The Kalay Pandaw Nagaland trip was an amazing experience!

To travel to such a remote and fascinating place in the 5 star luxury of the Pandaw ship, eat gourmet food, and have the enthusiasm and professionalism of the crew, is an adventure not to miss! In this day and age of travel, to be one of the first visitors to an unspoiled area, with welcoming and friendly people is a trip that one only dreams of or reads of in books.

Way beyond any expectation that this world traveler could have imagined!

Kathy Heinecke
Bangkok

Dear Mr Strachan

I just wanted to let you know how much my wife and I enjoyed our two cruises with Pandaw in 2017.

It was almost by accident that we came across you in the first place. We were looking for a Mekong trip in February which fitted our travel plans and found the up-stream trip on the Mekong Pandaw from Saigon on 12th February.

As our first ever river cruise we were delightfully surprised with everything from the food and accommodation to the professionalism and helpfulness of the crew. What particularly impressed us was the ability to get off the normal well-worn tourist track and meet local people who were simply getting on with their lives on and alongside the river. We even gave an English lesson at a local school!

It was during this trip that we learned the history of Pandaw and its origins in the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.

Our trip was from Bagan to the Upper Irrawaddy on the Kindat Pandaw on 25th November. Again we thoroughly enjoyed the ten days and have nothing but praise for the crew who looked after us with patience, helpfulness and good humour. As with the team on the Mekong, they genuinely enjoy their work and are very proud to represent the Pandaw brand with all that it means for local people and their economy.

Ian and Catherine Robertson

Dear Paul

My wife, Barbara, and I were guests on the Laos Pandaw cruise from Vientiane to Chiang Saen from the 2nd to 12th December. On sorting the papers out I find a note asking for some feedback and ideas for improvements. I’m afraid we are going to disappoint you.

There is absolutely nothing that I can imagine to improve upon our experience. The delights of exploring the quiet country of Laos, the superb boat, the wonderful crew – all with different regional backgrounds and skills – all made it an unforgettable trip. That part of Asia was a somewhat unfamiliar destination which we wanted to explore by river, but we rapidly got depressed by the package tours and the larger river cruises on offer on the lower Mekong. (We tend to travel independently, but enjoy the company of a small group of people; otherwise, I would prefer to chew a leg off than go on an organised cruise). As I gather is common, an old friend then recommended that we try a Pandaw cruise. I will still never “go on a cruise” but Pandaw doesn’t count – it belongs to its own unique category.

Perhaps the only comment worth making is that some tour dates were not available to us as they were apparently block booked by tour operators. For us, one of the great pleasures was sharing the trip with 14 other people from 8 countries, who had all booked independently, with a wide and varied lifetime of experiences to share. I suspect if we were on a voyage with 9 other couples like us from similar backgrounds, we would rapidly tire of our company! I think a significant part of the charm of the cruises would be lost if they became just another homogenous package tour group offering.

With many thanks and very best wishes,
Frank and Barbara Almond