Destinations

The Mekong Pandaw’s 8-Day journey connects three cities rich in history: Saigon, Phnom Penh (the Cambodian capital), and Siem Reap (famed for its World Heritage Sites).  If you are looking for a fast paced adventure, a cruise on the Mekong is not the best option.  Most the touring is done in the morning, and the afternoons (which are often oppressively hot) are spent on board the ship.  Bring a book and a camera and enjoy the scenery as you float peacefully along the river.  At night, be sure to head up to the top deck to catch the stars.

The first stop on the cruise is Cai Be.  I highly suggest booking a private boat to take you early in the morning to see the floating market.  Before crossing the border into Cambodia, you will visit a Cham tribal village.  This village (along with Chong Koh) is famous for its handmade scarves.  US Dollars can be used in both Vietnam and Cambodia, so be sure to bring some small bills with you.

Phnom Penh’s French charm is still readily apparent in its busy cafes and lively nightlife. If you’ve been looking to send some emails about your amazing trip down the Mekong, this is the place…there are plenty of internet cafes!  The city has several impressive wats (temples), but if you are interested in history, an afternoon excursion can be arranged to the Killing Fields and the Khmer Rouge’s grim Tuol Sleng or S21 detention centre situated in the suburbs of the city.

After leaving Phnom Penh, you will have the chance to visit some local villages, monasteries, wats (temples), a school and an orphanage.  It is important to remember not to give money or gifts directly to the locals, which can directly affect their economy (no begging as in Siem Reap). If you would like to contribute something, you can always purchase their goods and give money directly to the school and/or orphanage.

Lastly, you will sail up the Tonle River, which connects to Tonle Lake, the final destination of the cruise.  (This is where you may get a little seasick–with the winds on the large lake, the flat bottom ship can rock a bit.)  Depending on the water level of the lake, you may not be able to take the boat there, and will instead need to board a bus to Siem Reap.

The remainder of the trip will be spent in Siem Reap, visiting the famous temples of Angkor.  Don’t put your camera away just yet–these temples are visually, architecturally and artistically breathtaking.  Catching the sunrise at Angkor Wat is a must, as it will be an unforgettable end to your Southeast Asian adventure!

What more wonderful than seas with 1.5 foot swells, clear skies and a broad open decks to relax on between ports-of-call? Nothing!! I just returned from a marvelous six day ‘repositioning’ cruise aboard the SPLENDOUR OF THE SEAS, one of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s mid-sized ships. Sailing from Lisbon, Portugal via Gibraltar, Sardinia, Dubrovnik and finishing in Venice, Italy, we got to experience a range of wonderful places to visit. We even had time to relax at sea on two of the days. All guests on board seemed to delight in this extra open time to mingle, laugh, chat and also have a bit of quiet time. It made an excellent balance between sightseeing new places and enjoyment of the ship’s proffered offerings.

On board, there were so many options for all age groups — rock wall climbing, spa treatments, mini-golf, shuffleboard and table tennis, jogging track, dance lessons, as well as special programs for the youngsters aboard with specialized on board counselors provided by the cruise line. Teens had their separate spaces and younger ones a playroom with age appropriate activities.

Throughout the day there was light musical entertainment which all of us enjoyed by the pool. If music wasn’t wished, there were ample other deck areas for quieter activities including snoozing. At night the quality and range of entertainment was excellent — full-fledged dance shows, atrium area duets and quartets, and light entertainment in several smaller club Rooms.

The ship had over 47 different nationalities aboard this sailing which gave many groups opportunities to share life experiences and cultures. The ship is designed to give everyone the option to be super busy to totally relaxed and the choices on the daily activities ‘menu’ left by the cabin stewards were endless and easy to make. All in all — a good time and all too short.

My wife and I recently took a 15 day cruise on the Costa Allegra on Costa Cruise Lines. The cruise started in Hong Kong and visited Manila, Kota Kinabalu, Brunei, Singapore, Saigon, Danang, Sanya, and back to Hong Kong. We chose this line because of the expansive itinerary and wanted to celebrate our Christmas and New Year’s at sea. However, the experience left much to be desired.

Port of Call - I would not recommend Sanya, China. It is touted as a beach resort where most of the Chinese locals visit, but when we arrived it was clearly not well maintained and the sidewalks did not look clean.

The Ship - I was told the ship had no stabilizers. I don’t know if this is true or not, but the stretch from Hong Kong to Manila is supposed to be the worst. It was very calm seas and smooth going. All the other times we were at open sea - which was about 5 days - were bad. There was a stretch of about 70+ hours where my wife and I were taking Dramamine every 8 hours. I believe everyone was on Dramamine, so much demand in fact, that by about the 60th hour, the ship ran out of it. I was fortunate I had some extra pills.

For about 3 full days, the ship was moving all over the place. Lying in bed at night was no relief. The ship seemed to be moving in all directions, and, it became worst because the springs in the mattress made you bounce up and down like you were on a trampoline! There was one night at dinner where the ship was moving so bad that dishes, glasses, wine bottles were crashing and falling over.

The Menu - On paper, the menu looked excellent. In reality, it turned out to be rather poor quality and hit or miss on the taste. I had shrimp scampi once and lobster twice. All three times the food tasted like it was previously cooked/frozen/cooked mushy/or powdery. Even their pasta was not consistent in quality and taste.

The only saving grace on food was their pizza bar which served fresh pizza from 10pm to 1am. Costa is an Italian cruise line, so I’m glad they got this one right. In addition, their service from the dining and bar personnel was also to a high standard.