4 days Vietnam & Cambodia & Thailand tour

Route : Ho Chi Minh - Siem Reap - Phnom Penh - Bangkok
Nationality : (USA)
Travel Consultant : Eric
Travel Date : 2010/06/16-2010/07/19

Eric,

1. What do you think of our guide service? Who impress you best and who impress you poorest?
Guide service was excellent:
Vietnam:  Hai was really exceptional in his attention to detail.  Everything was planned down to the second, yet he was flexible enough to fit in a stop at a supermarket for snacks when the kids started to melt.  He even noticed that it was my son's birthday two days earlier and had a wonderfully decorated cake as a surprise for him at lunch.  He was very friendly and relatively easy to understand.  He was extremely knowledgeable, and he was very open to answering any and all questions.  He was very attuned to our needs, and before we could realize that it was raining, he managed to produce rain ponchos for all of us (at his expense.)  Fantastic.

Siem Reap:  Prony was very sweet.  He was very knowledgable about both Hinduism and Buddhism and he really did his best to impart as much information as he could about each place and topic, while giving us a glimpse into his personal life and family history.

Phnom Pen:  Dara was incredibly impressive.  Every member of our family (from oldest to youngest) were enraptured as he taught us about the culture and the history (including the atrocities) of Cambodia.  We couldn't get enough of him.  He shared some incredible personal stories to compliment the facts and figures (of which he had an excellent command.) He was aware of our vegetarianism and asked us a few clarifying questions.  He then canceled the original restaurant that we were scheduled to go to and arranged for us to have an exceptional alacarte meal in a beautiful restaurant.  After lunch we were scheduled to visit the market until our flight, but having had enough marketing the evening prior in Siem Reap, we asked if we could visit the Killing Fields (which we were originally told we would not have time for) He told us that if we hurried we could make it.  The driver asked for an additional $20, and he drove us there, Dara continued his very moving guiding, and we made it back to the airport with just enough time to make our flight. 

Bangkok:  Wassana (Lucky) was incredibly caring and very informative.  She made sure that the kids were happy – for example, she bought fish food for them to feed the fish in the river (a highlight), the day before we arrived, she had scouted out the best restaurant for us as vegetarians – one that afforded us an incredible night time river view.  She walked streets and alleyways with us so that we got a sense of real Bangkok life,   She bought us little local treats to taste.  On our last day, she took us on a walk through gardens near the cultural center where we ate lunch, and introduced us to all kinds of unique plants – ones that you can brush your teeth with, others that close when you touch them, etc.  Again, the children enjoyed this as much as the adults.  She took us Elephant riding, and arranged for the local photographer to take photos of us on the elephants with our own camera…

2. What do you think of our driver service?
All of the drivers were very friendly, great drivers and got us everywhere quickly and safely.  In Vietnam and Cambodia they had plenty of cold water for us.  In Phnom Pen, the driver had umbrellas for each one of us when it started to rain. In Thailand, the driver gave us his personal umbrella.

3. What do you think of the hotel service and their breakfast? Can you please name the best one and the poorest one in your trip?
We only stayed at two hotels.  Tara Angor was a beautiful boutique hotel, modern asian furnishings.  The rooms smelled a bit musty, but that is probably because of the high humidity.  Its location was very convenient to the Temples.  Breakfast was average.  One day the baked goods tasted fresh, the next day, they seemed to be stale.  Orange juice was not fresh.  Otherwise, OK.
Eastin Hotel in Bangkok was a beautiful hotel in a very run down stinky neighborhood (the streets outside of the hotel smell like rotten trash).  The rooms were beautiful, even provided free internet, but the staff was not particularly friendly.  When we tried to get a third water bottle for each room (we were three in a room after all) they gave us a very hard time.  We did get the bottles in the end.  We also had to convince them to give us some extra towels.  Breakfast was decent, again, no fresh orange juice, baked goods were very mediocre.

4. Which meal makes you memorable? Please name the reason why you like or dislike it?
Our most memorable meal was lunch at the Rex hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.  We were served a literal Vegan Feast, many courses, new foods, fake meats… my wife was convinced she had real shrimp in her soup.  The Restaurant Manager came over to prove to here that it wasn't real.  They made a beautiful birthday cake for my son… everything was outstanding, and the setting was beautiful and nicely air conditioned. The best.

Other memorable meals included lunch in Phnom Pen in a beautiful Cambodian restaurant, dinner in Bangkok overlooking the river and the lights and our last lunch outside of Bangkok overlooking beautiful grounds of the Cultural Center… we did not particularly enjoy the buffet, but our guide had them make some incredible vegan Pad Thai that was probably my favorite single dish on the trip.
Our least favorable meals were in Siem Reap:  The first restaurant that we were taken to for lunch, at Angor Wat was way too hot and smelled strongly of fried foods. We couldn’t tolerate sitting there, so the guide took us to a much better restaurant, but it was at our own expense.  Dinner that evening, which was a buffet with a dance show was not particularly good, and the whole event seemed mega-touristy.

5. Would you mind sharing your pictures in the trip with us?
 I'll be happy to attach a few photos.

6. Would you like to be our reference by authorizing us to give out your email address?
Happy to be a reference.

Zvi Weiss

July 27th 2010