4 Responses to “[Dan in Asia] Laos is grrrreat!”

1. BABIS POLITIS Says:
   August 31st, 2006 at 5:07 PM

   Hereby we do complain, rather intensively, for the quality of the provided services during the Tibet unplugged trip (code FRE).
   Our groupleader mr. Barakunta, to our opinion, is definitely insufficient for his position both in terms of his assessments of diverse situations as well as for the inaccuracy of the information he provided to us during the whole trip.

   More concretely, we come to notify the following;

   1. Really bad evaluation of the health situation of some members of the group(4 sick people, thus 30% of the group including him as well). We made our point clear to him pinpointing the potential dangers this could mean for the group when ascending to higher altitudes. The whole event took place in Lasa, where there was a hospital and the ill members of the group could easily be examined by the doctors.
   The whole thing could develop to a crisis situation. To prove the accuracy of our words, Pal, the Norwegian participant, asked for medical help at the Lasa Chinese military hospital, alone, just the day after we had the talk with mr Baikunta about our evaluation of the health status of the group. we ourselves, gave a lot of medicine we brought with us to other members of the group, mr. Baikunta included, undergoing so the danger not to have enough medication for us and the other one Greek companion, if any urgency would show up.

   2. What really made us outrageous was the fact that we were not informed by the group leader or anybody else, that in order to have the right to stay overnight in the tent in Everest camp, we were obliged to order food there. We felt as complete idiots when we started eating the food we had with us. The people in the tent were gazing at us as if we were the biggest criminal in the world. Suddenly the problem arose out of the blue just because we were not informed.
   Please do keep in mind that mr. Baikunta knew already that only the Greeks should walk all the way up to Everest camp. He also knew that we had bought all provisions needed (specially lots of dry food and water) from Zhangmu, totally about 20 kg each, a heavy load to carry from Rongphu monastery to the Everest camp. Why should we carry all this load if we already knew that we shouldn’t have to mind about food? He didn’t tell us anything about that.

   3. In the itinerary, it stands ‘days 10-11 everest base camp’ and this means two days in either Rongphu monastery and for the fittest Everest base camp. From the very beginning we made clear to mr. Baikunta that these two days were the highlight of this trip for us, the three Greeks.
   To make sure for the itinerary, we checked it once more two days before we left Greece(28/06/06), and there was no change.
   Suddenly, out of nowhere (and not in the beginning of the trip as Intrepid or mr. Barakunta ought to do), we were informed that we’d spend only one night either in Rongphu or in Everest base camp because of a road construction and we’d spend a night in Latse instead (there was no Latse in our itinerary, which we double checked right before we left Greece).
   We can accept the argument of the road construction, it’s obvious. What we can’t accept is the total lack of information either from Intrepid or mr. Barakunta’s side because that road didn’t start getting constructed just the day before we arrived there and you knew it (since Barakunta claims that he’d told about the road construction in good time before, but you didn’t make any changes to the itinerary). We don’t know who is lying, Intrepid or Barakunta. What we know is that there were changes in our plan and we were deprived of one night in the EVEREST camp which we paid for.

   For all these reasons (1-3) and for many more which due to economy of time we are not referring to, we hereby demand the following;

   -Half of the sum we paid (643 € out of 1285) to be given back.

   The nr. Of bank account for both of us is: Alpha bank (Greece), client nr:XXXXXXX/XX, and the account nr is:XXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX. The name is: Panteleimon Kevrekidis.

   -It’s almost unavoidable not to share our bad Intrepid experience with our colleges at the University where we teach, when asked. Many of them were expecting us to describe our travel experience. Perhaps a call to our media services (tv – radio – newspapers) could also be done.

   We are making clear that we don’t complain for the accommodation, we have been in a lot rougher conditions than these, since we are mountaineers.

   -We reserve all our rights to address you with all legal means, in case our minimal demand isn’t satisfied by Inrepid. We will take advises from Greek embassy in Australia & from your local tourist government office as well.

   Yours sincerely
   1. Panteleimon Kevrekidis
   2. Charalampos Politis

   e-mails: pkevrek@hol.gr, babispolitis@yahoo.com, orfeas@compulaw.gr

   Phones: +XXXXXXXXXXXX (Kevrekidis), +XXXXXXXXXXXX (Politis)

   Editors Note: Account numbers and phone numbers removed.

2. BABIS POLITIS Says:
   August 31st, 2006 at 5:08 PM

   never again with intrepid

3. dmr Says:
   September 5th, 2006 at 9:22 AM

   Sorry, the editor removed your bank account information. You should post it on the internet again. Could you also provide the passwords I’ll need to access those bank accounts?

   Does sarcasm translate well? I guess we’ll see.

4. sujal Says:
   April 30th, 2007 at 3:19 PM

   I’m closing comments trackbacks on this post because there is too much spam coming in.

   Sujal

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