11 Jun 2017
The experience of travelling in a Pedicab was not to be missed and probably never repeated. The overall tour was billed as Countryside and Crafts-we were picked up at the entrance to the port in a lovely Mercedes van and taken to the tour operators office to commence the tour which was in the city so we had to travel via pedicab through the busy city traffic to reach the countryside-a hair raising experience especially when the rickshaw drivers were at times smoking with one hand and talking on mobile phones with the other! Of course there are differences when travelling in a third world country but Viatour has the responsibility for their guests-we did pass a local hospital and it did not look appealing! At one point we stopped to walk over a local foot and bike bridge-an interesting experience as this bridge would be condemned in most countries but the tour guide was extremely proud of this feature!
The people at the local craft stops were warm and friendly and happy to show their techniques.
All and all the countryside tour was interesting but given the safety concerns which were low on this tours priorities I could not recommend this tour.