Asia BeSpoke Testimonials

Dale is an excellent photo tour leader and really shined despite Borneo’s challenges. Of course the orangutans and pygmy elephants make it all worthwhile but the jungle is dense, light limited, terrain sometimes difficult, heat and humidity overwhelming, and unexpected downpours always to be expected. Dale made sure we were prepared and made it all fun. He did his best to make certain we would all come home with some great photos. I look forward to traveling with him again next year!

Borneo is an incredible country. Thanks to our guides, we were able to find some amazing animals; far more than most groups that don't have all that guide support. Our last full day at Danum was one of the best photo experiences of my life.

I had the pleasure of attending the 2019 ORYX Borneo Photography Tour. It was a trip that far exceeded my expectations, with every day full day of activities and new experiences. The trip was well organized by ORYX Photo Tours and expertly run by our guide Dale Morris. You can not find a more experienced or enthusiastic guide than Dale. He makes every day unique and fun filled. The weather was hot and humid but this did not deter us. We saw a great variety of wildlife from tiny insects to pygmy elephants. The Orangutans were the highlight of the photo safari. We had multiple encounters up close and personal. We stayed at four unique lodges. Each lodge offered a different variety of wildlife. The rooms were very nice and the food was very good and plentiful. It was fun trying some of the local foods and the many different fruits. I have traveled extensively and this trip will go down as one of my ultimate favorites. Thank you ORYX Photo Tours and Dale for an experience I will never forget.

Our photo tour to Borneo was a wonderful experience. Dale was a fantastic guide, and ensured they we were able to maximise any opportunities we had to see the unique wildlife that Borneo has to offer. It was an extremely challenging photographic experience, but with Dale’s guidance we were able to photograph animals, particularly gibbons, in low light situations, even though they refused our requests for a pose, and then tried to hide amongst the branches. With Dale’s expert tuition my photographic skills improved, especially when the lighting was not the best, and the animals were their most active. I have some absolutely amazing shots of the Orangutans! For extra tuition, I would recommend sharing a beer with Dale at the end of a hot and humid day’s outing.

Nancy and I had an absolutely fabulous time travelling and photographing with Dale on our Borneo photo tour. We came home with some spectacular images of primates, and with so many of them it’s going to take us weeks to get through them all and process all the ones we want to. We were very impressed with all of the arrangements ORYX Photo Tours made to assure that this was a very high quality trip. The ground agents, the lodges, the local guides, the transportation, were all absolutely first class.

Thanks again for such a superb trip. We hope to travel with ORYX Photo Tours again soon!

You have all been great to work with and the Borneo photo tour was amazing.

Everything was well planned and organized, the lodges were very pleasant, and the local guides were excellent. We saw every animal on the list and got great photos. I hope you know how lucky you are to have Dale, because he’s a star among photographer tour leaders.

He’s not only an extremely talented photographer for wildlife, macro, landscapes, and people, he’s a fountain of interesting knowledge about flora and fauna, and he has an innate ability with animals that’s a big advantage when photographing them. Even if we don’t see what we’re looking for while searching for wildlife, he can always find something cool and unusual to photograph in an interesting way, so it’s fun all day long and never boring. When it comes to non-photography guide-related tasks, he takes charge and is competent in every way.

Thanks again for everything and I look forward to traveling with ORYX Photo Tours again in the future.

We are back home after the beautiful experience we had on our Borneo photo tour! All the locations, especially the Kinanbatang River and the Danum Valley were great! We enjoyed having Dale as our guide, as well as the other travelers in our group. ORYX Photo Tours’s organisation was top class!

We had a great Borneo photo tour! Dale was his usual professional, helpful & wonderful self, and the local guide was most helpful. The other tour participants were very nice people and all in all, it was a very good trip.

I would like to thank you (Nicolette) and the ORYX team for all the work in putting together the Borneo trip. I have a little understanding of all the effort it takes in booking tours and arranging all the guests and making sure all their unique requirements are met. Covid-19 just made it so much more complicated. Thank you, it was a job well done and appreciated.

Also I would like to thank and acknowledge Dale Morris. He was a superb tour and photography lead, taking care of the little needs of individuals or of the group to ensure our trip ran smoothly - whether it was an issue with a room or any other minor thing he could help with.

Under Dale's expert photography tutelage, our photography skills increased remarkably over the ten or so days, learning new techniques eg: macro and flash photography, improving the way we utilised our cameras, and constantly reinforcing the need to check camera settings and think about our compositions. Dale worked tirelessly trying get us into the right place/position atthe right time so that we could capture those special images.


We also enjoyed Dale's engaging company and sharing our meals and downtime and will look forward to travelling with Dale sometime in the future.

Dear Penny, thank you so much for leading the most exceptional India photo tour…. it more than met my expectations of a happy and productive trip.

Thank you also to Marius for organising this personalised trip with a group of ladies who have met each other along the way in various other travel scenarios. It was so good to reconnect! Strong friendships of like minded people from different parts of the world were built which lent to a most entertaining and happy journey. Besides the group getting along famously, a huge thank you also to Bablu for looking after us so well and always watching our backs, collecting forgotten items and generally smoothing the way ….. his photography skills are totally amazing too!

Also not forgetting the team of guides and drivers….exceptional! Fun, fun, fun …..and some photography too! The team always had our best interests at heart and made every minute happy! What an amazing team!

Ranthambore and the photography opportunities was an adventure on its own….it is very hard to describe the tiger encounters, not to mention sloth bears!!! Each and every one took my breath away! The scenic and historical part of Ranthambore lent to the total magic for me! My trust and faith in our driver and team getting us to the right place at the right time was both exhilarating and I appreciated their dedication and care.

Varanasi was an experience second to none. The feel of India there for me was palpable. The way we were active on foot, in rickshaws by day and night in the hub of the Ganges River area gave us the true feel of noise, hustle and bustle, hoot and more noise! As well as serenity and calm! Again the chaos of the city worked!

Penny, thank you for your patience, kindness and co-ordinating the Bandit Queens ….. a group of strong minded, middle aged women all with a dry sense of humour ;), not an easy task! It truly was one of the best photographic journeys I have been on and the mix was totally right! By the sounds of the laughter echoing through the valleys ….. its got to have been a great trip!

Thank you! May we all share many more happy journeys together.

Is there such a thing as a perfect trip? My recent trip to Ranthambore National Park and Varanasi, India with ORYX Photo Tours was nothing short of fantastic and exciting! Tiger sightings in Ranthambore were spectacular and Varanasi was sublime. It was simply an unparalleled experience made all the more enjoyable as all ground arrangements from transport, hotels and local guiding were impeccable. Everything went off smoothly and without a hitch.

In no small part the trip was memorable because of our photography lead, Penny Robartes. This is the third trip I have gone on with Penny. She is just the most wonderful person to travel with. She is personable, cheerful and caring, always making sure everything went off smoothly. She is very generous with her knowledge and expertise, always patient and helpful advising us on composition, settings and editing. Her insights and instructions on photography were invaluable and my photography has definitely improved on account of her.

This was an exceptional trip and our experience was unparalleled. Thank you ORYX and Penny in particular for yet another terrific experience.

Thank you for another great photo safari! It was a fantastic time in India, and although I’m very glad to be home, I already miss it.

It was great getting the opportunity to meet the other clients, and Dale did a wonderful job as our guide and I really appreciate all of his hard work and dedication both in and out of the field, and I loved his willingness to engage in personable conversations at the dinner table. He was very willing to listen and learn about the world through someone else’s perspective. He also taught me some new tricks with my camera that I had no idea about, but they made life so much easier.

Thanks again for everything!

We are writing to provide some feedback on our short trip to India with ORYX Photo Tours, to visit several game parks with Tiger spotting a priority. We  had a small group of 4, ably led by Dale Morris, a genuinely friendly and helpful leader. Dale is a skilled and award winning photographer whose enthusiasm for photography was infectious.  Dale was a delight to travel with and ensured that everything worked as planned.  We managed to see quite a few tigers and also enjoyed the classic sights of the Taj Mahal.

Dale Morris was an excellent tour leader. Apart from being a very pleasant person, he also went out of his way to share his wealth of knowledge on photography with us. We started the tour with our photos looking like normal holiday snap shots, and ended up taking some pretty professional images. Thank you Dale for your patience and willingness to help us.

Andries and I would like to thank the ORYX team for a memorable India photo tour. The tour was exceptionally well planned. The only hassle we as guests were left with was to try and get the best photo of a tiger. We can only but highly recommend ORYX Photo Tours and will not think twice about using their services again in future.

Mongolia was a trip like no other! Although it was tough in many ways, the experience was totally incredible. Watching first hand the lives of the hardworking nomad families we stayed with and experiencing the unique culture of eagle hunting was truly remarkable. The added poignancy of the death of an eagle, made it emotional even. This photo tour has made a lasting impression.

Team ORYX was a fun lot and what could’ve descended to a week of grumbles and complaints never happened. Everyone got on well with each other.

Marius was a fabulous lead – jovial, funny, ever willing to impart his photography skills, he made the photography tour that much more enjoyable.

I had the time of my life on the Mongolia photo tour with Marius. Western Mongolia is an enchanted place and I am blessed to have been able to experience those people and that landscape. And I never thought I would travel with and work again with anyone as good as Dale Morris but Marius was every bit Dale’s equal. He was a joy to travel with and he taught me reams of good new stuff about photography.

Our Borneo photo tour was wonderful in every way!

Your local guide was a real “gem”, I must tell you:

Although never boastful, he was personally responsible for three special wildlife sightings that drew many other lodge guests and their guides to each scene.

The first sighting was of a beautiful/mature alpha male orangutan, already bedded down in his nest along the Kinabatangan River near Sukau Rainforest Lodge. He first sighted him (only slightly visible with binos) in the nest late one afternoon. We made a plan to returned to the sight at first light; hoping for a photo op as he exited the nest. We quietly/patiently watched for over an hour – waiting for him to rise. Meanwhile he radioed the lodge to report our sighting. The other guests raced over and were rewarded with a fantastic/lengthy photo op; as the orangutan lazily rose and slowly ate vines for breakfast – all at close range within the same tree he had nested in overnight.

The second sighting was of a Tarsier on a night drive in Danum Valley near the Borneo Rainforest Lodge. Without any eye-shine, he spotted only what he described as an odd small “lump” on a tree trunk just off the road. He immediately stopped the driver, leaped out and confirmed – it was a Tarsier! Again he radioed the lodge. Other guests that had searched for days for the Tarsier were rewarded with an awesome photo op. After fully satisfied with photos; everyone quietly left the Tarsier right where it was first sighted – undisturbed.

The third sighting was of tiny bioluminescent mushrooms in Danum Valley. We had first photographed the mushrooms at the Crocker Range near the Rafflesia Centre, but only during the day. He explained the bioluminescence of this particular mushroom. Hoping for a night shot, we searched hard for it throughout the rest of our trip. On the last night in Danum Valley, he was the one who found them! They were glowing brightly right in front of the lodge. None of the local guides at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge had spotted them. These amazing/unique mushrooms were right under their noses all along!

We could not be more pleased with the itinerary and your attention to every detail.

Thank you Rainer & ORYX Photo Tours!

We had a fantastic trip, and by now I am sure that you know that we saw eighteen tigers and approximately 25 different sightings of tigers!

Our trip to Jawai was also fantastic, and I can only best describe it as mind blowing! The conservation of these leopards in the environment they find them selves, is truly remarkable. The Rabari people are incredible and their survival, which in it’s self is threatened, but they live in harmony with the leopards in the hills of Jawai!

In as far as the lodges were concerned, well from the first to the last day, we were accommodated in world class accommodation. The management, staff and people in general were fantastic.

The cuisine was simply of the very highest standards. All arrangements were very slick and as customary with ORYX Photo Tours and Marius Coetzee, everything was 100% perfect! Marius, the warrior, was always at my side to assist the “old man”! The old man also acted as his “father” and got him a few privileges in return for his service and assistance!

Our hosts were fantastic and I can honestly say that i am more than happy and satisfied with the whole photo safari!

Thanks to you and your colleagues for all that you did to make the trip such a pleasure and all I take from there are wonderful memories! Thank you!

 

I grew up admiring the beautiful portraits and landscape shots hanging in my grandparents’ house. Later, I recall my cheek muscles constantly hurting as the subject of my mom’s developing love of photography. So when I was gifted a Nikon DSLR camera in early college, I felt like I was following the footsteps of my mom and grandfather before her. Through photography I wanted to be able to capture the sentiment of a moment; to tell a story through the light in a person’s eyes. Marius gave me the tools to begin to do this on our trip to India with ORYX Photo Tours.

Marius helped me see what makes a good photograph, taught me new techniques like hi-key, how to shoot in different light and how to process an image using Lightroom. At the end of this trip I am thrilled to have a good portfolio of photographs I can print and look back on proudly, but even happier to have refined my skills and developed a deeper passion for photography.

I have recently returned from my fourth private photo tour to India with ORYX Photo Tours and have to say that the trip exceeded all my hopes and expectations, and I cannot recommend ORYX highly enough. Our trip was 2 years in the planning, with the excellent team at ORYX doing a marvelous job throughout. Our tour leader, Marius Coetzee, had suggested that we time our visit slightly later than usual and go in March, in the hope of catching the iconic sight of a tiger lying in a water pool to cool off. We have had many incredible tiger sightings on our previous ORYX tours, especially in Ranthambhore National Park, and were not disappointed on this latest trip. In fact we achieved our aim on the first afternoon game drive in Ranthambhore! In all we visited five national parks over 3 weeks; each park had its individual delights and we have returned home with some really wonderful wildlife images, including tiger, leopard, sloth bear and dhole.

We knew from previous experience that everything would be taken care of – down to the tipping of our local guides and drivers – by Marius and our Indian guide, so we were left free to concentrate on the amazing wildlife and our photography. Nothing was too much trouble for them, everything ran like clockwork thanks to excellent organisation, and ORYX could not have done more to make sure that our trip was everything we could have hoped for. I would recommend ORYX Photo Tours to anyone who is interested in wildlife and photography, and will definitely use them again.

Having recently returned from my third trip to India with ORYX Photo Tours in three consecutive years, with the fourth one in 2015 already on the drawing board, I would urge all those who have not yet been to consider it very seriously as a perfect holiday destination.

The aim of our first trip was to see the glorious Taj Mahal at Agra and, if possible, catch a glimpse of the majestic Bengal tiger yet having succeeded in both, nothing could have prepared us for the excitement we experienced as we raised our cameras those first photographs of them. Thus began a love affair with India.

From the moment we met a surprisingly young Marius Coetzee, safari guide and prize-winning photographer at Dubai Airport, we realised he was what one might loosely describe as a mover and shaker, inspiring immediate confidence.  Coupled with this was his ability to relax with people of all ages, putting them at ease, thus making mealtime conversations stimulating and fun, so traveling on one’s own need not be a concern. Our first visit to India in 2011 was his too, yet having worked in Natal where there is a large Indian community, he instinctively knew how to get on with the locals, appreciating their customs and habits, yet earning their respect by his sound common sense and mature capability.

He stands no nonsense and this is soon understood!  This is so important in India, particularly on wildlife safaris, where the drivers’ and guides’ goodwill, and anxiety to please, are so crucial in Marius getting us into the best possible position to find – hopefully – and photograph the rarer species like a tiger or dhole (wild dogs), for despite the photographs one sees, India is very different to the Masai Mara and one actually has to look quite hard for shy predators.

However, the jungles we visited in the northern and central national parks are absolutely stunning, each with its own individual characteristics, though more like upstate New York than the Amazon, and there is an abundance of game and birdlife.  Marius drew on his techniques as a top South African safari guide by playing close attention to alarm calls by spotted deer (chital) and langurs (silver haired, long–tailed monkeys), resulting in wonderful tiger and dhole sightings on a number of occasions, earning him obvious, if slightly grudging, admiration from our jeep drivers and guides, who consider themselves to be the experts on Indian wildlife.

India also has the advantage of a culture stretching back over 3,000 years and cities such as Varanasi, the glorious Holy City built on the banks of the Ganges, and beautiful Udaipur in Rajastan, are a photographer’s delight especially if encouraged by one’s enthusiastic tour leader to reluctantly rise at dawn in order to capitalize on the golden morning light. One never tires of the rich tapestry of colours provided by the glorious silk or cotton saris worn by Asian women with such innate grace and one can only wonder at how immaculate much of their clothing is when many have only a communal water pump or local river in which to do their laundry. Whether you are an aspiring but novice photographer – we started off with little automatic Lumix cameras with built-in zooms, progressed to Nikon DSLRs and under Marius’s tutelage, are now producing more than passable photos, to our great surprise – or an experienced one, in which case you would benefit hugely from Marius’s photographic/competition expertise and advice, intriguing India has absolutely everything you could possible ask for.  From the moment the February morning mists lift and the beauty of this enigmatic country is revealed, I am certain you will succumb to its magic, whether your penchant is wildlife, architecture, scenery, or all three.

On each occasion, ORYX has provided us with an Indian guide of the highest caliber, intelligent with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of birds and wildlife, and a touching willingness to do everything possible to make our lives easier, from hailing porters and checking-in our luggage at airports to accompanying us on shopping expeditions to ensure we were given the fairest prices.  They, in turn, appointed the best possible local guides at the historic sites we chose to visit and, looking back, thanks to efficient planning, everything worked like clockwork from the moment we were collected at the airport to our departure a fortnight later, no mean feat in a country like India. For a holiday that is anxiety-free, yet filled with exciting sights and sounds, ORYX Photo Tours' India is the perfect combination. Enjoy India!

I have recently returned from my second ORYX private photo tour to India with Marius, and wanted to say how much I enjoyed it and to recommend ORYX Photo Tours to anyone considering taking a wildlife photographic trip.

We knew where we wanted to go – Corbett, Keoladeo, Ranthambhore and Pench – but left all the planning and details in the very capable hands of ORYX. We were not disappointed. Everything had been taken care of, from accommodation in the best locations and travel between national parks, down to tips for our drivers and guides, so that we only had to think about the wildlife and the photography – a real luxury.

Marius is an inspirational photographer, and a superb travelling companion. He has seemingly endless patience, and his knowledge and advice have helped even this novice photographer capture some exceptional images! Nothing is too much trouble for him, and his experience has proved invaluable in enabling us to take shots that I know we would not have if he had not been with us. We had the most amazing tiger sighting in Ranthambhore – no mean feat – and fulfilled our wish to see dhole in Pench, as well as many other wonderful wildlife moments on the trip, which were entirely due to him – so a very big thank you to Marius.

I have been on numerous safaris in Africa, and have been lucky enough to have had many amazing wildlife experiences, but the ORYX's tours to India have been in a league of their own. We are already planning our next tour to India with Marius, and hope that there will be many more to come!

Having travelled with ORYX Photo Tours on two previous occasions when I decided to visit India again they was the first choice company to arrange it for me .I wanted some culture to sit alongside an Indian wildlife experience. The trip was perfect – great hotels, great sightseeing and best of all wonderful wildlife. Our tiger sightings were phenomenal and I we really could not have asked for more. The local guides were excellent and Marius Coetzee (our photo tour leader) could not do enough for us and improved everyone’s photography over the course of the trip. We have all decided to travel with ORYX Photo Tours in India again next year and look forward to another great trip.

In any event we had the BEST photo tour ever! I had questioned prior to the trip if it made sense to be going back to India a second time with Marius, given all the places we want to visit, and I can unequivocally say it was ...and then some! Every stop of the tour offered unique and interesting experiences and photographic opportunities and with Marius as our "fearless leader" we were able to capitalize on the environment in a way we would never be able to do without him. We walked the back slum alleys of Jodhpur capturing the daily street life...sat in the sand dunes while camels ran up the dunes...photographed mating leopards in the magical rocky setting of Jawai.. visited with the local tribal chiefs as they prepared for a family wedding ...and found a path to a front row seat to photograph drinking tigers with full reflections (a personal bucket list item for me!)

All along the way we laughed and learned and shared in the enthusiasm exuded by Marius and just had so much fun!

Photographically we continue to learn and grow from our time with Marius "in the field" as he inspires us to see things from a new perspective with the use or our camera. He helps create magical moments for us to capture, teaching us more about light and shadows and composition. We return home after each trip more excited about our photography, as we practice our editing skills in search of creating better and more interesting images. Yes was a magical two weeks and I am only sorry it had to end!