A Good Trip With A Few Kinks
We originally planned a trip to Myanmar and Vietnam for three people. Our travel coordinator, Claire Wong, was responsive and professional. She put a lot of effort into creating the initial itinerary. Then the unexpected happened. An earthquake hit Myanmar 3 weeks before our scheduled arrival. Our scheduled point of entry, Mandalay, was at the epicenter. The airport in Mandalay temporarily shut down. We feared the military government's tight control over the media would limit real-time, uncensored damage reports. So we decided not to visit Myanmar. We asked Claire to create an alternative itinerary, but she did not. Instead she kept urging us to wait and see how the Myanmar situation would develop. We repeatedly requested that she devise an alternative plan. Still she kept insisting that we stick to the original plan. Finally we stopped seeking assistance and planned our own 6-day Thailand itinerary. We completed our 6 days in Thailand and then flew to Vietnam for the Asia Highlights portion of our trip. Upon arrival in Vietnam we encountered another obstacle. We arrived as the country was preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its reunification. Top government officials and foreign dignitaries were in Saigon for the celebration, and heightened security measures were in place. Our hotel was in a high-security, restricted zone. For several hours each morning, neither pedestrian nor motor traffic was allowed to leave or enter the restricted zone. The first day we could not leave the secured zone, and our tour guide could not enter the zone. So our morning tour was postponed. The final day in Saigon we relocated to a hotel outside of the restricted zone. Otherwise we would have been unable to get to the airport the next morning. We planned this trip 8 months in advance. There was constant communication with our Asia Highlights travel coordinator. It is hard to understand why such a large celebration and its potential impact on our travels was never mentioned. The rest of the trip went well. Our guide (Phuoc) and driver (Mr. Hoang) in southern Vietnam were great. Phuoc is a knowledgeable guide who enjoys sharing her knowledge of Vietnam's history and culture. On one occasion we tipped a boat driver, and she insisted that we needed to tip more. I did feel that was inappropriate. Tipping is discretional, and a guest should never feel pressured by a company to tip more than they have already given. Otherwise Phuoc's service went above and beyond expectation. Our guide, Henry, in central Vietnam was not so good. He rushed through the sites. We talked more about American culture than Vietnamese culture. I enjoy two-way cultural exchange, but our time spent answering questions about America far exceeded our time spent learning about Vietnam. I recall walking through a UNESCO heritage site in Hue. A solo traveler doing an audio tour kept pausing to listen at the designated stops. I could see her looks of interest and amazement as she listened intently to her audio. I kept wondering, "What is her audio guide saying? She has stopped 4-5 times already, and we have not stopped once to discuss anything." Instead we walked quickly through the complex answering questions about American singers, American food, American movies, etc. It was the first time I ever felt that an audio tour would have been a better option than a personal tour guide. We had a different guide (Tan) for the bicycle farm to fishing tour in Hoi An. He was great. Our tour guide in Hanoi was great (name forgotten). I was pleased with all of the chosen hotels and the Halong Bay cruise operator (Orchid Trendy cruise). It was a good trip. I just cannot rate it a 5 star experience because despite communicating clearly and repeatedly that Myanmar was a non-starter, our coordinator never provided assistance creating an alternative itinerary. And I feel the travel company dropped the ball by failing to mention the 50th reunification anniversary. Our hotel concierge described it as "the largest celebration in my country's history." So how was it not on our travel coordinator's radar? We were less upset that tour times and hotels had to be changed. We were more upset that we left Saigon the day of the official celebration. We missed out on a once in a lifetime opportunity. We would have planned to stay an extra night in Saigon had we simply known about the celebration beforehand.