The REAL Kangaroo Cafe - Beware of the many crooks that copy us

As well as our signature Ha Long Bay & Sa Pa tours, we've got plenty of other great short tours available to places like: Mai Chau, the Perfume Pagoda, Ha Noi Day tours, Handi Craft Villages, Kenh Ga Springs, Cuc Phuong National Park & much more as well as train & air tickets.

We can even offer some good advice on booking decent, reasonably priced, clean, local hotels. You can see all our flyers at the REAL Kangaroo Cafe & decide what you'd like to do from there. No pressure, hassle or dramas. If we can't assist you with tours etc at least you can have a good cold beer or a great cup of tea or coffee.

Why aren't we hassling you to send us money over the net like all the other mobs ?

Why are we the only tour mob in Viet Nam that has a non compulsory tipping policy ?

Since 1994, Griswald's Vietnamese Vacations & our Kangaroo Café have been the leaders in value for money, genuine, small group tours. Since we opened we've always had a very up front way of working. Things like, displaying our bona fides on our web site, giving out our office & even our mobile phone numbers & even displaying our photos too. Yes it's a bit old fashioned but we've got nothing to hide & we think anyone else who's not willing to be as up front as we are...... well, they're not playing with a straight bat & that's not a very good way to start.

As the tour operator we don't just flog you off to the cheapest mob we can find.

Of course these days flogging you off , selling you the dump, giving you the bums rush etc, is called down sourcing or out sizing etc but it's the arse in plain old fashioned English.

Tourists often complain that no matter where they bought their tour or how much they paid, they ended up in the same place !

From the Rough Guide to Sth East Asia 2008/9

The leading guide books advise not to buy a tour from your hotel. Why is that ?

The main reason nearly all the guide books warn against it is because the hotel has no idea who they are selling you, have never been on the tour, don't know anything about the company that operates it & sadly it appears they don't very much care either !

They'll buy the cheapest tour voucher they can, add on between 50 & 200 % & then that's that !

If there’s the slightest problem what do you do, who do you speak to ? It's no use talking to the receptionist and because they don’t operate the tour they've got no idea where you are or even who you went with in the end.

The hotel staff have got their commission & that’s the end of it & you as far as they’re concerned.

Please feel free to check out any & all of the other tour mobs like Intrepid, Travel Indochina, Hamspan, Footprint, Rainbow, Sinh, Ding, Ling, Bing or Moe, Larry & Curly tours.

You’ll soon see that not only are our buses, boats & hotels etc better, but our prices are much better too.

More importantly, our groups are smaller & that’s the real test of a good tour.

The thumb-nails below are taken from a local Vietnamese tour magazine "The Guide" in 2006 & feature most of the tour companies you'll hear about on the various web forums.

Yes we know we're the only mob that shows what their competitors offer but we think it's only fair that we do & besides, we know we shape up rather well against our competitors especially in the area of price, quality & group size.

And you're correct, the prices listed below have gone up considerably since 2006 !

Please note carefully not just the price but more importantly the group sizes and we find it curious to note the incredible "guide book" support some of these mobs get for their so called "small group" tours as well as the support they get from 1 or 2 of the internet forums.

Makes you wonder what's going on behind the scenes !!!

Buying a real Kangaroo Café tour is simple because what you see is what you get. The pictures you see are of our boats, on our tours that we run & the only place you can buy a real Kangaroo Café tour is right here at our café.

Our tours start & finish from the cafe & we're here when you leave & when you get back from your tour too as we really are interested in our customers & their well being.

Not only that, but all our guides have mobile phones & their phone are available for our customers to contact us for any reason & it's never a bother so if you're on one of our tours & you need to contact us then please don't hesitate to do so.

We're old fashioned enough to call a spade a shovel & we don't do the old upsy downsey bit about how many is actually on the tour either, it's just so unfair to treat people this way.

At our café in Ha Noi you can see pictures of our buses, our boats, the hotels we use, the train carriages etc (they're on our web site too) & are happy to do so & it's our way of doing things in an up front way & to assist you in choosing your tour/s. We cater for all tastes & of course vegetarian meals are served as well.

Over the years as the internet has become more popular, increasingly many of our guests asked to book with us over the net. We used to do it but just so many people didn't bother to turn up or even let us know that they'd changed their minds. Even worse were the ones who took the advice of another tourist on the 'plane or the hotel receptionist who'd said that there was a tour "same same" as ours (which it was absolutely not !) & it was 1 or 2 dollars less.

This whole booking over the internet thing or ......

maybe one of the best scams we've ever seen !

Over the years as the internet became more popular, many of our guests have asked to book with us over the net. We used to do it but it turned out to be a bit of a disaster for us. We had just so many people who just didn't bother to turn up or even let us know that they'd changed their minds.

Much more seriously though, is you giving your credit card number out to someone in Viet Nam you've never met, who refuses to display any of their bona fides on their internet site & someone who is insisting you do so by using all kinds of silly stories.

Don't take our word for it, ask your bank about the incidence of credit card fraud throughout Sth East Asia. The selling off of peoples credit card numbers is incredibly common & because of this, we've stopped taking credit card bookings over the 'net & or the 'phone as a result.

It's actually a very clever scam because you've already told them when you'll be in Viet Nam (by the tour dates you've requested) so they wait until you're here before draining as much cash out of your account as they can.

They know it's more difficult for you to check your accounts here & even that's a bit risky too because of all the spyware installed for that very purpose at many of the internet cafés.

And, yes you can cancel your card but getting a new one to you "somewhere in Viet Nam" is much more difficult that you might imagine. Again, please, please be very careful !!!

If you like what we have to offer & are willing to purchase one of our tours, then all you have to do is pop into our cafe ASAP after arriving in Ha Noi & you can book & pay for your tour then & there.

If you're arriving and only have a limited amount of time before you wish to depart on our tour/s "we'll do our best" but of course, it's subject to availability but honestly there’s no need to worry !!!!!.

There's lots of ways we can help & we can sometimes "pencil" you in for a tour & then you can pay for it ASAP after you arrive in Ha Noi which is what we used to do & have decided to start doing again but again, we stress in the strongest possible terms, please don't fall for this latest scam about the tours are all filling up & you won't be able to go if you don't book & pay now.

It's completely untrue & designed only to help the crooked tour mobs !!!

It’s quite incredible just how many nut case tour mobs (90% of which are only selling tickets for someone else & are not the actual tour operator) out there who try their hardest to convey this incredible sense of urgency in order to sign you up & get your money over the net, before you get to Viet Nam.

You’ve got to love some of the old lines they use & they use them like we’ve never heard them before. The old, it's all gotta go, Ha Long bay is closing down soon, selling out fast, this is a 1 time offer, the worlds ending soon, this time of year it really busy, it's going to be hard to get a spot, the sky is falling, take this crap tour from us as it's only 300% dearer than the Kangaroo Café etc etc etc !

The only thing missing is the steak knives that can cut through your shoes !!!

God only knows whose doing the sales courses here in Viet Nam but we think it could be that bloke with the crook teeth & spandex fetish from the late night tele back at home in Oz. These mobs are terrified you'll get to Viet Nam & see what's really on offer & in our case, at a much, much better price & with much, much smaller group sizes.

We don't have any need or desire to bustle, lie or hoodwink you so we can lock you into something by insisting you pay beforehand. We've been here for over 14 years now & we wouldn't be able to say that if we behaved like most of these other mobs.

Again we stress the age old saying, fools rush in etc ...........

Our tours to Ha Long Bay depart every day & we've got 2 boats (our 14 & our 16 person boat) so there's no absolutely no need to worry about not being able to get on a trip & don't forget to have a look at the pics on our web site too !

Our tours to Sa Pa can be taken any day of the week as well & normally we can get you onto the tour of your choice with just 1 or 2 days notice.

Often when we're very busy we'll swap the tours around (Sa Pa first & then Ha Long Bay or vicky verky) & that seems to work well for most of our guests.

One way or another we'll do our best to assist you in any way we can & if you think you’re going to have any particular difficulties, please let us know & we’ll do whatever we can to help you get on the tour of your choice.

Please remember that we strongly recommend you look at all the other mobs before you come to us so you can get a good idea about who's who in the zoo.

What could be fairer than that !

We ask that you go along with us in this regard & in return you'll get a much better tour (check out our tour pics) than you bargained for at a much, much lower price because we're the actual tour operator & we actually do pass the savings onto you.

Griswald's Vietnamese Vacations & our Kangaroo Cafe in Ha Noi are still the only tour operator to specialise in tailor made tours for singles, couples, small groups and families. All the necessary contact details are listed below & don't forget, you can download a map of how to find our lovely little cafe as well.

Regardless of what some of the guide books, hotel touts & various other boofheads may say, we're not affiliated or working in conjunction with anyone other than Griswald's Vietnamese Vacations. Over the years we've had various outfits trying to claim some sort of association or relationship with us in various ways & by various means. Whilst it’s completely untrue, it is of course somewhat flattering & is most definitely a positive indicator that we’re obviously doing something right.

We seem to come in for some very personal criticism on one of the travel forums in particular. Some of these would be, cyber travellers (you can check the daily average number of their posts) hiding behind their anonymous accounts & browsers seem all too ready to tip a bucket on us. Poor them !

What's even more curious is that they always seem to be pushing a barrow for the same tour mob.

Gee, I wonder if there's any connection ?????

On our web sites you'll see that we're more than happy to display our bona fides because we actually have them to display.

We're still the only Travel Company in Viet Nam to qualify for Australian registration (NSW Dept of Fair Trading, Licence Number: 2TA5568) & in the last 14 years we haven't had a single complaint made against us.

Please feel free to e-mail us if you require any further info & we'll send you some itineraries & other info as well.

Don't forget to have a gander at our Ha Long Bay & Sa Pa tours pics too.

Lastly, if you're using your work computer please be aware that most work places don't approve of their staff surfing the net, visiting funny web sites or arranging their holidays etc during work hours.

We've had a number of people complain they didn't hear from us when in fact it was their company system deleting our e-mails because we'd sent the people tour itineraries as attachments. The various work places are understandably concerned that the attachments may be a virus or some other kind of nightmare that goes with the internet these days & delete them immediately.

When you contact us, please include an e-mail address that accepts any & all attachments such as your home or private e-mail address.