Back to Spinn Cafe.
Our tours and cafe are
recommended by the Lonely Planet
For anyone interested in travelling to
Karen Maric and her family (
http://karenmaric.fatcow.com/2012/08/19/some-tips-for-parents-travelling-with-small-kids-to-tibet/
The trip was absolutely wonderful and we had such a great
time. I can honestly say that Kalsang was the best guide we could have possibly
hoped for - he was so patient, knowledgeable and so calm in a potential crisis,
when Holly had to be get down quickly off Kailash when she got a bit of
altitude sickness.
Also, Pasang (our driver), was really good, he was also a
great companion throughout the trip (especially during the Kora around Mt
Kailash - which I ended up completing in two days due to Holly's altitude
sickness). They both worked really well together, and seemed to be a great team
- I think if you could pair those two up more often, that
would be great.
I would 100% recommend the same driver to other travellers.
The driving was excellent, he was really patient and
careful. The driver and guide worked really well together, they really got on,
and listened to each other (and us).
The tour guide Garong (Kelsang, aka Garong) was excellent,
and would definitely recommend the same to others (it was a real adventure
through a true wilderness). The guiding service again, I could not rate highly
enough.
Your handling of the tour was also higher than five stars.
Your advice for the trip and the time in which you responded to my initial
emails made me choose you (all the other agencies that I contacted took
sometimes days to get back to me, as opposed to you, who responded to me within
the hour).
In a very challenging environment, you were able to provide
excellent service. It is everything we could have hoped for.
The whole tour was brilliant. We loved Kailash and would
recommend anyone to go and visit the area. What really made it was the great
company provided by our guide and driver. It was sad to see them go at the
border.
The weather was perfect, the guiding and driver was perfect
- we could not have hoped for a better tour. Anyway, thanks again to you and
Oat for organising this, and I wish you well in the
future.
Alaric Parsons and Holly Matthews (
We have just arrived back from
Simon and Carol (
We just came back from
Jubob66 (
We miss you, too! We loved our experience in
Likewise for our tour guide Kelsang, full marks+! He was very knowledgable about the
culture of
Kong, it was a very lucky day for us when we chose you to
arrange our tour. I contacted a
number of agencies at the start, and did as much Internet research as I
could. Something about you grabbed
me from the start. Objectively, I
was impressed with your prompt responses, cool website, obvious knowledge and
the fact that you use Tibetan guides/drivers. I reviewed posts you had made on Lonely
Planet Thorntree and found you were always intelligent, well-spoken
and to the point. I loved your
story - biking to
What we liked most in this tour? Allegra -
"Everything!" Ethan
- "I really liked seeing the monasteries and seeing Pazu Kong!" William - "The drive through the
PS: Laurie¡¯s family also posted the following comments to
Tripadvisor.com.
l We just returned from our Asia trip,
spent 10 days in
Laurie, William, Allegra and Ethan Hill (
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
Well,
personally, my
I had full
trust in you, I 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
If I were
to do this tour again, I probably would also mainly just hang out in
Thanks
again for everything you did for our trip, it was greatly appreciated! Hopefully, we can come back again
sometime!
Sunil Gopal (
I really
had fun hanging out with you at your cafe and at the swamp! I wish we had more
time to explore tibet with you.
We really liked
the driver. its more comforting to know that he's a
tibetan so he knows the local terrain. not to mention,
he drove really well. no speeding or sudden jerks or
dangerous cuts.
We would
also recommend Dorjee (our tour guide). He's a very pleasant fellow who is not
overbearing and very attentive, punctual and helpful. He also has a good
command of english (I overheard some french tour's tour guide, her english was terrible ). We really liked spending time with him and he's
very easy going and knowledgeable about literally everything.
I was very
pleased with the way you handled the arrangement. I value efficiency and you
were always quick and responsive over email or by phone and most importantly
you were transparent and clear regarding prices and procedure, i liked that
very much. i chose spinn cafe for its price, i felt
that it was the most reasonable and transparent.
I found
spinn cafe's website on google. i actually went
through all the pages of the search engine and looked at each tour operator before
finally choosing you guys.
Zhang Yumeng (Singapore) and Natalie Ng Un Tong (United Kingdom/Hong Kong)
Our driver is excellent. He has good knowledge of
the roads and good driving skills. He is quite funny too.
Our tour guide Penpa is excellent too. He is very knowledgeable, an we learned so much about the religion,
culture and history of Tibet from him during the tour.
We learned about you and Spinn Cafe from a friend
and then we did some internet research about you and
were happy with we found. Overall we are happy about your service.
The things we like most in our tour, the Tibetan,
the tour guide, the driver and you - and of course the food and drinks at Spinn
Cafe.
Kelvin,
Lilian, Stephen Tao, Wandy (Hong Kong and United States)
I am very
thankful for your help in organizing our trip in Tibet. We all had a great
experience.
First of
all, you response very fast and answered all the questions. I found, you and
your team are very effective. Especially, when I got panic about the permit at
the last day. Your team assisted me very well.
Our driver
Kigae is highly experienced, punctual, professional.
He drove really well and knows all the curve and bends of Tibetan streets. He
also found the best photo spots for us. At Kulu-la pass, he stopped before and
drove pass slowly the main parking so that we do not have to pay for the tickets.
We were thankful. I would highly recommend him to other travellers. :-D
We were
impressed with our tour guide Tenzin Yangchin's knowledge about Tibet's
history, Buddhism, culture, geography, ..basically
everything. She made sure that we got what we needed. She took us around Lhasa
by bus, as we wished. And it was a great experience and fun to be packed with
locals in a bus. I would also highly recommend her to other tourists.
Your
arrangement was great. Very efficient. I liked
complementary drinks at spinn cafe.
I found by
from a blog of Thai girls travelling to Tibet. They mentioned Spinn Caf¨¦.
The reason
that I chose your service is that we had freedom to choose places to visit,
hotels and restaurants. Everything went really well.
Jarunan Panyasantisuk, Thirachai
Panyasantisuk, Sarawut Panyasantisuk, Kitti Panyasantisuk (a family from
Thailand)
Thank you
for the great trip!
Our tour
guide Tenzin Yangchin was very good, especially background information about
the culture were excellent.
The trip
arrangement was very good, and especially the detailed background information were helpful.
It was a
really good package and also from the schedule perspective it worked out fine.
I found you
on Google, and your tour had the best background information on the website.
This builds trust that you know what you are doing.
Thank you
again.
Adrian Fiechter (Switzerland) and
Sanna Lindeman (Finland)
I would
absolutely recommend the same driver, I really like his driving style and is
easy to see his experience.
I
definitively would recommend Tenzin Sangpo, he is a
great tourist guide with a lot of knowledge in religious matters.
Your
service was just what we were looking for and I would rate it with a 5 (out of
5).
Thank you
very much for everything, you will have my full advice for any that would like
to make this trip!
Mauricio Baltodano and Indiana
Morales (Costa Rica)
Tomorrow we
are leaving Tibet, thank you for your kindness. We are appreciated for your
helping and this is our memorable trip. By the way our tour guide Tenzin
Yangchin, she is very good guide for us. We will recommend your tour for our
friends.
Putsada Sriphet and Puitinai
Buttasen (Thailand)
I realise I
am EXTREMELY late with this feedback, but I have just recently been asked by a
friend about travel to Tibet and recommended Spinn caf¨¦, so I wanted to provide
this feedback.
I really
enjoyed having our tour guide Garong, a real local who knew local places to
eat. Perfect.
What we
like most about tour guide, our guide (everything from the way we were picked
up at the airport, to when we were taken back), the Spinn Caf¨¦ itself and of
course you, everyone made the entire experience something I won't forget (even
in writing this almost 12 months later, it's like only yesterday!)
It was
really a perfect trip, we had the right amount of things on the itinerary for
our trip, a good mix of places and especially
appreciate your taking some time out to talk with Dan and myself... I really
can't fault it.
I would
have to say of the tour, the most memorable part was the wetlands at the end,
relaxing, very much something that has stuck in my memory, it
was a great way to end our trip.
I hope that
you, and the Spinn caf¨¦ are all well, mate. I know in
the future if I have any friends interested in going on a trip to Tibet, I will
definitely recommend Spinn and yourself for it.
Take care.
Patrick MacDonald (Australia)
Professional, well planned, friendly, very knowledgeable. Your arrangement was
excellent.
Dan Curtis (Australia)
Our driver
was very good, no English but his driving was great, he was very patient and he
was good at mentioning some area for us to take picture to Tenzin.
As for the
guide Tenzin she also was very good, she was always willing to go the extra
miles.
As for you
it is a big 5+, we were very pleased with you last time and you did not disappointed us this time either. We like your efficiency
and communication. We would definitely recommended you
to anyone.
So thanks
again, we had a great time and hopefully we come back to Tibet again and if so
we will contact you.
Micheline & Atsushi (Canada)
Im pleased
to give my opinion. Here are our thoughts.
We would
recommend this driver. The driving is good, not too slow or fast. He is helpful
on what he can such as carrying our luggages there and there. We are somehow
feeling that he is nice :-)
We would
recommend this tour guide as well. He has done his job decently. He has been
answering to our many questions and make us understand
about things more. We know that sometimes our questions are such detailed. He
is nice and friendly. He is considered and caring;
remembering what we like to eat, for example.
I
personally and actually chose you as our tour agent because when i first
emailed you you make me comfortable to communicate with. I did emailed others too. But i didnt even compare you to other
tour after the first email. :-) so just wanna say that
the first impression is very important to me. What we were looking for is a
local tour which can make us happy and fun with an
acceptable price. Overall rate would be 5 (out of
We love the
knowledge of our tour guide. We are people who do homework before came here.
The guide really help to fulfil our questions and
understanding. It makes us understand and have more feeling toward the culture,
society, and religion of tibet. So far we enjoy your
service and happy with the trip.
We found
you on Pantip website, and word of mouth. :-)
Natladda Denkovitkit (khun Oil),
Supaporn Tangjitathithan, Nattapat Masvanich, Napapan Nilasri, Chompunut
Wongchitvutikrai, Jastikar Lertpaibul (Thailand)
The driver
is a very good, skilful and mature driver. He drove carefully. Though the roads
are all the ways up and down the hills, we felt secured when he drove the car.
We really like him.
Also, we
are impressed the way he drove and handle unexpected events, such as when there
were a few groups of youngsters blocking the road and pleading for money. He
did not argue with him, but simply took his phone to take photos of them. Then,
they disappeared.
He could
control himself very well and acted calmly. He is also far better than the
driver in Beijing and Nepal. I think it comes with his age and long-years
driving experience.
I will also
recommend the tour guide to other people. Tenzin is a helpful, friendly and
patience guide. He brought with him a tirelessly enthusiasm to work & also
excited to see the scenic views. I believe he has seen the mountains and
monasteries more than 10 times, but he was not seem bored when describing us
about each place history.
His English
was good though he could be fast sometimes (not a big concern). Possibly, he is
too energetic. He also had good knowledge about places. His
personality created relaxing atmosphere and communication among us.
Tenzin did observe the group's health and keep checking, which is one of the
good qualifications of him.
Sometimes, we called or texted him outside working hours. He quickly responded to us and
never gets moody.
During the
long day at work and bumpy journey, he was still in a good mood and took care
of us very well. We really like him & think he is one of our friends. I
think he was born to be a tour guide.
And I think
you are very professional. Yes, it¡¯s a personal reason that I found you and Oat
4 years ago. The first impression, that Oat told me and my
friends left our stuff, has shaped our good attitudes towards you that
this kind of person should be a good person to contact.
Also, you
are straightforward when handling our train tickets and when we want to refund
tickets. It is not about the money issue, but its more sincerity that you would
charge only the service that we used. Oh, also we are impressed that you
offered us to pay the remaining balance after the trip. I never ever saw this
before. Thank you for your trust in us.
You gave us
freedom of choice, which made our trip more personal and private. I'd also like
to give credit to your consistent response, follow-up, flexibility and
sincerity, which less expected that from other big agents. I would recommend
your travel agent to our contacts who want to come to
Tibet.
Noon, one
of my friends, knew you by Google when she searched for Tibet permit. Your info
was also in Pantips blog, there was a Thai girl mentioned she was in your caf¨¦.
Then, I realized that we had met before in Kathmandu. We hope our feedback
would be useful to you somehow. Look forward to seeing you and Oat again in the
future. If you have a chance to come to Bangkok again, we are eager to meet
you!
Noon and Nittaya Noi (Thailand)
Our driver
is kind and supportive.
We will
also recommend our tour guide Tenzin Yangchin to other traveller for sure.
You had a
quick response and organize everything for us smoothly. Thanks again
We really
appreciate everything that has happened. It's our great experiences.
I myself
(Rujida) know this tour from Google searching, I've found Spinn Cafe Facebook
(http://facebook.com/spinncafe) and i really appreciate the way you reached
Tibet. At first I wanna go by my self but when my
friends heard about this journey they joined.
We will
recommend your service for sure! Thanks :)
Rujida Sukprakarn, Manuporn
Luengaram, Chantawat Prohmvitak (Thailand)
Hello Pazu,
we really liked the tour, the length of the tour was
perfect. The prices very fine and the tour guide and the driver were very good
people. Our tour guide always look out for our best interest, trying to save us
money and giving good advices to where to buy, how much to pay, etc. He knew
very well the culture, traditions, and history of all the places we went. He
almost tried to answer our questions in the best way he could. He was very
respectful and helpful. A very honest person. The
driver, as well, was very opened to us.
We loved
Tibet. In my opinion it is one of the best places in the world. I will
definitively go again using your services.
Thank you
again!
Pamela Rojas (ÂóÀ¶Äİ), Wilbert Sanchez, Yelba Martinez
(Costa Rica)
We are very
happy to give you some feedback on our trip.
We were
very happy with our driver. We found him to be very pleasant and friendly. He
drove very carefully and did not speed or cause us to worry about safety. He
also was very attentive when I wished to take photographs and looked out for interesting
things for us to see and stopped if he saw something interesting.
Tenzin
Yangchin was a very good guide. She had very good knowledge of everything we
visited. She would always open the car door for me and was very polite. She
also has a sense of humour which meant she was fun to
spend time with. We would be very happy to have her again as our guide.
Your
organisation was great, when we asked you to change what you had originally
suggested this was no problem. The reason I originally wrote to you was because
of your mention in the lonely planet which says you
are very transparent, you responded very quickly and your tone was friendly and
helpful. Also your prices was competitive but more important was the fact that
you were efficient and quick to answer questions.
We enjoyed
the tour and we loved visiting the Jokhang Temple and the Potala Palace in Lhasa.
We found
your name in the latest version of the 'Lonely Planet' book and we are glad
that we did!
Thanks
again for all your hard work Kong!
All the
best for the future!
Alexander Mann and Rosalind Mann(United Kingdom)
Ultimately,
I would recommend you to others, because you were quick to respond; your
information was accurate; costs were clearly set out and we kept to budget; and
we really liked the flexibility of the tours when we arrived - leaving us to
choose our own hotel; arrange our own food, getting taxi's or even local buses
instead of the expense of more unnecessary 4WD or transport etc within Lhasa.
This was just brilliant and we valued it immensely.
I'm very
pleased that I found you on the web and saw your website - we really
appreciated all your help with the tickets and organising the hotel etc. We were very pleased to have Tenzin as
our guide - we found her very friendly; knowledgeable
and helpful. We would recommend her services to others. She is an asset.
See all our
other comments below - I hope they help. I would be very pleased to hear how
you are getting on in the future - and would be pleased to act as a recommender
of your company.
During the
day to Namtso Lake, our driver was very friendly, helpful and his driving was
very good. I would recommend him to others.
We found
Tenzin to be an excellent guide and would recommend her to others. She was very
knowledgable and i valued her expertise and history of the Dalai Lama and
Tibetan Buddhism in order to understand the history and the places we visited.
She was very friendly, made suggestions to help us, and it was a pleasure to
have spent the days on tour with her. She went out of her way to help us by
offering to post some postcards to the UK for us, as we had not had chance to
send them - all the postcards arrived with our family members and we were very
grateful! She is an asset to your team.
I was very
pleased to have found you, and read your website with interest. The information
enabled me to draw up a rough costing and likely route of entry to Tibet and
the tours that we would need. The good reviews of your company speak volumes
and it was this and the way that you set out the various details and options
that gave me enough confidence to approach you and see whether we could work
out a tour. You were the only place that i could find that could helpfully
explain all the various costs depending on what you wanted to do. This was very
important and really really helped me to draw up my trip. I knew i could then email
with a good idea as to what i wanted to do.
I thought
you handled the tour organisation very well, making it
fit my plans as i wanted. You were
very quick to respond to me on email - and this was brilliant. I knew that my
email hadn't just been ignored. Each time we emailed, you were very good at
emailing back promptly. This gave me lots of confidence. It's not easy sending
lots of money from other countries - so it really is your USP.
I found you
within a forum; and saw spinn cafe as somewhere to get tours organised... and
for somewhere within Tibet instead of being organised from Chengdu or
elsewhere. I then saw that you were also in the Lonely Planet - this helped
give me confidence that you were the right company to approach.
Thanks
again for such a great trip, and please thank Tenzin again too, say hi and we
hope she is well.
Kate and Keith (London, United
Kingdom)
At long
last I am back in the USA after my nearly 4 week stay
in China. It was a very interesting trip, and Tibet was definitely among the
highlights.
I give our
tour guide Longdor a mark of 5 (out of 5).
He has a great manner, provided insight into Tibetan culture, and was
able to tailor our visitations of sites to what the needs of our small group
(which was sometimes a bit of a challenge given that we had a 12 year old with
us).
I rate the
overall organization a 5 (out of 5) as well. Communication was very good, as were the
tours once we arrived in Lhasa, including airport pick-up and return.
We found
you by web search, including recommendations in comments section in Trip
Advisor and Lonely Planet.
It was nice
to have met you and visited Spinn Caf¨¦ during the days in Lhasa.
Thomas Walker, John Maurice, Brian
Walker (United States)
Our tour
guide Tashi has become a good friend of ours since the trip. At first, he was
very patient with us as we couldn't walk more than 10
steps without taking pictures. He is helpful and very honest man. He tries his
best to make our time in Tibet memorable. And thanks to him we had the best
birthday party on EBC.
Honestly, I
contacted few other agencies, but sometimes I have trust issues with them. Then
I found your website online. It's very straight forward
and very honest. As soon as I know you are from HK with a Thai friend living in
Tibet. I looked no further. And my friend said we hope visit you again.
I found
your website and emails extremely useful for preparing the trip. I love our
itinerary and all the sights. Although a very long ride but
we enjoyed every minutes.
We are
totally happy with everything on this trip. Next time Mt. Kailash and Manasavar
Lake for sure.
Thank you
again for this wonderful trip!
Noppawan Treewatanawong (khun Meow),
Buuranakitthawee Suttisin, Rodsattroo Rathwaranon, Sukapiriya Kittipong
(Thailand)
Our tour
guide Kelsang is super, he gets 5 (out of 5) from both
of us. Hire him again, he is enthusiastic, nice and knowledgable.
I would
rate your service a 5 as well.
We found
you after lots of reading from internet and Lonely
Planet.
Basar Kurtbayram, Yeliz Akgur
(Turkey)
We are back
home in Germany - with many good memories of the trip! Thanks again for your
support during our time in Lhasa!
I have
tried to answer your questions down below.
We liked
the driver a lot. We felt safe at all times.
It was very
good to have a Tibetan guide with all the background to culture & religion.
Her English was absolutely sufficient to communicate. Advice on hotels, food
and general support were great and always to our liking.
I read a
lot of stuff in the internet about tours in Tibet and
finally chose you because of your activity online. We found you by random internet forums and comparison. Finally I saw your postings
in the Thorntree Forums (& and on Spinn Cafe Page) and thought that¡äs a trustable source.
Your
communication was very open and fair. Keep that.
I
personally liked the way we stayed in contact as it has not the feeling of
being only a number in an big travel agency.
Christian Sdralek, Christian
Haenisch, Jan Schneider, Laura Karsten, Miriam Niesel, Simon Peiner (Germany)
Our tour
guide Tenzin was very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and accomodating. My
nine-year-old son had altitude sickness and she catered the tour toward us and our needs. When my son was tired, she didn't push us
and she asked me what I wanted. I love Tenzin's nature and soft-spoken
personality.
I like that
you responded promptly to my emails. I chose
your
company because it seemed to be the most flexible of the
companies
I contacted. I also like that you were open about the cost of each service your
company provided. I found you guys to be really honest and I appreciate that.
If you or
Tenzin ever plan on coming to California (We live in
Oakland,
near San Francisco), you have a place to stay. Just email or call me.
Everybody
should have the opportunity to visit such a wonderful place.
Tracy Camp, Kahlil Edouard Leneus
(United States)
I like the
driver Purbu. He drove good and very carefully. Even we asked him to raise the
speed to find the toilet (since someone want to pee) he kept calm.
Our tour
guide Pasang Dolma is nice. Very talkative and appropriate as
a guide. She knew the history etc regarding places. She's also indulgent
to us during the tour.
You are
good. Quick answering our emails and regret not trying you at very beginning
since we have already deal with another tour agency.
We found
your company from Jen's blog (http://www.acupofjenns.com/2011/07/spinn-cafe.html).
Dessaptiani Holmberg, Etty Herlina,
Heru Aulia Sastrawiguna, Pradjna Dyah Rahayu, Widya Susanti (Indonesia)
Your arrangement
was very good. Compared with other tour agents I interacted with, for the
preparation of this trip, you were the most responsive and also very
transparent on pricing.
I found
your reference in Lonely Planet.
All the
best Pazu, that was a very nice trip!
Olivier, Daniel, Sarah and Juliana
(a family from France)
We just
arrived in Beijing and checked in our hotel. Tired but very happy with our
Tibet experience. It was definitely the highlight of our trip. Our tour guide
Penpa was fantastic he was very accommodating and detailed in sharing the local
culture, and not to mention his very warm hospitality.
We'd also
like to thank you again for arranging everything, the logistics, schedules, itineraries. It was seamless to say the least, so THANK YOU
again.
With
regards to the driver, we would rate him a 5 out of 5. We have no issues as to
the way he drove and the car used during the trip was very comfortable for a
long drive.
We highly
recommend Penpa as a tour guide. We
give him a rating of 5 (out of 5) or higher if possible. He was very hospitable, polite and full
of information. We really saw Tibet
and enjoyed it through him. May we also note that his English is very clear and
polished, making it easy for us to understand him.
As to the
hotel, the rooms were clean; the ambiance, staff, and location were all great.
We chose
you to arrange our tour as you came highly recommended by our friend Anne
Astorga. We were very happy with way the arrangements and logistics were
executed. All were done on time and as planned. We also appreciate the way you replied
to our inquiries with full details, not to mention your
very prompt and clear replies. We give it a 5 rating.
The
highlights for us were the cultural trips to Jokhang Monastery, Potala Palace
and the debating monks at the Sera Monastery. These gave us a glimpse of the
Tibetan culture. Penpa's detailed information during these portions of the trip
all the more made it more interesting.
Thanks again
for the memorable experience.
Dindin and
Ram Yoro (the Philipines)
First of
all we had a really good time in Tibet, the guide was outstanding and one of
the best guides we have used, he was full of information and his knowledge of
the temples and other sites we visited was amazing, we would use him again and
recommend him to others.
As for you
and the trip I first discovered your name recommended some where maybe it was a
tripadvisor tourist, the best thing about you is the communication all the emails
and details are very reassuring and very helpful to us wary tourists and the
information you gave was fantastic.
We had a
most amazing trip an experience of a lifetime and I thank you very much for
arranging it for us and after all the months of emails it was a pleasure to
finally meet you
Kind regard
and a big thank you
Mark Whitley and Stephanie Auchabi
(the United Kingdom) and Cyprien Bourgeois and Marc Bourgeois (France)
We both really
enjoyed the tour. The driver we had was really good. It snowed near the lake so
conditions were bad but he was very careful and we felt safe at all
times. We would score the driver 5 (out of 5).
As for tour
guide, we both loved Tenzin Sangbo. He was brilliant! He was polite,
considerate and very knowledgeable and understands the needs of the customers.
We would definitely give him the highest score possible.
We are also
really pleased with everything you did as your replies
were fast and to the point when I was making enquiries and asking prices,
itineraries etc. I honestly cannot fault anything about you're services. It has
all been top notch.
I can't
tell you how much we have enjoyed the whole experience.
Alison Heywood (
Firstly, many many thanks for organising such a wonderful trip for us
all. We really
appreciated the flexibility, warmth and helpfulness you offered us. As you said, it is a leap of faith
paying money to someone you never met - fortunately you put our minds to rest
on the first night when you kindly arranged some alternative accommodation for
us!
I'd be more
than happy to provide a reference for any other travellers interested in your
tours or be quoted on your website if you so wish.
Many thanks
again, and I hope you have many successful years ahead introducing people to
the wonderful places in
We enjoyed
travelling with the driver - he was friendly, patient and fun to be be with. We had
no complaints about his driving.
Tenzin was
an excellent guide and mixed humour with a good street sense and an incredible
knowledge of buddhism, we would definitely rate the
service as a 5/5 and thoroughly recommend him to anyone else considering a trip
to
Your
handling of the tour was excellent, especially the flexibility you provided, as
undoubtedly the most difficult thing for us was deciding what was practical, as
we had no prior experience of
Wendy Kelly (
Very competent driver, especially over such demanding terrain near Mt
Kailash. A real
character also. Highly recommended. 5/5.
We couldn't
have asked for a better tour guide, he was informative, sensitive to our needs
and requests, reliable and had an excellent command of the English language.
Again, highly recommended. 5/5.
From my
perspective, arranging the tour was a fairly painless process, your
correspondence was first class, you accommodated our
preferences, and were on always on hand to support us or respond to a change in
circumstances. We went with Spinn Cafe on strong recommendation from a friend
and overall, the service we received was excellent, much better than I had
anticipated 5/5.
To be
honest, I was surprised by the professionalism and ease with which everything
was conducted.
What I like
most are the Kailash and Namtso, our pseudo-fame, the jaw-dropping landscapes,
your card tricks, the overall learning experience; culturally and intellectually.
It was sad
leaving
The tour
was perfect in everything - length, locations visited, the tour guide,
planning.
Daniel Rowe (
The driver
was perfect, very helpful to other people. The guide is good, he told us a lot
about the local life, invite us in the private home.
Your tour
recommendation was good, the timing (Tibetan new year)
was perfect for us. The offer was very transparent and this gives me trust. So
we are very satisfied about the tour arrangement! I will leave you a reference
on Couchsurfing.
The trip
was very nice – really a great and best experience in ¡°China¡±.
Martin Urbanski (Stettin, Polland),
Joanna Juraszek (Krynica-Zdr¨®j,
Polland)
I chose Spinn Cafe to organize our Tibet trip by chance.
Googled around for tours in Tibet and found your website. I am verry happy with
the way you handled the tour arrangements. Service rating = 5 stars!
I would recommend the driver as he was driving ok according
to me. My tour guide was really informative and also took us to meet her family which was really a high point of the trip. Throughout this tour, I like most the
visit to our guide's family and the Everest Base Camp.
Anders Faltors
(Gällivare, Sweden),
Mattias Bergstrom
(Värmland, Sweden)
We love the entire arrangement and suggestions by you. We
love
Thank you so much for your help! Without your assisstant, we
can't have this memorable trip~
Iris Yip (
The driver was polite and a capable driver. He obviously has a lifetime of
experience driving the
When we got to Namtso lake my wife's sister and husband were
having altitude sickness - nausea and headache - so our driver valiantly drove
us back to
Yes, we would recommend Tenzin Yangchin. We liked her a lot. She was always helpful with a smile.
You were number 1 (that means Rating 5, the best). I chose you after searching online and
reading people's comments on Lonely Planet. I had also contacted I think it was ***
in
What I liked was having our hotel walking distance to your
cafe. I always felt we could get in
touch with you easily if needed.
That's a good feeling when you come to a new place and know nothing.
Jan Yan (
Good to
hear from you.
General
comment on the tour arrangement: overall we were very happy with how you
organized our trip to
l
Quick
and straight forward, common-sense reply to e-mail
l
Buying
the plane tickets for us
l
Giving
us several options for the tour that were customized to our specific requests
(we only had 7 days in total for
l
Answering
your phone even late at night and taking care of any issues in a professional
manner. We both appreciated how quickly you responded to my call about the
issue and the honesty/transparency.
l
The
international dinner in
Our driver
drove very safely and responsibly and was flexible in terms of driving times
(when to depart, how long to drive every day) which we
very much appreciated.
Yes, we
would definitely recommend the same guide (Ngawang Rinchin) to other travelers.
He was very responsive to our needs, went 'beyond the call of duty' many times
to fix any possible problems we might have. He was also very friendly and
likable. His knowledge of the places we visited was very good.
We chose Spinn
Cafe to organize our trips because we could find no negative reviews on Spinn
Cafe on sites such as Tripadvisor and your site was also recommended a few
times in different posts on Tripadvisor related to
Overall
from all this info we got a sense of honesty about your site and we trusted we
would not be scammed if we selected to book the tour with you. We are glad we
did so.
Hmm...nothing really big comes to mind
as to what you can do to do the trip better, which is a good thing I guess. :)
Pistol (
Greetings
from
The driver
was great, he had an excellent attitude and was eager
to please.
Penpa
Tsering was an excellent guide. We all loved him.
You solved
any minor problem that arose. You looked after us well and treated us with friendliness
and respect. You were flexible with the schedule. I am very happy with
everything.
I can't
think of anything to make the trip better at the moment. I think you're doing
things well. You already have the backpacker market cornered, I think, as other
tour agencies are so much more expensive (and they deliver less flexibility and
personal touch). Keep doing what you're doing!
Overall, I
am very satisfied with the trip. I think you have an excellent business model
that will really appeal to the non-package tourist types.
And, I
think you should take control of the weather in future and make sure that it is
always clear at EBC! ;) Just
kidding!
Cheers!
Robert Wilson (
Our driver
was awesome! 5/5! He always drove got us safely from A to B no matter how bad
the road conditions were. He was very skillfull.
Tenzin also
gets a 5/5 from me! I think we have already told you on the phone we are happy
for him. He was really knowledgeable and gave us a great insight into the
fascinating Tibetan culture! I wish him all the best for his future.
We chose
you because of the reccomendations on the LonelyPlanet Forum. The service was
great, especially the birthday cake for Wei!
It¡¯s hard
to say what I like most in this tour, probably everything? Maybe: Mt Everest
Base Camp, especially the stay in the tent. Our host Norbu
made us feel so comfortable.
Thanks for organising everything,
we sure had a great trip! I will certainly reccomend you to other travellers!
Isabel Frenzel (
Driver is
great! Very good driving skill and can take up
long hour drive. Very dedicated.
Tour guide: very good knowledge and good English.
The Everest
Base Camp was no doubt the highest point in this whole trip. The weather helped
a lot. Hanging up the prayer flag was so unforgettable. I like it. You can
recommend other tourists to do the same.
Vivian Long (
Kris and I
just got back to the
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
I think you
did a great job - in fact, I was in contact with a few other tour companies
based in
Thanks
again for a wonderful tour!
Kris Bahlke (
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
I think you
handled it well, I had a lot of fun especially in
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
You're
welcome to come to
Gabriel Zi-hao Lai (
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 (
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 (
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
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 (
Corentin Aulagne (
Clemence Buisson (
Laurent Courtois (
Eva Fernandez (
Thomas Gelez (
Kevin Thibout (
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
Johan Sulaeman (
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 (
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
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
Riding
bicycles with you and Oat, hospitality and beautiful encounters under such
sacred and magical skies were what we enjoyed most in
Keep
enjoying your magical life in
Catherine
Lau (Faculty of Law, the
Bonnie
Chung (Faculty of Law, the
The driver is very dedicated
despite the long travel distance.
You provide a good service and I
will recommend your service if any of my friends would like to visit Tibet. For
me maybe I will visit Tibet again few years later.
Also append a group photo that we
took together in front of spinn cafe. Hope you like it. :)
Thank you!
Wai Leng (Malaysia)
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
I like
everything in this tour:
Jeannie Perreault (La
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
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
Definitely
I will recommend your service to other people.
Ong Jun Quan (
Hola
Pazu!!! Greetings from
We had a
wonderful journey to
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 (
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
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 (
Mei and i
reached home yesterday morning in good health. You know, we already start
missing
Somehow, I
feel glad that we had made the right choice of stayed in
Comments
for the driver Kelsang:
¡ñ
Very
experince driver with good driving skills
¡ñ
Know
the routes well
¡ñ
Able
to provide estimated time frame and distance from one place to another
¡ñ
Very
helpful in looking for the right hostel and negotiate for the best room
rate for the group
¡ñ
Stopped
at many spots without fail whenever requested by the photography mania
¡ñ
Can speak
in Chinese language rather well
¡ñ
Played
good
¡ñ
Overall
comments: Highly recommanded for other travellers
Comments for the tour guide Tashi:
¡ñ
Very
helpful, patient, pleasant and caring personal
¡ñ
Always
tried his best to provide informations to his clients
¡ñ
Tried
to get information from others whenever in doubts eg: monk in-charge of the
chapel
¡ñ
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.
¡ñ
Passion to
teach people about his language, religion, and cultural believes
Comments
for the tour coordinator Pazu Kong:
¡ñ
Reply
to client's enquiries promptly
¡ñ
Provide
very clear and transparent information and quatation
¡ñ
Able
to give good advise or his personal opinions
¡ñ
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.
¡ñ
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.
¡ñ
Some
hiccups did happened during the tour. However, prompt actions had been
taken and problems solved.
¡ñ
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
Khoo May
Pin (
The tour
guide is good. The sharing of her life experiences with us also made the trip
more interesting.
The driver
was very nice and would give suggestions to make our road trip more
comfortable. He would also slow down when we wanted to take pictures during the
road trip and even helped us "bargain" at the restaurants where we
had our lunches. He was attentive to our needs; at
some point in time, even more than our tour guide.
Actually on
our first day of arrival, we were quite surprised that you didn't ask us to pay
immediately. Weren't you worried that we wouldn't pay you? Haha. But anyway,
probably the culture in
As I have mentioned
when we met up, I first chanced across your website via Google and decided to
give it a try after reading positive feedback from many customers on the
website. Overall, I'm pleased with your planning and handling of our
situations.
Agnes Ye Zhengyu (
I would
recommend the same driver. His driving was very good and efficient. I would
rate him 5.
Our tour
guide Karma was fantastic. He¡¯s multi-lingual, very knowledgeable, and would go
out of his way to help us. I would again rate him 5.
Kong - you
did a great job. 5. I¡¯m told you came highly recommended.
I loved
Richard Fields (
Our driver
our tour guide were very good. I chose you because you were recommended by Jim and Helen.
Everything
was good.
Brian Cheadle (
Thanks for
helping me to organize my tour in
I rate my driver
the highest point of 5 and I would recommend him to the other people. He is a
friendly person, a responsible driver, and always kind toward other people. He
has no complaints about making frequently stops for me to take photos and
always energetic during driving. His driving skill is good and he drives very
safe.
I rate my
guide the highest point of 5 and I would recommend her to the other people. She
is very familiar with all the hotels and travelling procedures in
Your
handling of the tour arrangement is excellent (5 Points). Everything is very
efficient and I got my questions anawered very quick. I will recomend you to my friends.
Eric Yau Kin Kei (
I'd recommend the same guide and driver. We know that
it is very hard to drive on off road so we recommend our driver for the long
trip that we had.
I'm satisfied with the way you organized our trip and already recommended Spinn
Cafe to another travelers.
What we like most of the tour is that it¡¯s dependably
arranged, you¡¯ve delivered all the necessities.
Hana (Philipines) and Geshiela (
My tour
guide Penpa Tsering and the driver are excellent. I was very happy while in
their company. By all means, they have done well. Thanks! It was nice meeting you, I would recommend Spinn Cafe anytime, any day.
The driver
is careful in his driving, he follows the speed limit,
and is very good.
And I can
fully recommend my guide Penpa Tsering. He is young, enthusiastic, has a sense of
humor, and very attentive to what I am saying and very kind.
Your
handling of the tour was perfect, and thank you for helping me all the way. You
were very responsive and very nice. Like i said, it was Hana who recommended me
to Spinn Cafe.
Nice meeting
you Kong, it was a pleasure to have been your visitor and your friend while in
I salute you, you are a super cool guy, howI wish your book was
translated in English for us.
Next time
you find yourself in
If you can
get access, you may visit my site at :
1) http://ongcho.multiply.com/photos
2) http://ongcho2.multiply.com/photos
Oh well, if
you don¡¯t know it yet, Spinn cafe is a very well regarded site and more power
to you.
John Ong Sy (
Greetings from Singapore. I just wanted
to say thanks for the great magic show and the directions to my hotel Shambhala
in Lhasa, what an interesting evening.
Friendly contact in Singapore if you¡¯re ever passing
through.
Patrick O' Riordan (Director
Singapore, Indonesia & the Philippines, Enterprise Ireland, Embassy of
Ireland Commercial Counsellor)
The driver
drove very very good , not too fast and not made me
fear at all ka. : ))
The tour
guide is very nice and take care us every moment : ))
plz say to him "Thank you so much miss my guide ka : )) and thanks for sent
my postcard ka".
Your
arrangement is great !!! and
thanks you so much for change a itinerary with out any change : ) . The reason for choose your tour coz you keep replying my email
and a price is reasonable.
Everything
perfect for me : ))
Passaporn
Shompoopun (Bangkok, Thailand)
For
personality and efforts he made to please me, the tour guide would get full
marks. He is a very good and nice person. I also had many laughs with the guide which made this trip fun!
You did a
fabulous job arranging the trip, I decided to choose
you for your honesty. This was apparent in your writing with advice about other
tour organizers.
Marisa de Jong (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Overall
great driving of the driver, and the tour guide is a very good and responsible
person who takes good care of his clients.
You had a
very detailed Q and A at your website, which gives us confident to choose you
to arrange the tour. I think you made good arrangement with the transport and
accommodations. Overall it was a great trip, real good experience.
Basically,
I only have good comments regarding this trip.
I think
your cafe made it extra special where we are able to meet other tourist in
Tibet like those people from Hong Kong. We are able to sit around in your cafe
and chill.
Chong Zheng Feong (Singapore)
I found the
drivers very careful and responsible. The tour guide is excellent,
he was very open and frank, had a good sense of humor and understood western
idiosyncrasies well. We could know that he understood what we wanted to see and
do. He was always prompt.
I chose
your service because of a personal recommendation. I enjoyed your tour
arrangement because it was so flexible and personalized. It kept us out of
buses and down on the street level.
All seemed
to go smoothly.
Grant
Bickel (United States)
I just
wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed our tour. The driver is good and I
gave positive feedback for our tour guide and would like to rate 5 for him. He is
great at his job, insightful, knowledgeable, informative, helpful and kind.
Thanks
again and we will make sure to recommend you to our friends and comrades who
are thinking of visiting Tibet.
Novita
Utami (Padang, Indonesia)
The driver
is good and the tour guide is great, he has a lot of knowledge about the
history and eager to learn any culture.
We are also
satisfied with the way you handled our tour, we think you gave us details info which help us in Tibet. And from the beginning you
handle our tour it was fast and simple. That was our reason to choose you.
Eva Ali
(Eva Ali (Jakarta, Indonesia)
It was
great to have the chance to know some of the secret corners of Jokhang Circuit
with you, including the nunnery (best place in Lhasa for me!). Hanging around
Namso lake and 'chatting' with the nomads doing the
koras.
I think you
provide great service. I think you are very professional and responsive and I
would definitely want to use your services if I went to Tibet again.
I felt you
treated us as friends and not only clients and I hope you continue to be so
personable when your business grows and you have less time (as I'm sure it will
grow!).
Thanks
again for such great times in lhasa. you are a star!
Marion
Khamis (Santiago de Chile)
Drivers did
a good job. And the tour guide was very good. He had a sense of humour that is
important for some westerners (I liked it). He was also very polite, helpful
and seemed sincere. We were more than happy to tip him at the top end of your
recommended range.
You came
well recommended and we appreciated your knowledge and personal attention to
our problems.
I liked the
Spinn caf¨¦ �C the ambience and the music.
Thank you!
Malcolm
Griffiths (Middlesbrough, Canada)
A belated
'Thank You'! We had a great time in Tibet, everything
worked out perfectly!
Our guide,
Migdon, was very helpful, pleasant and easy to work with.
I
recommended your services to a young Belgian couple we met in Dunhuang - I hope
they contact you!
Dennis
Nicoll (Vancouver, Canada) and Catherine MacGregor (Windsor, Canada)
Five points
to the driver and full marks to the tour guide as well.
We decided
to join your tour through the recommendation of our friends, full marks to your
service too.
Cultural
social and monasterial facts were well explained. Thanks for all your help and
we are very glad and fortunate to be able to visit Tibet.
Alfred Pawelek (Belitz, Polland) and Mary Pawelek
(Newmarket, Canada)
Full marks for the
driver and tour guide. And full mark for your service as well. I booked with
you because you gave me the best price, the best
service and you'd been recommended by a friend.
The lakes, the
landscape and the people were amazing, also, the nunnery was great because we
saw them chanting/praying and they were very welcoming!
Thanks a lot for
the great time, I recommended you to plenty of people in China and to people I
met in Nepal.
Wiebke Dittert
(Hannover, Germany), Madeleine Huller (Texas, USA), Johannes Schmidt (Wurzen,
Germany)
We will give our
driver a rating of 5 (out of 5), the best driver!!!
Lobsang was the
best guide we could ever have, he knows a lot of
Tibetan culture, people and religion. He did more than a normal guide. I have
travelled very much and I never had such a guide, he became a good friend. He's
what we like most in our tour indeed!
Your arrangements
and patience were excellent. Thank you very much for everything!
Javier Beltran
from Spain (Malaga), Jaime Carceller from Spain (Santander), Jaime Gonzalez
from Spain (Santander), Paula Toca from Spain (Santander)
We would
recommend both the driver and the guide - they both went above and beyond, we
will give them a rating of five out of five. Our tour guide was very
knowledgeable and kind, and also a lot of fun. I was really happy with your service -
you always answered quickly and let us know any alterations right away....I found your details on thorntree when researching the
trip. ? Learning about Tibet and seeing the stunning scenery.
Adrian Young
(Barnsley, Britain)
Sarah
Warren (Swansea,
Britain)
I was very happy
with the arrangements by Spinn cafe and found my Tibetan tour guide Tenzin to
be thoughtful, informative and helpful. I had booked a no guide day to wander
Lhasa on my own but ended up hiring him for that day too. If you get a good
Tibetan guide it
will be an asset to understanding Tibet, not a liability. Tenzin, my tour
guide, was excellent, pleasant, knowledgeable, adaptable
to interests and needs of individual traveler. I thoroughly enjoyed our
interaction.
My driver was
also excellent, very good driving skills, patient with photography stops and a
pleasure to share long trip on dirt roads with.
Kong, you have made
sure everything went well clearly communicated requirements and plans adapted to changes in a pleasant competent and efficient way
and does great card tricks. .
What I liked most
in this tour was spending time with the tour guide and Tibetan people.
Thanks again
Kong, I wish you all Peace, Happiness and Prosperity.
Steve Burger, www.globalfolkart.com/
Global Folk Art
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Our trip was
fantastic, I would highly recommend the driver, my
only regret was that he didn't speak English and I didn't speak Tibetian, but
he was really great. I would have loved to get to know him better, 10 stars to
him.
Same same with
the guide, he was also fantastic, 10 stars to him too!!! The guide was
extremely knowledgeble and flexible with our time.
The package that
you offered was great for individual travellers, good price, flexibility, great
service, specially the magic tricks!!! I will definitely recommend you to
fellow travellers.
Thanks for the
great trip!
Trish Brown
(Melbourne, Australia)
Thank you for a
fascinating holiday.
The driver was
very good and careful. He was very kind and helpful. Highly recommend him. Good
with Noah.
The tour guide
was friendly, helpful, accommodating to changes in schedule. Good with Noah. We were still friends at the end of the
holiday, which is important after all that time together.
Pete chose you as
our tour agent because you have a good, believable website. He found you in
lonely planet. Arrangements were very good. You were very cautious about
booking each stage of the travel, which prevented costly mistakes. Very welcoming and
friendly and helpful. That made a lot of difference.
We found you on
the lonely planet book.
Thank you again
for a lovely holiday.
Annie-May, Noah, Pete (a family from the United Kingdom)
I appreciated your ¡°up front¡± honesty in dealing with the
finances. Plans can and do change, so your flexibility was also appreciated.
You answered all of my emails promptly, and that for me was
a real plus. You came through with the permit and train tickets on time. You
delivered as promised. What more
could I ask? I have no negatives.
Keep up the prompt, honest approach.
All in all, it was a fine tour.
Thanks!
Sue and Polly (United
States of America)
The driver was
very good. He was very friendly and most importantly he was safe. He followed
all traffic rules and at all times I felt comfortable with him. He was also
very attentive in terms of thinking of what we would like to see - such as the
first night drive to the hotel, he pointed out the Potala Palace; he slowed
down for us to take photos on our road trip to and from Shigatse; he also
pointed out the black necked cranes, etc. I would recommend him for your future
clientele.
To be honest, I
normally hate guides. However, Tenzin, was quite an
exception. He was genuinely kind and accommodating throughout our whole trip.
He was also very polite and considerate. If all tour guides could be like this,
I would be very happy. I would recommend him for your future clientele.
From day 1 of
being in contact with you, I have felt quite comfortable in my dealings with
you. Your blog, news articles, and cafe allow people from far away to feel that
your services and business are legitimate.
You were very considerate
in thinking of and preparing our needs related to expectation of accommodations
and adjustment to altitude.
Communication was
always very clear. I appreciated that you would send emails with final quotes
and clarification on matters. Everything was quite transparent.
Besides the
fantastic scenery and the culture, what I enjoyed about the tour was that our
schedules/plans went smoothly. When we needed to change a plan, it was okay.
Flexibility was probably what I appreciated the most.
You should be
quite proud of the services you have offered us.
Michele Tung
(United Kingdom),
Yoland Wang
(United States),
Dominique
Speekenbrink (the Netherlands)
The driver drove without
fail whole way, even understood English quite well and was on the good mood all
the time. I enjoyed our trip and I'm quite happy how everything went. I think
that you made really good job, organizing the permits really fast and also your
personality was great. You would have been great guide too. :)
Maria Laitala
(Hollola, Finland)
It may have been
the most incredible tour ever for me... and I appreciate how quickly you
managed to organise everything for us and how fabulous it
all was.
I really hope to
come back through Tibet in the future and will definitely make arrangements
through you.
Lisa Honey
(Farnborough, United Kingdom)
All in all a
fantastic trip and thanks for handling it all in such a nice and patient manner
- we really felt well taken care of by you.
Katrine Skipper
Pedersen (Allinge-Gudhjem, Denmark)
I enjoyed every
bit of the experience. I suppose we could have packed in a bit more with the time
we had, but given that it's our first time and not knowing how AMS would affect
us, the slower pace suited us well.
Thanks very much
for helping us with the planning, and your hospitality - we like the Strategy
Game very much and guess what? I just bought two sets, one for Bee and one for
myself.
We enjoyed the
trip very much and will certainly recommend you shd any of our friends want to
visit Tibet.
Chng It Soh
(Singapore),
Tan Bee Hong
(Singapore)
Firstly wanted to
say we really enjoyed our trip and for all the difficulties was definetly a
trip of a lifetime and one I will not forget. Being able to organise through
you was great as gave us much more freedom to do what we wanted to and not feel
forced to do what the agency wanted to do. I guess it meant we could still
remain a little independant!
The price was
also great as was considerbly cheaper then any other tour (maybe you are too
cheap!!)
About the driver,
I would recommend him, felt safe the whole time, although we did notice he was
slower on tarmac roads and much faster on gravel, we therefore think he must of
been a rally car driver in a previous life!
About the tour
guide, Gonkom, was pretty good, he came across as young and was very much on
our level, as I saw a lot of the other tour guides and they seemed very boring.
So for young westerners would recommend him.
The break down of
pricing was great as well as really saw the cost. I liked the Rama Kharpo
Guesthouse in Lhasa as felt really homely. The tent camp at EBC was good and
also fun.
Overall we had a
great time and was really happy with booking it though
you and not some faceless agency, it was really easy to correspond with you and
you always answered all my questions.
I will of course recommend
you to any friends I know planning a trip. If you pass by Kuala Lumpur in the
next couple of years (will be moving there next month) be sure to drop me
line!!
Leo Frankel
(London, United Kingdom),
Caroline Frankel
(Brighton, United Kingdom)
We really
appreciated you getting out of your way to help us. Like arranging us a biking
tour with Oat, which was nice.
The driver was
very fine. He was always on time and drove very carefully.
The tour guide
has good knowledge of history and religion, good info for
hotels/restaurant/places (outside Lhasa). He spoke good enough English.
The Barkhor area
tour you gave us at the end was very nice, simple, funny and interesting.
We are sure you
are gonna succeed with your Tibet tours. You really
care for your guests. We`re sure they will be happy to meet you and do your
tours, as we did.
Thank you for all
your help, time and the movies you gave us. Please visit us, when you and Oat
come to Shanghai/Taicang.
Thomas Maurischat
(Langen, Germany),
Paola Pastor Leon
(Guayaquil, Ecuador)
We did the
Lhasa-Kathmandu trip with the agency Spinn Cafe in Lhasa. Spinn gives you very
detailed information and prices. you will know exactly
what is included and what is not. Also I found it very handy, to have the
agency in Lhasa self.
The guide we had
spoke very good English and had a lot of extra information. Also we could
wander around alone in Lhasa. Many other tourists we have seen,
were always with their guide.
The driver we had
was very very good. He did not speak English, which was a shame, because I had
the impression that he had a lot to tell. The tour guide was very
knowledgeable. he told us many many things about the
Potala. I think he was very clever, this
helped us very much. I would recommend him to other travelers.
I would also
highly recommend Spinn Cafe.
Oliver Ramseyer
(Bern, Switzerland)
www.vadrouilleasiatique.blogspot.com
The driver drove
very safely and responsibly for the duration of our tour, we can recommend him to
other travelers.
You also gave us
the best tour of our trip.
Kong's Service:
10/10- You were incredibly communicative and tried
everything to make the tour enjoyable for us. We'll recommend contacting you to
anyone who is considering coming to Tibet. The scenery on the drives was once
in a lifetime. Staying in a tent at EBC was a great experience. The evenings we
spent at your cafe were a lot of fun.
Derek Hazard
(Minnesota, United States),
Andrea Hazard
(Kempten, German)
Lamu was a great guide,
quite knowledgeable and great insight as well. As for the preparation of my
trip, I have no complaints whatsoever. It was excellent! You were very
transparent from the start, from the payments, restrictions, breakdowns.
Your transparency
was what made me decide to book it with you, and it was fairly priced.
Everything was done according to specified plan, and I cant
recall any deviation from the originally specified plan.
Other than
experiencing Lhasa and the Tibetans, your personal touch to everything was a
plus factor. :) I mean, especially for solo travelers like me, it can become
quite depressing not being able to share the experience during the height of
the excitement. Yeah, i know it shouldn't be in the realm of the business, but
most of the time it can be a differential thing.
After all, great
travel is always accompanied by the "making friends category".
It's a great thing you have the cafe, Kong.
To be used both
for marketing and making friends.
I'm thinking of
going back, really. When I was in Xi'an I was looking for at least a volunteer
job in China. Haha. Obviously,
I haven't found
one. I'm definitely doing the Shigatse, Gyantse, Everest Base Camp next time.
Thanks too for
everything. :) And hello to everyone!
Anne Astorga (Manila,
the Philipines)
We're Back in
Belgium since a few hours, thank you once again for making our stay in Lhasa
such an enjoyable experience.
The consistency
of the tour was very okay, there was no communication
problem at all. What we like most in this tour was your personal input and
flexibility of the program. But time went by much too fast,
we would like to add more time.
Once again we
want to thank you so much for everything.
We saw on your
Facebook page that Jim and Helen still had a great time with you after we left.
Glad we met them.
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)
Your handling of
the tour was excellent. No complaints. We decided to choose you because
an acquaintance of ours put us in touch with you.
Joanne Curtis
(USA)
Very good driver
and he's also a good mechanics. He is a very responsible person, not driving
too fast like some of the other drivers and risking the lives of passangers. He
also was very well informed about the road condition on every part of our trip,
plus he was very easy going.
Our tour guide
Jorden (real name should be Droten) can tell a lot of every single monastry and
hotels, He had a very broad knowledge about each monastry and of course Tibetan
tradition. He has been also quite easy going, always eager to help and make the
trip perfect for us.
I would rate
Spinn Cafe the highest score because you have been solving all problems on time, there were a lot of explanations in the itinerary. You
was recommended by a friend of us, your price were compared to two other
agencies almost the same.
I like most about
the hiking around Mt. Kailash, Sakya, Lhasa, Shigatse
(in that order).
That's a great
idea and surveys like that usually help to tailor good trips. I think everybody
has their own taste/opinion about how the trip should
be tailored. If you find ways to make as individual as possible and with the
driver + guide being flexible (like we experience) your tours also in the
future will be quite a success!
Axel
Thomsen (Norden, Germany) and Silvia Lotze (Bad Muskau, Germany)
I found the
driver personable. He was punctual.
Both Adam and I
were very happy with our tour guide Yangchin. She fit perfectly what Adam and I
were looking for, and we enjoyed spending time with her during our travels.
Whenever we asked questions, she readily answered and provided what we were
looking for. We found her to be a great match for what we were looking for and
would ask for her again.
I'm very happy
with Spinn Cafe and your service. We appreciated your efforts to help us find
alternative lodging. And you were always available. We picked you originally
because you provided very clear and helpful information on general touring in
Tibet, and you seemed like you would be flexible. Your cost was reasonable and
matched the service well. Your promptness in communicating both before we
booked with you and after were appreciated.
My favorite part
was the day trip out to Drigung Til and Tidrum. We both appreciated the
flexibility, calmness and knowledge of our guide. If we do the tour again, we
would definitely take more time, and travel further out from Lhasa.
Overall, we were
very happy with the tour services you provided.
Michael
Gerhardt (Colorado, USA), Adam Crenshaw (Wyonming, USA)
I will give the
driver score 4 because I think the driver is capable of doing his job. He is
familiar with the route very much.
The tour guide is
a sanguine and outspoken girl. She can take care the tour and
handling all the matters. In short,
we are satisfied for her service.
I think you did a
fantastic job on the arrangement of our trip. I¡¯ve heard about you from
Paulianna whose co-worker took a Tibet trip in April. In addition, I also knew
you from a travel forum. I like you to provide a lot of useful information,
opinion and photos
to anyone who wants to go to Tibet. Finally, I like your
flexibility on handing our trip.
I hope I could have a longer leave so
that we could see more view points/places in Tibet because she is a pearl of
the western part of China.
Chan
Ming Tsai (Hong Kong), Carrie Wong (Hong Kong), Warren Chan (New York, USA),
Bryan Chan (New York, USA)
We highly
recommended the driver. Experienced & responsible driver.
He is more than just a driver to us. He was there with us when the guide could
not be with us.
The tour guide
service is good enough.
Haha, of course,
you¡¯re the best comparing to what I¡¯ve read from others. Give yourself a bonus
or a pat on your back. Most importantly, we could deal with you directly in
Lhasa if there¡¯s anything amiss, but so far so good. Your tour has no
uncertainty for customers. Love your clear layout of your quote. Others may be
cheaper but there are other costs that have not been factored.
We enjoyed the
whole experience. We would like to come back again!
Lilian
Lee and Edward Lee (Wellington, New Zealand)
Thanks for letting us crash at your Spinn Cafe while we were
in
Our driver was really courteous and friendly, and our tour
guide (Tenzin Sangpo) was great also.
They both get a 5.
Your tour arrangement was very organized, which gave us
confidence that you guys know what you are doing!
We really like the Tibetan perspective on the culture and
environment.
David
Tarin and Danica Tarin (
Please also check out their blog with an interview
about us: http://www.onthegroundtravel.com/adventures/tibet-travel-questions-1/
http://www.onthegroundtravel.com/adventures/tibet-travel-questions-2/