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Deborah was absolutely amazing with her help when I needed flight changes in Dubai due to the flooding. I wouldn’t have got back to the UK so quickly without her.
Becky was my link for the holiday of a lifetime. She did an excellent job of keeping me updated and although we didn’t have to call on her for help it was a big reassurance that someone was there at the end of the phone.
Thank you to Daryll and his team at DialAFlight who allowed me to travel with complete peace of mind!
All the flights were really good. However coming back home from Auckland to Shanghai, I wish I’d been made aware that my suitcase would need to be collected at Shanghai and then rechecked in. It wasn’t a pleasant or particularly easy experience. Anyway it all worked in the end.
You are not to blame for the poor service I received on my business class flights from LHR to AKL via Dubai but I will not be booking Emirates in the future
No issues from your end but Dubai airport and Emirates were very poor as far as communication went during our six and a half hour delay.
Great friendly service. Makes life so much easier using them. They find you exactly want you want in a matter of minutes whereas in the past it's taken me hours
Great service and prompt attention
Great service as usual. Excellent phone pick up, good prices and wonderful advice about which airlines, stopovers and timings.
Zoe always delivers.
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Thank you for an excellent service
You guys are great….will return to you when (all being well) we head back to Kiwi in 3 years time. Lots we didn’t get to do!
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Again you excelled. Hotels were fantastic, close to all amenities and attractions. About to book again with you.
Great service as usual.
I appreciated the prompting and information regarding online check-in and luggage. The cherry on the top was the personal call to confirm all was in order for my trip.
Good service as usual. Just the one small hiccup
Our journey with Emirates went smoothly & the flight timings worked very well for us to minimise our jet lag.
Fantastic as usual, superb communication throughout.
I had to change my flight at the last moment because of a family emergency and the staff could not have been more helpful.
We were unimpressed with BA cabin service. The cabin staff were grudging and slipshod compared with ANZ and other Asian airlines. I will take this up with them separately; and second, transiting through Shanghai is pretty awful with lots of uncertainty and unnecessary bureaucracy which made many of us on my flight pretty fed up. Not a patch on Singapore, Hong Kong or Seoul.
Always an excellent service. Very professional in all aspects of the travel industry. Would always use and will always recommend
Always give the best service and advice. I always recommend you to others. There is always someone ready to help when needed
My thanks for your help in booking my trip to New Zealand . I will definitely use you again and recommend
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Gary, as usual, went above and beyond to make sure we were very well looked after
Very appreciative of all aspects of your help and service. A great trip - thank you
It’s twilight at the Shwedagon pagoda, a 300-ft tower of shimmering gold.
Amid a sea of candles, burning incense and kneeling worshippers, a monk has retrieved his mobile phone from the folds of his maroon robes and is posing for a selfie.
The most impressive Buddhist site in South East Asia still looms over the low skyline of Yangon, but everywhere a closed society is colliding with the modern world.
The Shwedagon pagoda, in Yangon, is one of the most impressive Buddhist sites in South East Asia.
Since the lifting of international sanctions three years ago, change has come to the city.
This was Burma’s capital until 2005, when military rulers decided on a whim to build a new one 200 miles away. Now, hotels, shops and high-end restaurants are springing up among the crumbling apartment blocks and spice-laden roadside markets.
Cars, phones and other luxuries once preserved for a rich elite are trickling down, and there’s cautious optimism.
Before it was plunged into half a century of isolation, Rangoon, as it was then, was a trading centre of the British Empire. The colonial past lingers on downtown.
Along wide Victorian avenues are the stucco-fronted Telegraph office, Port Authority, old Secretariat and offices of long-defunct companies, in slow decay with foliage poking out of some upstairs windows.
The Strand Hotel, built in 1901, is one of the few restored to former glory and is an atmospheric stop for a drink, with wood panels and twinkling chandeliers.
Swathes of the country, renamed Myanmar in 1989, still feel barely touched by the 21st century.
We follow a typical route for foreigners, taking in the misty plains of Bagan packed with ancient temples, to the floating villages of Inle Lake, trekking in the hills of Kalaw and exploring the last royal city of Mandalay.
Bagan is a ghost city, built between 1057 and 1287 as the capital of a once prosperous dynasty, before their reign was abruptly ended by invading Mongols.
About 2,000 temples still stand, in an archaeological wonder to rival Angkor Wat in Cambodia - but with a fraction of the visitors. They range from tiny red brick cabins, to palace-sized shrines painted with intricate wall murals, 30-foot gold Buddhas and whole souvenir markets inside.
One of the grandest was put up by a 12th century king to atone for executing his father, brother and wife.
We had a hot air balloon at dawn over Bagan, and were treated with unforgettable views drifting across the stunning landscape, eerily quiet except for farmers herding cattle far below.
Our guide took us to businesses locals will benefit from, one of them the Be Kind to Animals restaurant in Old Bagan. The vegetarian owner serves delicious tamarind leaf curry to a full house at lunchtimes.
Our arrival in Mandalay, the capital of the last Burmese kings, is by boat down the Irrawaddy River. Then the artery for armies of timber traders and merchants, today we sail along almost alone.
From the top of Mandalay Hill, a beautiful temple with views for miles around, novice monks practise English by asking about the fortunes of Manchester United and Chelsea.
From there, we head north to Kalaw, a former British hill station where officials enjoyed some cool air in the baking summer.
Surrounded by misty mountaintops, it is a haven for trekkers passing through the mountain villages and remote monasteries.
Quiet at night, like most of Burma, it sprang to life on our first evening for the full moon, with fireworks flung in all directions, troupes in traditional costumes processing through town with blazing lanterns, and a huge sound system struggling behind by horse drawn cart.
Our final stop is Inle Lake, a four by ten mile expanse of water heaving with life. Around a number of bustling villages on stilts, children paddle to school, farmers tend floating tomato crops and fishing boats glide among them.
Travelling by longboat through the fray, we pass restaurants, yet more gold-topped temples, and workshops full of silk weavers, umbrella makers and silversmiths.
Ten years ago there were just a few guesthouses along its banks. Now there are dozens in the main town of Nyaung Shwe, where the beginnings of a backpacker vibe are emerging.
Tourism has brought much needed jobs but many fear reform may stall for Burma, sandwiched between powerful China and India, trapped between the iron grip of the old government and tantalising new freedoms on the horizon.
We chew over the possibilities with a retired civil servant at a monastery back in Yangon.
Despite the advent of more employment and a rise in living standards, he is concerned that the younger generation, many still poorly educated, should share in the benefits.
‘The change is good, but we must make sure it helps our people’, he said. ‘We must make our own way this time.’
First published in the Mail Online - August 2015
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