Angela and Emma,

Overall we were very impressed with the tour arrangements. All the tour guides were knowledgeable and helpful. The service overall was fantastic.

Lhakdon in Tibet was the most outstanding. She was so pleasant and personable. Upon departure, it felt like we were leaving a friend. Our driver there was also pleasant and went out of his way to make us comfortable.

Also we were very impressed with the conscientiousness of Tracy in Shanghai. We had mechanical problems with our flight and were delayed 5 hrs on route. She remained at Shanghai airport until 4 a.m. in order to meet us, and was then up and ready to go the next morning to meet us with a cheerful face although having had hardly any sleep.

Overall the meals were good. The one change we would desire is that we hate to be wasteful and there was usually way too much food served. We asked for lesser portion sizes but were told this was not possible. The a la carte meal in Tibet was not the best, in fact, some of the food was not good. On the other hand, the a la carte restaurant meal in Shanghai was outstanding both for it's food, atmosphere and cleanliness.

We loved the hotels. The Tibetan one in particular (ShangBaLa Hotel) was clean and quirky - just the way we like it. The only opportunity of improvement of that particular hotel is that the downstairs public bathrooms were so smelly that we could smell it from the gift shop in the main lobby. Other than that, we loved that hotel the best.

The Beijing and Shanghai hotels were outstanding for service and comfort. However, they were more westernized than our usual choices.

Linda