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Since 1994, our Genuine,
small group tours to
Sapa have made
Griswald's Vietnamese Vacations
™
& our
REAL
Kangaroo Café
™,
names you can trust.
 ™
The Kangaroo Cafe
*
Please Note: Doing business with companies
over the internet still makes some people, understandably, nervous.
Only Licensed
Australian Travel Agents, like us, are eligible to be members
of the
Travel Compensation
Fund.
It's run by the NSW Government, Dept of Fair Trading & is something only
real travel agents can offer.
Check to see if who you're thinking of dealing
with is actually licensed
& if they're not .... ask them why not ?
This really is the view from your
room in Sa Pa on your tour with us. We think you'll approve
!!!
These days with the
self promotion
&
paid for,
but so called independent reviews
(???)
on the
various travel forums
it's very difficult to work out just
who's who in the zoo
!!!
Travel Fish
is an interesting web site & they have a
mobile phone app too.
As a leading
internet travel resource, they
take their
responsibilities more seriously
than most & monitor their site for suspicious, malicious or clearly
just promotional posts.
You won't see the usual suspects
(hotels, tour companies, professional posters etc)
trolling & spamming on their site & if they continue they'll be
outed on the site as well. The tone on
Travel Fish
is more mature too & without the very personal attacks & often
unbelievable posts !!!
Take a look at the companies they've already
banned for continually trolling & spamming.
It's a very surprising list & says quite a bit about the validity &
integrity of some of these other, so called, independent travel
sites.
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So,
what our tours are actually like ?
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For some
real info about us
written by real people please
have a look at our
Testimonials
page & also
a couple of really good
You tube
posts from former customers with real names & faces.
Click on
Amy & Ken's You tube clip of their trip with us !
(thanks so much
you two)
And
(Click)
-
A Canadian family who are decent, kind &
thoughtful
- read their blog to see more !
Unlike the
curious 1
time only posters
&/or the
Tourists without cameras
- AKA our nasty competitors, the posts above are from normal people who wrote honestly about their
time with us.
Over the last 16 or so years we've had literally
thousands of people choose us for their tours. Time &
again our customers & some for their 2nd, 3rd & 4th trip have said
they chose us because they wanted to go with the tour operator
& not just another ticket seller.
That's how we know
-
We're
not like everybody else
!
It makes all the
difference in price, quality, service &
Safety !
Beware of the many, nasty crooks that
continue to copy us !
This just might be the page
you've been looking for !
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Being
the actual tour operator
you won't have to pay for any agents, hotel staff, taxi drivers, internet booking mobs &
who knows who else's commissions. Our prices are stated clearly on
our itineraries as are all the other important details
like
group size,
what's included,
what's not included,
accomm details, drink prices
etc.
It's all straight forward with us &
any questions are easy to answer when you deal with
the tour operator.
Please check out the various options at ....
Handspam,
Phoenix,
every hotel mob in Viet Nam
(yawn), Ocean Tours &
(now even) Ocean Star tours
?,
A-Z Queen, the many Backpacker hostel mobs,
(more yawn) the
300+
Sinh Cafes in Ha Noi (even more
yawning but with a serious look of bewilderment too !), TNK, Christina etc. There's even tours being flogged in dry cleaner
shops & out front of the public dunnies too
BUT
in
overall terms
of quality
&
price,
we reckon our tours are well worth a look ! |
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™
The Kangaroo Cafe
When in Ha Noi
don't forget to hop over
to one of our REAL
Kangaroo Cafés
™.
You'll find great Vietnamese, vegetarian & western food
(at local prices), the coldest beer in Viet Nam as well as
the latest information for travellers. Find out what to
buy, where to buy it & better still, what the fair price for it really
is.
Our Air
Conditioned Cafés at 22 Bao Khanh St & 17 Hang Bac St, Ha Noi, are a great place to stop off & the
KC staff are always keen to help with all your questions.
While
you're in the cafe you can pick up a Free local map & of course the
important - Free Stubby Holder too !!!
22 Bao Khanh St Ha Noi
17 Hang Bac St Ha Noi |
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Some General info about Sapa |
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Sa
Pa is in the far north west corner of Vietnam and very close to China.
At about 1600 meters above sea level, the
climate is cooler than in other parts of the country. We've
got lots of great photos of Sa Pa and to see
them please click on one of the thumbnails at the bottom of the page.
There's a number of
misconceptions about this wonderful area in the
northwest of
Vietnam. Many people talk about and
refer to the "week
end" markets at Sa Pa. It
often gives the impression that they're in the same place & the
markets are only on the "week end". Neither
is entirely accurate. The following
is an attempt to give some detail to the "markets",
their location & the alternatives
available to visitors
of this magnificent area of Vietnam.
The biggest advantage of the
week
end activities would be for the
backpacker tour operators. They can
maximise the attendance (& profit) by herding the backpackers
onto busses & driving them up to the area en masse.
The biggest problem with this, of
course, is that the tourists, because of their large
numbers, are unable to see & take advantage of a lot that's on
offer. In the past these tours were
really the only way to gain access to this wonderful area.
However, time waits for no one & in
recent times we've been going mid week to avoid the crowds & the
feed back we get from our guests is that it's really
spectacular. |
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Our Alternative
tours - a nice change from the same old ...... |
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We've got 2
& 3 Day Sapa Hotel Stays and 3 & 4 Day Sapa Home stays too. |
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(please email us for a
comprehensive itinerary) |
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The differences start from the word go. Our 2, 3
or 4 day tour is exactly that 2, 3 or 4 days up there on the
mountain & we don't pad out the trip by including
the train up there & back.
We
can't - there's no option to it.
We take the night train from Ha
Noi & we always book the best available,
4 berth, soft bed, A/con, cabins & they're really quite nice.
Most people comment that they're very pleasantly surprised by
the standard. On the night of departure, we meet at the cafe &
then our staff
take you to the train & we don't leave until you're settled in
your cabin.
Check our
YouTube Chanel
for some stuff about our Sa Pa tour.
The strange things is that we
sometimes find
other tourists in our cabins. It's never a problem for our
customers as we don't just leave you at the station. Maxie seems to be
quite able
at "imbecile removal" & the girls are
just as tough too.
The main point of this is that we don't leave
our guests stranded in Ha Noi or up in Lao Cai either. On
your way home, one of our staff will again, take you to your
cabin & ensure that everything's OK before saying goodbye.
On arrival at the border town of Lao Cai you
won't have to fight for a seat on the bus either. You'll simply
walk across the road & have a tea or coffee while you wait for
the bus to leave. Again, no hassling, no arguments & no
uncertainty - we take care of all the hassles for you.
Griswalds were
the first company to hire the local
H'mong people as guides. We felt that
it was time they had an opportunity to do
something else besides just making & selling
Handi-crafts. It's their villages we
go to so who better to introduce you to their neighbours than
the H'mong people themselves.
Our partner in Sa Pa has a lovely
hotel run by her & her wonderful
family & she'll take great care of
you. The
standard of the hotel is
great with loads of charm & the
pictures will show you just how nice it is.
The fire places are a real treat when
it's cold & our staff will
even light them for you
while you're in town having dinner at one of the lovely
restaurants if you wish.
We've never been interested in
the very large groups. It's not fair
on the tourists, the Vietnamese & especially on the minority
groups. The
backpacker tours are still going strong if that's what you want,
but it's not what we do.
When you go for your trek, the largest group we take is 6 but
more often than not it's 2 or 3 & in that way everyone gains.
It's quite impossible to
take groups of 20-30 people into the areas we go & we simply
don't want to.
Doing things the way we do ensures
that we come & go when & where we/you want & that we don't harm
or disturb the area or people involved. We're
always welcomed back to the villages & often stop for a chat
along the way with hill tribe people we know.
We're very well known & liked in the area for a number
of reasons but mostly because we genuinely care about the
people.
Max's Vietnamese isn't too
bad & because he's such a garrulous sort of
bloke the locals really like him. Our
guests are often surprised when, half
way up a mountain, some H'mong or Dao
kid comes up & in perfect English says "Hi Max". He'll of course
rattle on with them in English & Vietnamese.
This is great for travellers
because they get a genuine opportunity
to meet & interact with some remarkable people.
Because of the small groups we take, our treks are loosely
structured so that you can take full advantage of each new
situation as it unfolds. It's
your holiday and we think it should be a real adventure. |
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So what's this big surprise at the hotel
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Well apart from being a lovely couple, our
partners in Sa Pa, Loan & Nick have proven to be more than just
a couple of good sorts.
They've installed an
elevator at the hotel so even though the best view in Sa Pa was
worth the 170 odd steps to your room, the steps are now a thing of
the past
(whew)
! |
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The
Sa Pa
Markets |
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| In Sa Pa, as in
every town in Vietnam, there's a
market every day. Vietnamese people
hate food that's not fresh & simply won't put up with it (makes
you wonder why we do ?). They go to the
market every day & in Sa Pa it's no different.
Except that on Saturday nights
they have a thing called the Cho Tinh (Love Market) & the
various hill tribe people go there to try & win a heart.
It's very charming & not to be confused with the Australian
tradition of getting blind drunk on a Saturday night a going the
grope on some poor unsuspecting member of the opposite sex.
Saturday night's
alright (Elton) for lots of people & for lots of reasons. In Sa Pa, Saturday night's alright
too & all who go there say they'll never forget it. |
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Bac Ha & other week end or
minority market places |
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Normally people go to see
the “Sunday” market at Bac Ha which is very good.
However these days there are
lots of western tourists there which is understandable.
You’ll have a choice to visit either Bac Ha or another
one. The other market is your
fair dinkum hill tribe market. Smaller
than Bac Ha but much more authentic & without all the
backpackers.
It’s
an early start for the drive to either place & both are
a bit wild with people riding on horses & buffalo. The
markets are packed full of interesting things to buy,
like the famous Viet Cong black
pyjamas as well as lots of
beautiful handicrafts by the various groups. You’ll see
lots of groups including Lo Lo, Giay, Flower H’mong,
Nung, Tay as well as H’mong. In the afternoon you’ll
drive back to Lao Cai to board the train to Ha Noi.
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