just completed 36 day custom tour se asia
Apr 7th, 2006, 07:29 AM
#21
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Thanks to Bob, Carole & Karen who requested I write more details. If nothing else, it gave us the chance to relive some of the outstanding moments(there were many), of our trip.
Five weeks was a long time-----but not long enough!
Art
Five weeks was a long time-----but not long enough!
Art
Apr 8th, 2006, 08:54 AM
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As a result of your report and further research on Fodors, we are now considering a trip to Myanmar (with the exception of Viet Nam, we've covered most of the other places you visited). Thank you for posting the details.
Apr 8th, 2006, 07:53 PM
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Craig--- So glad you appreciated our thoughts on Myanmar. As I noted previously, everything went exceptionally well with our custom tour.
However, it might be prudent for me to alert you, and anyone else going to Myanmar---if you use Air Mandalay, you may encounter a potential problem.
What could have been a problem, turned out fine.
Allow me to explain.
As I reported, we used ALL ASIA in HCME as our tour company. I already wrote what a great job Chi did for us. However, I put together the country to country itinerary, and determined where to start, where to go next and where to end.
As such, I booked a couple flights on my own. These were the two on Air Mandalay (Chiang Mai to Mandalay & Yangon to Chiang Mai)& the two on Laos Air (Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang & LP to Vientiane.)
In order to book these flights (via email), you must send a credit card deposit to the agency in France, and pick up your tickets at the ticket offices in Chiang Mai.
No problem---I thought. Our guide & driver took us to the Laos Air office and we got our tickets. Real easy!
Next was Air Mandalay. Not that it's important, but their office is a young couple's condo, where the young mom has an office. Much to our chagrin, we were told in essance we were "bumped" by a tour group (to the next day) on our 70 seat prop plane,Yangon returning to CM.
I told her we made this reservation months ago, and to tell her company to bump someone from the tour, as we needed to be on a flight to LP PRIOR to the plane from Yangon getting to CM using the next day flight.
(As I noted earlier, you CAN'T get to Laos from Yangon, unless you take a boat, or, perhaps a bus for a week, or swim.)
In any case----nothing was done, and we left for Mandalay.(I left with a "worthless" standby ticket, which, I thought was better than nothing---but probably was worth nothing).
Now for the good part.
Our guide (Kway---"Joe" to us, met us at the airport, and after his wonderful, smiling welcome and ice cold water, we proceded to tell him our problem.
He said, "not to worry," he and his company would take care of it.
Without going through all the details, when we stopped in at Columbus Travel in Yangon, they gave us new tickets on Thai Air (jet) that got us back to CM via BKK, on our original date, and all was well.
We can not say enough good things about Columbus Travels. The guides were either very good, or outstanding, and their service was super.
So---- two things to get out of this story:
1) Be cautious in booking with Air Mandalay, especially online.
2) If you're going to Myanmar---and we couldn't endorse it more, using Columbus Travels --especially Kwai in Mandalay & Kway in Yangon, will be a rewarding experience.
Without sounding like I'm on their payroll----we didn't even know we were using them when we booked with All Asia, the sister company in Myanmar. However,we couldn't have asked for more.
So, yes. Go to Myanmar and anticipate a unique, wonderful experience.
Art
However, it might be prudent for me to alert you, and anyone else going to Myanmar---if you use Air Mandalay, you may encounter a potential problem.
What could have been a problem, turned out fine.
Allow me to explain.
As I reported, we used ALL ASIA in HCME as our tour company. I already wrote what a great job Chi did for us. However, I put together the country to country itinerary, and determined where to start, where to go next and where to end.
As such, I booked a couple flights on my own. These were the two on Air Mandalay (Chiang Mai to Mandalay & Yangon to Chiang Mai)& the two on Laos Air (Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang & LP to Vientiane.)
In order to book these flights (via email), you must send a credit card deposit to the agency in France, and pick up your tickets at the ticket offices in Chiang Mai.
No problem---I thought. Our guide & driver took us to the Laos Air office and we got our tickets. Real easy!
Next was Air Mandalay. Not that it's important, but their office is a young couple's condo, where the young mom has an office. Much to our chagrin, we were told in essance we were "bumped" by a tour group (to the next day) on our 70 seat prop plane,Yangon returning to CM.
I told her we made this reservation months ago, and to tell her company to bump someone from the tour, as we needed to be on a flight to LP PRIOR to the plane from Yangon getting to CM using the next day flight.
(As I noted earlier, you CAN'T get to Laos from Yangon, unless you take a boat, or, perhaps a bus for a week, or swim.)
In any case----nothing was done, and we left for Mandalay.(I left with a "worthless" standby ticket, which, I thought was better than nothing---but probably was worth nothing).
Now for the good part.
Our guide (Kway---"Joe" to us, met us at the airport, and after his wonderful, smiling welcome and ice cold water, we proceded to tell him our problem.
He said, "not to worry," he and his company would take care of it.
Without going through all the details, when we stopped in at Columbus Travel in Yangon, they gave us new tickets on Thai Air (jet) that got us back to CM via BKK, on our original date, and all was well.
We can not say enough good things about Columbus Travels. The guides were either very good, or outstanding, and their service was super.
So---- two things to get out of this story:
1) Be cautious in booking with Air Mandalay, especially online.
2) If you're going to Myanmar---and we couldn't endorse it more, using Columbus Travels --especially Kwai in Mandalay & Kway in Yangon, will be a rewarding experience.
Without sounding like I'm on their payroll----we didn't even know we were using them when we booked with All Asia, the sister company in Myanmar. However,we couldn't have asked for more.
So, yes. Go to Myanmar and anticipate a unique, wonderful experience.
Art
