Dear Pamela,
Thank you for taking the time in writing, indeed a very long review, of your experience with your package tour booking SEV 03 with our company. Our apologies for the late response as we have to investigate your personal attacks, allegations and claims which is obviously based on your own opinions regarding the experience.
It is fact that you have booked the package SEV 03 which was clearly detailed, including its pricing. If you had booked that particular package tour, we have delivered THAT package tour. It is upon your onus, to understand, to book and to accept your own choice of package. If you had not taken the time to study it in detail and booked no matter how rush it maybe, that would not be our responsibility. We delivered what we advertised. In our WhatsApp conversation, we had even shown a picture of the rainforest trek and you expressed “Wow…woohoo……Beautiful” and added on that that you were excited for the trip and that you want to go stay away from typical tourist area. In addition to that, we have also emailed the detailed Itinerary with a list of things to bring.
Your statement that things described on our website of the Rainforest Discovery does not reflect reality; once again it is your own opinion, and your definition of ‘reality’. Our package tour which you’ve booked is as real as it comes, no frills, it is as described. Our Eco-Village is the reality of life as lived among Iban community. Our pristine nature of Rainforest in Brunei is as real and natural as it comes. It is not manmade, artificial or ‘Disneyworld’ finished. We know it must be quite difficult for city dwellers to understand how basic and simple the indigenous people lifestyle is like. It must have been beyond your comprehension. That’s the reality of our tour.
The offenses which you highlighted – Had you have read the package tour you booked, you would have known that a visit to the longhouse means it’s a visit to the longhouse. It does not include a tour within the longhouse which is occupied by the Iban residents. It is their home, hence intrusion inside their home is forbidden. We have shown you the longhouse. The Iban people are not tourist guides who chatted with tourists who came, nor are they obliged to entertain tourists and do not wait for tourists to arrive. They have their own daily routine, work, lifestyle. Should they not be around when we take tourists to visit their longhouse, that is up to them to carry on and do what they want with their time.
Lets now draw our attention to your complaints about our kitchen supplies; how we run our kitchen is our business. We served what is readily available as how the locals and Iban people look at as basic needs that’s affordable and mostly of fresh edibles grown wildly in the jungle. The rice being locally grown (not imported like city dwellers purchased from fancy supermarkets). This is the highlight of our Eco Village, the experience of living as they do. We do not serve 5 star hotel Gourmet breakfast, lunch or dinner. We find your comments rather derogatory and offensive to the local people and the Iban community. It is their daily foods and you said pathetic! How uncouth is that? It shows that you are not appreciative or understand what Eco Village is all about, what community based tourism is all about, what the real experience of jungle life is all about. That’s the reality.
Next, we shall address your claims that we tried to rip you off regarding the ‘longboat trip and Canopy Walk’ which you have heard from your friends and wanted to go. That trip is not included in the package you booked. We gave you our standard price like we do for everyone who wish to go. Trying to rip you off? Just because some local mentioned a lower price? You should have gone with the local boatman with that lower price!
Lets have some truth please with your statements. We know that you had not booked with us or any local boatman to the Canopy Walk. Instead, you have barged into the boat that was specifically booked and registered by three other fully paid tourists for the Canopy Walk and had not even bothered to inform the management. For sure, since you have taken the illegal way of taking the longboat booked by some other people, thinking you save $120.00 for the trip, and you complained about the trip and you said we have cheated you? Please be wise with your words and statements. You didn’t pay a single cent additional for the Canopy Trip and you said we ripped you off.
Much as we like to elaborate more on your reviews, we feel that we have set the record straight through the above. We bear no malice to you, and we thank you for visiting our rainforest. We would like to say though, that money does not buy eloquence, class or common sense.