Vietnam tour guides

Hi Tuan,
We arrived back in Australia last Saturday safely and without trouble.The stopover in Singapore was enjoyable and enabled us to do some last minute shopping.
We had a great time in Vietnam and were really pleased how smoothly our personalised tour was conducted. I must compliment you and your associate guides for their punctuality and efficiency in showing us around. All the drivers were also very good and friendly and negotiated all the traffic hassles calmly and safely.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Tran Anh
I have finally finished the online version of our photo album of our trip to Vietnam. I've worked hard on the actual album for many weeks and now have translated that into an online version which I've just finished today. I am forwarding the link to you now. Jane and I are so very grateful for the wonderful experience that you created for us and would like to share it with you online. Please let me know if you see any inaccuracies so I may correct them as soon as possible. I hope I've gotten all the names correct and the places too.

We both think of our experience in Vietnam quite often and wonder about you and who you are guiding around Vietnam. I hope your present and future customers are nice people and appreciate your insight as much as we did.

Please keep in touch and let us know if and when you getting married. We both would like to be there for the celebration if at all possible.
Sincerely,
Nick and Jane

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear all friends

First of all, let me thank you again, for taking part in our trip in Vietnam and making it so special. As we settled back at home, relaxed, and going over and over again on our pictures and memories, we realize how great it was and how much we enjoyed it. Your country is very beautiful and we visited so may nice places. But the best experiences we had, was when you let us pick into the life of the people. The Vietnamese we met were very nice people, very pleasant and kind and I hope we didn't insult too many of them with our shameless and direct approach.
As I'm writing of direct approach, and as I got the impression that you are very eager to learn and improve, I would like to share with you some of our (my) impressions of the tour. The organization as a whole, was professional, accurate and clean. One correction I would have made to our itinerary in the north is having half a day of our own, wondering in the main streets of Hanoi, no program just dragging along. Personally, we loved the way you matched yourself to our nature and behavior and it made us feel comfortable with you like with a friend. Inviting us to your uncle house and to your fathers house, was really more then expected from a tour guide, and probably is part of my writing to you now.TNX
Now, for the other two parts of the tour: In the center, we met Lan. She is very knowledgeable about the area and tried very much to make us happy, her English is good. She mentioned on the way, that visit in the Marble Mountain is not in our itinerary, although it was, and as I showed her, that it is in, we stopped and visited there. It is a wonderful place, I'm glad we didn't miss it. We asked her for almost a whole day on our own in HoiAn, just wandering around on ourselves, and it was great. She as well invited us to her home (was it your idea :-)) ?). It was very nice of her and we really enjoyed meeting her family, her beautiful baby, and her very nice and interesting husband. As a whole our experience in the center was very enjoyable. By the way, did we tell you that in the evening of our free day in HoiAn we took a boat ride back to the hotel, and in the dark, the ladies navigating the boat, almost lost the way to the hotel? that was really an experience, and a good laugh.
As for the south. Our guide, Nhon (did I spell his name right?) was more then wonderful. He didn't miss any small or big request, we asked or mentioned. For example, Miki asked him on the first day, where can he buy a flag of Vietnam, (in other countries they sell the flag in every souvenir shop, but in Vietnam we didn't see it) so on the last day, he took us to a store where they brought from the back a pack of flags for him to choose. He helped Irit with all the ingredients she needed from the market, and even checked and searched with the hotel chef's about one of them that she misspelled. We asked him for a Cyclo tour in downtown Saigon, which was not mentioned in our itinerary. We made the tour and it was great fun to all of us. Later we realized, that maybe it was not calculated into his budget so please let us know. His calmness and patient behavior, influenced us all and we felt very good with him. The Delta of the Mekong is a beautiful place. Actually it was much nicer then we expected, and the boat rides and visiting all those small factories and places was very interesting. Experienced from previous places we took our free half day of strolling and wandering around the city downtown on the last day. We finished our tour with a foot massage, which we deserved very much, after all this walking, and lunch in a very nice restaurant. I think I summarized most important things in this loooong email, but if there is anything else you would like to know, don't hesitate. By now I think you know we are willing to share all our thoughts with you. As a whole, I think I can speak in the name of all of us, and thank you again for a beautiful trip. In the next days, I'll go again, over the pictures I took. I have some nice ones of you, and I'll send them to you. by for now

Galy.
This tour started in Hanoi on Jan 27/2003, ended in Ho Chi Minh city in Feb 11/2003.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuan has a wonderful way of making us to welcome here. Immediately we felt we not only had an intelligent guide, but in the end we also had a friend.
We will remember him when we return.

Cyndam Fagen,
This tour started in Hanoi on Dec 14/2002, ended in the same day

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuan: Excellent tour guide, best English we have encountered, very knowledgeable of everything, great sense of humor, great company. Thank you so much, WOW!

Faty Eppley
Address: 436 N 22#4B Ny Ny 100// USA
This tour started in Hanoi on Dec 14/2002, ended in the same day

It was the best holiday we have ever had and we very much appreciated your efforts to ensure that we had a fantastic time. Our hearts and minds are still filled with the images of the people, the places, the colours, the sounds, the sights, – the motorbikes!! The memories will always stay with us – when we looked through the website we could hear ourselves planning our next visit to your country!!

Among so many experiences some of the ones that stand out were our visit to Cong Ty Chan Thien My (no accents/tonal values on this computer), our Halong Bay day, our wanderings in Hanoi – including the Old Quarter and the Dong Xuan market, and the beautiful Hoan Kiem Lake (on the banks of which we were ambushed by the coolie ladies!!), and the preparations for the Trung Thu festival! We also were enchanted by HoiAn – and we have wonderful memories of the Thong Loi workshop, and meandering through the town in the peace of the early evening. And – of course – not forgetting the stories of ‘Uncle Ho”!!! (And the great fishing story which you shared with us!) And the food – the meal on the Halong Bay boat trip, and Pho Bo (with chopsticks and much mess!!) – And the number of people called ‘Nguyen’!

We had a GREAT time – and thank you again!! Stay in touch – we may be back!!

Kind Regards

Pat & Sam

Camelot Motor Lodge
295 Ferguson Street
Palmerston North
Ph: 06 355 4141 Fax: 06 357 7344 email: camelotmotorlodge@xtra.co.nz
www.camelotmotorlodge.co.nz
September 2005

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------