mekong river cruise

[xspot]

we are going on the Viking Mekong (tonle pandow) on apr 16 2015 with Viking river cruises and would like to hear from anyone else going or anyone who has recently been. we have done a number of cruises but never a river cruise and would like to hear about the experiences of others.

[ewizabeff]

I know there is at least one poster on this board who was on the Viking trip in February and has a thread that gave live trip reports. A quick search should turn it up.

 

Here are two blogs that I've found extremely helpful while researching the trip (I'm going with Uniworld in December).

 

http://wavejourney.com/activities/uniworld-timeless-wonders-vietnam-cambodia-cruise-ho-chi-minh-city/

 

http://nancyandshawnpower.com/mekong-river-cruise-vietnam-cambodia-uniworld/

 

Here's an old thread I sometimes refer to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1993382

[Ron Sands]

Xspot:

 

The wife and I were on this cruise back in December and had a great time. The ship has a maximum passenger count of about 58, but we had only 22 passengers on board. It made for excellent service, although even with 58 you should enjoy great service as the crew works very hard to make it enjoyable.

 

The cabins are not huge, but modern and comfortable. Food was good, but the highlights were the various tours; some on oxcarts, some on motorscooters, some on rickshaws, and other various transportation devices. The many stops took us to fascinating places (e.g. Angkor Wat) but also included wandering through various local neighborhoods where people waved at each other and you could get an in depth view of life there.

 

Please don't skip the tour which includes handling a python (nicknamed "Monty", of course).

 

Hope you have a good tour escort. We had Tuyen (also known as Bob) who took care that everything went smoothly.

 

You will have a super time.

 

Ron

[xspot]

thanks,ron. any dress code for dinner? what is expected regarding tipping?

[Ron Sands]

Dinners: fairly casual. No shorts, torn jeans, or ragged attire, but anything else is OK. Business casual is close, but even that overstates the formality a bit.

 

Tipping: for ship crew we generally went with the standard recommendations with one exception: our "voyage escort" (the person who stayed with the group everywhere and handled all issues) did such a good job, we gave him a separate tip beyond the normal amount. Also, at the beginning of the trip he proposed that he collect from everyone a fixed amount for all shore tours/activities gratuities and that he would give out the tips as appropriate with a full accounting to all at the end. Everyone really liked that idea and it worked well. Less hassle.

[deec]

Has anyone done both the Mekong trip and the Myanmar , Irrawaddy River cruise? Would like to know if they are very similar or if doing both is really worthwhile? Have done Irrawaddy and enjoyed it.

[H2Otstr]

Has anyone done both the Mekong trip and the Myanmar , Irrawaddy River cruise? Would like to know if they are very similar or if doing both is really worthwhile? Have done Irrawaddy and enjoyed it.

 

 

I'm pretty sure that those are the two trips that Pacmom did back to back.

[captainmcd]

we are going on the Viking Mekong (tonle pandow) on apr 16 2015 with Viking river cruises and would like to hear from anyone else going or anyone who has recently been. we have done a number of cruises but never a river cruise and would like to hear about the experiences of others.

 

My wife and I are going on the Viking Mekong (aka Tonle Pandow) this April 11, 2016 and would like to know how your trip was at this time of year. We are used to heat, and expect heat and humidity but hope it is not intolerable.