NGUYEN KINH DOANH
EXCELLENT WEBSITE FOR TRAVEL TO VIETNAM

THIS IS OUR 8th TRIP TO VIETNAM. WE ARE FORTUNATE TO KNOW YOUR TNK TRAVEL WITH VERY INFORMATIVE WEBSITE ON TOURISM.

ON NOVEMBER 20, 2006, WE WERE ALSO HAPPY TO TAKE PICTURES OF PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH'S MOTORCADE AT THE CORNER OF NAM KY KHOI NGHIA AND VO VO VAN TAN. THE EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS ARE IN OUR WEBSITE WWW.NGUYENKINHDOANH.COM.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TNK TRAVEL AND WE WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK IN YOUR ENDEAVORS.

PLEASE WRITE IN OUR GUEST BOOK TOO.

NGUYEN KINH DOANH
1905 S WESTERN AVE., SUITE 7
LOS ANGELES, CA 90018
CELLULAR (213) 361-7929
E-MAIL: doanh1@sbcglobal.net

Kerry Mowett
TNK Travel

Thankyou to Luu Vo!

I recently arranged with TNK travel for a tour through Vietnam for a group of 59. Everything was organised on time and to a very high standard. You staff...drivers, bus assistants and most of all our guides were wonderful, friendly and helpful. This tour resulted because of a previous year 2010 group travel of 44 was just as amazing.
I am now planning the 2012 trip and have arranged for Luu through TNK to coordinate all of the arrangements for travel, accommodation, daytrips and meals.
If you want an unforgetable experience in Vietnam and no worries about arrangements........contact Luu Vo at TNK

Chuck Valen
Thanks again for taking good care of us.

Mr. Trinh – I would like to thank you and the TNK staff for the great visit we had to Viet Nam.

Both Phi and Thanh were outstanding tour guides during our visits to My Tho, Saigon, Phan Thiet, Nha Trang, and Da Lat.

I will certainly refer my family and friends (mostly US veterans) to TNK for future travel requirements in Viet Nam.

Thanks again for taking good care of us.

Sincerely,

Chuck Valen

Andrea Mallett
Thank You

Dear tnk,

Your company organised a wonderful trip for ourselves and our friends (Mallett & Crisp families) over christmas and new year 2006/2007. We have some photos and things we would like to pass on to the wonderful guides that showed us around your beautiful country. If we send them to you are you able to pass them on for us? If possible do you have an address for Dat who did such a wonderful job of showing us around Saigon and Mekong Delta.

Thank You again for a wonderful trip we have been recomending your company to all of our friends.

Andrea Mallett

Shaun McCree
Cambodia Exclusive 5-day tour

Dear Nhu Y,

After our initial misunderstanding over payment (my fault entirely), I would like you to know that the tour went excellently. A friendly & helpful guide in Phnom Penh made our day both pleasant & informative, even if we were rather devastated by the Killing Fields & S21. Although they are hard to take, we think everyone should see them to understand what happened in Kampuchea. Our guide in Siem Reap, Marouan, & his driver were if anything even better and our trips around the Angkor complex were absolutely unforgettable. The Hotel Salina in Siem Reap was good value for money, despite being the cheapest available but we were a little disappointed with the Princess in Phnom Penh where we found the food rather poor & the staff rather disinterested. We recognise this is also the cheapest option but clearly does not match up to the budget hotels we stayed in throughout our 4 weeks in Vietnam. Our only small problem was that the advertisement on your website suggests lunch is provided everyday although, on checking your acknowledgement, it was not listed. Perhaps someone could correct the website.

Mark Mulder
Reflections

We have just returned from Vietnam and had a wonderful time. We spent five days in HCMC and five in Hanoi. The sights, sounds and smells were a great experience. Many thanks to TNK travel and Mr Vu who helped organise the Halong Bay 2 day/1 night cruise. They also organised accomodation, at a price way cheaper then what we could manage.

Again, many thanks,and we would recommend TNK to anyone.

karen toft
Thank you

Hi Winston – a note of thanks for our wonderful trip to Vietnam. Everything went without a hitch – absolutely superb !!! The guides were fantastic as was the country and all the places we went and people we met. The trip covered a variety of sites, activities and experiences so I congratulate you on organizing it for us.

I have only one comment to make and that’s regarding tipping the tour guides. As we don’t tip in Australia , nor do the Vietnamese, but considering the poor wages we had no idea what to tip and we couldn’t tip the guide without the driver. Perhaps giving some guide to future travelers would be of benefit. We overtipped in the beginning but got it figured out by the end after asking Mr Danh & Mr Trang. Also we weren’t sure about tipping the boat drivers considering we were the only ones on the boat eg on Perfume River and Halong Bay.

This is a trivial issue in the big scheme of things so I want to make more the point about the fabulous timing and thought you put into our time there. Again , many thanks.

Regards………..karen Toft & Clive Hockey

B. de Vet
Dear Mr Dzung Trinh,

First of all we want to thank TNK travel very much for the great Tour we have had.

Everything was perfectly arranged and the Hotels, drivers and guides were great.

You are a very serious and reliable organisation and we will certainly recommend you to our friends and relatives.

We have now a very good impression of your country thanks to all the places you made us visit with all the information given by the guides.

One little notice: your man in Hanoi (or is that you??) told us that he did not have the information about our arrival flight and that he had asked us by mail and phone. But as you can see I had already given that information in my mail from April 15 (see under). But.... no problem our guide was waiting for us at the airport.

Thanks again we had lovely and interesting holidays and all the included meals were delicious.

Best regards

Bas and Martina de Vet (- van Deurzen)
Bachrode 3
2717AL Zoetermeer
The Netherlands

Annikki and Pierre
Indochina Customized Tour ( Nov 11th 06 ) /Mr. Pierre Herbert / Tour Report from Pierre

Hello Mr Dac Danh,

Annikki and I hope you are very well and we wish you, according to our western calendar, a very Happy New Year for 2007 and a lot of success for TNK Travel.

We came well home thru Malaysia and have been very busy since. But we promissed you a short report and comments on our beautiful trip thru your country and the two neighboring ones. Here it is:

First we must thank you again for a well organized tour, showing many highlights. Also, we have to confirm that the tour guides you selected for us have been very punctual, very friendly and had sufficient knowledge of the place and customs to make us enjoy every day.

Nhi for the Mekong Delta, Heng for Phnom Penh, Phin Borey for Siem Reap, "Jack"for Houen Xai to Loang Prabang, Khamtam in Vientiane, Tranh in Hanoi, Thinh in Lao Cai, Huy in Hue and Tong in Ho Chi Minh City, all have been doing an excellent job.Some were very knowledgeable in history like Phin Borey and Huy, which is always very appreciated by us.

The hotels were confortable enough. Luxury is not what we wanted but being in a genuine local environment. But in Chau Doc, the Ben Da Nui Sam Resort was situated in front of the loudspeaker broadcasting political news at night and early in the morning, which made resting impossible. In the early morning, at breakfast, the staff was bringing a very frugal breakfast and refused to bring a second cup of coffee...That hotel we cannot recommend. In Vientiane, the Lane Xang hotel is old and we got a small, rundown room. We called the agent Max and he rectified for a Superior room. In Ha Noi, the Army Hotel was OK but a bit "cold"! All hotel were situated at convenient distance from points of interest, so that was a plus.
We can especially recommend the Asia Hotel in Hue for its friendly atmosphere, its situation on the Perfume river, its comfort and breakfast.
Pakbeng Lodge on the Mekong is also to be recommended for the same reasons.

Meals were mostly adequate, some excellent like the ones on the Huong Hai junk on the Ha Long Bay.

Otherwise, we have the following recommendations:

1. In the Mekong Delta, a visit on one of the Cai Rang Market boats would be very interesting to speak with the boat people and see how they organize their living onboard.

2. In Ankor, before entering the temple area, we had to wait on line 1 1/2 hour (taking a pass photo and making the day pass). If the visitor was told in advance to bring one pass photo, it would speed up the entry.
Also in Ankor, you may forget the sunset at Phnom Bakheng because the crowds are too big now and the lookout totally disorganized.

3. In Ha Long, the crowds are also big now and...nearly 200 junks departing at about the same time...!!!
Unless the captain of your junk is given instructions to avoid the crowd, your visitors will be soon on line or in a pack to visit anything. We interviewed several locals and captains. Alltogether, there are nearly 600 junks now!

In a summary, we really enjoyed both the way Mr Dzung Trinh, yourself and your staff organized and followed up our tour, how you friendly treated us as customers, we met many other friendly persons along the trip, we discovered the sceneries and features of cultures that made our tour a permanent emotion that we still enjoy.

We wish you much success for this year!

Kind regards to you, to Mr Dzung Trinh and your staff.

Pierre and Annikki

The Kane family
A wonderful experience with TNK travel (January 2009)

Our family of 4 just came back from first ever trip to Vietnam (18 days). We chose TNK Travel and it was a great trip. I wanted to thank TNK and to share our experience with future prospective travelers.

We started the planning almost a year ago. I must say we were hesitant at first and concerned about choosing a reliable travel agency. I read a lot on the internet (e.g. tripadvisor .com) before identifying a few prospective travel agencies. I then asked for an initial quote from my top 3 choices. TNK was the middle quote but what I liked about them was the level of detail in their initial proposal. I then looked at their guestbook and selected 17 people worldwide who recently travelled with them and emailed each of them to ask about their experience. Every single one of them responded and all were very positive about TNK. This made me comfortable with the idea of having to send money upfront to book a trip in an unknown country where I would have no recourse if dealing with an unethical company. With TNK, everyone assured me that once an itinerary is finalized, the company will do whatever is needed to deliver on its promises and to make it a pleasant experience, and they sure did in our case.

Over the following month, I exchanged several emails with Mr. Dsung Trinh, the Managing Director, to modify the original proposal based on my research about the sites we wanted to see. For example, we removed Sapa from the itinerary because the Northwest is quite cold in January, but added Phu Quoc Island instead. In the end, we agreed on a price for the revised itinerary, and I paid the customary 30% deposit by credit card (with a 3% fee). From that point-on, I dealt with Mr. Dac Dahn in their operations department who always promptly answered my numerous enquiries via email, and sent me hotel vouchers and e-tickets confirmation from air travel within Vietnam, as well as the invitation letter for the Visa. Fast forwarding to the end of the year when our trip began:

We landed roughly on schedule in Hochiminh on Dec. 31st in the evening and had to wait an hour or so (not ideal after a long flight from the U.S.) to get our visa on arrival ($25 per person in cash). Once we exited immigration and customs, our guide (J.J.) and driver were there to greet us with a sign bearing our name. They took us to our hotel. Because of the traffic, we ended up being in the center of the city near the cathedral at midnight, surrounded by thousands of motorcycles ringing their horns when the near year arrived (quite a cultural experience). From there on, the entire trip was very pleasant (I will post details on the hotels on tripadvisor.com). We visited Saigon (and stopped by the TNK office to pay the balance of the trip), the Mekong Delta, Phu Quoc, PanThiet/Mui Ne, Da Lat and Nha Trang by private van and boats with J.J. (who was excellent, paying attention all the time to what we liked and making sure we would always have it). We almost missed the speedboat from Rach Gia to Phu Quoc, because the itinerary was 30 minutes off. As a result, we couldn’t have a scheduled lunch, but TNK compensated us with an excellent previously unplanned dinner in Hue. J.J. ordered a van with more legroom when we returned from Phu Quoc to HCMC (we flew back), arranged for a small canoe to pick-us up and take us to our hotel in Cantho where we were stuck in traffic on the way to the ferry, etc…Then we flew to Danang and were greeted by our new guide Tui (Mr. Dac Dahn had kindly arranged for French speaking guides at the other locations at our request), and from there visited Hoi An, My Son and Hue, Tui was excellent as well, very knowledgeable and helped us solve an issue we had with a tailor-made suit. In Hoi An, the reservation was not a river view room, but after contacting Mr. Dac Dahn generously agreed to pay the difference and we were upgraded accordingly (we had insisted on 2 deluxe rooms with sea/river/lake views everywhere) and I had not noticed it was not the case at that location. We then flew to Hanoi which we visited with our last guide (Mr. Lan, who was OK but not as good as the first 2), and went from there to Halong Bay for a memorable 2-day cruise, then flew back to HCMC, stayed overnight near the airport and had an early morning flight back to the U.S. On returning to HCMC, no driver was there to greet us, we were told after we called the agency that he was stuck in traffic due to an accident. We took a taxi to the nearby hotel, and the driver who picked-us up in the morning for our return flight to the US. reimbursed us more than we had actually paid for the taxi. We didn’t have to pay a departure tax, it was apparently already included in our plane tickets.

Overall, a great trip thanks to the logistics, efficiency and professionalism of the TNK staff and agents. Food was excellent (though too copious for us, we always have festive lunch menus booked by TNK with 6 or 7 courses in nice restaurants (included in the price), nice buffet breakfasts in most hotels. The only problem (which is beyond TNK’s control) was insufficient hot water in many hotels for two people to take showers one after the other), a really bad road with big holes when exiting MuiNe to go to Da Lat and a third guide in the north who took us to a number of expensive stores along the road when we saw much cheaper prices elsewhere (we suspect he had a kick-back from these stores (but to his credit, he advised us to see the anthropology museum in Hanoi instead of a couple of extra pagodas, which we really enjoyed). Other than these minor opportunities for improvement, we had great hotel rooms with very nice views (important to us), good weather, good food, good guides and drivers (who seemed satisfied with the tips we gave them), and we were taken to all the places agreed-to on the itinerary. For those who do not feel adventurous enough to be on their own in Vietnam, we do strongly recommend TNK travel as an ideal, reasonably-priced solution. You can count on them for a memorable and pleasant trip. One final comment, although you can pay everything in Vietnam in US dollars or Euros, prices are cheaper if you pay in Dongs (local currency, FX at 17.3 VND/USD on the average during our trip, calculated at 15 by the stores if you pay in USD). Also a word of caution, Vietnam Airlines only allows 20 kg for a checked suitcase and 7 kg for a carry-on so travel light……

If you are thinking of going and have any question about our experience, don’t hesitate to contact me at dkane@mmm.com.

Our sincere thanks to MM. Trinh, Danh and the entire TNK staff for a wonderful trip. The Kane family (Austin, TX, USA)