Passenger Feedback

Dear Bo Bo,

A few lines, somewhat belated but nonetheless sincere, to express an enormous THANK YOU to you and the entire crew of the Kindat Pandaw for making our river cruise so enjoyable. Everyone loved every minute of their time on board and we all felt so pampered by your wonderful staff, for whom nothing was too much trouble.

We also very much appreciated your so miraculously retrieving Mrs. NEUENSCHWANDER's optical sun glasses. Easia Travel played their part in collecting them in Yangon and arranging for them to be handed over to the lady at the airport. As you can imagine, she was absolutely thrilled, as she really thought she had lost them for ever. A huge THANK YOU to you and your housekeeping team for your detective work and prompt action!

Thank you too for letting us use your laptop, which made translating the menus and daily programmes so easy.

You do a fantastic job, Bo Bo, and you and your team are to be congratulated. Keep up the good work! We will not hesitate to recommend Pandaw River Expeditions and hope very much to have the opportunity of sailing with Pandaw again in the not too distant future.

We wish you personally continued success and don't forget, that if ever you make the long journey to Europe, you have an open invitation to stay with us at our hotel.

Thank you again for everything and all good wishes,
Hermann & Marion

Dear Mr. Strachan:

I wanted to give you additional feedback on our recent 7-day cruise on the RV Kalay Pandaw down the Chindwin. We are frequent visitors to Myanmar and were enticed on a Pandaw cruise to visit an area of the country not easily accessible otherwise. While I confess we had some reservations (being in close confines with 8 other passengers for 7 days being one of them), we were blown away – mostly everything exceeded our expectations, including our fellow passengers. The ship which I understand you had built for your own use, is very comfortable and kept in immaculate condition – we stayed in the owner’s suite which we loved. You can be very proud of the ship’s team led by our purser Win Myo. Win and his able assistant Maing provided unobtrusive and simply excellent service at every turn. In his unassuming and low-key manner Win ensured that his passengers’ various expectations were met and that everyone was onboard with the plan for the day.

The rest of the crew were kind and helpful and my husband who has a bad leg truly appreciated their discretion and their willingness to assist whenever necessary. I read your book with great interest while lounging on the deck between excursions and understanding the challenges this poses in a country like Myanmar, I can tell you that your customer service/hotel senior managers have done an outstanding job in training the teams to provide 5-star service. It seemed impossible that these beautifully prepared and presented meals were coming out of that small kitchen. Win’s Shan tea salads and all the seafood dishes (including the Prawn Burger) were stand-outs for me. There were nothing but rave reviews about the food from all 9 passengers, including the one vegetarian among us. The New Year’s party on a sandbank with dancing to 50s music was a blast by the way.

Finally we were grateful to have San Lin Tun as a guide – he is very knowledgeable, well-spoken and the consummate professional - overall my husband and I both rate him as the best guide we’ve had in Myanmar or anywhere else for that matter. The excursions were all very well chosen – for us the visits to Kanee and the Phowin Taung Caves were highlights. Mingkin was very interesting although we thought its comparison to Luang Prabang and Bagan by some to be bit of a stretch.

I offer some suggestions for your consideration. The weather on the Chindwin can be quite cool in the early morning and evening so blankets to keep warm on the deck would be appreciated. Also the pre-departure literature should mention that warm clothing is required. Some of us would have brought additional warm clothing. Merchandising suggestion – books are excellent but you would also do well with polo shirts and sweaters and caps.

In summary we greatly enjoyed our first Pandaw expedition and we look forward to experiencing another one on our next trip to our beloved Myanmar.

Sincerely,
Priscille

Dear Mr Strachan,

I have recently returned from a trip on RV Kalaw, from Bagan to Mandalay. As you ask for some feedback, here it is.

The ship is beautiful, well fitted-out and the shower/bathroom fittings are very up to date. All the wood and brass are cared for and everything gleams.

The crew are just magnificent. Purser Zaw made it his business to be sure everyone was being looked after, always with a smile. The "non-hotel" staff (i.e. the captain and his crew) didn't speak as much English as the "hotel" staff, but were nevertheless helpful and welcoming: we had a visit to the bridge when the echo sounder was in progress - one of the crew with his pole, calling off the marks. Everyone was kind and seemed happy to be of service, and this was most notable when we embarked or disembarked along the way. I made the mistake of asking to hold back on one return so that I could photograph behind the local pagoda, not realising that I would be keeping seven staff waiting to welcome me back on board. Most embarrassing!

I gather that our guide, San, was not a crew member but a freelance, but I urge you to keep his services as long as possible - he made the whole experience wonderful, was very knowledgeable and knew how to share that knowledge without overwhelming us. With a small group like ours (23 passengers) he took the trouble to let each of us do some of the things not on the programme: I particularly wanted to photograph sunrise in Bagan from a temple terrace, and he personally rose early to take me to a great spot.

I'm afraid I can't think of a single complaint about Pandaw, except that I had to leave and come home.

Best wishes
Margaret Berry

We've recently returned from a trip to Myanmar which included a your 10 day "Bagan and Upper Irrawaddy" (14 Jan- 24 Jan) cruise, what a wonderful experience. Your boat "Zawgyi" was a splendid "hotel" and provided the most ideal way to seen the country and life by the river. Our accommodation and boat facilities were super and the food your chefs turned out, from such a cramped kitchen, was excellent in terms of choice, quality and presentation.

The one thing that really stood out over the duration of the trip was the crew and the way they all worked together to make the trip so special and memorable. They really worked as a team, all mixing in and doing whatever was necessary regardless of their apparent job. When the trip got delayed they shuffled the schedule so that we didn't miss anything and the captain and his boat crew worked very very long days to ensure we recovered lost time, including sending the pilot boat into the evening darkness to find us a safe route. Not surprisingly some of the crew didn't speak much English but we still managed to communicate adequately using "international sign language" and the abiding memory will be of their endless beaming smiles, everyone of them played an important part and played it so well.

As a company you provided a great holiday package but you should be particularly proud of your crew, the whole crew, for the efficient and cheery way they delivered it to make our holiday so special and truly memorable. Thank you.

Regards,
Stephen & Julia

Dear Sven

We wanted to get in touch with you regarding our recent cruise on the RV Mekong Pandaw.

The trip that we took was an unforgettable experience, largely due to the professionalism of the staff onboard, and the service that they provided.

Our compliments to Pandaw, and especially to the staff that was onboard. They did a great job, and you should be very, very proud of them. Please let them know that they were a very large part of making this a memorable vacation.

We are both business owners in the service industry, and we are always on the lookout for companies from which we can learn more to improve our own approaches to customer service. Pandaw’s approach to how to treat guests is one that many companies can take notes from, and we wish that more people could have the experience that we had.

We thoroughly enjoyed this vacation; in fact, it exceeded our expectations, and as seasoned travelers, that is not easy to do. You can expect to hear from us again, as we fully intend to book another cruise with Pandaw.

Best regards,
Bill and Michelle Hammons

Dear Paul,

My wife (74) and I (79) have just returned from the 9-19 Feb cruise on Laos Pandaw. We absolutely loved the new ship and the cruise. The design is very clever, comfortable and attractive. The staff were without exception brilliant, welcoming, friendly, and cheerful. My wife who is awaiting a knee replacement has some movement restriction at the moment and the crew quickly spotted this and one or two crew members would appear at the drop of a hat to assist her especially going up and down river banks, stairs etc. She was very appreciative of this.

The staff were all brilliant, from the delightful Captain, (busy learning English from the Purser!) to the dining-room and bar staff who very quickly learned our individual tastes and were charming. The programme was the perfect balance between rest and relaxation and interesting visits.

When we unfortunately touched the bottom and had to change a propeller we were particularly impressed with the way everyone mucked in to help, including the chefs!

Adjustments to the programme due to things like fog were smoothly achieved. The programme was then curtailed due to the water level continuing to drop, and the way in which the Pursers calmly reorganised the rest of the programme was extremely impressive. Transport, hotel bookings and a new programme in Vientiane were all miraculously produced, despite limited facilities and communications, without any apparent fuss. We have nothing but praise for your ship, crew and organisation.

In conclusion may I congratulate you on a splendid ship, cruise and organisation which provided us with one of our best holidays ever. My only concern now at our age is how much longer we can go on enjoying such treats!

With best wishes,
Tim & Diana Goetz

My husband and I had the most memorable trip cruising the Irrawaddy on the Kindat Pandaw. Our accommodations were luxuriously comfortable, the food inventive and fabulous, the staff kind and attentive. But it is the memory of the glorious and graceful movement of the boat steaming through the wide muddy waters, Shan hills in the background, rice paddies dotting the shores, gleaming golden and white pagodas and stupas nestled high and low along the banks, that I carry with me each day. It was a phenomenal introduction to the beautiful country of Myanmar. We are anxious to take another adventure on the Pandaw fleet! Robyn Waters, Excelsior, MN.

Kind regards,
Robyn Waters

The trip was great! Pandaw is an excellent company and I would go on another of their cruises in a heartbeat.

Food was good, crew was attentive, cabins very large and lots of deck area to sit and watch the river. I liked the pace of the day- 7-9 breakfast, 9-11:30ish morning expedition, lunch at 12:30, 3-4:30ish afternoon expedition, cocktails at 6:30, 7:15 briefing, dinner at 7:30 and an evening program at 9pm. Plenty of downtime and together time.

The Kindat Pandaw could hold 36 people and we only had 24 people. 24 for one tour guide was about the maximum size. Any more than that and you wouldn't be able to see or hear.

The boat was a real treat, well designed for its purpose, beautifully outfitted with teakwood everywhere (including the shower door), plenty of storage, our own AC, contemporary bathroom fixtures, great mattresses and linens. Very comfy. The food was superb and plentiful with a salady buffet and a main course buffet. The dishes were a nice mix of the familiar and the exotic (morning glory tempura and good brown bread). Breakfasts were fruits, breads and choices from a menu that included some of the best oatmeal I've had and lots of egg dishes, pancakes, french toast, even eggs benedict. The crew almost outnumbered the passengers and were uniformly professional and attentive.

On the last night aboard, the crew ran the boat onto a sand bar and set up a complete beach party for us including twinkling lights, a bonfire, a music system that played rock (Hotel California!?), a bar from which we were served cocktails and a barbeque to make us delicious appetizers. Then back aboard for dinner and a musical performance that was top notch if you could stand the music.