Comment on our service from Annamarie Roos, South Africa
Overall a lovely varied and fascinating holiday, thanks Gina.
CHINA
Beijing :
King Parkview Hotel = 3 nights
We really liked this hotel.
We experienced quite a few problems on check in, no plugs worked, fridge was not
working, kettle faulty, hair dryer in bathroom not working.
Each time we had a problem, we reported it and it was attended to immediately. This hotel
gets 5 stars for service, location and a lovely eastern / western breakfast.
Forbidden City and Great Wall: Jennifer is a good guide, with a lot of knowledge who
understands the needs of her clients.
Beijing City: Leo has an extensive knowledge of his subject and has the potential to be a
very good guide, but could do with some guidance in his treating of visitors to his city.
Xian :
Xian Forest city hotel = 2 nights
We enjoyed our stay here in a very good location for walking to main shopping districts.
Terracotta warriors: Susan is an excellent guide, who knows her subject. It would have
been even nicer if, when she took us to the Muslim Quarter she had gone to the trouble to
read up and had some knowledge about the religion.
Mr Wong, is a good but very aggressive driver. His vehicle was very clean.
Blue whale ship = 4 nights
What another lovely accommodation you booked for us. Thank you Gina. The staff were
friendly and helpful. We were a bit surprised though on check in to be offered a larger
room at 1000RMB's extra. Even though we persistently refused, the porter then tried
dropping in price to convince us. :-). Food on board was once again great and we really
enjoyed all the excursions.
Chongching
Peter was an efficient guide who gave good information and spoke a good English.
Lhasa :
Shangbala Hotel = 3 nights
What a quaint lovely hotel in traditional Tibetan style. Once again a very good location for
local markets and restaurants. This area is without question the most entertaining district
in Lhasa and perfectly suited for exploring independently. Thank you, Gina.
Suggestion: the hotel coffee at breakfast was watered down and tasteless. If they brewed
it to the recommended strength this would go a long way to ensure happy clientele.
Lhasa guide & Driver
Docou was really friendly guide with a lot of local knowledge and we enjoyed our days with
her. From the first moment we met her we felt at at ease and enjoyed learning about Tibet
and Buddhism though we felt that 5 monasteries / Buddha temples were a bit repetitive,
especially after we had also seen two in Beijing and one (Goose Pagoda) in Xian. A trip to
a local village, or maybe a cultural show / dances or maybe a the glacier and dam, may
have been something more interesting. Despite this, Tibet was another wonderful highlight
on our tour.
Tibet Train to Shanghai = 2 nights
What breathtakingly beautiful scenery and a comfortable journey. Except for the filthy
toilets and the fact that the train staff and passengers were smoking a lot we really
enjoyed our time here.
Shanghai New Asia hotel = 3 nights
A lovely hotel once again, with stunning views, good location and scrumptious breakfasts.
Tours : Chris was a reasonable guide but often had difficulty comprehending English. We
enjoyed our 2 days with him and the different people we met on these 2 days.
Guilin : Hotel Universal = 3 nights
We loved our stay at Guilin Universal hotel, well situated with excellent rooms for 3 star.
Danny who took us to the Rice Terraces was a competent guide who needs to work a bit
on his English and give a bit more information to improve as a guide.
Allen who took us on the City Tour and the next day to Yangshou was a friendly and
competent guide. It's a pity that he left us at the jetty in Yangshou to find our own way to
the hotel in an unfamiliar city.
Yangshuo : Aiyuan Hotel = 2 nights
This hotel was not quite up to the standard of the others, the bedroom walls really needing
a paint. However, the fact that they supplied fruit, clothes washing facilities and Internet
more than made up for this.
Tour to Huangyao: Pan the guide was hopeless to say the least. She slept all the way on
the bus to and from Huangyao not saying a word in either English or Chinese. In
Huangyao, we got out then she started guiding for the first time in Chinese. She spoke
about 10-15 minutes in Chinese and then battled through half a sentence in English. It a
pity she could not speak English at all as we really found this a very interesting ancient city
and would have liked some information on it. Had we known beforehand that we would
not have guide who is able to speak English, we would have done more pre-research
about Huangyao on the Internet before we went.
Transfer to airport: For information: the Hong Kong flight does not allow check in before
1.5 hours prior to departure. This means that one can take the 08h00 airport shuttle which
gets to Guilin Airport about 09h30 and only costs 80 Yuan per person.
Hong Kong Stanford Hotel
The rooms in this hotel were very small , with only about 1 meter space on one side and
the bottom of the bed, which was against the wall on the other side. The breakfast were
uninspiring but the staff at this hotel were very customer orientated and the location
satisfactory for the ladies market.
1/2 day Hong Kong City tour: Joelle was an excellent guide who was very knowledgeable
and friendly.
Macau tour: This tour was very well organised despite a lot of logistics. Patrick was an
excellent guide giving us a lot of local knowledge.
Lantau tour: Roger was once again an excellent guide who spoke a excellent English and
kept us amused, whilst giving us a lot of information.
SUMMARY
Would you please be so kind as to draft us a rough itinerary of about 3-4 weeks of other
places you suggest we should visit in a couple of years so we can work towards this?
I think you spoke about places in the south-west. As you now know we love history,
nature & local culture and anything one can ride on (boats, rickshaws, etc). We can fly
into Hong Kong or Beijing.
Once again, thanks for your help.
Best wishes,
Annamarie
