Pakbeng Lodge on the Mekong is also to be recommended for the same reasons.

Meals were mostly adequate, some excellent like the ones on the Huong Hai junk on the Ha Long Bay.

Otherwise, we have the following recommendations:

1. In the Mekong Delta, a visit on one of the Cai Rang Market boats would be very interesting to speak with the boat people and see how they organize their living onboard.

2. In Ankor, before entering the temple area, we had to wait on line 1 1/2 hour (taking a pass photo and making the day pass). If the visitor was told in advance to bring one pass photo, it would speed up the entry.
Also in Ankor, you may forget the sunset at Phnom Bakheng because the crowds are too big now and the lookout totally disorganized.

3. In Ha Long, the crowds are also big now and...nearly 200 junks departing at about the same time...!!!
Unless the captain of your junk is given instructions to avoid the crowd, your visitors will be soon on line or in a pack to visit anything. We interviewed several locals and captains. Alltogether, there are nearly 600 junks now!

In a summary, we really enjoyed both the way Mr Dzung Trinh, yourself and your staff organized and followed up our tour, how you friendly treated us as customers, we met many other friendly persons along the trip, we discovered the sceneries and features of cultures that made our tour a permanent emotion that we still enjoy.

We wish you much success for this year!

Kind regards to you, to Mr Dzung Trinh and your staff.

Pierre and Annikki

Anne and Jonathan
Stern Itinerary March

Dear Hang,

This is just a short note to thank you for all the effort you put into making our trip to Vietnam enjoyable. We were all most impressed with the efficiency of the transport arrangements, the friendliness of the guides and the helpfulness of the hotel staff where ever we stayed.The whole trip went very
efficiently and we must commend you highly. We loved Vietnam.The staff at the hotel in Hanoi were fantastic and I would highly recommend it.I did think that it may be helpful for you to know about the only 2 things that may have been able to be avoided:
1. The hotel at Hoi An (the Hoi An Hotel) was very big and very noisy as a result of the many tour groups that were staying there. We were given a room in the downstairs foyer, with the rubbish collection area outside our window and found this room very noisy through out the night. Also the bathrooms have limited hot water facilities, permitting only one very small bath to be run before the hot water runs out. Despite the fact that the room itself was nice, and the staff and food good, I would not chose to stay there again.
2. Another suggestion is that if people wish to visit Sapa, and stay in a home stay, accommodation in the home stay should not be arranged for the first night, as the train trip is very noisy and bumpy so that one doesn’t get much sleep. Our itinerary planned that on arrival in Sapa we should go to our proposed hotel to have breakfast and a shower. This would have been nice. But this didn’t happen as we were not staying at the hotel that night, and were not given the choice by the guide. Instead we were taken to a restaurant for 2-3 hours, before starting on our tour of the villages. We were not at all happy about sitting in a restaurant for 3 hours as we were all cold, tired and dirty. The weather was unfortunately awful – freezing cold. Obviously the weather could not be foreseen when we planned the itinerary, but the icy weather didn’t help things. I think that the guide should have contacted you for your suggestions when he realised how bad the weather would be.
I hope that you find these suggestions helpful. Despite the bad weather in the north with your help we had a lovely trip and really appreciated your efforts to put the Halong Bay disappointment right.
We will definitely be travelling with you again if we decide to revisit Asia, and will be recommending your company (and you) to friends who wish to visit your area.

Thank you again.
Regards

Terry Leach
Re: Mekong Delta and Cu Chi tunnel tour

Dear Luu Vo

we are now back in Australia with many wonderful memories of our exciting trip to Vietnam.We wish to thank you personally for assisting us and organizing 2 tours whilst we were in Siagon. The trip to Mekong delta was an absolute highlight,a wonderful,skillful driver,Mr Hung and a most informative and capable guide Huy enabled us to have many great experiences.

Also the lady at the front desk who assisted me in printing out our boarding passes for the next day flights to KL and Melbourne was wonderful and most cooperative. It all added up to a memorable experience which we have no hesitation in recommending to other travellers.
Many thanks and Kind regards to all at TNK Travel

Terry and Deirdre Leach

Deirdre Kriz
feedback on our trip

We were in Vietnam for 2 weeks and had TNK travel organize our accommodation and tours for us. From the very start everything went like clockwork. The guides and drivers they provided for us were very friendly and well informed. Not once were we ever late for a plane or boat, which there was many of both. They made our holiday to Vietnam very stress free and most enjoyable. I would reccommend this company to all I know who will be travelling to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

The trip was perfect.

Doreen Neo (from Singapore)
Thank you, TNK Travel

My friend, Poon Ee Ping and myself had signed up for a 10 days customised package with TNK Travel in May 2006. We had enjoyed ourselves a lot. TNK Travel had taken good care of us during our trip. The tour guides were very friendly and helpful. The accomodation we had during our stay throughout Vietnam was good. The lunch catered for us were great too.

I would recommend my friends to sign up with TNK Travel if they go to Vietnam. Thanks once again.

Kerry and Mal Morters
Mekong Delta Tour to Phnompenh ( Oct 28th 08 )

Dear Ms Nhu Y

My husband and I have now returned to New Zealand from our very memorable holiday in Vietnam and Cambodia. TNK booked the Mekong Tour to Phnom Penh for us and our tour guide was JJ. Our Mekong tour was wonderful, mostly due to JJ who looked after us so well in every way. JJ was a very professional, friendly and helpful guide.

We would be very grateful if you could forward this email to JJ's manager. We would highly recommend JJ as a tour guide for any foreign visitor to your country.

We would like to make one small suggestion about the tour. It would have been helpful to have the correct Cambodia Visa forms prior to our departure on the boat to Phnom Penh. Before our departure from New Zealand, we did download forms from the Cambodian Embassy web site - bu 
we did download forms from the Cambodian Embassy web site - but on the day, the Cambodian Customs required a different form.

The only other comment we would like to offer, and this has nothing to do with the TNK Mekong Tour itself, but we were very concerned about the terrible living condition for the two bears at the Crocodile Park. If you can provide any influence to help these bears, we are sure they would appreciate this.

Thank you TNK for a great tour.

Kerry and Mal Morters

Janis Lindblom
Indochina Tour

My husband & I have just arrived home to Australia after a sensational three week private/tailored tour to Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos. Our holiday was arranged by TNK Travel & they have been absolutely fantastic! From my first email inquiry to the tour operator staff & the immediate response from Luu Vo with a prosposed itinery. The second contact person was Dac Danh in sales & the bookings of all our hotels, flights, tours & lunches were exceptional. Finally our guides & drivers in all three countries were all excellent (especially "JJ" in HCM and Hui from Hue). They were very professional, knowledgeable & ensured our comfort & safety at all times. It was a stress & hassle free experience from beginning to end which becomes important as we get older. We now have every intention of returning to spend more time in HCM and Hanoi & to visit other towns & villages that we did not get to this time.

We will definitely use TNK Travel again next time as we believe it would be impossible to get better value and service by any other means. We highly recommend!
Thank you all for making this our best holiday ever!