Testimonials from our customers

We went to visit Ankor Wat and we discovered Cambodia. It was one of the rare cases when you receive more than you expected.

We were dreaming of a journey to Cambodia for several years and finally we had the opportunity for doing it. We could either choose an Italian travel agency offering package tours or participate to a tour guided by some archaeologist, focused essentially to the discovery of ancient Khmer  civilization. We were not really happy with these two choices.

While surfing  the web, I came across this organisation. At the beginning I was very sceptical, still I sent a mail asking for some information . I received an immediate answer with suggestions and proposals and in a few weeks, confidence was built up through exchange of mails, comments, and adjustments to the programme ….. I felt a strong commitment by Andy to satisfy our wishes , sharing with us his knowledge of the country . What convinced us was the fact that we could tailor the programme to our needs, we had a car and a guide only for us , we could include in the programme the visit of places that could give us a deeper knowledge  of the country, and we could choose the accommodation suitable to us, ranging from the top la Résidence to the guest house near Koh ker. And all this within a reasonable budget.

The first part of our journey was mainly dedicated to the Khmer art and to Siem Reap area. Phallika, the Italian speaking guide that was with us during 9 days , introduced us not only to the history and art of  Khmer civilization, but also to the various aspects of the present khmer life, without hiding the problems that Cambodia is still facing.  We visited village markets where you could not find tourist stuff , we visited Takeo area by boat, hardly meeting other tourists, we slept one night in a village near Koh Ker where by chance we assisted to a wedding party. We had a few organization problem and the staff were very helpful in assisting both in extending hotel reservation and in changing the programme due to the cancellation of internal flights.

During the second part of our journey we were in Mondalkiri where we could visit the wonderful surroundings, the waterfalls  and  meet minority people in their villages . Sambor, our local guide, made us feel part of the community, and invited us for dining with her wife showing us the photos of his recent wedding party and explaining the ceremony. Maybe other tour operators could organize  the same visit , but we had the feeling of spending a long week end with friends .

What can we recommend to  future visitors to Cambodia?

-        Dedicate enough time to plan your travel with Andy.

-        Do not rush . Avoid doing something like “ Venice Florence, Rome Naple”

-        Allocate part of your time to non tourist activities ; cooking lessons, visit to NGO  initiatives,  their school.. Idle time is essential to understand the country.

After this experience it will be hard for us to select a packaged tour for our next destination.

Many thanks to Andy and to our friendly guides and drivers.
Carlo Lainati - Italy March 2007

Hi Andy,

That sounds like a good plan.  I do think Vcom and other agencies will be impressed by the "Giving Back" philosophy of AboutAsia and iamcambodia.  Who wouldn't want to help the young people of Cambodia?  The country has been through the ringer and everyone seems to be still smiling.

Sincerely,

Don February 2010

P.S. I don't think Karen and I ever mentioned how nice the VIP express service was on our departure.  The official that helped us did a great job.  After the fact, we discussed whether we should have tipped him or not.  At the time it did not seem appropriate because he looked like a general.  Afterward we wondered if even the "generals" would expect a tip?????  Hope we did not step on too many toes during our stay??  Tipping is always such a mystery.  I am sure it is the same for you in deciding who needs "gifts" to get things done.

Andy hi,

Hi Andy,
 
I have been remiss in writing this note to you.   It has a month since our trip to Cambodia and I have been meaning to write you this note since then.   We have very fond memories of Cambodia and we talk about it often after we came back.  

The arrangements you made were thorough and we thank you for it.  From the minute we were picked up at the airport by Buntheon, we were well-taken-care of.    Buntheon is a very patient young man and he was great with my parents.  He was great especially with my dad who recently turned 70 and can be difficult to deal with.   Please do convey this to Buntheon that we appreciate his enormous patience in dealing with my dad and his special care in making sure my mom was safe while climbing all those stone steps.
 
Once again, thank you for putting the trip together for us.  We will not hesitate to recommend you to our friends, and we will definitely contact you again when we return to Cambodia.
 
Happy New Year 2010!
 
Vandana & Venki. 11th January 2010

Dear Andy,

I am extremely satisfied with my experience with About Asia. Everything went smoothly from the time I began to plan the tour until my final transfer to the airport in Siem Reap.

Bun Chai was an excellent guide; we covered everything in detail as I wished, and I was able to take more than 2600 digital photographs, which was one of my goals. Chai was always informative, and we had some great discussions about the monuments and Cambodia in general. Even when I questioned him about flora and fauna, he always had the answer, and I think I may have grilled him quite a lot on certain aspects of the monuments! His spoken English is excellent and he has good communication skills as well.

The driver was also excellent, always on time and polite.

I would certainly recommend About Asia to anyone considering a trip to Cambodia. If you ever branch out into neighboring Southeast Asian countries, I kindly let me know.

With thanks and best wishes,

Richard Mortel - September 2009

With my thanks, and best wishes,
We have just got back this morning after our trip to Siem Reap. My family and I thank you for arranging the itenary for us. It was beyond our expectations and we truly had a wonderfull time in Seim Reap. Our tour guide Mr. Sophea is truly an enthusiastic and knowledgeable man. He is a proud Cambodian and he truly does his country and your company proud. The driver that we had is an excellent chap as well. I could not have done a better job of driving myself. Our warm regards to him as well. We will most definately recommend your agency to Singaporeans wanting to visit Siem Reap. Keep up the good work guys.
With regards,
Jag - Singapore March 2007

Dear Andy
 
We have been wanting to write you ever since we came back from our trip to Cambodia and Thailand, but time has just flown away. Anyway, now we finally got around to it.
 
We want to thank you for a fantastic tour in Cambodia. As you might remember we were in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. We found all of Cambodia and the Cambodians really nice and friendly. But especially Siem Reap with its magnificient temples were great: Angkor Wat at sunrise, Bayon with all the faces etc.
 
We were also very pleased with both our guides and both our drivers, but especially our guide in Siem Reap - Phum Kanha - were really good. He was good at telling the histories of the different temples and places, but also about the culture and people of Cambodia and trees and plants. Since we have no rice fields and palm trees we asked to stop so we could show it to our daughters and he immediately caught the idea and stopped at other places to show us other plants, wells etc. Please thank him from us.
 
By the way, I have a good colleque - Mrs. Anne Berg Jensen - who are planning a trip to Cambodia with her family. I have suggested that she should contact you and ask, if you can help her like you helped us - I hope that she follows my advice.
 
Kind regards,
Jacob and Siri Scherfig - October 2nd 2009

Just a quick update to let you know how pleased we are with our visit to Cambodia so far. Our guide, Mr. Chim Pheakdey ("Joe") is wonderfully knowledgeable and has provided us with so much insight into the history and culture of your country. You driver Poly is very professional and safe. The Hotel de la Paix is lovely - we could not want for any better accommodations or service. We thought you would like to know that we can highly recommend this company for anyone traveling to Siem Reap.
Dick and Linda Lewis - 2nd Feb 2007

     This thank you is long overdue, but we didn't forget.  We want to express our appreciation in helping us plan a memorable trip to Cambodia and Vietnam.  Everything went smoothly. . .the people were friendly and helpful, the food was delicious, the accommodations fabulous.   Angkor Wat was just amazing and our guide, Meus, was the best. . .it's easy to understand why people fall in love with these  temples. You were right and we were so glad that we did the remorques and got a glimpse of the daily lives of the Cambodian people. . .unfortunately, Helen got sick and didn't go with us that day, but it will give her reason to do a return visit. By the way,  if you ever go to Hoian, Vietnam, you must stay at Nam Hai Resort.
       Once again, thank you, for all your help.  When we think of Angkor Wat, we will always remember your kindness. Helen and I both felt like we met someone who could easily be our friend.   You can be certain that we will recommend you to our friends who want to visit Cambodia.  If you ever need a reference to future travelers, please feel free to contact us.
      
Best Regards,

Linda & Vince Fong 18June07

My name is David Kirszbaum. Hopefully you remember me. I had the pleasure of experiencing your Monulkdiri trip with the wonderful
Mr Sambol in July.

I am sorry that I have not had a chance to write sooner, but I have had to move interstate for work within one week of returning to Australia. I actually received a job offer whilst in the taxi between PP and Kampot!

Anyway, I just wanted to thank both of you for all you work in organising this trip. I can honestly say it was the most memorable part of our trip to Cambodia.
Mr Sambol is probably the best guide we have ever had. His friendliness and knowledge set an extremely high benchmark which others have been unable to come close to. I have tried to email him to say thank you direct, but I would appreciate if you could forward this to him just in case he didn't
receive it. I cannot praise him highly enough.

Our drive Nee also did a wonderful job, especially negotiating the muddy roads between Keo Sema and Sen Monorom.

I may also have found you some clients, as I received some interest from a post I wrote on a lonely planet forum. Her name is Ann and I am forwarding your details to her today. Hopefully she will contact you soon.

Again, thank you for the trip of a lifetime.

Best Regards,

David Kirszbaum - Australia Sept 2007

I want to let you know we were delighted with your service, our clean hotel rooms, our kind and realiable driver Donny and with our tour guide "Vy". At all times "Vy" conducted himself with gentleness, filled with a wealth of information and very easy to talk converse with in English. All of these a must when guiding two adults with a 7 year old boy and 4 year old girl. We LOVED Seim Reap and plan to return. We look forward to using your services again and again.
Lesley Dennis lesley_dennis@hotmail.com
1st December 2006

Andy,

I will pass the word out - arrangements in Cambodia were good,
although with hindsight, I may have given Batambang a miss
alltogether! But that is individual preference and your other clients
may well have loved Batambang....

Also the local guides seemed to have thier own views about the
itinery, not always the same as the detailed one you sent - again,
they were probably using thier own knowledge to try and prioritise
what they thought one wanted to see.

Overall a great trip, and I'm just mentioning stuff that I thought you
may want to know - not meant as a criticism at all..

I think one of the keys was your prompt response to all queries and
requests - sometimes hard to get from larger travel agents and the
quality of hotels in Phnom Phen and Siam Reap...good to retire to a
haven after a day's sight seeing...same for Luang Prabang, and the
forest resort on the last day was great..

Some pics at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/somprasad/sets/72157623029390341/

Hopefully this collection will grow as I wade through the 1500 or so
frames I took, always the problem with digital, too many shots
taken....

Som Prasad - Manchester - January 2010

Andy/Johanna,

Rileggendo quanto ho scritto, mi rendo conto che il mio può sembrare "eccessivo slancio promozionale": ma, credetemi, non ho per nulla esagerato. La mia unica speranza è che il progetto AboutAsia possa avere sempre più riscontri e che, allo stesso tempo, il boom turistico che la Cambogia, meritatamente, sta vivendo, non intacchi l'integrità dei luoghi e delle persone. La dolcezza e profondità del popolo cambogiano nel suo insieme, nonostante le ferite agghiaccianti lasciate dalla folle esperienza Khmer Rouge, è veramente speciale e merita il meglio. Pensate: nonostante il genocidio di un terzo (!!) della popolazione, questo popolo ha avuto il coraggio e la statura spirituale di non lasciarsi andare alla comprensibile voglia di contro-vendetta, come purtroppo abbiamo visto nella ex Jugoslavia e vediamo accadere in Iraq. Credo che solamente ciò sia sensazionale. Beh, buona Cambogia e Angkor!" Fulvio Iori - Milano 11.12.06

Now that we have returned I wanted to write and let you know how pleased we are to have made this trip with your expertise and assistance.  We can’t imagine having done it any other way, particularly having watched so many other tour groups herding large groups from the bus to a quick look at a temple, and NEVER seeing these groups in some of the other most interesting places we got to go.  With one minor exception, the coordination among our guides and drivers was perfectly choreographed and we were so well cared for.  Each of our 4 guides was helpful and knowledgeable and went out of their way to make our experience special. We particularly enjoyed Sarath during our days in Siem Reap.   I would highly recommend your organisation to anyone I know considering going to Cambodia.

Though the temples, museums, and palace were all outstanding sights to visit, our favorite memories will surely be the people and the unique things we had opportunity to see and do.  Sarath taught Jon to fish using the round net with weights around the edges and though he didn’t catch any fish, when he fly fishes he often doesn’t catch any either and still has fun.  Throughout the country we met children that were delightful --- the kids at the temple near Kompong Thom that were learning to play traditional instruments, the kids at the orphanage learning the alphabet, the teenage boy at the market in Siem Reap that knew the capital of every country, the kids performing with shadow puppets.  Our planned activities were excellent --- learning to cook some of the Cambodian food, visiting the weaving village, and seeing the pepper plantation near Kampot.  And our unplanned activities were amazing ---- planting rice and driving the ox to plow the field, having lunch with the other workers in the field, coming across a parade of villagers celebrating the engagement of a young couple.  We loved our accommodations (though maybe not the one in Kompong Thom so much):  Amanjaya in Phnom Penh had a fabulous view of the busy street along the Mekong River and we were fascinated watching the traffic.  The Veranda Natural Resort in Kep was like living with Swiss Family Robinson in the trees and your suggestion of the Kampot green pepper and salt shrimp was my favorite dish of the whole trip.  The Residence d'Angkor in Siem Reap was beautiful and relaxing and the staff delightful and always interested in what we were doing and amazed at how much more interesting our itinerary was compared to most tours they see.

We were both surprised and pleased at how open the people were to our questions and the honesty of their answers.  We learned so much of the history and culture of the country that we were woefully uninformed on prior to our trip.  We were both saddened by the great difficulty that remains for the people of Cambodia and impressed with how much initiative many of the children and adults alike exhibit.  We are also grateful that your compnay contributes to try to improve their lives through your foundation.

Our greatest regards to all of your staff that contributed to our memorable trip.

Lisa Nicholson and Jon Huffman - August 2007

Hello Andy!

I would like to thank you for such a well-organized and wonderful trip. Our guide, Bunchay, was great. He was always helpful, friendly and answered all of our questions -they were a lot, you can ask him!!! Our driver was also very nice. They both speak such good English!

Cambodia is such an interesting country. We are definitely interested on going back some day. We had a fantastic time and we learned so many things. I wish I had planned our vacation differently, so that we had stayed in Cambodia at least one week. Now I know for next time!!! My son enjoyed the trip very much too. He was very impressed with the nature around the temples, he loved the huge trees and the insects he discovered around, and was very interested in the stories Bunchay told us about the Hindu gods.

We asked Bunchay for a cooking class too, and he immediately arranged it for us. We were in Le Tigre de Papier, and it was really fun! We hadn't done that as a family before, and we had such a great time. And the food is delicious! We also asked about Cambodian dance, and he recommended us a show. We liked it very much, both the dance and the dinner that was included.

Thank you very much again. I wish you all the best for Asia Travel, and we will certainly recommend it to all our friends.

Rosa Ojeda - September 2009

I decided to book a tour with Andy because I was impressed from the outset by the thoughtfulness and quality of the information the company provided about its tours and organizational philosophy. The company's founder helped me with all of the arrangements from finding a hotel to booking a flight from Thailand to Cambodia. When I arrived in Siem Reap, I was pleased to find that that I'd made a good choice of tour companies. My guide was very knowledgeable and professional and did a great job of telling the stories and histories associated with each temple. I appreciated that, in addition to explaining the history and significance of the temples, he also took time share information about life in Cambodia/ Siem Reap today. I enjoyed visiting Cambodia and my visit was greatly enhanced by the folks at the company who, from the founder to my guide, to our driver were kind, helpful, and competent.

Stephanie Burrows - January 29th 2007
Washington, D.C.

 I wanted to thanks you for the wonderful experience that you have made to pass me in Cambodia.I have tried of the extraordinary feelings visiting these situated ones and knowing people of the place, simple people but that it has transmitted to a humanity and an availability to me that never I will be able to forget. Thanks and thanks still and thanks in order to occupy you of the children who have given to me of the smiles that will always remain in order in my heart...

Thanks my friends. My heart now is fuller thanks to you.I hope of being able to see you again a day and I hope that more and more people will be able to know your friendness and your experience. You deserve it

Benito favretto - Italy Sep 2007  

> Hi,
>
> I would like to thank your team making the trip so relax and enjoyable. The guide Sarath was humorous and knowledgeable. The driver was careful yet nimble. They made a good team, always punctual and ready.
>
> The hotel was excellent with a bunch of very hospitable staff that were very polite and speak good English. The breakfasts were excellent to the extend that one of the party members even asked for the recipe for the egg Benedict.
>
> I would like to congratulate you and the team for putting in great efforts to plan a relax but yet very in depth tour of Angkor Wat. Also not to forget to thank you for the complimentary tour of the lake, which we thought was an eye opener.
>
> I would certainly recommend your service to all my friends not only for the excellent service but also the laudable efforts to help the poor children in Cambodia.
>
> On behalf of all our party of 6, may you have a profitable and prosperous future.
> rgds
Vince Wong - Singapore June 07

Reading back to what I wrote, I realize that all this could sound excessively "over promoting": but, believe me, it was not my purpose. My only hope is that this initiative can succeed and, at the same time, the touristic boom Cambodia is worthly experiencing won't alter the integrity of sites and people. The natural politeness and deepness of Cambodian people at its whole, which goes beyond the frightening wounds left by the allucinated Khmer Rouge experiment, is really special and deserves the best. Think about it: nevertheless the genocide of a third (!!) of the entire population, this same people has had the courage and spiritual strenght to not allow itself to pursue a comprensible aim of counter-revenge, as sadly happened in the former Yugoslavia and as Iraq is experiencing. I believe that only this is already sensational. So, have a nice Cambodia and Angkor!"

Fulvio Iori - Milan (Italy)