The Pandaw Cruise Company is an old friend of TransIndus, and we absolutely love their ground-breaking cruise along the Lower Ganges in West Bengal. Beginning…
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Tailor-made Tour 10 days from £3645 per person
Places Visited: Ho Chi Minh City, My Tho, Ben Tre, Con Phuoc, Chau Doc, Phnom Penh, Tonle River, Kampong Tralach, Oudong, Silk Island, Angkor Ban, Wat Hanchey, Siem Reap
Travel from Saigon to Siem Reap on this seven-night cruise. Highlights include witnessing daily life in a tribal village, visiting beautiful monasteries, learning about the silk weaving process, and an excursion to the Twin Holy Mountains. This tour is an ideal way of connecting with the locals and the exotic cultures of the East, whilst exploring the main sites, and enjoying the relaxed pace of a cruise.
The Pandaw Cruise Company has seventeen beautifully crafted ships in operation, across India and Southeast Asia, all built themselves. Each ship, hand-finished in brass and teak by traditional craftsmen, is itself an object of great beauty. Whilst luxury and comfort are ever-present, it is the colonial-era character and friendly atmosphere that predominate the ships. All of Pandaw's ships have ultra-shallow drafts and can travel to remote areas, which are unreachable by other passenger-carrying vessels, let alone overland. Your cruise will be on either RV Bassac Pandaw or RV Mekong Pandaw.
Holiday Types
Cultural Holidays River Cruising Family Holidays Honeymoons Beach Holidays Adventure Holidays
Suggested itinerary
Day 1
Ho Chi Minh City
On arrival into Ho Chi Minh City you will be met by a TransIndus representative and transferred to your hotel for an overnight stay.
Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC, previously known as Saigon is Vietnam’s busiest and most popular city epitomizing the contrasting facets of modern Vietnam. Vibrant, dynamic and evolving at a breathless pace, it also retains strong connections with its past. As ‘Saigon’, the metropolis served as the capital of French Indochina, acquiring a spread of suave buildings and boulevards that earned it the epithet ‘Paris of the Orient. More than a hint of Gallic grandeur survives in the swanky Dong Khoi district, the setting for Graham Greene’s era-defining novel, The Quiet American, where now designer boutiques line up alongside some of Asia’s finest restaurants and smartest hotels.
Accommodation Options
Day 2
Ho Chi Minh City, My Tho, Ben Tre
This morning you will transfer from Saigon to the river port to board your ship. Enjoy lunch onboard before journeying by sampans through mangroves and bamboo forests to the fruit orchards of Ben Tre. This is an area rich in birdlife. Explore via local transport before transferring to a local rowboat. Journey slowly through the bamboo covered canals before arriving at a village specialising in making local products. In the evening you will be entertained by a Vietnamese dance troupe on deck.
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Day 3
Con Phuoc, Tan Chau
Sailing through the delta offers a real insight into life along this vast waterway. After lunch, pass through a small canal and head ashore to Con Phuoc Island visiting local craftspeople weaving bamboo baskets the traditional way. After a demonstration, try your hand at making your own. Take a local tuk tuk for a drive through this peaceful village, stopping at a 100 year old church and meeting more of the friendly local community. After lunch onboard, the ship sails to Tan Chau for overnight.
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Day 4
Chau Doc
In the morning, drive by minivan to Sam Mountain, to visit Phuoc Dien Tu or the Hang Pagoda, with 400 steps up to it. Next visit the picturesque border town of Chau Doc, and the floating fish farms, by sampan. Make a stop at a Chham Village and observe the lives of Vietnamese Muslims. Lion dance is presented at the Cham Village. Return to ship to continue upstream, navigating a web of canals before dropping anchor on the Vietnam/Cambodia border to undergo immigration formalities.
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Day 5
Phnom Penh
Morning orientation of Phnom Penh by cyclo visiting the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda followed by the National Museum with its marvelous collection of Angkorian statuary. In the afternoon visit the Killing Fields and Genocide museum to learn more about the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Overnight in Phnom Penh city port with its lively bars, restaurants and night life.
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Day 6
Kampong Tralach
Leave the dock at Phnom Penh early morning and sail up the winding channels of the Tonle Sap river to Kampong Tralach. Travel by ox-cart around the river-side villages, markets and temples to get a sense of life along the river. In the evening cocktails are round a village fire pit where we will be joined by village folk keen to show us their traditional dancing.
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Day 7
Oudong, Silk Island
In the morning, travel by coach to the ancient capital of Cambodia, Oudong. On the way stop to visit the Vipassana Dhura Meditation Centre before taking a drive around the old capital. Re-join the ship at Prek Kdam before returning to the Mekong. After lunch sail to Koh Nghe Tei (Silk Island) to study the silk-making process from worms to weavers. This village is a centre for the ancient martial art of L’bokator which roughly translates as 'pounding a lion'. It includes weapons techniques and is one of the oldest combat techniques in Cambodia and believed to date back to the Angkor empire.
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Day 8
Angkor Ban Village, Wat Hanchey
Sunrise cruise to Angkor Ban village to see how local villagers live and visit the library which was donated by Pandaw to Angkor Ban secondary school. In the afternoon sail north to Wat Hanchey, an important centre of worship during the Chenla period located on top of a hill above the mighty Mekong River with some of the best Mekong views in Cambodia. Visit 8th century structures some destroyed by American bombings during the Vietnam War.
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Day 9
Siem Reap
Disembark and travel by coach from Kampong Cham through stunningly lovely countryside to reach Siem Reap, adjacent to Angkor Wat. You will be met on arrival and transferred to your hotel for an overnight stay.
A provincial market town until the tourism explosion of the post-Pol Pot era, Siem Reap is the gateway to Angkor. Over a million visitors pour through here each year and most stay in or around the town. The upside is a wide choice of quality hotels, restaurants and bars, as well as a plethora of shopping opportunities.
A few pockets of authentic Cambodian atmosphere also survive in the local fresh produce market, and numerous performances of Khmer Apsara dance, music and shadow puppetry are staged in the evenings. Visitors interested in traditional Cambodian arts and crafts may also visit workshops of the renowned Artisans Angkor company, which has spearheaded the revival of silk-making, stone and wood carving, lacquering and painting in the area.
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Day 10
Siem Reap, UK
Transfer to the airport to begin your journey home.
Accommodation Options
Tailor-made Tour 10 days from £3645 per person
What's included
✓ 7 nights accommodation
✓ All internal transportation and transfers
✓ English-speaking guides
✓ Full board onboard the cruise. Breakfast only in Ho Chi Minh City and Siem Reap
✓ Cultural performances & movie nights
✓ Daily Excursions
✓ Entrance fees to sites and monuments listed in tour itinerary
Places and Experiences in this tour
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