Marija

What a ridiculous reaction. I too was looking forward to going on a much acclaimed Pandaw cruise but will now scratch it from our plans.

marya_

I too have been fantasizing about scheduling a Pandaw cruise but find the Tangata refund/banishment story highly unnerving. Free exchange of information and ideas is crucial. Wow, this is disappointing.

Femi

Yikes!

As I said before, I was seriously considering a cruise with Pandaw, but am quite taken aback by the letter to Tangata. I found his report very helpful when making my decision to cruise with Pandaw.

Tangata is an established member of Fodor's and so I do respect his posted opinions.

I guess the latest Pandaw response will help me make other decisions...

shelleyk

Wow!Banned from the boat for expressing a negative opinion or two. Imagine if the airlines banned passengers for saying how bad they are.. Thankfully we can freely express our negative impressions of airlines, hotels, tour companies, ect on this forum without fear of reprisal, in most cases.

indianapearl

Terrible business model. Remember: The customer is always right!

LAleslie

Hang on. Here is a great example of why anonymous Internet chat can be dangerous. Do any of you absolutely know that any of the above is true? Everyone uses a fake name, so there's no transparency, thus, no way to know the truth. Maybe "Tangata" really is a troublemaker and has caused Pandaw many more problems than we know. Maybe Tawtha isn't Paul. Maybe the black list letter isn't real. I'm not calling anyone a liar, just saying we shouldn't necessarily jump to conclusions since no one here is on the record.
I don't know enough about Pandaw yet, but I was planning on taking a future cruise with them. It doesn't make sense to me that an owner would jeopardize his entire business based on one candid but seemingly fair report. He's got to know the letter would be posted. The guy's been in the travel business for some time, no? I'd think he'd have thicker skin, gotten used to constructive criticism. I suspect there's more here than meets the eye.

Kathie

LA, your cautions about internet postings are certainly true. As you may know, I am one who questions the veracity of posts, by new or unknown posters if they are either ranting or raving about a company/hotel/guide, etc. This forum and others like it are only useful resources if the posts made are by bonafide travelers and not either touts for a company or shills denigrating one company in hopes their own will be seen in a better light.

However, in this case, I do believe Tangata's account. Why?

Tangata is a long-time member of this forum. I have interacted online with Tangata for at least half a dozen years here on Fodors. Personally, I have gotten good recommendations from him about a number of things in Thailand (he lives in Chaing Mai). He has written previously about his travels here on the forum, and has written about his previous experiences on Pandaw cruises (and had very nice things to say about Pandaw).

While you are quite correct that we can't guarantee that Tawtha is Paul, I am of the opinion that the letter received by Tangata confirms that Tawtha is Paul or someone acting in Paul's stead.

LAleslie

Kathie, I have a tendency to believe Tangata too, and your other suspicions may be correct. I think over time you do get a sense of people. But unless you can tell me you personally know these posters' actual identities, or perhaps have traveled with them, you can't be sure what the facts are.
Maybe Tangata is a helpful poster who goes looney tunes on cruises and ruins other passengers' experiences. Maybe Tawtha is actually Mr. Strachan, a thin-skinned, incompetent tour operator. I have no idea. But the skeptic in me rears her ugly head. There's defamation going on anonymously on both sides. Possibility someone's business could be seriously jeopardized on the basis of insinuations. Suddenly the mob rises up and refuses to ever take a Pandaw cruise on the basis of what it believes is unfair blacklisting. We don't really know unless we were there, or people with real names say so. Maybe all is true. Maybe none. I just urge caution.
By the way, Kathie, lots of kinda scary stuff going on in Burma rihgt now. You still going?

Kathie

And you are quite right to urge caution.

In my experience, there is always scary stuff going on in Burma. Indeed, I've cancelled 4 trips to Burma since 1990, always because of the misdeeds of the junta, not because of danger to travelers. At this point, I'm still going.

LAleslie

I guess the skirmishes between the army and the militias is limited at this point to Kokang and the border with China. I'd go, too, but probably wouldn't once elections are called. IF they're called.
Like you I'm curious to hear Doster's thoughts on the above...

Gpanda

I have read many of Tangata's posts with interest over the years. He is a constant addition to the free flow of information on this forum. The key in that last sentence is "free". If posters are reluctant to post anythging negative, how can we value the positives? The contrast provides perspective. Otherwise, the forum would defenerate into useless advertising.

The trip report was not negative in any real sense. It reported occurrences. The fact that many of the occurrences were not the advertised agenda of the Pandaw, does not make the reporting thereof derogatory. It's reporting!

I am trouibled by the banning of Tangata from future Pandaw cruises because of this report. I am ashamed that the name of the cruise line contains P-A-N-D-A. In my experience, a top notch tour business would take the exact opposite approach. It would try to make the maiden voyage of the Ganges cruise the best cruise Tangata ever had. Think of the wonderful free advertising such a cruise would provide.

LONG LIVE FREE SPEECH!

dogster

This is such an interesting post. I've been watching in increasing amazement as it turns from trip-report to lynch mob. lol lol lol. It's all been like a fantastic detective story. Like all great murder mysteries, I don't think the butler did it.

Of course, in my inimitable fashion, I find the whole thing completely inspiring.

Better declare my interests: I've been on Pandaw Up and down the Mekong, Down and Up the Mekong, up the Chindwin in Burma, then down and up the Ayerwaddy; Bagan to Prome, Prome to Bagan. That's five Pandaw cruises, a total of 38 nights. So I guess I like the product.

I met Paul Strachan, his wife and young son accidentally on my first cruise. I didn't even know - or care =- he was the owner. Pandaw was a weeny little business then, in comparison to now. So I've watched it grow. I've also followed the life and times of Master Strachan and done a weeny bit of my own reasarch on the ground in Burma. lol. I share some of his enthusiasms. I certainly enjoy watching his unique approach to business.

Since then, we've had occasional, eccentric communication via e-mail, usually when I want a 'mates rate' on a cruise. So I don't KNOW Paul - but, in a kind of way, I think I do. No, I'm not in communication with him on this matter. From my distant appreciation of the odd phenomenon of the Pandaw legend [now turning into Pandaw BRAND] I don't think Paul Strachan would overly mind if I offered these observations:

I don't think Paul has made a decision based on good business practices in his life. This is his genius. That his odd enthusiasm for river boats and Burmese culture has spawned a mega-industry I'm sure is as much a secret daily surprise to him as it is the rest of the travel industry in S.E.Asia.

So you really do have to look at this company with different eyes. To think of Strachan as a kind of cruising Basil Fawlty would be to underestimate the man. He's more a subtle Richard Branson. He's not a business plan, a 'customer-is-always-right guy - he's a living, breathing, highly emotional Scot; and we all know how dangerous they can be. lol lol lol.

Trust me, after a combined 38 days in the company of some of his passengers [and I do have to report the most awful, AWFUL, god-horrible-AWFUL of them were exclusively British] I'd have to report back that the customer is most definately not always right.

A very wise man once wrote:

'It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...'

Well, you know, despite everything, Pandaw is still Paul Strachan's party. So, in a delicious piece of malevolence, he's done precisely what many a tour guide/hotel manager/accidental tycoon wishes they COULD do - and tell that irritating client to just f-o-k off.

I'm sorry tangata. I'm your friend and admirer - but I have to say I chuckled at the news. I saw it as pure delight: a last gasp of individuality in a corporate, bland, business world.

Of course it's not good business practice! That's the point! It has nothing to do with censorship or freedom of speech. It has to do with a proud father and a new baby learning to walk.

Of course, on this maiden cruise, in a unique Strachan style that combines the chaos theory and confusion with Asian grace and hopeless, efficient inefficiency, things went pear-shaped.

I wonder if Paul's rather odd internet behavior might spring from a sense, not of the right of Tangata to say it, but from a feeling of 'not fair...'

'Not fair' in the sense of a Broadway producer not wanting heavy-duty critics in at the first preview of his new musical. 'Not fair...' in sense of a new mother not wanting people publicly sneering when her infant falls flat on its face trying to walk. 'Not fair...' in the sense of an implicit understanding that this inaugural cruise at cut rates was a 'soft-opening' and not be slagged off. Just yet. Not fair.

Is this good business practice? Nah. Paul Strachan has been thoroughly un-businesslike in his career, I'm happy to say. I've had the benefit of his stupidity.

Like all self-made men, he's sailed way too close to a few Burmese breezes in his time. Like all bright sparks, he's caused a few scrub fires. Like now.

As consumers, as customers, of COURSE we think we're always right. As providers of leisure activities, particularly where entertainment and tourism are concerned any entrepreneur also knows that whatever you do, someone will be pissed off. You do learn to shrug. You do learn to think of the bigger picture and not fall in a heap when the dress rehearsal is crap.

'Bad dress rehearsal - good show'. Famous show-biz adage.

For all the shock and horror above, somehow this hopeless creature has managed to parlay one cruddy boat in Burma into the largest inland cruise line in Asia.

Yup, 'it's his party...' - and he's crying all the way to the bank. Method. Madness. Quite refreshing really.

dogster

So - all I'm trying to do here is see things through different lenses. It's a kind of Dogster alchemy where lead can be turned into gold. I don't think there is a single problem with Tang's report. It's highly likely there is a back-story to all this, a kind of parallel universe of travel business intrigue. I think the mysterious 'travel agent' in question is a clue.

Paul's cyber-identities and tangata dummy-spit are as likely to be the product of a heavy night at the Edinburgh Festival as anything else. lol. Probably not his finest hour.

LAleslie's plea for caution and common sense here was beautifully written and entirely apropos. Let's look at this holistically - and, before we rush to judge and howl as a pack, consider history.

Kathie

Thank you dogster, I do appreciate your perspective on this matter.

It certainly is Paul's right to bar anyone he wants from his cruises. Perhaps you're right that the effects of alcohol clouded his judgment. It seems unwise to ban someone who has cruised with him several times before and is a respected member of a travel forum. But, as you say, Paul is not a businessman.

No question, Paul can take his toys and go home - or perhaps more accurately, grab his toys and throw his guest off of his property. I don't mind buying travel services from people who are quirky or eccentric. I rather enjoy the off-beat and having to improvise when plans go astray. But I do like dealing with adults on such matters.

Perhaps I'm not cut out to be a Pandaw cruiser.

thursdaysd

It does sound like this is the result of growing pains - small businesses often have trouble making the transition as they get too big for one person to manage everything. But I still find the reaction intemperate, and I've already spent more time than I care to dealing with people who act that way.

dogster

Remember that he now runs a huge company. There have been many changes. Paul has now 'retired' to his position as guru, ideas man and entrepreneur. This combination of events [first cruise, sensitivities and internet] is a highly potent and unusual event. Look in the website at the Pandaw relief efforts after the cyclone in Burma. Then tell me he's not a grown up.

http://www.pandaw.com/pandaw-charity...c-104_131.html

Any other time, any other cruise, you'd never deal with Paul Strachan. Unless you're on the maiden voyage in India... heh. The rest of the time you'd be dealing with a highly efficient website and local staff. No issues.

I wasn't really suggesting he was on the hops. lol. That's a bit defamatory. 'Passionate'. I think that's a better word.

Anyway, enough defence for P.S. He's perfectly able to look after himself. I'm really sorry I won't be there on the maiden voyage. Their guide, one Sumit Battarachaya, is probably the best in the business. Would I have written about it? Hmmmm - dunno.

LAleslie

Dogster, I love it. The Edinburgh Festival Theory. Probably dead on. The Tawtha post never made much sense, with a reference to the Borneo cruise's "bad food," etc. Too much Guinness on top of eccentricity might be an explanation.

Kathie

Oh, dogster, I'm well aware of Pandaw's wonderful work in the aftermath of the typhoon. No question, they have a done a fine job.

I first researched Paul when I thought about booking a cruise when he first started on the Irrawaddy with a single refurbished boat (I think it was their second season I wanted to book). I've watched over the years as Pandaw has grown and started cruising other rivers I'd like to cruise. The only reason I haven't taken one of the Pandaw cruises has been that my schedule and their hasn't meshed. I'm just disappointed in his behavior over this. It is his right to make this decision, no doubt, but my wish to take a Pandaw cruise has been called into question by his behavior.

Femi

I agree that, taking all this at face value, Paul has done the same as we have all wished we could at some point or another. However, the reason we don't do whatever it might be (and I speak for myself here) is an unwillingness to face the consequences of acting out our fantasies.

So yes, Paul gets to call the shots, but we also get to choose our reaction.

Hanuman

Shameful response from the Pandaw!