Pingtung

Yes, the tour I had arranged was supposed to take us — and six others — to the countryside. And it did. But the itinerary we ended up doing wasn’t what I had booked.

I must admit that I was hugely disappointed — and greatly frustrated — that the guide (Tom) took it upon himself to take us much farther from the port area without consulting with me first. That he did so because he felt this was “better” than what I had booked was no excuse IMHO. He could have easily said so at the time of the booking and presented me with alternatives that I would have gladly considered and made a decision accordingly.

Essentially, our day turned into a lot of driving with a couple of neat 5-minute photo-op stops; a noodle soup lunch (tasty, I will admit) at a local restaurant; and a long drive to a village that wasn’t a village at all.

The change Tom had made was to take us to an “indigenous village.” Turns out that it was a purpose-built cultural center where, if there were any exhibits, we weren’t directed to them. It certainly wasn’t the interactive indigenous experience we expected it to be from his description.

Instead, on arrival at the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Park, we were rushed onto a shuttle bus that took us to a theater where we sat through a half-hour music/dance performance that meant very little to us because we had no idea what we were watching. Afterwards, we ran through the heavy downpour to the shuttle to be returned to the entrance.

After all that — contrary to our instructions to return us to the ship — Tom made brief stops at two of the places on the itinerary. By then, however, there was no time to walk the old iron bridge and enjoy the wetlands ecological park setting; and the tile factory/kiln in the park was more like a gift shop than a manufacturing plant. That we didn’t go anywhere near the “unique” temple the itinerary called for was the crowning disappointment.

Add to all that … the vehicle was a tight fit for eight people (Tom claimed the larger vehicle had developed a mechanical problem and was in the shop) and the A/C was inadequate — especially in the back row. All around a frustrating day.

A terrible shame that this tour was so disappointing since we enjoyed our visit to Kaohsiung on RTW2017 tremendously and were looking forward to our return.

*** Update: After advising Tours by Locals of our disappointing experience, we were given a partial refund on the cost of the tour. It doesn’t change the unsatisfactory tour experience, but it is a consideration we appreciate. And Tom has perhaps learned a lesson about the importance of communicating with the client in the future.Read more