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Hi Tommy –
And sorry it has again taken us this long to get back to you with out thoughts. We know it has been almost a month, but we wanted to make sure we had the time to give you the benefit of all our thoughts.
First, we thought the trip was really well-organized and planned, with great guides and drivers in both Laos and Vietnam. We were very happy also that we were able to take a private tour where we were not bound to other people whom might have wanted to do things differently from us. A few thoughts:
1. We must thank our drivers in both Vietnam and Laos (Bahn (?) and Mr. Chit) who have throughout the way have been most considerate, caring, and helpful. Although we have signed up for hiring only a driver, we have received a bike repair technician, a medical doctor, an interpreter, a cook, a cultural guide, and in the end, a dear friend. This trip could not have been the same without Banh and Mr. Chit.
2. We would like to particularly thank Mr Chit for his care and attention to us during the trip in Laos – not only was he making sure we were getting the best treatment (eg upgrading us to a better hotel, inviting for a family dinner, rescheduling the whole trip to fit our changes in the schedule, etc.), he was also a very interesting person to learn from about Laos, its history, culture and we would highly recommend for Indochina Bike Tours to continue working with Mr. Chit for subsequent tours.
3. We have been utterly impressed by the preparation and diligence that went into the trip: starting from meeting our driver at the airport, the ease and seamless experience of crossing the border between Vietnam and Laos, the quality of the hotels we have stayed in (usually best in town), the lunches and snacks that were prepared by our drivers, regular calls from your office to make sure everything was going smoothly. Equally, we are very grateful for your flexibility and readiness to change the itinerary when needed it, e.g. leaving early from Sapa which basically caused everything to shift by one day, etc.
4. When selecting a company to take us on this highly customized tour, Indochina Bike Tours was the first company that was able to seamlessly offer not only the biking through two different countries but also incorporate other excursions that you were not specializing in eg Halong Bay, Sapa, trekking in Nam Ba. None of the other companies were able to provide the same level of integration,
5. Overall, we feel that this was a great trip in terms of value for money and could easily see ourselves paying much more for the value and experience we received
We hope this feedback is useful to you. Please let us know if you have any questions about any of it. Once again, thank you very much for organizing this memorable trip. After we return to San Francisco, we will email you the photos we took along the way. It would be also great if you could send us the photos that Banh was taking during our Vietnam trip.
Please let us know if you have any other thoughts about our trip, and thank you for providing us such an excellent experience.
Kind regards
Jeremy and Inessa
Law Office of Jeremy D. Blank 1459 18th Street No. 148 San Francisco, CA 94107 T: (415) 710-2728 F: (415) 431-2728 www.jeremyblank.com
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