Testimonials

I contacted several companies in the UK and abroad as I wished to arrange a bespoke trip for me to Indochina. Some could be hardly bothered to reply, others were very expensive and did not listen to what I wanted, whereas Kata at Asia Pioneers kept in constant contact with me, listened to my requests, changed things, suggested ideas and we finally came up with my amazing trip of 6 weeks.
I started off in Bangkok, up to Chiang Mai (my day with the elephants will stay with me always), Chiang Rai and into Laos where I spent a wonderful 9 days travelling with Sipone and 2 days trekking with BoSand. My homestay was amazing as I was the only western person there!!

In Hanoi Kata called at my hotel to meet me which was a lovely surprise – what a lovely lady.

I then travelled through Vietnam (Sapa homestay and a cruise on Halong bay plus more) and into Cambodia, ending up in Thailand to spend a much needed 4 days on Koh Chang.

My guides and transport arrangements were wonderful, always on time to collect me from airports, train stations, hotels, etc. The drivers drove safely, had cold water in their vehicles and wet wipes to freshen up. Nothing was too much trouble.

Travelling alone meant I could adjust my itinerary if I wanted, which I rarely did. My guides became friends and I was always sorry when I had to say goodbye. As they were always local, they had inside knowledge about their own areas.

I requested 3* hotels as I felt I would be out all day and did not need to spend more money than I needed. Almost all were of a very high standard, some more like 4*.

I also had a 24 hour emergency number to contact if there were any problems – IP thought of everything.

Thank you, thank you all, Kata and my super guides, for making this trip so wonderful.

If anyone is contemplating a trip to Indochina that they must contact you to arrange. You are first class….

We really enjoyed our trip to Cambodia. Asia Pioneer was flexible in responding to our needs and produced a terrific trip for us. The entire experience is exactly what we hoped for.

Guides adapted to meet our needs, not a cookie cutter tour. If you are looking for a custom tour of Indochina do not hesitate to contact Lam at Asia Pioneer. They are a local tour company comp that will ensure that you make all connections, are prompt, caring,kind and make you feel very welcome. No worries when you deal with Lam.

After submitting the enquiry form on their website, I very quickly received a phone call (to Australia) from Mr Lam Duong at Asia Pioneer head office. After discussing our wishes, he organised an itinerary to the Mekong Delta and on via fast boat to Phnom Penh.
At all times email communications were very promptly responded to.
Our guide Thai was superb, and our driver (also Thai) very competent. We felt very privileged to be travelling in style, watching tour groups herded in the Mekong river ferries, village visits, etc, while we always had our own transport and someone all to ourselves telling us all the stories, explaining everything, and answering our questions, etc.
Lovely airconditioned late model SUV to get to first destination, Mekong Lodge (tip: river side bungalows cop a lot of the river traffic noise in the wee hours as the fishing boats head out; try to get the ones further in the garden).
Second hotel was in Can Tho at the Van Phat Hotel 1. Big shiny hotel out of town (tip: the “free shuttle bus to town” advertised on their website is only available to groups). We didn’t mind having a quiet afternoon, though. We rubbernecked at the new estate of super-wealthy people’s mansions then had dinner at the hotel’s pleasant riverside open air restaurant and watched the life of the river go by.
The hotel in Chau Doc (Hai Chau Hotel) was ok, a bit grubby and basic. The breakfast tablecloths had spills and bits of old noodle on them, for example. Maybe it’s the best of limited options in the price range.
We said goodbye to our guide at Chau Doc, and all went well till Phnom Penh, where there was a bit of a glitch as the expected driver to our hotel didn’t show and we had to catch a taxi. The accommodation (Willow Boutique Hotel) was very nice, but the hotel had got our booking wrong and had booked a queen room for 3 nights instead of a twin room for 2. Fortunately they had a twin room, but if you stay at this hotel, don’t let them give you room G1. It’s a repurposed building and G1 has a lovely bank of floor to ceiling windows – overlooking the terrace bar! And side windows overlooking the rubbish bin area. So it’s nice for vampires and others who never open curtains, but a bit sad for those who like a bit of daylight.
I emailed Lam and received a very prompt apology, and their Phnom Penh representative organised a complimentary dinner and tuk tuk to a restaurant to make up for it. Unexpected, but so nice of them to do that for what were really very minor inconveniences.
All in all, we were very pleased to have entrusted Asia Pioneer to organise this part of our trip for us.

Having never been to Indochina before we had a look at Asia Pioneer after looking on trip advisor, the reviewers certainly were impressed with IP and also with Lam, my initial thoughts were on the lines that Travel agents are never this good!
My wife and I have just completed a 28 day trip, we’ve travelled by plane, boat, train, car and all our arrangements have gone like clockwork, they were all done by Lam and he has excelled.
Throughout our travels to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia the guides have been great, the private cars clean and comfortable and the hotels exceeded our expectations.
Lam has kept in contact with us either by email or Skype during our trip, and has helped with any problem arising, I think the biggest compliment we can pay to Lam is, he isn’t like most travel agents, he actually cares and this extends to the period after he has received your money!

I spent several months researching Vietnam and Cambodia and once I put together an itinerary I reached out to 8 tour companies for pricing. I narrowed down the list to three and asked each company to provide US references that I could contact either by email or phone. Only two companies complied with the request and only one company’s (Asia Pioneer-balance of review as IP) references were completely positive (actually, after speaking with one reference several times, I modified our itinerary), so I concentrated on working out the details of the hotels, tours, etc with Asia Pioneer and we ultimately booked with them. I never looked back and was never disappointed from start to finish. After completing the trip would I change a few things? …of course, but I think that would be true of any trip. We booked 3 star hotels with the thought that we were only in the rooms for sleeping, but next time I would price both the 3 and 4 star hotels and consider both. We did end up staying in 3 4* hotels and two were exceptional and one was not. In some locations, the choices were fairly limited and it was in those locations that the hotels were not as nice but we had expected this. We also had some excellent 3* hotels.

We had a pretty aggressive schedule because we’re not planning on returning to SE Asia anytime soon so I figured we could rest when we got home. The trip began in Bangkok where we spent a day and a half before going on to Hanoi (one change would have been to fly directly into Vietnam and out of Cambodia or vise versa to gain time, but when booked the flights we had planned on spending a few more days in Thailand). Our itinerary: Hanoi, Halong Bay (Indochina Junk-Dragon Pearl-separate review—all hotels and sites have been reviewed), back to Hanoi, Phong Nha National Park (Phong Nha Farmstay…if you have the time-GO HERE), Hue, Hoi An, Dalat, Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong, Can Tho, Chau Doc to Phnom Penh via high (?) speed boat and finally to Siem Reap.
It was a bucket list trip and thanks to Lam and IP we had a great time especially in light of having to change our schedule midway through the trip to avoid Typhoon Haiyan. As we watched the weather and the storm heading towards the Philippines, we made the decision to alter our schedule. We’re from Florida and realize the potential problems of being stranded by a storm. Lam at IP worked with us as to shorten some of our stays on the itinerary and add Dalat moving us south into the highlands and away from the coast. This involved changing airline flights, hotels, tours, guides, etc. He did this all with a positive attitude while listening to our concerns, questions and decisions. He offered suggestions, we made the decisions and he implemented them, all while we continued to travel and enjoy our trip (IP provided us a cell phone while we were in Vietnam and this proved to be a true blessing…although Lam had to have one of our guides purchase additional time on the phone due to all of the phone calls back and forth!!). What makes this more amazing is that he was doing the same thing, at the same time, for all of his other groups.

We had a GREAT time. It was wonderful to be picked up at every airport, checked in at every hotel and as this was a private tour, be able to change our schedule as we wished (although we rarely did). We always had cold water, nice vehicles, good drivers and guides whose goal was to teach us about their country and customs. We questioned them continuously and they seemed to enjoy sharing their knowledge, experiences and thoughts.

As far as Asia Pioneer is concerned, we would recommend them without reservation.