|
Discounted Rates Available
Please Click Here
Click Here to order a Brochure or Get a Quote.
 Day 1
Travel by coach for a couple of hours from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to My Tho where you will board the Pandaw vessel. You will depart for Cai Be where you arrive mid-afternoon. A traditional junk will take you to explore the smaller waterways of this area showing the lifestyle of the local people and a visit to a former Imperial Residence where living descendents will welcome you into their ancestral home. Return to the Pandaw vessel and enjoy the first night with all the comforts and delights aboard the ship.
 Day 2
After being moored overnight near Cai Be you can take another junk the following morning to visit the floating markets, inspect the French colonial architecture, a brick and pottery factory and a local rice paper manufacturer. After you return to the vessel for lunch the remainder of the day will be spent cruising the Mekong Delta.
Day 3
 From the main Mekong channel at Tan Chau you will travel down the canals and backwaters by local ferry boat to the town of Chau Doc. Here you will experience a trishaw ride around the town and see a colourful market bearing all the products of the region. You will also visit a Cham tribal village and a catfish farm. After lunch you will head for the Cambodian border. At the border formalities are likely to take a few hours but, once completed, the vessel will cruise up the broad Mekong channel to moor just outside Phnom Penh, the largest city and capital of Cambodia.
Day 4
 As you awaken the following morning you will be able to enjoy the skyline of Phnom Penh including the spectacular pagodas of the Royal Palace. After breakfast the vessel will dock at the quay and you will be taken ashore for a tour of the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda and the National Museum. The afternoon presents an opportunity to revisit the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime at the former Detention Centre, which has been transformed into a Museum, and at the Killing Fields. You can also choose to do your own thing or simply relax onboard the ship. In the evening there will be an opportunity to dine ashore in one of the restaurants along the waterfront or to partake in a little nightlife at one of the many watering holes.
Day 5
Early in the morning you will leave Phnom Penh and stop at Chong Koh silk weaving village. After a leisurely stop the ship continues to cruise upstream passing timeless Cambodian villages with river life and extensive fishing activities. In the afternoon the ship stops at Peam Chi Kang village where you will visit a cloth factory and a school during operating hours.
 Day 6
During the morning the boat will journey upstream to the pre-Angkorian temple of Wat Anchey. In the afternoon we head back downstream to the township of Kampong Cham where you will be transported by bus to a farming village and then to an orphanage.
Day 7
 We continue downstream on the Mekong River and in the early morning hours pass the capital Phnom Penh once again as we turn up the Tonle River which connects Tonle Lake, the largest lake in Indochina, with the Mekong River. We start to wind our way through jungle and as the river narrows you will be able to wave at the local population on the banks of the river as you go by. Eventually you will reach the rural township of Kampong Chanang where you will make a motor boat excursion into the lake wetlands that form the mouth of the river at the entry point to Tonle Sap Lake. There is a stunning variety of birdlife here and the fish traps are of interest. Some are up to half a kilometre long and net a huge tonnage of fish after each monsoon as the fish migrate from the falling lake into the Tonle River.
Day 8
 The itinerary on this day varies according to the time of year. For about five months during and just after the monsoon season the boat is able to travel across the huge Tonle Lake all the way to Siem Reap Port. Once the dry season takes hold the Pandaw Cruise Boat is no longer able to travel across the lake and a coach transfer is arranged which, with a couple of stops, takes about five hours to Siem Reap.
Download the Pandaw Mekong River Cruise Dates and Prices for 2010–2012
Click Here to order a Brochure or Get a Quote.
|
