Jaka
3. Meal arrangements: The tour guide informed us that we would have dim sum breakfast and organised activities with lunch on 26 – 27 Nov. As my toddler nephew was sick, my sister and mother stayed behind in the hotel to care for him instead of joining the tour that we paid for. We were not informed if hotel breakfast could be provided for them. So my sister and mother had to get their own breakfast and lunch in between taking care of my sick toddler nephew on 26 – 27 Nov. My mother was so tired that she fell sick the following day.
In fact, we were given the impression that all meals including breakfast were not catered for on 28 – 29 Nov as the tour guide said that it was free and easy on 28 – 29 Nov. We were only informed of the time to check out and the arrival time of the bus to take us to the airport for the flight on the last day. So we paid for our own breakfasts on 28 – 29 Nov for all eight of us until just before departure on 29 Nov, another fellow traveller mentioned that actually there was hotel breakfast provided for us.
Overall: Our requests on flight seating and room arrangements for our family of 8 were not acceded to and we were left largely on our own to manage, not to mention having to spend extra money on meals that were supposed to be catered for but not communicated clearly to us. In fact, an elderly couple in the tour group went missing at the start of lunch on 26 Nov. Luckily, a fellow traveller in the group alerted the tour guide so that they could be found in time before they wondered off further and got totally lost in a foreign land. Looking at how things were done, I will not trust Hong Thai with my elderly parents if they have to travel on their own in an organised tour under Hong Thai as they may also be lost in a foreign land. We had to help the elderly couple and let them tag along with us so they knew where to go to take the flight home. The only plus point was that the staff in Singapore who received us at Changi Airport on the first day, whose name I did not get, helped us to collect our SIM cards at Changi Wifi counter as we have forgotten to do so in a hurry to check in and were unable to come out to collect on our own. Hence I don’t think our family will want to go on a tour with Hong Thai after this bad experience or recommend families with elderly parents or very young children to book tours with Hong Thai.