losaltos

I have been trying to deal with Din at Santa Maria but he has dropped out of sight recently. A friend went to Burma earlier this year with Tour Mandalay and liked their service. They have sent me an itinerary and been quite responsive. I am eager to get this trip for early March nailed down! Does anyone have experience with Tour Mandalay?

Kathie

I haven't heard of them, but it sounds like they have been responsive. if you decide to go with them, do email DIn and let him know you are now working with another company. Agents are swamped, and they will keep trying for your reservations until you tell them you are making other arrangements.

losaltos

Thanks, Kathie: I did finally hear from him! He says he cannot get rooms at the Inle Princess for us but can book at the new "boutique" hotel called Villa Inle Resort and Spa. Do you know anything about that hotel? I will ask if he can find rooms at the Inle Lake View as well.

Kathie

I don't know of that one. I do know there are some new hotels under construction. I would trust Santa Maria to find you the nest available.

gpeters

I have trying to use an agency in Myanmar and finally have had to switch because I was unable to transfer funds on two attempts from two different US banks to their account in Singapore due to "compliance" issues. So I switched to Tour Mandalay which up to this point has been very responsive.
BUT, when I tried to transfer funds to complete my booking with them, AGAIN it was denied. So I am back to square one !!!
Has anyone else had this problem not only with Tour Mandalay but other travel agencies in Myanmar. I realize that you cannot mention "Myanmar" on any of the transfers and have not done that but somehow the US banks have denied transfer now for a total of three times with two my different bank accounts. It may be that all international transfers go through the Bank of New York which I know was responsible for at least two of the three denials. I still am trying to find out the name of the US bank for the most recent denial. I know that people who have used Barclays from the UK have had similar problems with those transactions in the past since Barclays also goes through the Bank of New York!!!
Any suggestions??

Kathie

I had no problem transferring money to Santa Maria using their Bangkok account (which does not have their name on it). But you are right, you cannot mention Burma or Myanmar or the company name in making your transfer. Ask the company if they have an account elsewhere you can transfer money to.