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MAIL ON SUNDAY Tom Mangold (October 2006)

If you are going to travel in this part of South-East Asia, do it on board the Pandaw that recreates the atmosphere and character of the first class deck of a colonial river steamer.

The cabins are well furnished and spacious with hot showers and sensible fittings. The dining room with six seat tables makes it easy to meet and enjoy the company of strangers., with an average of 20 to 30 passengers each trip.

I have to tell you , sitting in a comfortable lounger on a warm evening sipping a classy sauvignon blanc while the vessel moves gracefully upstream to Phnom Penh, cooled by the gentle slipstream, unmolested my mosquitoes, and simply listening to the night is an experience without parallel.

NEW YORK TIMES Joshua Kurlantzick (2005)

Pandaw combines the splendor of ocean cruising, including sizable staterooms, with the informality of trips like Mr. Ascot's, to create a blend it calls "expedition-style cruising." "Many of our travelers like to wander through the Cambodian towns," said Josef Schneckenreither, Pandaw's general manager. "But if they don't want to, they can stay on the boat and sip their gin and tonics all night."
Pandaw is on to a trend.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (2006)

An expedition cruise between Ho Chi Minh City and Siem Reap allows you to see more of the region in less time than on self-powered journeys. Pandaw Cruises runs two custom-built colonial-era teakwood steamers up and down the river. You'll float past Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, and go ashore to hike the country's Wat Hanchai hill, home to ancient Champa shrines. Onboard, languorous hours are spent sipping gin-and-tonics on the deck as the jungle drifts by.

BUSINESS WEEK

The RV Mekong Pandaw, a replica of a colonial-era river steamer, has a shallow hull that enables it to visit remote locations. Last fall, Dorothy and Kirke Comstock of Portola Valley, Calif., took the vessel up the Mekong River in Cambodia with three professors on a High Country Passage trip. Dorothy recalls that, as they were passing a small village, a group of saffron-robed Buddhist monks, children, and town elders invited the 50 or so passengers to make an unscheduled stop. There was no dock, so they walked off the boat on planks. "The monks took us on a 35-minute walk to see their very old temple," she says. "It was unforgettable."
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_38/b3951127.htm?sub=travel

INDEPENDENT WEEKLY by John Mitchell (2006)

The last night of my Mekong cruise one of the Australians on the trip – who had a delightful sense of humour – deliberately sat at a table with four Mormon couples, who until that moment had never shared their table with anyone on their eight day voyage. The Mormons looked startled and uncomfortable as he pulled up a chair and beamed at them.

“I suppose you are wondering why I am sitting with you” he said wickedly. “But as Mormons you must understand that in Australia your disciples always knock on my door at the most inopportune times. This is payback time and I am exacting my revenge.

The Mormons continued to look non plussed and sank deeper and deeper into embarrassment as, all through the meal, he regaled them with extremely bawdy and steamy stories, which included telling them he was gay and beyond saving.

INDEPENDENTTRAVELER.COM by John Mitchell

I have always avoided cruises. My memory of my younger days, when I was on the hippy trail from London to Istanbul and suffered seasickness on five to nine hour ferry trips to the Greek islands has always been hard to dismiss. So when I decided to celebrate my 60th birthday by becoming a geriatric back packer in Vietnam and Cambodia, I was astonished to find, while surfing the internet, a luxury 750-kilometre river cruise over seven nights from the Mekong River delta in Vietnam to Cambodia's Siem Reap, location of the magnificent and ancient 1,000-year-old Angkor temples.The temptation was too great. I booked, knowing that seasickness would be only a remote possibility! And the end result was one of the most pampered yet exciting holidays I have had in some 35 countries over a period spanning more than 30 years…..

http://www.independenttraveler.com/tripreports/tripreports.cfm?ID=258&page=1 

ADELAIDE DAILY by John Mitchell (2006)

Today the fleet of four old-world-style yet exceptionally modern and well equipped ships offer a high degree of understated luxury that would have astonished those who journeyed on the original Irrawaddy Flotilla of the 1800s.

…The beauty of the voyages is that by day the cruise becomes the mother ship or base for extremely well planned excursions – and a place to retire to for relaxation once the onshore 35C heat and humidity become too much. However there is no obligation to participate in the excursions. Each day blended easily into the next… Shore excursions ranged from passengers transferring to up to four comfortable but much smaller vessels and voyaging down tributaries.

SCOTSMAN Colin Donald (2006)

Operating in Burma has not been plain sailing, Knowing the Burmese language and culture better than many in the Foreign Office, Strachan defied HM Government advice by investing in the country’s fledgling tourist industry.

His judgement, still reinforced by dealings with Burmese business partners was that isolation was the last thing that the Burmese needed.

Strachan regrets once being seen as an apologist for the Burmese regime, but stoutly defends one of the few foreign owned businesses that puts money in the pocket of the ordinary Burmese.

In the meantime the company’s name has changed [from Irrawadday Flotilla to Pandaw Cruises] and the centre of gravity for the business has shifted to another of Asia’s great rivers, the Mekong, with two Pandaw boats cruising between Saigon in Vietnam and the great Cambodian temples of Angkor Wat. The first operator since French colonial times to offer the tour, the boats rarely sail less than 98% capacity.

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Jack Kurtz (2006)

Ours was at least partially te same route plotted by Capt Wllard and Chief Phillips in the Vietnam war classic Apocalypse Now. Only in 2006 no one was shooting and no one was shouting “don’t get off the boat…” The boat was not a Navy ‘Swift Boat’, it was the Mekong Pandaw onwed and operated by the Irrawaddy Flotilla, a Scottish company.

Cruising the Mekong River and Tonle Sap on the Pandaw boats is a remarkable way to see Vietnam and Cambodia. The boat goes to places that are extremely difficult or impossible to reach on your own or by motor coach.

BANGKOK POST David Wishart (2005)

In 1995 a young Scot Paul Strachan started adventure cruises on the Irrawaddy, and two years later found one of the river boats built on the Clyde, the Pandaw. Its condition was terrible, but as Strachan said ‘it was love at first sight’. The Pandaw was restored and sicne then three replica vessels have been built , the Tonle Pandaw being the latest. It feels authentic right down to the black and red funnel of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.

Natural teak and shiny brass are everywhere, and cabins have air conditioning as well as windows that open. Outside our door were two handsome wicker seats placed nicely to allow one’s feet on the railings. Cabins are a roomy 15.8 square meters on average, bigger than on most cruise ships, and bathrooms are also spacious.

TRAVEL ACE WEST (2005)

As for the cruise this ranks up there with the Amazon and the Nile. There were shore excursions every day to visit hamlets, towns and pagodas galore. We saw village workshops, were serenaded by children and haggled with vendors selling silk scarfs and wood carvings.

The best part of the trip however was simly being on deck, watching the river go by. On board there were comfortable loungers, free coffee and tea and honour bar too, where the romantic could imagine what it was like taking ‘tiffin’ as the British called afternoon tea in these parts a century ago.

The scenery was never dul. The river- wide at the start and a jungle stream at the end – is full of life. Floating villages were everywhere. Bigger boats, some with whole families living on board, came and went with cargos of lumber, boxes of vegetables and bales of cotton goods. As we got deeper into Cambodia the river narrowed and men fished with nets standing in shallow water.

PALM BEACH POST (2004)

If you want a cruise that gives a close up view of Vietnam it will be hard to beat these new cruises on the new 68 passenger Mekong Pandaw. The ship built last year, has elegant teak and marble and is furnished with rattan furniture. The public areas include a one seating dining room.

FINANCIAL TIMES Sandy Gall (2002)

The Irrawaddy Flotilla was nationalised along with almost everything else by the 1960s and the Pandaw mouldered in Mandalay until an enterprising Scot,Paul Strachan, rescued and restored her. Although you can no longer hear her paddles clunking from Rangoon to Mandalay as in Kipling’s day, the substitute diesels hummed merrily as we cruised down watching the pagodas and fishermen on the river banks.

MYANMAR TIMES Ma Thanegi (2002)

Apparantly it is not only on Myanmar rivers that the Pandaw chain will sail: the Mekong Pandaw will connect Saigon and Siem Reap while the Kwai Pandaw will be used on the River Kwai. Both are being constructed in the Yangon dockyards, in the same style. This will surely bring attention to the skill of Myanmar shipbuilders who have proved often enough their expertise and care.
Pandaw the Royal Flower: may a hundred flowers bloom from the rivers of Asia.

GRAND TRUNK Tim Reid, Founder TRI Hotel Marketing (2000)

During our stay we were fortunate enough to meet Paul Strachan, a Scotsman who even at his relatively young age has devoted his life to Burma in many ways. He has written books its people and history, documenting with incredible pictures. But perhaps his most interesting venture has been to restore an historic river vessel and put it back on the Irrawaddy River, thus giving visitors the opportunity to glimpse the array of beauty on the banks and beyond. …
Today the river boat is the very essence of splendid river travel. Quite often Paul and his Spanish wife Roser are your hosts on board. In our case we had a very affable Australian manager. …
We found it a very relaxing journey that was well organised on and off board. On each day there is one (or more) stops to see what goes on in a typical Burmese village by the river. What’s so good is that other tourists never get to these points – they are really only accessible by river traffic.

TRAVEL WEEKLY (2001)

Burma’s countryside and temples are best appreciated from the Irrawaddy River on board river cruisers such as the Pandaw run by the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company. The river boat option is particularly popular with those travelling between Bagan and Mandalay. Journeys along the 116 stretch of the Irrawaddy river are typical one to threee day all-inclusives.

MYANMAR TIMES Ma Thanegi (2000)

Not only Paul but all his staff seemed inordinately proud of the RV Pandaw, which can be translated as the Royal Flower. Every morning the young men go about polishing the decks, sometimes forgetting not to whistle in case they disturb the guests. Each of the eight men working the decks has three jobs, for Paul runs a tight and capable ship. They clean, do laundry, fix electric wires, tend bar, wait on tables.
The chef, 24 year old Saw Thar |Gai, produced delicious butterfish cooked in a lime and caper sauce for the first evening’s dinner. He received a long round of applause from the passengers most of whom were French and know their food.
“I was working in a small restaurant in Pyay four years ago when Mr Paul came to ask me to work for him” Saw Thar Gai told MT.
“During the off season he sends me to hotels in Yangon for training”.
Paul was as busy as his boys during dinner fetching bottles of wine for the guests.

DAILY TELEGRAPH Roddy Forsyth (1998)

I had travelled to Burma to find out more about what Lord Mountbatten called ‘the greatest untold epic in British maritime history’ – the story of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.

… Three years ago a young Scot called Paul Strachan decided that the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company would sail again. He had learnt its history from his father and other family members who worked on the Clyde.

Strachan charters vessels from the IFC’s successor company, the Inland Water Transport Board to cruise the river. He had originally hoped to raise and sail one or more of the original pre war craft but the cost of restoration proved prohibitive. It looked as if he would have to settle for resurrecting the company’s name until he discovered the Pandaw, built in 1947 at the Yarrow yard in Glasgow as one of eight ships designed to help the Burmese get post war transport moving again on the Irrawaddy.

The Pandaw is now undergoing refurbishment with the assistance of Yarrow’s shipyard which supplied the original plans. It will become the modern IFC’s first original vessel later this year.THE SCOTSMAN Colin Donald (1996)

Our oddly assorted party is the first group of westerners to venture into Upper Burma for decades and the arrival of the Princess causes a good humoured sensation at every land fall. Vast crowds of smiling or opened mouthed adults and children gather at jetties while we tie up in preparation for the day’s cultural experience. The sense that we are ghosts from the country’s almost forgotten past produces strong emotions on both sides.

The cruise becomes a floating festival, leaving us with severe face ache at the end of each day’s smiling and waving. Are the Burmese the friendliest race on earth? The scale of their welcome and curiosity makes even the neighbouring Thais look like a nation of sourpusses.