Kris and I just
got back to the USA a week ago and we've been busy visiting our families!
The driving was
excellent, we felt very safe the whole time and we arrived on time or early to
our destination every day. I would give our driver a rating of 5 (5 is the full
mark). I was happy Kris and I could speak a little Mandarin so we could talk to
him.
Tenzin was a
wonderful guide. He was very friendly and obviously knew a lot about Tibetan
Buddhism. He could always answer our questions. He told us a little about his
life growing up in Tibet which was especially interesting to us. After having
been to Tibet, I am very happy you use Tibetan guides - the experience would
not have been the same with a Chinese guide. I was also happy you matched us
with someone Kris and my same age.
I think you did a
great job - in fact, I was in contact with a few other tour companies based in
Chengdu before we came and so Kris and I could pick the best one - we thought
you were by far the most professional and always answered our emails in a
timely manner. The guidelines and process of getting the permits was very clear
from the beginning which made us feel comfortable selecting Spinn. I would also
give it a rating of 5!
Thanks again for
a wonderful tour!
Kris Bahlke (Florida, USA),
Kelly Wade (New Jersey, USA)
The driver is
good, I never felt endangered and he was extremely nice and fun.
Yangchin was very
good, she's usually very knowledgeable.
Facebook and a random
youtube video talking in Cantonese to a reporter helped me to choose Spinn Cafe
to organize my trip in Tibet. Paypal helped too, it's difficult to trust random
amounts of money sent to personal accounts as there is little or know recourse.
So, given all the recommendations on Facebook and other sites, I gave it a go.
It's really just a security issue.
I think you
handled it well, I had a lot of fun especially in Lhasa with you and the feast.
Everyone should always have a Tibetan feast!
I'd say 4, it
would be a 5 if that permit issue didn't worry me as I know mail in general can
stall for ages, so preferably I was expecting the permits to arrive at the
hostel before I even arrived.
You've been
extremely informative.
I can say Lhasa,
FEAST, Your Cafe and I guess just the journey are what I like most in this
tour.
You're welcome to
come to Vancouver and hang out with us! I'll probably make a trip up there with
a friend again someday!
Gabriel Zi-hao Lai
(Vancouver, Canada)
I appreciated the
skill of our driver, who always made us feel safe along often narrow and
treacherous roads. He drove carefully and, when necessary, slowly. Though I
wasn't able to communicate with the driver because of the language barrier, it
was clear that he cared about our comfort and health during the trip.
There's no
question that Tenzin Sangbo is a terrific guide, very knowledgeable about
Tibetan culture, history and religious practices and always eager to help. I
was surprised to learn that he was only 24 years old -- his competence, street
smarts and maturity led me to think him much older.
During my trip, I
relied heavily upon his expertise, especially since I over-estimated my ability
to handle the difficulties of acclimatization, attributing symptoms of altitude
sickness to caffeine withdrawal! It was Tenzin who alerted me to my condition
and who made sure I received proper treatment so that I could continue with my
trip. I really don't know what I would have done without him. I recommend him
as a guide without any reservations. He more than deserves his bonus.
What I liked most
in this tour is Tenzin's willingness to ensure that our trip went smoothly and
the care that was expressed by everyone involved - from Tenzin, to the driver,
to even the owners of the nomad hotel, when it was clear I was unwell. I
appreciated everyone's concern.
I am very pleased
with my experiences with you and Spinn Cafe.
Thy Phu (Toronto, Canada)
We were very
satisfied with the driver. The ride was smooth.
I would like to recommend
the same tour guide to other travelers. I think she is very nice and she is
familiar with Tibetan culture so that we could know more about interesting
things about Tibetan culture. ex. why Tibetan women wear different colored
dresses.
We like the
flexibility of your tour arrangement. My husband and I was hesitating before
the trip because we had limited vacation time, only 2 weeks. We had a lot of
plans within the time frame.Most of
the Tibetan tours offered by other travel agencies are at lease 6 days
but you could offer us something shorter.
The thing that I
like the most in this tour is that we had a lot of free time so that we were
able to do a lot of things by ourselves.
We both had a
great time in Tibetan, even it was a short trip.
I appreciate you
for everything in this trip. I wish you the best in you endeavors.
Charles Rooney (Connecticut, USA), Tracy Rooney (New
York, USA)
Our drivers were
really great! We are very glad to have them as guides. They were very friendly
and we felt really safe with them. We would recommend them at anyone who would
like to travel in Tibet.
We greatly
appreciated Lobsang’s services. She was really nice, helpful and accomodant.
Maybe an older guide with more experience would be better for older people but
it was perfect for us, crazy young French people! And we would surely recommend
her to friends!
We are very
grateful for your help on the tour arrangement, because you granted all our
requests and accommodate to all the changes we asked! At first we wanted to
find the cheapest travel agency, you were the cheapest, and your service was
perfect!
It was good that
you let us see and choose the hostels.
We would like to
thank you again for your help on the handling of our tour. Everything was perfect
and we really really enjoy this trip!
We wish you the
best for the future!
Ivan Artuikh (Toulouse, France)
Corentin Aulagne (Saint Etienne, France)
Clemence Buisson (Chartres, France)
Laurent Courtois (Lille, France)
Eva Fernandez (Montauban, France)
Thomas Gelez (Lille, France)
Kevin Thibout (Dreux, France)
The driver is
very good and always shows up early.
We're amazed by
how flexible and accommodating our guide is. He's very knowledgeable about the
places we went to as well as other things related to the Tibetan culture.
Like I mentioned
when we met, I think your service is very professional. I think your very
detailed and timely response to my information request was the deciding factor.
I also appreciate your flexibility in terms of accommodation arrangements. My
wife is relatively picky about accommodation, and we really appreciate your
flexibility.
I think your
travel service is perfect, and we really appreciate all your help. We look
forward to visiting Tibet again in the future.
Johan Sulaeman (Sukabumi, Indonesia), Deserina
Sulaeman (Jakarta, Indonesia)
I was really
impressed with my driver. He was friendly, knowledgeable and drove very safely.
My guide was still
good. His knowledge of Buddhism was very useful for me in monasteries.
I chose you
because you came well recommended. I think your handling of the tour was good,
considering the difficult circumstances. You were always quick to reply to my
emails, and honest in your replies even when you couldn't deliver (ie the
Chamdo permit).
Daniel McCrohan (London, UK)
The driver was
excellent. He was very kind and careful driver with a sense of humor.
Your handling was
great and very helpful. You'd been very responsive, informative and interactive
in the tour arrangement. I liked the way how you tailored the itinerary to suit
our needs. I chose it because you're highly recommended by some friends and the
way that we interacted through Gmail.
I think your
service was excellent, and you were fast in replying our emails too. You were
very kind to buy medicine (for attitude sickness) for us when we just arrived.
Yet it would be better if you can enjoy the sunrise with us in Pabongkha
Monastery, and will be even better if you could send the photos to us! :P
Thanks so much
Pazu for bringing us this lovely trip! Keep enjoying everything in Tibet!
And thanks so
much for the company and wonderful memories. Truly, we didn't feel that you're
doing any business. You've been so sincere and enthusiastic. Truly some nice
friends to enjoy Tibet together.
Riding bicycles
with you and Oat, hospitality and beautiful encounters under such sacred and
magical skies were what we enjoyed most in Tibet.
Keep enjoying
your magical life in Tibet and stay well and keep in touch.
Catherine Lau
(Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong)
Bonnie Chung
(Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong)
The driver took me
to airport, very nice pleasant and most helpful with luggage, a good driver, a
big hug. I wish I could have known a bit of Tibetan language.
Excellent tour
guide, so nice, courteous and polite and very knowledgeable about history,
culture, etc. Vbery pretty and
intelligent.
Kong, you were
very patient with me and all the delays about getting a train ticket. I
appreciated. I chose your agency on
website after typing solo travel tibet,
your questions and answers gave a good impression. Honest and knowledgeable.
I would recommend anytime.
I like everything
in this tour: Lhasa, the Tibetans, the trip by train, the freedom I could
choose my guesthouse, the guides, the weather, landscape, your services... I
miss lhasa and hope to go back, this time to Lake Manasarovar and Mt Kailash.
Jeannie Perreault (La Perade, Canada)
I would recommed
the driver to other travellers. He
was very jovial and friendly and made the experience enjoyable. He drove slower than everyone else on
the road, but consequently, I think that made him a better driver and I felt
safer. I don't think there was a
time where I think I was afraid of his driving.
I would also
recommend the tour guide to other travellers. She was a little shy, but was incredibly
knowledgeable about our trip and what we wanted to do. She was very friendly and loved learning
about us and vice versa. I had a
lot of fun talking with her and learning about Tibet.
Well, personally,
my Tibet trip far exceeded my expectations and that was due mainly to the
hospitality and friendliness that you had provided at Spinn Cafe. I felt like I was at home in Lhasa and
that is a very special thing to feel when you are thousands and thousands of
kilometers from home. I thought
that you handled the tour arrangement just as well as I would expect any tour
operator to handle it. I picked you
over others because you seemed like a real person as opposed to someone working
behind a computer desk punching numbers for a big company to get his paycheck.
I had full trust in
you, so I didn't really need all that, I also felt that our communication was
good. If there ever was a
miscommunication, I think we both cleared it up quickly. The communication I had with you was
another reason as to why I chose you to arrange our trip as opposed to someone
else.
The thing I liked
most about our tour was hanging out in Lhasa. You really made me feel at home and I
loved going to the restaurants you took us to and all the people we met, and it
was an all around great time. You
play a good daddy for us out-of-continent folk, haha.
If I were to do
this tour again, I probably would also mainly just hang out in Lhasa because I
have seen most other things, and there is nothing wrong with going out to
elaborate 20-course dinners with Pazu Kong!
Thanks again for
everything you did for our trip, it was greatly appreciated! Hopefully, we can come back again
sometime!
Sunil Gopal (Arizona, USA) and Robin Richardson (Illionois, USA)
The driver is fine,
with occasional stops for us to take toilet breaks and he seems more than happy
to stop along the way for us to take photos. He is also experienced enough to
navigate through the dark moutainous trail with the help of our guide when we
requested him to drive straight from Kailash to Saga which took more than
10hours of driving.
We are very happy
with the services of our tour guide Tenzin. He is sincere. He makes effort to
ensure our needs are met therefore making this trip a memorable one.
I thought that
throughout the arrangement of the tour, we were able to get precise and frank
responds from you within a short period of time which makes the arrangement
easier.
I personally
appreciate the dinners gatherings which you have arranged when we gotten back
to Lhasa.
I find that the
little arrangement like welcoming us at the airport with the white scarf,
arranging a meeting with us prior to leaving for Kailash, passing us a set of
map and oxygen canister each and of course our favourite Spinn Lemonade have
made me feel very welcoming.
This is something
which i have not experienced with other agency.
I chose Spinn
because I feel comfortable with it when we first enquire on the tour. You are
also very open about the cost of the tour and knowledgeable when handling with
our queries. I think mostly importantly is that Spinn is able to portray to
clients that it is reliable.
I also like the
flexibility of our itinerary, the randoms stops along the road for
photo-taking, the welcoming feeling from you and your staffs as well as our
guide and driver & all the people we have met.
We enjoyed our
tibet trip very much and it have been a fun journey for us. Nice to have met
you guys. And after hearing so much on the trip, my parents are also very keen
to go on there next year. Hope to link up with you again when the time is near.
Definitely I will
recommend your service to other people.
Ong Jun Quan (Singapore)
Hola Pazu!!!
Greetings from Guatemala!!!!
We had a
wonderful journey to China & Tibet, and definetly the best nights were in
Lhasa, at your bar!!! We're still laughing about your videos! Hope you put them
in you tube, they're so funny!!!
It was great
meeting you, I hope we can keep in touch and that you keep updating us with
your videos so we can continue laughing! Alejandro says hello!
Ana Sagastume (Guatemala)
The driver is
very experienced and practice safe driving (unlike majority of the other cars
on the road). He is flexible and is willing to driving more than 12 hrs and able
to take on difficult road at night (10+pm to 11+pm) in order for us to reach a
town where we can stay (we decided not to board at the tent at Lake Mansarovar
after our Mt Kailash trip, and going straight into 1 town, hence such long
drive).
He is also able
to understand Chinese and communicate with us in Chinese, telling us some of
the history and stuffs together with our tour guide. He took the initiative to
help us carry out bag when he see us carrying it, not many drivers has such
kind of initiative. Very happy go lucky, thus it makes the overall trip an
enjoyable one. I would definitely recommend the driver for long trip like us
(given his excellent driving skill and knowledge), and for older travellers
that may not know English very well, he will be of a great help.
As for the tour
guide, I would recommend Tenzin to other traveler, given his age (same as us!),
he is surprisingly well verse in many things, from political to history, myth
and legend of Tibet. It is in fact a bonus for us to have him as a guide (thank
you!). During our very tough trek in Kailash (us being city boys and girl),
Tenzin helped us tremendously by guiding us, carrying our heavy bags together
with his own (although he didn’t have to), he even packed some dry food for us for
fear that we didn't have enough.
It is really
thoughtful of him. He continued to fulfill his duty as a guide, which is very
remarkable. Also, unlike other guides that may want to earn more commission, he
didnt take us to shops that sell expensive tourist-ish stuffs, but bring us to
shops that we want and also restaurants that we want. During the drive at
night, he even went down the car to guide our driver because there was no
street light and it was very dark. He definitely put us first instead of himself.
He will ensure that he helped us resolve difficult issues/problems before he
take his rest (albeit a really LONG day).
For all these, I
suppose Tenzin do deserve a rating of 5, and definitely deserve the extra
commission (money). It a form a appreciation for all the hard-work he did.
We got to know
Spinn Cafe through Lonely Planet forum. We were looking for a trustworthy
agency which we can trust in this tour arrangement, and your reply in Lonely
Planet forum attracts us to book you since you know better than anyone how
traveling etc works and the difficulty traveler may faced traveling in Tibet
since you've experienced it first hand yourself. We would recommend your
service to my relatives and friends definitely. :)
We also like the
flexibility to change the itinerary as we like in between the tour, it’s a
private tour, so I dont have to tolerate other people’s slowness etc, guide and
driver being extremely accomodating, able to experience the other side of tibet
which I believe large tour wouldn’t be able to. Most imptly, traveling in a way
not many people is able to in normal tour group.
Celestal Lee Xinying
(Singapore)
Mei and i reached home yesterday morning in good health. You
know, we already start missing Tibet and Spinn cafe when we were in the train
to Chengdu. Just couldn't control my tears when the train moved away from
the station.
Somehow, I feel glad that we had made the right choice of stayed in
Lhasa longer. Though I left Lhasa with bundles of joys and memories.
Tibet was like a mystery and unreachable place for me. But now,
the perceptions have changed. i feel like i found a home for my
soul.........hahaha!!
Comments for the driver Kelsang:
●
Very experince driver with good driving skills
●
Know the routes well
●
Able to provide estimated time frame and
distance from one place to another
●
Very helpful in looking for the right hostel
and negotiate for the best room rate for the group
●
Stopped at many spots without fail whenever
requested by the photography mania
●
Can speak in Chinese language rather well
●
Played good Tibet songs and music with right
volume
●
Overall comments: Highly recommanded for other
travellers
Comments for
the tour guide Tashi:
●
Very helpful, patient, pleasant and caring
personal
●
Always tried his best to provide informations to
his clients
●
Tried to get information from
others whenever in doubts eg: monk in-charge of the chapel
●
Know well about the needs of his clients such as
places for filling our stomach and best place to sleep from our very limited budget.
●
Passion to teach people about his language,
religion, and cultural believes
Comments for the tour coordinator Pazu Kong:
●
Reply to client's enquiries promptly
●
Provide very clear and transparent information
and quatation
●
Able to give good advise or his personal
opinions
●
Has good communication skills esp in English is
a vast advantage to deal with foreigner travelllers. My personal experience, I
had gone through a lot of hassel as tried to understand feedback/reply
from some agents and the information provided were usually not specific.
●
Willing to take his efforts to follow up
cases before finalized everything though the requests from client
changed from time to time eg: changes of length of tour, visit spots, numbers
of tour members, and permit application process.
●
Some hiccups did happened during the tour.
However, prompt actions had been taken and problems solved.
●
Overall comments: You did it well. Keep it up.
What I like most of this tour is the warm hospitality and sincere friendship
from Pazu Kong. And what I didn’t like is the rules and regulations for Tibet
entry and travel set by the authority.
Khoo May Pin (Melaka, Malaysia) and Tiew Geok Mei (Melaka, Malaysia)
Our driver our tour guide were very good. I chose you because you
were recommended by Jim and Helen.
Everything was good.
Brian Cheadle (Northwich, Canada) and
Barbara Cheadle (< t;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"'>We're still busy with filtering our
more than 4000 pictures. I hope to put some of them on Facebook soon. In the meantime
I'm sending you already a few pictures of our trip with Oat along the riverside
and the old village.
Hugs and greetings,
Marion Ceunen (Gent, Belgium), Dimitri
Declercq (Ronse, Belgium)
Driver Nyima was fine, he speaks
little English but we have an English speaking guide. He was a good driver,
quiet and friendly. Tour guide Tenzin was also okay, friendly and his English
was ok.
We had no communication problems,
communication with you was excellent and you were also very prompt in answering
our emails.
We also appreciated the phone calls
from you when underway.
What we like most was the scenery and
the impromptu times we spent with you in Lhasa! We loved the drive to and from
Mount Everest, the visit to Mount Everest base camp and staying near the base
camp were the highlights of our trip.
Jim den Hartog (Leidschendam, the
Netherlands),
Helen den Dekker (Andei, the
Netherlands)
Hope everything is ok at your place,
thanks for sending us the DVD and I will pass your contact data in the next
days to one or two friends who're planning to go to Tibet,
too.
Our driver was very friendly and
attentive. He had a relaxed way of driving. The tour guide was very educated in
Tibetan culture and religion. He could tell us a lot of interesting and funny
stories and we could enjoy a lot of entertaining sightseeing tours. The guiding
service was excellent.
We really appreciated that your door
was always open for us not depending on the daytime! ;) Thanks for helping us
to organise the flight back for Tobias. The tour arrangement was consistent,
there were no misunderstandings and our tour guide was very open for
spontaneous changes in the day's programme.
We appreciate the kind-heartedness and
openness of our tour-guide, and it was the highlights of our tour to see the
Mount Everest and experience the Tibetan culture.
Florian Franke (Koblenz, Germany),
Sven Joerg Knueppel (Burgstadt,
Germany),
Andreas Lars Wachaja (Backnang, Germany),
Tobias Glasenapp
(Heidelberg, Germany)
I liked the driver very much,
especially because he seemed to be in for jokes and didn't complain once when
we asked for our 100th picture-stop. Our tour guide knows a lot about
Tibetan culture and religion and he seemed to enjoy all our questions; like
trying to win a debating 'game' like the monks do.
I'm very satisfied about our tour. And
I like the fact that along our way we could change our plans. I appreciate the
possibility to change our itinerary on our way.
Thanks for arranging our tour; I'll
recommend Spinn Cafe to other travellers!
Tamara van Driel
(Eindhoven, the Netherlands)
I already recommended you to other
travellers who were interested in tibet. Hope they contact you.
Driver Pasang was really nice, he
understands english well (he is just to shy to speak it). He is reliable as a
driver and drives very safely.
Our tour guide Tsering is very
friendly and keen to share his knowledge. if he is not sure about a naggy
question from me, he can say that he doesn't know the answer - which I prefer
rather than telling me some wrong stories. He knows a lot about Tibetan
Buddhism and the fact that he was in a monastry for some time makes it
authentic what he says.
I liked the variety of sites we
visited and foremost Tibet, its culture, religion, people and our team. it was
a great experience. I appreciated and liked very much what I saw.
Christian Zehnder (Zurich,
Switzerland)