If you want to read the issue go on but I was happy with COX n Kings and I am going again for a trip with them. I just returned from Fascinating Far east tour and its was the worst trip of my life... we covered Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore in 9 days.
The Tour Manager never introduced herself, never gave her mobile number to us (until the last day of the tour and never connected with anyone in the group ! At time she didn’t know the itinerary and was constantly checking with the Local tour guide. Her presence had no value add in the Tour.
When we landed in Bangkok airport there was no tour guide to pick up us...finally we got a Local guide coming after two hours of waiting. When we landed in Malaysia from Bangkok the tour was split into two airlines (obviously to save cost) and we traveled a budget airline for 3 hours (even water was charged in Air Asia ).
Finally we landed in two different airports in Malaysia with no contact between the groups... We were given wrong instructions by the tour manager who told the group not to move from emigration counter until every one came... and here we landed in two different airports waiting for the other group to arrive...If only someone had told us that Kuala Lumpur has two Airports (one for Budget flights and another for other flights) we wouldn’t have waited for each other and wasted a good 4 hours in the process ! Is this too much to ask from the tour operator ? So much for professionally managed tour gentlemen !
The highlight (or rather low light) was while we were travelling from Malaysia to Singapore. The bus broke down and we were on the road literally (Malaysia Singapore Highway) for 9 hours !!!
We were told the Bus will be fixed in 15 mins and it took 9 hours. Both the tour manager and local guide (The guide from Red Apple subcontracted the job to a Local free lancer) had no clue of what was going on.... Bus breaking down is a common thing agreed but does it take NASA brains to figure out that an alternate arrangement needs to be made immediately ! and we were only 76.5 km from Singapore ...That’s is my point !!!
There were ladies, children and senior citizens in the tour who were at the pity of Cox and Kings in a Foreign land ! We had to request local Police to stay on guard in the highway... Imagine Vehicle doing 120 to 150 km per hour on the Road and you are sitting on the Road...What if one of them would have run us all down !
Mental agony is what you get in a holiday !
Cox & Kings finally arranged for an alternate transport after 9 hours and we reached the hotel at 1:45 am in the morning (or midnight !!!) . When the alternate Bus arrived we were made to take our luggage into the new coach in the middle of night.
Do you know how we were compensated (a paltry singapore $ 29 dollar for Singapore flyer joy ride and free soft drink repeat free soft drink. Thats like drink as much coke as your want...LOL...Joke of the day I say). We rejected the offer of course !
These people, they subcontract the tour to some local tour operator who further subcontracts it to some local guy, you are better off your self... trust me...its really bad service. If you don’t believe me ...see these pictures taken while we were on road en route Singapore without food or water (and it started raining in between) from 1:45 pm until 10:45 pm.
We are planning to take the matter with the Senior mgmt of Cox & Kings. I am sure there are some sane souls in their Senior mgmt team who will take stock of the situation and rectify all issues for the future travelers...
As far as we are concerned we want our money back for the mental agony caused in the Tour.