NARELLE RICHARDS AND MARTIN PEELGRANE, AUSTRALIA, HALONG BAY AND THE RED RIVER, SEP 2017
Just want to say "Thanks for another great cruise/holiday with the Pandaw Family". Have done an Irrawaddy Cruise - September 2015 and now have experienced another great holiday on the Red River - Ha Long Bay.
Both cruises had differences and could not fault this cruise that we have just experienced. I went with my family and friends and they have never done a Pandaw cruise and it met their expectations too.
Just speaking for myself and Martin (and the others, being their first Pandaw experience), that we do like Pandaw and their offshore excursions into villages where there are not many or any other tourists. Another thing Pandaw did was interactive excursions, where they gave you 20,000 Dong and five Vietnamese words and we as a group of six people had to go through the market and speak Viet and buy fruit and vegetables and not spend all the money and the least spent the better. What fun. We got bananas instead of garlic! We got the other items right. The Village people loved it too. Lots of laughing. Martin, Anita and Greg went push bike riding on one of the tours and we others walked into the village. Dang the Barman, was an inspiration to Pandaw as he made great cocktails, has a great sense of humour and his English improved enormously by the end of the cruise by interacting with the Pandaw Family. Even a beach cocktail party and dancing on the last night was great fun and made it hard to leave the Pandaw Family.
The crew family on Pandaw were delightful once again, especially Monerak, Chui and Tam our housekeeper - but all the Pandaw family were exceptional.
Look forward to doing another cruise with Pandaw. Maybe the Mergui Archipelago next time.
Cheers
Narelle Richards