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

kmroberts
Thanks

To the management, TNK travel. (HCMC and Ha Noi)

Recently, I was one of a party of 4 people to visit Vietnam. Our bookings with your company were under the name of Mrs. Jane Rosemary Fowler & party. The "party" consisting of my wife and myself and Jane's husband, Barry.

Jane Fowler belongs to a group of Australian nurses who exchange places with Vietnamese nurses, in order to have an understanding of nursing conditions existing in both countries.

This was Jane's 2nd visit to Vietnam and we were to arrive at the end of her attachment and then go touring together. Jane, being "on-the-spot," was able to arrange hotel bookings for us and told us not to try and book any tours from Australia, as the nurses always used "An excellent local travel agent!" This being TNK!

Having now experienced the services provided by TNK, I must congratulate you on your organisation and agree that it is "Excellent" in all respects.

We enjoyed our tour to the Mekong Delta immensely,- with courier Dong.

The tour to Cau Dai and Cu Chi was just as good,- with courier "Slim Jim!"

In both cases, we were impressed to note that one of the girls from the office came out and stuck signs on the various buses' side windows,- telling which tour each bus was going on. This small touch made things much easier for couriers and passengers to sort themselves out. It is small touches like this that make a big difference to customers!

Special mention must be made of the service provided by Ms Nhu Y at HCMC office.

We had made a rough itinerary of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see once we left HCMC and handed this to one of the girls in the office, she and 2 others looked at it and decided it needed someone with more experience and so we met Ms Nhu. She knew exactly what was needed and discussed everything with us and then told us to come back at 2:30pm to see the results of her labours! This was a Sunday and when we returned at 3pm, she was still hard at it. We later discovered, while talking to the office girls, that Ms Nhu was supposed to finish at 1pm! She was doing our itinerary and bookings in her own time and it was getting on for 5pm when we finished!!

Her hard work paid off, because everything went exactly to plan. She explained that not all tickets were on hand, but that everything we would need for onward travel would be e-mailed to us at the hotels she had booked for us. This worried us a bit initially, but it worked perfectly!!

She also explained that TNK's Ha Noi representative would contact us with tickets etc for our tours from Ha Noi and to Laos.

Mr Chung, at Ha Noi, came to our hotel. He went through our itinerary with us and made some excellent suggestions which we adopted with thanks. He said that we didn't want to be wandering around trying to get transport from the railway station at Lao Cai up to Sa Pa and he'd organise that and for the same taxy to collect us for the return trip later on. In due course, he escorted us to the station, led us to the train and our carriage and to our sleeping compartment. He would meet us at Ha Noi station on our return, take us back to our hotel for breakfast and make sure that our transport down to Ha Long arrived on time. When, a few days later, we arrived back from Ha Long, he came to our hotel and gave us our airline tickets for Laos and our vouchers for our hotels.

Both Ms Nhu and Mr Chung went above and beyond the normal course of duty to make our travels a smooth and hassle-free experience and we thank them for their efforts on our behalf.

You must be congratulated on your organisation as a whole. We hope that TNK remains a very successful business and does indeed look Towards the Next Millenium!!

Our regards. Mike and Kathleen Roberts. Corowa. Australia

Andrea
Mekong Delta tour (Oct)/ Andrea

Dear Hang
Hello,

Just a quick email to say thank you for arranging this trip. We just got back and it was excellent.
I would recommend your service to my friends and colleagues.
Thank you,

Andrea

Michelle Davis
Feedback

I was interested in visiting Vietnam and found TNK Travel through a search engine. I was a little sceptical about booking online as sometimes you do not get what you paid for. My experience with TNK Travel exceeded my expectations. I was met by our lovely tour guide Nhy in Hochiminh city and she absolutely looked after us. The holiday was very relaxing and experienced with ease. I travelled from HCMC - Hanoi and every experience with the guides and drivers were great.

I would very much recommend TNK Travel. Vietnam is a wonderful place to visit and the people are lovely.

The tour I experienced was good value for money.

Michelle Davis - Sydney, Australia

Julia Price
Trip

Hi

Would just like to thank you for the great service provided by TNK. We have just returned from a 2 week trip and booked accomodation in three areas through yourselves. In a trip where any thing that could go wrong did, it was great to arrive somwhere and know that at least our hotel booking was hassle free.

Thanks heaps for the great service.

Regrads

Julia

Mrs Isabella Hansson
vietnam highlights tour
I would like to thank you for organising our wonderful trip to Vietnam in July 2006. Your guides and drivers were superb and the service you provided was excellent. We feel so lucky to have spent time in your country and have seen so many marvelous sights that will stay in our hearts for ever. Your company offers excellent service and I recommend anyone thinking of travelling to Vietnam to travel with you. A special thanks to Do our guide in Hanoi for the wonderful experience of Halong Bay.

Kurt Ulrich
2 weeks Mekong delta tour and Phu Quoc island

Dear TNK Team, dear Luu vo

I visit in the last 2 years alone or with group tours many times Vietnam.
Last trip in 2007 I fund for the Mekong delta tour a tour operator in Phnom Penh and partner office in Chau Doc, Vietnam.
This tour was very cheap but!!! also very simple in service, accommodations, food and organization!
This year in February I had a group of 10 Swiss guests and I was happy to here from TNK travel agency in Saigon.
The secretary Luu vo was a great organizer and she send me quickly a package of a tour around the Mekong Delta during 2 weeks.
We had our private guide Mr. Ky, a friendly Vietnamese. He had doing for us the best job and he show us beautiful famous places away from the big tourist groups.

Two destinations was not so good standard and could be better for next time!
We would enjoy in Can Tho one night in homestay leaving but the bungalows was not only very old, there was not clean and during the night we had no water!
A similar situation we fund on the island Phu Quoc in the Tropical Resort. One of the nicest place so close to the beach under a lot of palm trees, but the quality of the bungalows was less then medium.

Anyway all of my guests enjoy this Vietnam trip and we can recommend TNK one of the best tour operator in Vietnam.

Thanks so much. Kutschi

kete gocedenio
Thank you for a wonderful experince with my family

Hi Dzung Trinh,

As a photographer, I have been travelling South East Asia for 17 years. I have been to vietnam many many times. However this was the highest rating I can ever give to a Vietnam tour operator. I would give a Double A for satifaction index. Worth mentioning is Luc, the tour guide with us to Sapa. Although new in the guide tour business, he really take time to see that we are taken cared of. He eat only when he sees we are well seated. Prompt and courteous, he is always there when needed. The hotel staff in Hanoi are also great. Very courteous and accommodating.

I would like to say that the pinnacle of our journey is the surprise New Year's dinner in a cave in Halong bay. We were all taken aback with the setting, live musician, candle light dinner. It is simply magica. The 7 piece acoustic band played really well ( I was a sound engineer in London )

I am glad the tour turned out extremely well because I have hesitant in the beginning as I don't know your company. Definitely I will recommend your company to our friends.

Once again, thank you for a wonderful experince with my family.

Regards,

Kete Go Cedenio

Kevin Mansfield
Dear Dzung.

Thank you for a very successful tour. The clients were very satisfied ! Mr Ky was excellent as was his assistant, Khan(?). The transport, accommodation, and the food provided was very good. Your staff support was outstanding and the organisation of the various stages went smoothly; a testament TNK travel.

I would like to change a few aspects of the itinerary for our proposed tours for next year. I will forward some ideas at a later stage.

We are currently determining our dates for next year and will let you know as soon as possible.

Sorry we missed catching up for a drink.

Kind Regards,

Kevin

Kevin Mansfield

Getaway Trekking

David Murray
Dear Dzung

Dear Dzung, Just a short note to thank you for the excellent trip you arranged for us during November of this year. All guides were excellent and the service your company provided was of the top order. Our only criticsm would be that some of the hotels provide standard, rather than superior rooms. On our next trip to your delightful country we will most definately call on your services but will use 4 star hotels. We will also recommend your agency to our many friends who I'm sure will be heading to Vietnam over the next few years.