Hello Daniel,
Here are my “little impressions” of this magnificent trip:
Preparation: absolutely perfect, nothing to fault. You even sent me a message on a Sunday evening! Above all, you always answered all my questions directly and honestly. Thank you.
Stages: Some journeys were a bit long, but China isn’t the size of Monaco!!! Our two guides also handled it well, with moments when they talked to us and others when the bus was quiet. Thanks to both of them.
Pace and content of the visits: A trip with no dead time, full days without rushing. Time to see a lot without stress. Quite an organisation!
Quality of the guides (knowledge, communication, flexibility, etc.): Two excellent guides, with very different methods. Let me explain: they don’t recite things like a lesson. They share real experiences, they love their province and their country, and they carry you along. It isn’t just “patter”, because they also know their job extremely well. Another strength is how available and kind they are. Sometimes they anticipate our questions, and above all they look after their group, even when they live in the town where we are staying. Many guides drop the group at 5 pm when the visits end!!! Without treating us like numbers, they always know who is missing. One evening after dinner, Penpa even ran after me because I wanted to go back to the hotel while others, braver than me, wanted to carry on. I had walked straight ahead and missed the street leading to the hotel!!!
Choice of hotels: Nothing to fault. Classy hotels, very fast check-in, spacious, quiet and very clean rooms, and a smiling welcome. The locations were well chosen, close to the main sights: walking to the Potala Palace! Opening my windows in the morning to the rice terraces at Twelve Manor, and so on… I have a special memory of our stay in a family home, with Mrs Li, I believe. I can’t find the name of the place for now, but it was magical.
Drivers and vehicles: We had a breakdown in the middle of a desert area, in front of a disused slaughterhouse. A broken wheel axle, it seems. Thanks to Penpa, nobody panicked! He reassured everyone and promised he would do everything he could. In fact, he did even better than that!! He phoned everywhere, had meals delivered to us by tuk-tuk, found another means of transport, and changed the programme after consulting us and offering several options. We chose to skip Sakya Monastery. A pity for us, but we had to make a choice. Hats off to the driver, who stayed behind to wait for the replacement part. He got back to Shigatse very late at night but was on time the next morning with a repaired bus. Our two drivers, and the transfer drivers, were discreet, efficient and very keen to do their job well. I won’t dwell on the incident; our driver felt responsible and very upset. Another small problem came during my transfer to the airport for my return: a huge traffic jam in a tunnel!! Two enormous wind turbine blades couldn’t get round the bends inside. A real scare, but I made it to the airport, with a dash to catch my plane and help from the airport staff, who let me skip the queue.
Choice of restaurants: We tried a very wide range of local food. No international or tourist restaurants, but places where we only met locals and tasted typical dishes. Our guides also introduced us to new fruits as we came across markets. Thank you too for the Dynamic Yunnan show, which reconciled me with the Chinese art of opera!!!
One important point: I had chosen not to use the online arrival card. A big mistake on my part!!! On arrival, I was stopped and sent away by an official. When I understood I had to use the machines on site, what a surprise: a few machines for a lot of people, a horribly complicated process, documents that had to be perfectly organised, and bugs all the time. And I wasn’t the only one!!! A real ordeal and very stressful when you have a connecting flight!!! At home, you have time, everything is to hand or easy to find, and it’s calm. Please strongly encourage future travellers to make the right choice!!!
So, lots of great memories. A trip like the ones I used to organise with local agencies back when I was in full physical shape. Today, I was lucky to discover Asian Roads, a local agency based in France!!! All the advantages without the drawbacks, or rather the risks!!
Well, I’ll stop here so it doesn’t go to your heads, even though you fully deserve it.
A thousand thanks again.
Marc
