PERSonalised service is always high in a traveller's agenda whereby one is on holiday, especially for me.

Tripadvisor is a common social media app which one normally uses to get reviews for travel matters.

We came across Authentic Lombok Tour in the tripadvisor website. I can understand why this tour agency get such excellent reviews as it definitely fits my first sentence of "PERSonalised service".

Professional: Though he just recovered from his recent flu, he did not cancel our arranged tour. He still made a point to be punctual for our tour and picked us up from our hotel for the tour.

Efficiency: it is always nice to have a tour guide to be efficient (a common indicator for most Singaporean). Being efficient (in my vocabulary) means one is able to achieve the target set for any tour and by having an efficient tour guide helps. Needless for me to say more, Chris definitely exceeds my expectations though mine should be considered low.... However, I have confidence that he has no problems meeting any high expectations set by most people.

Resourceful: Chris has many contacts in Lombok, thus it is effortless for him to make any last minute arrangement if one wants to deviate from the original plan.

Service: Last but most important criteria of a tour guide. His service as a tour guide is top-notch, something which is hard to find for most tour guide. Most of the tour guides will just follow instructions but not give further recommendations or ideas. Being resourceful and knowing that it was our first trip to Lombok, he will share his own personalised recommendations (must do things in Bali) with us. He even went to the extent to arrange dinner at a local, value-for-monies but yet nice ambient restaurant (outside of the agreed tour) for us. The icing of the cake is that he even talked to the boss of the restaurant to arrange transport at the end of the dinner back to our hotel.

Looking back, it is very rare to get such service in Bali and definitely worth that grading mentioned in Tripadvisor.

Lastly, to be honest, Chris deserves better chances and will be waste of talent if there isn't any big tour agencies come by to offer him a deserving position.

* By the way, it is common for most Singaporeans to measure anything based on objectives or outcome.