Bangkok & Bali Tour: Traversing Historic Routes of Indochina

We just completed a great trip to Indonesia. We chose Zicasso’s tour company and their travel agent and we’re glad we did. We talked to a number of travel companies and ultimately went with our agent because he was extremely responsive, easy to work with, and very flexible with the travel planning through multiple iterations of our plans. We were celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary, along with my wife’s birthday, and every hotel had special celebrations and surprises for us, all because of our travel agent.

Coordinating the trip wasn’t easy as I started out 12 days before my wife to do a scuba dive liveaboard in Raja Ampat in far eastern Indonesia. My wife flew solo and reached Bali one day ahead of me to rest up from the long flights.

Our travel agent’s special services during the trip started with him providing airport escort services for all our flights upon arrival, as well as departures. This was tremendously helpful in navigating unfamiliar airports, collecting luggage, and co-ordinating connecting flights, as well as providing lounge services for longer layovers between flights. One escort was incredibly helpful in getting us rebooked on an earlier flight that had been delayed when our flight was also delayed. All the domestic flights were on regional carriers and experienced delays and cancellations multiple times. They handled all the rebooking and more, including checking us in for all the flights and sending us our boarding passes. It was a huge help. I can’t say enough good things about this service throughout our trip and many domestic flights. Thanks.

The agent met me on my arrival in Jakarta at 6am and brought some prearranged currency exchange, which was very helpful. He also arranged a day hotel at the airport in Jakarta for my long layover to Sorong, West Papua, in eastern Indonesia.

Our agent also met my wife upon her arrival in Bali 12 days later, along with our driver and tour guide in Bali. He provided currency exchange for her as well. Going the extra mile, literally on a different island to meet my wife and escort her to our first hotel, was greatly appreciated.

I joined my wife in Bali the next day and was again escorted to the resort an hour away by our agent, the driver, and tour guide. Great service. The first hotel at Keramas Beach was great, five stars, and on a beautiful black-sand beach. After recuperating for a couple of days, we headed to Flores island. I was able to leave my dive bag with our tour guide and driver, which was very helpful. An hour’s fight away was another awesome boutique beach resort. From there we were able to take a private speed boat to some beautiful islands and beaches, and to see the Komodo dragons.

After three days on Flores, we headed back to Bali for eight days of sightseeing. We stayed just outside of Ubud at another great hotel with beautiful jungle views. From Ubud, we explored Bali, doing multiple waterfall hikes, sacred temple water cleansing, rice field hikes, local handicrafts, village walks, visiting Ubud, and more. We had a great guide and driver. They knew out-of-the-way places, routes, back roads, unscheduled sights, and short excursions that really enhanced the experience.

From Bali, we went to Borneo via Jakarta, where I was again able to drop off my dive bag, which was helpful. In Borneo, we had a private riverboat for two nights, cruising the river and narrow passageways to visit three orangutan feeding sites. Although the feeding is a daily routine, watching the orangutans in the jungle was amazing. The riverboat had a great crew and food, and our guide was wonderful.

From Borneo we went to Sumatra to trek in the jungle and see orangutans in their natural habitat. We started out seeing a rehabilitation site for elephants that had caused trouble in the villages. We went trekking in the jungle, followed by tubing down a river, which was fun. After relocating to a national park, we spent three days trekking with our guides. Seeing orangutans in their natural habitat could be the highlight of the trip, although there were many wonderful sights and experiences. Then it was off to Singapore to rest for a couple of days before heading home. A great trip.

I can’t overstate what a great job our travel agent and his team did. Every hotel was great, with each providing special anniversary and birthday surprises, including special dinners, flowers on the bed on arrival with messages, massages, great food, great service, etc. The riverboat even had a birthday cake for my wife. All the extra services, including providing currency exchange, personal greetings, airport escorts, being able to drop off my dive bag twice, checking in routinely to make sure everything was good, providing great guides and drivers, private boats for the day trip in Flores, the riverboat in Borneo, and capping off with the jungle treks, really made for a great trip.

The trip was an experience of a lifetime, courtesy of our travel agent and his company. I would highly recommend them to anyone thinking about taking a private, personalized, special trip to Indonesia.

For anyone considering a trip to Bali, I very strongly suggest that you work with Dharsana at the travel agency. We had also worked with a second travel agency, but they just did not reach out as much as this one in coming up with a suitable trip and just did not seem as interested.

The trip to Bali, Indonesia was fantastic!!! It was a pleasure working with Dharsana at agency in arranging our vacation. He listened to what I had to say and planned the trip accordingly. His team met us even before going through customs and helped us through the process. I have never experienced that type of assistance with any other travel agency. Dharsana met with us after going through customs and drove with us and a driver to our hotel providing all sorts of information. He also had arranged to convert U.S. dollars into the Indonesia Rupiah when I arrived rather than having to go to a currency exchange. And when our trip was finished, his team helped us through the check in at the airport and took us to a lounge in the airport where we could relax and have free food and drink. I was so surprised by that. Once again, I had never had that kind of assistance before. I was planning on buying a SIM card for my phone, but Dharsana arranged for us to have a device that provided us with WIFI services wherever we went, so a SIM card was not necessary. Again, just another unexpected surprise.

During our trip, we had one problem with one of the hotels we stayed at. Dharsana drove at least one hour both ways to ensure the problem was resolved. In fact, he made two round trips to make sure everything was well taken care of. Further, during our trip he arranged for an anniversary dinner and a birthday dinner. They were great. At the 100 candlelit anniversary dinner, our table was in an excluded area by a river. It was incredibly romantic. They had rose petals spelling out "happy anniversary". The food was fantastic and the entire experience was beyond words. And the restaurant where the birthday dinner was held also provided wonderful food. And Dharsana drove to both restaurants to wish us well on those dinners.

Our trip of 15 nights included 9 nights in Ubud and 6 nights in Seminyak. At both places, we arranged different tours through Dharsana using their own staff. The tours were great. We traveled on these tours with a guide and a driver. He is an excellent driver. We had an excellent guide. Not only did they take us to some wonderful temples, but we got to participate in the prayer services rather than just watch the services. Our guide explained what to do during the services and provided all the prayer boxes that were needed. At one of the temples, whose name is Lempuyang Temple (The Heaven's Gate), there are 1700 steps to climb. My wife and I are in our sixties and found doing the steps a fun challenge. At one point, some of the monkeys on the way up seemed to be getting a little aggressive. Our guide took care of it and I got to learn what to do if monkeys become aggressive. He took pictures with his own phone in addition to using our own phones. He then created some excellent videos using different pictures that he had taken and set them to music.

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the people of Bali. They were very friendly and patient. For example, after climbing the 1700 steps, our guide took pictures of my wife and I in front of a sign as proof of our success. Since we were the only Westerners who were successful in climbing the stairs at the time, the Bali residents who made the climb asked us if we would mind them taking pictures with us using their own phone cameras. They asked where we were from. As the photos were taking place, more of the Bali residents asked if they too could have their pictures taken with us. It was a great experience. All of our experiences with the residents of Bali were very pleasant.

In total we did about 7 or 8 tours. Visiting the temples was great. We took a trip to a place where we saw three waterfalls. It was excellent. My wife swam at one or two of the waterfalls, whereas I just walked around. Our trips to the rice terraces were excellent. They were beautiful to see and walk through.  And a must do activity is the sunrise trekking.  This involves climbing a volcano at around 4:00 am to arrive in time to see the sunrise.  It is a difficult walk.  Many young people would have problems.  My wife and I are in good shape, so we managed to climb it in 1 hour 45 minutes.  I only saw two others who were our age or older.

Our hotels were excellent and were suggested by Dharsana. In fact, he gave us a few choices to consider. I then did some research on the hotels to decide which ones to stay at. During my research Dharsana provided some very useful information about the hotels that I used in making a final decision.

The food during our stay was great. My wife is more adventurous than I am when it comes to food and made sure to sample as many Bali dishes as possible. I never heard one complaint from her. At both hotels that we stayed at, breakfast was included. They were superb! You could basically ask for as much food as you wanted and there was a great amount of choices in the foods. Of course it was not just the quantity of food, but the quality was great. We often skipped lunches because the breakfasts were so filling.

In Ubud we stayed at a resort. The rooms there are huge. The rooms also included an outdoor deep soak tub that we took advantage of. There was also a private plunge pool for each room. My only complaint about the pool would be that the temperature of the plunge pool is too cold. As a result, I did not use it as often as I otherwise would have. The main swimming pool was a little too cold as well. In Seminyak we stayed at another resort. I have never been to a hotel that provided such great service. The rooms may not have been as large, but they were easily large enough. The food was fantastic. There was a complimentary tea each afternoon and the swimming pool was wonderful.

We spent two plus weeks in Indonesia, visiting Bali, Kalimantan, and Java (Yogyakarta).  This was a great experience for us as we enjoyed music, dance, rice fields, snorkeling, rafting, volcano climbing, art, local villages, and temples in Bali; a houseboat trip in Kalimantan where we experienced orangutans, monkeys, birds, and other wildlife, as well as amazing flowers and trees; and time in and near Yogyakarta in Java to experience Borobodur, Prambanan, and some sites in Yogyakarta.  

The travel agent gets great marks for selecting amazing places for us to stay, each with fantastic service, amazing amenities (private pool or beach in each place!), and beautiful settings.  I would recommend these to any visitor-- whether a couple, a family or a group.  Even our houseboat in Kalimantan was special, with a great crew and an incredible cook on board. 

Our travel agent spent quite a bit of time interviewing us to help plan a trip to meet our interests and I feel that she did a good job probing, listening and planning.  She was also able to help us get a reservation at a restaurant in Ubud just a week or two before our trip-- not such an easy task as there was no table available at all when I tried.   And, I have to add that all of our in-Indonesia travel via plane from island to island, went very smoothly and easily.  Our guides had the in-Indonesia tickets for us when we arrived-- very simple and easy! 

Indonesia is a complicated place and this travel experienced allowed us to enjoy its present and past. We were grateful to our guides for sharing their perspectives and lives with us throughout our stay and to the hospitality everywhere we went. 

Zicasso's travel agent did a wonderful job of arranging seamless, complex transfers from Java to Gili Air to Ubud, Bali, and provided great guides, drivers, and advice, as well as a Wi-Fi hotspot and local currency on arrival. We did have an issue with hotels not reserved until a couple of days ahead and he promptly resolved the problem.

Our agent was a very responsive and prompt communicator. We would recommend!

This travel company is the most responsive tour operator I've ever worked with. They arranged a great tour in Bali, however, the Komodo National Park portion was terrible.

My Bali tour was fantastic. The local tour operator was amazing, attentive, knowledgeable, and accommodating. He took into account my preferences on the go and happily visited additional places when we were running early. Additionally, the accommodations arranged in Ubud were very enjoyable.

Labuan Bajo (Komodo National Park) was not so good. The local tour operator here was nothing short of a disaster. They operate the slowest boat I've ever seen, wasting hours of time. They visited the islands in an order different from the itinerary that was worse for a variety of reasons, as well as skipped one islands I was supposed to visit. The promised English speaking guide didn't actually speak English. They picked me up on a motorbike without a helmet. These are just the major issues with this provider.

If you're sticking to Bali, this company is a great choice. Either way, you'll definitely appreciate the speed with which they respond to all inquiries and do their best to resolve issues as they arise.

Travel Company Comments

Dear Mr Y,

I just wanted to follow up on your comment posted with Zicasso. First of all, I would like to apologize for the inconvenience that you experienced during the holiday. I do appreciate your feedback and input as these serve for us to improve our service and the partners with whom we are choosing to work. I also want to let you know that this won't happen again in the future. After all, my guests' satisfaction is the top priority and we do take your comments seriously.

I wanted to let you know that I did follow up on the issues that you have mentioned:

1. First of all, thank you very much for your kind feedback about our easy communication; that it was very fast planning due to the time constraint.

2. I am also very happy and glad that the Bali part was very enjoyable for you. Bali is already very open to travelers and the local people there are very open-minded too. Hence, most of the people that I work with are also very cooperative and value our travelers highly.

3. As for the Komodo part, I am truly sorry for the inconvenience; this never happened before. But, Komodo is respectively new to tourism compared to Bali. So, people there are relatively more secluded and have yet to realize the importance of having foreign travelers in Komodo. Myself and my company have also tried our best in giving the most we can so that the travelers can enjoy their holiday in Indonesia. All is written down by email with the tour company and I have also called them everyday before the tour started so that everything would go well according to the timetable. Hearing from you was also a shock for us and this will serve us as a base to improve the tour in Komodo. Seeing this case, there is more work we can do to make sure to avoid these kinds of problems in the future. Smaller islands are more prone to these kinds of problems due to the lack of tourism experience of the people; of how important it is to make the travelers happy and have an enjoyable trip. That is why we always call and double-check everything.

Overall, I apologize for that inconvenience and I have addressed the issue with my local supplier and I am very open to discussing this. Your feedback has prompted me into looking at better alternatives. Again, thank you for traveling with us and your feedback.