Testimonials about iGrandtour

Hi Annie,

This has taken a while as Sato is having problems with transferring photos—speaking of, I’m not sure about the FOUR—there was only one when I started, and one is obviously the same.  Please understand.  AND NOW THERE ARE MANY!!!!  (I am forwarding this letter to myself, too so I can open them and see what I did wrong—to me it shows only one)

As I told already told you, our trip was really great.  Here is a synopsis:

On Monday we returned from 5 nights and 6 days in Laos—-the northern part is beautiful—the capital (Vientiane) is just another city but it has zillions of Buddha statues!  Luang Prabang is magic! Our hotel had originally been three separate houses—still are separate, but one hotel.  Lovely room facing the Mekong and lots of beautiful wood paneling, floor, etc.  The staff was superb.   L.P. is a UNESCO heritage site so the buildings etc. must remain virtually the same—no more than 2 stories, leave the outside and most of inside in tact.  Lovely ride on the Mekong to some caves, another day at the Elephant Rescue place—rode an elephant in the ‘jungle’ for about 45 minutes—delightful; we even rode bicycles through the town and found an early morning market to roam through—-loved it.  Many hotels have bicycles for their guests—no charge.  One never forgets how to ride a bicycle but it has become a little less easy and certainly not as  graceful getting on and off!  Wished we had reversed out trip and gone there at the end.  Oh, well, it was a great journey—perfect weather in Laos while in Phnom Penh there was lots of rain, flooding of the streets, etc.  Our guides were fine—a small minivan gave us plenty of room–just the driver, the guide and us.  The guide in Luang Prabang was better as he turned to face us when he spoke and/or pointed out things.  The fellow in Vientiane was good (better one on one walking around) but we lost a lot of what he said as he was “talking to the front window.”  He did arrange a last night’s dinner at a small Japanese restaurant around the corner from our hotel which was nice and thoughtful of him.  The tourist season starts this week!  Sure glad we went when we did—cheaper, few people, no hassles, etc.  The week before there was a huge storm and it wreaked havoc on some of the picnic areas around the Mekong and the waterfalls we visited.  The Mekong itself was almost two meters!!! higher than just a week later when we arrived—we could see the water line and there were lots of broken trees and some wooden bridge remains floating in the river.  The hotel in L.P, had a complimentary sunset cruise on the Mekong our last evening there—there was one couple (Thai—both charming and well spoken)  The hotel asked what we would like to drink—there were wine glasses, a bottle of red wine for us and white wine for them in an ice chest on board—-plus two generous bowls of mixed salted nuts.  We almost finished our bottle—they finished theirs and the rest of ours!  It was good fun.  Our complimentary breakfasts were served on the terrace across the street from the hotel—along the Mekong River!  Choice of Asian foods or Western breakfast—we had one of each type, of course although Sato did join me in the Western one on the last day.  Lao food is nice, but a bit the same every night and lunch—and we don’t usually eat that big of a lunch every day.   All in all it was a great holiday.  The very first night in the lovely hotel in L.P. Sato toasted me by saying: “Thank you for planning this wonderful trip.”  Wow—-I was surprised.  The first night no less!

The hotel in Vientiane was fine—just not as much of a boutique style as I had expected (really big room) and the area was not so lovely—.  The breakfast was great and the personnel were charming.

We are both very appreciative of your assistance (and patience!!!).  We have told all we had arranged the trip with your help.

Best regards,

Virginia Lee Funk Sato

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From: Mya Dao
To: Annie Bui <annie@indochinagrandtour.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2014 14:06:13 +0700
Subject: RE: Thank you letter from iGrandtour

Hello Annie !Back to work this morning 😉  Couldn’t sleep last night due to sleeping all day Sunday with jet lag still.  It’s late noon time now and I’m tired, but overall, good to be back in NYC 😉

With the quote: “expectations lead to disappointments”, I go about my everyday life without expecting anything, and I must say, 99% of the time, it turns out even better than what was anticipated or expected !   With this trip, even though certain things didn’t turn out right, like the weather for example, with wanting clear blue skies&tons of sunshine, that there is unpredictable because weather can change at any given moment.  However, I STILL certainly made the most of my days, rain or shine 😉

The only thing I wasn’t happy about:
-the confusion with the bus operator at the Saigon bus terminal to go to Mui Ne.
The bus dropped me off at the wrong Mui Ne hotel I was supposed to be at.  After it finally got settled, a rep from my correct hotel – the Sinh Hotel – picked me up, not in a car, but in her scooter and drove me, my backpage, AND my rolling luggage to this correct hotel.  Better organization would not have led to this problem.  The Saigon bus operator should know exactly which hotel the guest will be staying at so that they can be dropped at the correct hotel.

Apart from this one mishap, everything else was great.  The tour guides at each destination were extremely friendly and knowledgeable; car service was on time and ready; hotel service was spectacular, especially that at Bai Tram estate.

Yes, I grant iGrandtour to use any of my trip photos to post on your website, just as long as it’s © Mya Dao 😉

It is with great honor to be an iGrandtour guest and with the service, so far so good.  I am satisfied and would definitely choose iGrandtour again, especially with agent Ms. Annie Bui to book another Southeast Asia trip for me, if I ever decide to return in the near future !  Thank you for making my trip definitely one to remember, for the rest of my life 😉

Mya Dao

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From: “jayte.einshe”
To: helen@indochinagrandtour.com
Cc: “thomas@igrandtour.com” <thomas@igrandtour.com>
Data: 10/05/2014 6.31
Subject: R: Thank you letter from iGrandtour (Vietnam)

Dear Helen,

I sincerely thank you for your professional tailored tour and cofirm that everything went smooth and perfect except the first hotel in Yangoon perfectly balanced by other hotels with superior rooms and some difficulties in understanding giude explanations for pronuonciation aspects but it is no body’s fault. You can post my comment on your website without mentioning name\surname but country is OK. Sure i will contact you if i came back in these countries.

Thanks a lot again and hope successful 2014. Sorry for delay in return answer because very busy at work.

Kind regards

JAYTE

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Hi Evelyn

Time flies so fast..already 3 weeks we are back fm Hanoi.  Fortunately, I made a right choice to choose iGrandtour for our holidays. My friends love the arrangement, hotel, food & the local tour guide (include you) which made our trip an unforgetable one.

Only nature was not on our side.. If not Sapa will be very nice. I will definetely go again (in winter) and of course will enggage iGrand tour.

In addition, I will highly recommend iGrand tour to my friends.

On the newspaper clip., at the moment we are still busy with work & dont have time to do a write up.. If it does publish in the newspaper we will forward to you,

I do hope we can meet up in future again for our other tours and wishing you all the best as well…

Thanks again for yr superb service which go more than an extra mile…

Rgds

KL

Hi Evelyn,

Just a quick note to thank you so much for putting together our wonderful trip. I forgot to mention that the Junk upgrade was a highlight in Hanoi, if you could add that please for your director

I am still getting over the funny tummy have slept nearly all the time I have been home but feeling slightly better now so will get stuck into the unpacking. I took so many clothes I did not use will know better next time.

Our trip home was good the transfer at HCMC was a funny one thought we were leaving for town when the bus left the tarmac and headed out the gate!

All the girls had a great time just a shame Annie was sick. David is now disappointed he was not there so I must make him come on the next one. We are all going onto Trip Advisor to comment on your company.

So lovely meeting you and hope it will not be too long before we can meet again. Hello to the “shy” boyfriend :0

Big Hug,

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Hi Evelyn, it’s good being back in Australia but we had the most wonderful trip to your country.

It was amazing, loved everywhere we went, all the shopping and fantastic scenery and the history of Vietnam.

Thanks so much for arranging the great trip.

Dear Annie,

On behalf of our group of 12 gals from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, we would like to express our sincere thanks

and gratitute to IndoChina Grand Tour for giving all of us a wonderful and memorable holiday – 5D/4N in Hanoi/

Halong from 11 May till 15 May, 2013.

Annie,

Thank you for arranging everything. Would have loved to meet you but was told that you are on maternity leave.

Hope your baby and yourself are doing fine.  Congratulations and welcome to motherhood!

Evelyn,

Thank you for meeting me at Gia Bao Palace hotel upon our return from Halong to check if everything was ok.

Thomas,

We thank you for your invaluable thought and priceless souvenirs of 12 beautiful bangles which you had given

to us.   Each time we wear the bangle we will think of IndoChina Grand tour, yourself and your efficient and committed team members 🙂

As for the crew – they were friendly and very accomodating.

City tour sight seeing, water puppet show and food was ok.

We learnt history again about Ho Chi Minh from our learned Jacky Trung.  We were very fortunate to have Jacky as our tour guide.  He is very knowledgeable and professional.  A patient, polite, friendly, caring and an accomodating guy. Thanks Jacky Trung.  We feel safe when you are around because your name reminds us of the kung fu actor Jacky Chan 🙂

With so much compliments said, we would also like to give some suggestions so that IndoChina Grand tour could take note and improve in these areas :-

1)   The air-conditioner was not cooling enough.  It has only 2 airconditioner ducts for 3 seater.

As it is a 2 and 1/2 hours of long journey, a cooling and comfortable van is much needed.

The first van which sent us to Halong was ok as it has 3 aircondioner ducts, 1 for each seater which keeps

the van cool and pleasant for passengers to travel.

2)   The van which fetched us to the airport was too small and does not have enough space for our luggages.

Luggages were stacked on top of each other to the brim until there was no visibility left for the back of the

van which is dangerous.

Should have sent a bigger van to accomodate the passengers and luggages.

Overall, we have all enjoyed our whole trip in Hanoi/Halong, the company of our childhood friends, laughing, singing, eating, shopping and etc, etc.

I will not hesitate to recommend IndoChina Grand tour to my friends and to request for Jacky Trung and Sonng to be their tour guides.

Once again, thank you and wishing all of you the best in everything.

Take care 🙂

Kat & 11 gal friends.

Dear Annie,

We would like to thank you for organizing our Indochina trip.  It was definitely a memorable time for our family.  We are also very grateful to our tour guides.  They are not only knowledgeable but also caring.  We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend you to our friends and family should they be interested to visit Indochina.

Best wishes to you and family.  Thank you for taking care of us.

Regards,

Joshua & Christine

Click here to view detail: iGrantour – Survey – Msr.Christine Ho

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