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Two of us spent three days with Tulus and his driver, Budi on a private tour to the Yogyakarta area. We were impressed by his responsiveness in initial planning, confirmation in the days leading up to it and with adaptations to the plan as we went along. The attention to our comfort and desires was beyond our expectations for a service like this. The vehicle was very nice, the driving very conservative and safe even in the melee' of Yogya rush hours.
We were interested in seeing more than the typical tourism stops in the area. While we did these too, the other smaller stops, comments and insights offered by Tulus left almost all of our desires met; the unmet ones were, in retrospect, unreasonable for a first visit and planned from a distance. Tulus clearly knew good information to present to us and also had a very good depth of knowledge for questions and topics we brought to him.
Tulus speaks and understands the english language quite well. We did have to rephrase some questions but usually around difficult areas of social norms and beliefs, only very rarely around more factual questions.
Java, especially the Yogyakarta area, has a lot of history and cultural texture that can be overwhelming. I think a good tour guide has to be careful not to say so much that it is hard to retain any of it and Tulus struck that balance well. I would strongly recommmend to anyone visiting this area to do some study ahead of time to help determine their priority interests and also to better put in context what one hears and sees during the tour. Information from Tulus was always consistent with what I had come across elsewhere and he would also be clear about what he didn't know.
Tulus also was very good in his choice of Budi as a driver and in allowing him to also comment about what we were seeing or asking. It was a good teaming to give us a very nice tour.
