Dear Paul,

I recently had a wonderful trip on the Orient Pandaw from Prome to Mandalay, and had the pleasure of meeting you & your wife when the 'Baby Pandaw' drew alongside. I wanted to send this email with some comments on my trip, which I felt was an exceptional, and, at times, very humbling, experience.

Firstly, I would like to say how impressed I was with the Orient Pandaw itself - a glorious and very special boat (?ship - apologies, don't know which is correct!)which encouraged strong friendships to be formed. The whole experience was greatly enhanced by the friendly, thoughtful and caring crew, who were second to none, and ensured the comfort and well-being of all of us onboard. The itinerary gave us the opportunity to see much more of what, I suspect, is the 'real' Myanmar, much helped by having Soe, an excellent guide, with us. Like many of my fellow travellers, I have been travelling for much of my life, and this trip stands out way above the norm - I'll definately be investigating other Pandaw tours myself and have already fed back to my English travel agent that I would happily recommend the trip.

I must also mention something which I very much hope is rarely needed - and that was the assistance and care that was given to two of my fellow passengers, when the gentleman needed medical care and then later, when he and his wife had to be air-ambulanced to Bangkok for treatment. The assistance and caring attitude given to them both, by all the crew but most especially by Erick, our Purser, was incredible, from contacting and getting the best medical assistance in difficult circumstances, right through to the practicalities, such as giving Barrie piggy-backs up the riverbank to enable him to physically get to doctors and hospitals along the way - even bringing him up to the sundeck so he could enjoy the fun being had there - very, very impressive and way beyond any normal assistance.

To conclude, thank you for putting such a superb experience together and I wish you continuing success, especially with the 'Baby Pandaw'!

Pat Ferdinands

Good morning. We have recently returned to Australia after travelling on the Champa Pandaw on the upper Mekong through Laos (our second Pandaw trip). It was fabulous. There is nothing to say other than positives about the staff, the food, the ship and the experience generally.

Our guide Vieng was great - knowledgeable and very approachable. Our barman Htike Htike and our dining room "waiter" Suy were two of the nicest people you could meet, always on the ball, never without a smile on their face and hard working. Although we thanked them I would love if you could also pass on our great appreciation.

I have loved both of the trips and hope I am able to go on another, although having just retired it may be now a luxury! Having said that, it is great that everything is included. The members' package is a fabulous idea and we certainly made use of it and appreciated the discounts etc.

So once again, many thanks.
Regards Janette Grierson and John Storen

We have just returned from back to back voyages to Nagaland on board Zawgyi Pandaw departing 27 July and 3 August 2019.

First of all we must thank Pandaw for operating the voyage downstream on 3 August 2019 with only two passengers – us! To say we were looked after royally would be an understatement. Captain Zaw Zaw Oo, Purser Fabian and all the crew could not be faulted – not to mention our guide Ko San Lwin who by the end of the two cruises was as much a friend as a guide. It may be unfair to mention individual crew members, but Ko Thura Tun and Ko Jackson, the deck stewards, were very attentive and the head chef, Ko Soe Myint Swe, let us choose the menu and provided seven lunches and dinners of Myanmar cuisine. On both voyages, Ko Soe’s meals were of International standard with imaginative presentation.

On the second voyage we still had two stops each day and most of them were different from the first voyage. They included a visit to Tonhe/Ton Hae where the Chindits crossed the river in 1943 and we met an old man of 92 who clearly remembered the evacuation in 1942 and the Chindits in 1943.

As we had visited the Naga museum in Khamti on the first voyage we asked Ko San Lwin to find somewhere different for our second call and we dropped in at the local nunnery. The nuns were very welcoming and offered us light refreshments in their dining area. This area would accommodate 15/20 visitors and we would suggest this be considered as an additional visit on future Pandaw calls to Khamti should time allow. (We visited a nunnery last year on the inaugural Delta voyage and this seemed to be popular with passengers).

Although not directly under the control of Pandaw(!), considering it was the monsoon season, we had relatively little rain during the whole 14 days and certainly nothing to interrupt our activities. In fact the river level was dropping. The friendly Nats must have been smiling down on us!

Once again many thanks and we hope to travel with Pandaw again in the not too distant future.

Kind regards
David and Judy Saunders