We had the most distressing experience with
this tour company. We were deceived and received
a very sub- standard service including hotels
that weren’t booked when we arrived,
and the provision of a non-English speaking
student as a tour guide who was not qualified
to take us into many of the places of interest
nor guide us through the border between Tibet
and Nepal, causing us much distress and uncertainty
as to how we would get to Kathmandu.
Upon our arrival in Kathmandu, we complained
to the owner, Mr Tilak who said that it is
OK to provide a student instead of an English
Speaking Guide as specified and to book hotels
as you arrive.
1. Our first night in Lhasa, we were taken
to the Gorka hotel as on our itinerary but
is was full so were taken elsewhere to the
New Mandala Hotel.
2. The ‘qualified tour guide’
turned out to be a student, called Tensing,
with very poor English who had no license
to be a tour guide. He said this was his
2nd tour.
- He was unqualified to take us into the
historic places, such as Potala Palace, Gyantse
Kumbum, Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. so left us
at the door to find our own way around, with
no commentary or notes on the place we were
visiting.
- He had never been to Everest base camp
and consequently, he took us off track as
a ‘shortcut’ which took us 200m
above it and we ended up looking down onto
it! (Apparently, we were in an illegal area!)
- He was unhelpful. After a few experiences
we asked him to phone in advance to book
the hotels and he refused. When we asked
if we had a booking, he said “I don’t
know”. When asked what we do if there is
no booking and no room, he said “I
don’t know”.
3. Many of the hotels had not been booked
in advance. The Everest View Hotel was booked
so we had a long, 71km, drive back to the
nearest town to find a hotel.
4. The guide said he only had a list of hotels
and no tour itinerary. Consequently, we missed
several places of interest. At one point
we had to turn back which added an extra
2 hours to the trip so there was no time
to stop and take photos for the rest of the
day as the driver was tired.
5. We had no stops at points of interest
en route. We only stopped when the guide
saw a group of tourists. We were given no
information so we had to ask the other tourists
why we had stopped.
6. No advice or guidance was given on local
restaurants so we ate expensive, poor food
in the hotels. Other tour guides took their
party to local ‘westernised’
restaurants
7. We left Shigatse at 9am for a 3 hour drive
to arrive at Shegar to find there was no
hotel booking so we had to go to another
hotel. We were told to rest for the afternoon.
It would have been better to stay longer
in Shigatse which had many more interesting
places to see.
8. We arrived at the passport checkpoint
for the Everest Park and after queuing for
some time we were turned away because we
didn’t have a ticket so we had to go
back into the town to get a ticket.
