Go Back  Fodor's Travel Talk Forums > Destinations > Asia
Reload this Page >

Third Time and Still Charmed: Kathie and Cheryl take a Pandaw Cruise

Third Time and Still Charmed: Kathie and Cheryl take a Pandaw Cruise

Old Nov 28th, 2015, 08:03 AM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 33,288
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Third Time and Still Charmed: Kathie and Cheryl take a Pandaw Cruise

I have long wanted to take a Pandaw cruise. I followed the ups and downs of Paul Strachan’s company over the years and even corresponded with him about a cruise several years ago. I worried, though, that as independent travelers, we would feel constrained by the cruise. Dogster encouraged us to take a Pandaw cruise and said we could be more independent on the cruise than I thought. But I struggled to find a cruise I wanted that ran at the time of the year I was in SE Asia.

This year, I had flights in and out of Bangkok, but other than visiting Bangkok, we had no other plans. We considered some time at Sukhothai or returning to Penang, for instance, but neither of us was excited about these options. Finally, I stumbled across the Pandaw Chindwin cruise, 7 nights in the far north, well off the tourist track. The only problem was that there was just one cabin left, the owners cabin, which made the cruise quite expensive. But after some deliberation, we decided to do it. We booked the cruise at the end of July for November, then needed to get everything else in order. I immediately emailed Santa Maria, our agent in Yangon and booked three nights in Mandalay before the cruise and three nights in Yangon after the cruise. By the time I got up the next morning, I had a reply from Santa Maria saying they had booked our requested hotels.

Getting there: We had booked business class tickets to Bangkok using our United miles. Our routing was Seattle-Seoul on Asiana then on to Bangkok on Thai, arriving about 2 am. We spent a few hours in the Novotel at the airport, then back to the airport to fly to Mandalay on Bangkok Air. We usually fly Thai to Myanmar, but Thai flies to Mandalay only a few days a week, and not on the day we needed. We opted for Bangkok Air, as it flies out of BKK. Air Asia also flies to Mandalay, but they only fly from DMK.

Upon arrival at Mandalay, we were met by a driver arranged for us by Santa Maria. There are now taxis at the Mandalay airport (last time we flew in, there were none) but we were glad we had arranged a car and driver to take us to the Rupar Mandalar, a bit over an hour drive. We changed money at one of the bank exchange desks at the airport. Money is no longer the issue it used to be. You will get the official exchange rate at the airport exchange desks, and while you need to have pristine $100 bills, it’s not like the old days when you needed a wide variety of perfect US cash to pay for flights, hotels and admission fees. You can pay for almost anything with kyat now. Also, the exchange desks will exchange other currencies, notably, Singapore dollars, Euros and Pounds. There are also ATMs that accept foreign cards, but the local ATMs charge about US$5 per withdrawal.

At the Rupar Mandlar, they have added some new rooms – lovely and larger than the older rooms. Pools are under construction, so we received free cocktails on our first night and buffet or set dinner every night as compensation. However, we opted to order a la carte after the first night, remembering how good the food was. The a la carte food was excellent. Breakfasts were as superb as we remembered.

Mandalay: Mandalay is not our favorite city, but we needed to be there to catch our cruise from Monywa. So we thought we would make the best of it. We had loved our time at Sagaing in 2011, so decided we would spend a day there. Unfortunately, our day at Sagaing was a bit of a disappointment. Apparently we had seen all of the best sites on our last trip. We did enjoy seeing the 40 caves temple again, but were surprised at how many more Western visitors there were. We were glad to have the opportunity to stop at the nunnery, which we had not done last trip.

I researched what else we might do near Mandalay. I found additional ancient cities around Mandalay that are not often visited by foreigners and found a guide, Pho Se, who would gladly take us to some temples, monasteries and Buddhist ruins in the Kyauk Se area. (He can be reached at [email protected]) It was an all day trip, and we saw maybe half of what he had wanted to show us. The drive there was over an hour, sometimes on very bad roads. I had the thought that this is why a cruise to more remote sites is such a great idea. Several of the sites were fascinating with layers of temples, and Buddhas inside Buddhas. Cheryl made a difficult barefoot climb to visit a cave temple. I stayed below at a monastery. They brought out their oldest monk for me to meet – he was 104. I also had a long talk with several locals about the upcoming elections. If/when we get back to Mandalay, we will contact Pho Se again and will visit some of the sites we didn’t get to this trip.

Saturday morning was the day we had been waiting for – the day we started our cruise. A bus came to pick us up at 8:00 that morning. The bus made two more stops, the Inn at the Red Canal, which looks charming from the outside and the Mandalay Hill Resort, which is huge and impersonal-looking. We picked up 7 more passengers. It was a 3 hour drive from Mandalay to Monywa, where we boarded the ship. I had the idea that the ship would be at a dock… We stopped on a road running parallel to the river, climbed a few steps up, crossed another road, crossed a muddy area, then boarded a ship that wasn’t ours, walked through it and another ship before coming to the Kalay Pandaw. It is a beautiful teak ship. The name means “Baby Pandaw” as it is the smallest of the Pandaw ships, with just 5 staterooms. We were given our keys and our luggage was brought to our stateroom immediately. We unpacked – there is lots of storage space. Our owner’s suite is very spacious, with a curved bank of windows along the front of the room.

I would describe the cruise as a luxury adventure cruise. While Pandaw has cruises on the Irrawady where there are now many other cruise ships, their specialty is off-the-beaten-track cruises. Pandaw now builds its ships in Myanmar or VietNam, further contributing to the economy of these countries.
Kathie is offline  
Old Nov 28th, 2015, 08:06 AM
  #2  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 33,288
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
If you are interested in a Pandaw cruise, take a look at their website: www.pandaw.com Also, Paul Strachan has written book about the company called the Pandaw Story. I recommend it as good background reading if you are interested in one of the cruises. Panda now has cruises in other countries, notably VN, Cambodia and Laos but also has an affiliates in other countries.
Kathie is offline  
Old Nov 28th, 2015, 08:34 AM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,251
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Kathie--

I'm impressed! Sick, just off the tans-Pacific flight and then Thanksgiving and now a trip report. Thanks much for taking the time to do this.
julies is offline  
Old Nov 28th, 2015, 09:32 AM
  #4  
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,875
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Agreed. It takes me months to start my trip reports.

Crazy question: We've wanted to go to Burma for a while, since our day trip to the border monasteries from Thailand. Pandaw looks appealing. However, because of our work situations, we can only travel in areas with good wifi (yes, even the Masai Mara in Kenya and our remote road trip in India had excellent wifi.) So...how was the connectivity during your cruise?
crosscheck is offline  
Old Nov 28th, 2015, 09:57 AM
  #5  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 33,288
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thanks, Julies, no question this report was much harder to get to than usual.

Crosscheck - no internet connectivity at all on the Pandaw. On land in Burma, some places have wi-fi some do not. Some say they do but it is so slow it times out before you can so much as read or send an email. We had ok internet connectivity at the Strand in Yangon; we were unable to connect from the Rupar Mandalar in Mandalay (though last trip we were able to connect there). Our guide was unable to get cell phone reception for most of the cruise.

This was our third trip to Burma - Burma just keeps calling is back. We have visited all of the "big four" - Bagan, Inle Lake, Mandalay and Yangon - plus Mrauk U. This trip wasn't a trip of "sights" but of the ways of life of the locals. We visited small towns and villages along the river, local markets, monasteries, nat shrines, and temples.

If you are interested in this particular cruise on the Chindwin, I recommend reading Paul Strachan's book, Mandalay.
Kathie is offline  
Old Nov 28th, 2015, 10:13 AM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 27,609
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Hope this means you're feeling better.
thursdaysd is offline  
Old Nov 28th, 2015, 11:09 AM
  #7  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 3,133
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Kathie, thanks for taking the time to share your experiences of the Chindwin cruise with us, and so quickly no less. I am enjoying your report so far and look forward to more.
tripplanner001 is online now  
Old Nov 28th, 2015, 03:09 PM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,138
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hi Kathie, welcome back! This is the first I've heard of a 'baby' Pandaw. I also hear the call of Burma, just not sure when I'll get to respond again. Looking forward to more.
Femi is offline  
Old Nov 28th, 2015, 03:47 PM
  #9  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,476
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Great to see your report started Kathie, and looking forward to the rest !

For Crosscheck, we took a Pandaw cruise on the Irrawaddy in 2013. There was connectivity a couple of times, but when the other 58 guests jumped on line it was dreadfully slow. I skipped dinner one night to have it all to myself, via hot-spotting the captains smart phone. Definitely not reliable.
sartoric is offline  
Old Nov 28th, 2015, 04:37 PM
  #10  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 29,053
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Great start...looking forward to more descriptions and details...
rhkkmk is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 03:23 AM
  #11  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 143
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
We are off on Pandaw 2 shortly and I intend to buy an MPT data SIM to fit to a Huawei Dongle (USB Stick)to link to my mini laptop-I don't get on with small screens so just use my smart fone for calls/texts.
MBT have a good coverage so I am hoping I will get connections at towns/villages on the Irrawaddy so will report back.
In February we had acceptable WiFi speed at Inya Lake Hotel/Savoy in Yangon and the same at Ngapali Bay at NB.
Kathie-look forward to full details of your cruise-and fancy you being in Paul's personal suite up front...
These are the details of the books
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mandalay-Tal...=Paul+Strachan
and his most recent one on the trials and tribulations of setting up and running Pandaw through all the turbulent years (all proceeds to the Pandaw charity)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pandaw-Story...=Paul+Strachan
SS
Silverswimmer is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 07:23 AM
  #12  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 33,288
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
SS, if you are on an Irrawaddy cruise, you may have cell phone reception. On the Chindwin, our guide (who said he had three different sim cards in his phone) had no reception at all for most of the trip.

Femi, take a look at the Pandaw website. They have a section on their ships which range from 5 cabins to 30 cabins.

Thanks, Thursdays, I'm feeling much better today.

Once we boarded the ship, we started getting into the Pandaw routine. Lunch was served at 1:00 and included fresh baked breads, a soup and a variety of traditional Myanmar salads as well as a choice of entrees. Food ranged from excellent to superb. Others said it was the best food they’d had on a Pandaw cruise. All reported that the food on the Pandaw cruises had always been good, but this was really special. There are three entrée choices for both lunch and dinner. You order your lunch entrée as you finish breakfast, your dinner entrée as you finish lunch. At breakfast each morning, there were Shan noodles, fresh fruits, and fresh-baked breads, plus you can order a la carte, eggs, pancakes, hot cereals.

Our fellow passengers were exceptionally well-traveled. All had been to Burma once or twice before. We were the only ones who had never taken a Pandaw cruise - others had taken two to four.

Each day there are two off-boat excursions, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. At lunch, our guide, Soe, announced what time we would be leaving for our excursion. We had some time to talk more with fellow passengers before going off to see what Monywa has to offer. This first excursion used two Toyota vans to take us through town to some modern (post-1950) Buddhist temples. As you will see from the photos (up soon!) these temples are very colorful. This was the last we would see of enclosed, motorized transport until we landed at Homalin at the end of the cruise.
Kathie is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 07:49 AM
  #13  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 33,288
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Clothing/footwear: Be prepared for some cool weather. In the mornings, especially, it can be quite cool on the boat, particularly as we got farther north. We both wore Olu Kai flip flops. You want something with good support as you will be doing a lot of walking, and you want something that can be easily washed off. We wore what we usually wear in Burma – long, light pants and light shirts. Men can wear shorts, but women should not. We both brought light, water-resisitant jackets which proved useful. We also brought wraps for sitting on the deck at night.

As you disembark the ship, they hand you a water bottle in a cloth carrier you wear over your shoulder. When you arrive back to the ship, they take back the cloth carrier to use next time, and have you take off your footwear. They clean your footwear and return it to your stateroom. Slippers are supplied in your cabin, but I found them a bit slippery, so opted to go barefoot on board.

I have a vivid memory of embarking/disembarking our boat when we went to Mrauk U. A wooden plank was placed from boat to boat and helpers held a length of bamboo to serve as a handrail. This was rather precarious. I was anticipating something similar on the Pandaw, but this was MUCH better There is a metal gangplank, with rope handrails that got set up each time we landed. The river banks are often muddy or sandy, they sometimes cut stairsteps into the mud. There are always crew members available to help you over difficult parts, as needed.

Every evening, there is a cocktail hour and briefing about where we will be stopping the next day. There is also a printed itinerary left in your stateroom when they do turndown service.

The cruise price is pretty much all-inclusive. Our Chindwin Cruise incuded transport from our Mandalay hotel to the ship, transport from the ship to the airport in Homalin, and flights to Mandalay or Yangon. Drinking water in abundance, local beers and spirits are included. Imported spirits, wines, and laundry service (which you will need) are not included. Gratuities for staff are included in the price as well. Note that different items are included for different cruises. At the end of our cruise, we paid only for laundry service and wine. We did leave a tip for our guide, who was contracted and not a Pandaw employee.
Kathie is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 08:05 AM
  #14  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 6,368
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Loving all the details. Glad you are feeling better. Wondering if this is something Linda and I would enjoy? Can't thank you enough for taking your time to do this report. Can't wait for more.

Aloha!
hawaiiantraveler is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 08:17 AM
  #15  
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,875
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thanks, Kathie for all the details. Glad you're on the mend. I like the idea of a small expedition cruise and, at this point, 'luxury adventure' sounds appealing. What was the demographic of your fellow passengers? Ages? Nationalities? Any families with adult children? Baby Pandaw might be in our future.

Silver -- anxious to hear about your data experience...as well as the rest of your cruise.
crosscheck is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 08:24 AM
  #16  
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 27,609
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Glad to hear you're feeling better!

Thanks for the details, I may have to look into this...

Never heard of Olu Kai - website looks interesting. Do you have a model(s) you recommend?
thursdaysd is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 08:25 AM
  #17  
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,875
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
And one Q about your pre-cruise adventure: <Cheryl made a difficult barefoot climb to visit a cave temple.> Why barefoot??
crosscheck is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 08:49 AM
  #18  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 33,288
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Answering some of your questions:

Peter, I think you and Linda might well enjoy this cruise.

Our fellow passengers were three Aussies, a French couple who live in London and Costa Rica, and an English ex-pat couple currently living in Manila. All were in 50s and 60s.

Olu Kais were originally made in Hawaii - now I think they are made in China. But they are comfortable, supportive flip-flops. I usually buy the Ohana. But depending on your foot - they have some models better for narrow feet, for instance.

The barefoot climb was because it's a Buddhist cave temple, and usually, you must be barefoot as you begin entry to the temple (thus, while climbing). However, once she got there, the hermit monk looked at her and said to the guide - "she could have worn shoes."
Kathie is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 08:50 AM
  #19  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,500
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Waiting for more. Thanks for writing.
Marija is offline  
Old Nov 29th, 2015, 09:25 AM
  #20  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 33,288
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The modern temples were interesting. The proliferation of sculpture on the buildings reminded me of Indian Hindu temples while the thousands of Buddha statues inside reminded me of the hidden passageways of the Buddhist temples at Mrauk U. We also visited an enormous standing Buddha just outside of the city.

It was nearly dark when we returned to the ship. Cocktail hour was scheduled for 6:30. Each day, there was a cocktail of the day, but you could order whatever you wanted. Drinks were made with local spirits (free!) unless you specify otherwise. Toward the end of the cocktail hour, the guide would join us and brief us on the next day's activities. We were spending the night at Monywa because the next morning we would cross the river to visit some cave temples.

Dinner was at 7:30.

The next day was election day. We departed on a boat to cross the river and were met by two pick-up trucks with benches in the back. The crew brought cushions from the charts on the boat, and we rode over very rough roads, through a small town to the cave temples. We passed polling places with long lines. Everyone was excited about the elections.

When we arrived at the area of the cave temples, we got out and started walking. There were monkeys in the area, but they are not aggressive, apparently because they are well-fed. At several points we had to climb rocks to get to more cave temples. At one point, I climbed though several boulders and suddenly heard running water - I realized that a monkey in the tree above me was peeing on me! Fortunately, I was wearing a broad-brimmed waterproof hat which protected me and my clothing. I understand that being peed on by a monkey is supposed to be good luck, but I think I'll pass on future baptisms of such good luck! I washed my hat when we returned to the ship, and it was none the worse for the experience.

We stopped at one of the polling places on our way back. We saw four polling places on our short drive.

We returned to the ship and cast off. We were on our way!
Kathie is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -