Smile tour in vietnam with thi

[Benita]

Hue was probably the most overrated part of our two week Vietnam tour. Unfortunately, the Forbidden city was destroyed during the war and very little has been rebuilt. We took a "dragon boat" for a two hour cruise on the Perfume River there and visited a Pagoda, but there was not much there. If your ship is docking in Danang, I would make a visit to the Cham museum to see the world class sculptures. Also, if there is an excursion to Hoi An, I would look into that as there is so much more to see there than in Hue.

[Jade13]

Hi,

 

in HCMC we are about 1 and 1/2 days, because we get there about 2pm.

 

I have got it organized, 1º day delta mekong river, 2º day city tour.

 

My problem is now Hue.

 

We arrive 7am and stay till 6pm, do you think I can take a chance to do the daytrip with smiletours? Or I have to be careful in case we dont get back to the ship at time? I dont want to loose the ship hahhaha

 

Which Ship? I am confused on how you are arriving at 2:00pm and taking a tour on the Mekong River the first day from HCMC. Are you taking a bus or boat along the river? It takes 2-3 hours to get to My Tho....

 

As far as Hue, are you docking in Danang? If so, you have to decide between Hue or Hoian because they are in opposite directions. We are going to My Son and HoiAn.

[caramelo]

sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy my english is realy confusing.

 

We are on the azamara quest.

 

The day we arrive in HCMC at 2pm the smile tour will pick us up to go on the delta mekong river trip for 4h. Next day we organized a city tour. Firsto of all we wanted to do this on our own, but we dont have much time, because our ship leaves at 4pm

 

We arrive in danang thats why I wanted to do this trip on the perfume river to Hue.

Benita, you mean its not worse to go and see it? I have seen the forbidden city in Peking, so what do you think I should do? Better to go to Hoi-an?

[Jade13]

sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy my english is realy confusing.

 

We are on the azamara quest.

 

The day we arrive in HCMC at 2pm the smile tour will pick us up to go on the delta mekong river trip for 4h. Next day we organized a city tour. Firsto of all we wanted to do this on our own, but we dont have much time, because our ship leaves at 4pm

 

We arrive in danang thats why I wanted to do this trip on the perfume river to Hue.

Benita, you mean its not worse to go and see it? I have seen the forbidden city in Peking, so what do you think I should do? Better to go to Hoi-an?

 

Carmelo, please email Thi at Smile Tours to confirm what you are doing with the Mekong tour. This would be the 1.5 or 2 hours drive to My Tho where you take a small boat around the canals. Find out what time it gets dark. If you don't get going until 3:00pm and don't get there until 4:30 or 5:00pm.....I just don't understand how this is a 4 hour tour. Are you going with others on your roll call and what do they think? From the research/posts from others my understanding is that 4 hours would be almost the entire time driving there round trip.

 

Btw, your English is good but you need to be sure to include which ship and port. For example, Princess is docked something like 2 hours from HCMC where Quest is scheduled to be right there.

[caramelo]

ok here is the copy of the mail: I am geting a little bit nervios, because nobody understand the tour we booked hahhahaha:)

ok tell me what do you think about this:

 

 

 

Day 1 - 29 Jan: My Tho tour in the Mekong Delta

12:00 Pick up the guests inside the Pier at Saigon port in HCMC to transfer to My Tho city in the Mekong Delta.

14:00 Arrival in My Tho located on the Upper branch of the Mekong river. Get on a private boat and cruise through the river and small canals, visit local family workshops of making coconut candies and fruit orchards to see how the local people live.

17:30 Transfer back to HCMC

20:00 Enjoy the unique water puppet show for 1 hour

21:30 Back to the cruise or to a hotel down town Saigon

 

 

Day 2 – 30 Jan : HCMC Tour

08:00 Meet our guide at the pier and start to enjoy city tour in HCMC, a dynamic and charming city in Southern Vietnam, with visits to China town, the Big market (Cho Lon) and Thien Hau temple (Sea Goddess temple)

10:00 Continue city tour with visits to the Reunification Palace, the Hundred Years Red Cathedral (Notre Dame Cathedral), the Old Post Office, the Opera House, the People’s Committee Hall, Rex hotel in the city center.

11:30 Shopping at the Ben Thanh market

13:00 Transfer back to the port

13:30 Drop off at the pier

 

 

Tour inclusions:

Private modern car or van (from 2005 up), boats in My Tho, English speaking guides, entrance fees for tourist sites and water puppet show, refreshment of water and wet tissues, and permit to pick up inside the ports

 

 

Thi checked the port we arrive, so there is no problem, its about 30min. from the town.

[greatam]

I personally wouldn't waste my money on the Mekong tour you have booked. You will be put in a very small boat that will go up and down the canals. This is NOT the Mekong-it is merely the small tributaries around the area. And you will have at least 5 hours of riding around in a bus/van. NOT a fun day.

 

For your arrival day, do the day tour of Saigon. Enjoy downtown Saigon at night. Shop til you drop. Maybe even go to the Sheraton or Caravelle and have dinner-the views are really great.

 

Then the following day, either take a REAL Mekong cruise such as Jade13 has booked or go to CuChi or get out in the country and see real Vietnamese life.

 

I think the first day tour you have planned leaves a LOT to be desired.

[caramelo]

Where did Jade book her tour, with smile?

 

The agency told us we would see villages and the people living there.

 

If I finde the tour from Jade I can have a look. I dont want to go to chu chi, because I have seen tunels in Peking.

[caramelo]

Carmelo, please email Thi at Smile Tours to confirm what you are doing with the Mekong tour. This would be the 1.5 or 2 hours drive to My Tho where you take a small boat around the canals. Find out what time it gets dark. If you don't get going until 3:00pm and don't get there until 4:30 or 5:00pm.....I just don't understand how this is a 4 hour tour. Are you going with others on your roll call and what do they think? From the research/posts from others my understanding is that 4 hours would be almost the entire time driving there round trip.

 

Btw, your English is good but you need to be sure to include which ship and port. For example, Princess is docked something like 2 hours from HCMC where Quest is scheduled to be right there.

 

Jade tell me please what is your tour like. Good job I didnt pay yet.

 

So let me know if you have done it with smile (i hope so) and what they call this tour to tell Thi.

 

Thanks greatam y jade for the help

[greatam]

Where did Jade book her tour, with smile?

 

The agency told us we would see villages and the people living there.

 

If I finde the tour from Jade I can have a look. I dont want to go to chu chi, because I have seen tunels in Peking.

 

The tunnels in Cu Chi are NOTHING like the tunnels in Beijing. There were entire villages, hospitals, schools, etc, underground in Vietnam. The Chinese tunnels were primarily used as a transport means.

 

Cu Chi may not hold any interest for those not involved with the Vietnam War. And as I have posted, crawling through one of the "westernized" tunnels is Cu Chi is NOT that interesting other than to realize how small and claustrophobic those tunnels were and to realize that people lived underground in those tunnels for very long times.

 

Good luck finding something. Yes, you will see villages and people living there, but the "mekong tour" you are looking at is a waste of time because of the tremendous amount of time needed for traveling to/from My Tho.

[Jade13]

Jade tell me please what is your tour like. Good job I didnt pay yet.

 

So let me know if you have done it with smile (i hope so) and what they call this tour to tell Thi.

 

Thanks greatam y jade for the help

 

We did not book the Mekong with Smile tours. We have a group from our cruise who are chartering a motorboat from HCMC to go on the Mekong Delta. However, we are scheduled to dock at 9:00am. I was never interested in being in a bus for 2 hours each way. You need a group of 8-10 people to make this reasonable and it had to be paid in advance (not like Smile who takes cash that day)

 

I am still unclear on your cruise what time Quest is scheduled to dock in HCMC? At first I thought you said 2:00pm, but than you showed a tour picking you up at the port at 12:00pm.

[caramelo]

Hi everybody,

 

we arrive in HCMC at 12pm and our port is about 30min. away from the city. This is what the vietnamese agency told me, because azamara told us 2 diferent ports. Very confusing.

 

Thats why we thought to stay overnight in the town, but now we dont need to.

[Benita]

sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy my english is realy confusing.

 

We are on the azamara quest.

 

The day we arrive in HCMC at 2pm the smile tour will pick us up to go on the delta mekong river trip for 4h. Next day we organized a city tour. Firsto of all we wanted to do this on our own, but we dont have much time, because our ship leaves at 4pm

 

We arrive in danang thats why I wanted to do this trip on the perfume river to Hue.

Benita, you mean its not worse to go and see it? I have seen the forbidden city in Peking, so what do you think I should do? Better to go to Hoi-an?

 

Hoi An is much more interesting than Hue. There is absolutely no comparison between Hue and the forbidden city in Peking. Hue used to have some fabulous buildings, but almost everything was destroyed during the war and only a couple of buildings have been restored. Hoi An has more to see and some interesting marketplaces. Also, if the ship is docked in Danang, the Cham Museum is great.

[caramelo]

Hoi an is very far from danang?

[Benita]

Hoi An is much closer to Danang than Hue is to Danang. It is about 25 km. from Danang to Hoi An and another 75 km from Danang up to Hue. It was only about a 25 minute bus ride to Hoi An from the airport in Danang.

[caramelo]

ok I have a look in Internet if I find something interesting to do there. Thank you.

 

And I am goingo to send a mail to Thi aswell.

[caramelo]

Hi

I just had a mail from Thi and she confirmed me we would be back from de delta river tour at 5.30pm. This is the time when it gets dark.

 

So I should not worry to much.

 

I just leave everything the way I have got it organized.

[caramelo]

hello everybody,

 

I had news from Thi, she is going to change my tours, because she thought we leave at 12pm and not at 4pm.

 

This means, first day HCMC trip, 2nd deltamekong tour

 

She said, trust me, I am going to organize something good for you.:)

[madjam81]

We just completed a 16 night cruise on Diamond Princess disembarking in Singapore on 18/4/12. In VIETNAM Phu My (Saigon) we had pre-arranged a private tour for 20 persons with Thi at Smile tours based on positove reviews I had read on cruise critic and trip advisor. Our ship was supposed to dock at 7am but due to a container ship sinking at Phu My port the ship was not able to dock until 12.pm. Thi had left HCMC at 4.30am to reach the port at 7am and then waited for us until 12.00pm to disembark. If that is not AMAZING service I don't know what is. Due to the delay caused by the unfortunate accident at the port (even though the captain allowed us more time on shore), we didn't have as much time as originally planned, but Thi managed to fit everything in as planned, including a stop at Notre Dame church and post office (was supposed to be a drive by only). We gave lunch a miss (which made sense given the time we got into HCMC) and this was not a problem as lunch was not included in the tour cost of $65 (for a group of 20). We also missed the war museum so we could fit everything else in. Also our group decided we preferred to spend more time at the market and skip the laquerware factory. Thi was exceptional in every way under very difficult circumstances for all. She gave us a great tour and got us back to the ship on time and never once did she complain about the hours she had to wait, the total length of her day or the money she lost as a result of over 10 persons not showing up (she had to pay the port fees for these people as well as losing their payment). Her english is outstanding. She is a lovely person. Her communication skills prior to the day were amazing. She responded to emails very quickly and nothing was a problem. She allows flexibility in the itinerary. In short, she was a consummate professional and a pleasure to deal with. I highly recommend her. We paid cash on completion of the tour.

 

thi_travel@yahoo.com

[cheffip]

Can anyone who used Smile (Thi) for Hanoi, Halong Bay and/or Hoian give me their comments about their experience, suggestions etc?

 

Also, we only have a morning in Halong Bay (ship leaves at 1 pm) and Thi has suggested a 4 hr private junk tour...just a little nervous about missing the ship so was wondering about a ship's tour there instead?