NBNB PANDAW CRUISE OPERATIONS IN BURMA ARE SUSPENDED FOLLOWING TROPICAL CYLCONE NARGIS. THE COMPANIES 2 SHIPS DEPLOYED IN BURMA ARE CURRENTLY BEING USED AS HOSPITAL BOATS.
DONATIONS CAN BE MADE VIA THEIR WEBSITE:
https://www.pandaw.com/cyclone_appeal_burma.php
COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS WILL TAKE SOME TIME TO BE RE-ESTABLISHED AND THIS SITE WILL BE UPDATED AS INFORMATION COMES TO HAND.
NOTE - PANDAW'S MEKONG CRUISES ARE OPERATING AS NORMAL.
Pandaw River Cruises and the Irrawaddy Flotilla Co currently operate four vessels in Asia.
With four luxury Colonial Style River Steamers the Irrawaddy Flotilla Co. is the largest river cruise company in South-East Asia. In 1995 they pioneered river cruising on two of Asia's great rivers and their tributaries: the Irrawaddy and Chindwin in Burma, and the Mekong and Tonle Rivers in Cambodia along with the backwaters of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.
Two ships (RV Mekong Pandaw and RV Tonle Pandaw) operate in Vietnam and Cambodia, and a further two ships (RV Pandaw II and RV Pandaw IV) operate in Burma.
A river journey on the Mekong through Cambodia and Vietnam can offer greater insights and experiences than any other way of exploring two very different countries. The two ships "RV Mekong Pandaw" and "RV Tonle Pandaw" offer a way of travelling in great comfort to places unreachable by motor car.
In Burma, there are two itineraries on the Irrawaddy - 'Golden Land' from Yangon to Mandalay, and the 'Upper Irrawaddy' from Bagan to Bhamo, near the China border. The remote Chindwin in the NW of Burma and close to India, is a remote and little visited region, but significant in WWII. The 'Chindwin Exploratory' cruise has four sailings annually.
Pandaw's small ships can penetrate remote and otherwise inaccessible areas, and each itinerary takes passengers to villages only accessible by river. Many describe a Pandaw River Cruise as an 'adventure experience', yet you are in charge of your activity level and can choose if you wish to participate in the many on-shore excursion to markets, villages, historical sites, or simply exploring a small town by horse cart, cyclo, or on foot. On board, passengers enjoy delightful 'old-world' comfort, fine dining, great cocktails and choice wines, not to mention unobtrusive and wonderful levels of service.
Rudyard Kipling based his great poem 'Road to Mandalay' on the clunking paddles of Irrawaddy Flotilla Company paddle steamers. Over the past 150 years other poets and writers like Somerset Maugham, Norman Lewis or George Orwell have celebrated the Company and the river.
Successive Viceroys of India, the Crown Prince of Siam and King Edward VIII as Princes of Wales, were but a few of our former passengers. Today we continue to carry celebrities and royalty but pride ourselves on treating every passenger the same regardless of fame or rank. |
