Pandaw: Proven ships, new waters

It's been 20 years since Scotsman Paul Strachan started taking people up and down the Irrawaddy River on a single chartered vessel in Myanmar. Since 1995, the founder of Singapore-based Pandaw River Expeditions has grown his enterprise in Southeast Asia into a fleet of 12 ships (and counting) and is now once again looking for that next unexplored stretch of river. 

"In the last year, I thought, 'We'd better do some more pioneering,'" said Strachan, who has in recent years been joined by a rapidly growing number of river cruise lines in Southeast Asia. "So, it's exciting times. We're opening up Laos, we're building a ship there … and then we've got the Red River, up in the north of Vietnam … and we're looking at possibly putting a couple Pandaw ships in India."

As competition heats up in Southeast Asia with a flood of new river cruise vessels in Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, Pandaw is hoping to separate itself from the pack by introducing ever more remote and exotic river cruise destinations, while at the same time remaining true to its original vision.

"The ships we build today are much the same as the ships we built 20 years ago," Strachan said. "They are the same style, which is something we believe in passionately. Something that is fundamental about Pandaw ships is that they are exactly how ships were 100 years ago on the Irrawaddy, and they were designed like that for a reason."

Today's Pandaw vessels take their design cues from the Irrawaddy Flotilla Co. vessels of yesteryear.

Pandaw emerged from the ashes of the Scottish-owned Irrawaddy Flotilla Co., which in its 1920s heyday consisted of a fleet of more than 600 passenger and cargo vessels. In 1998, Strachan acquired the Pandaw, a steamboat built in Scotland in 1947 that he renovated and operated for several years. That vessel is now operated by Myanmar-based Ayravata Cruises. Strachan's company built its first ship in 2001 to be almost a replica of the original Pandaw. 

The look and feel of those Irrawaddy Flotilla vessels — colonial-style, three-deck ships with wraparound balconies — remain the unifying design of Pandaw vessels today even as newcomers such as AmaWaterways, Sanctuary Retreats, Haimark Travel and Aqua Expeditions have emerged on the Southeast Asia river cruise scene with larger vessels, indoor hallways, sprawling suites, spas and swimming pools.

"I know we sound very old-fashioned," Strachan said. "But really, our clients, who tend to be very adventurous, very seasoned travelers, they're not coming for the pool or the Jacuzzi. They do not want these things. And I'm afraid we're very stick-in-the-mud about this."

Instead, Strachan is focused on building river cruise vessels that foster a more social atmosphere with ample public spaces. The wraparound balconies, for instance, encourage guests to mingle and also facilitate the movement of fresh air as the vessels sail, something Strachan says is both a comfort and safety issue, offering stability to vessels that have more shallow drafts.

The simplicity and practicality of the design as well as the smaller size of the vessels is what the Pandaw founder says enables the company to explore further along various rivers in Southeast Asia and ultimately bring clients to more off-the-beaten-track destinations. 

Pandaw's new cruises

While the design of the Pandaw vessels hasn't changed much in 20 years, more recently the company is pushing the envelope with new river cruise routes. This November, Pandaw is introducing a Mekong River sailing through Laos on the newly constructed, 20-passenger Laos Pandaw. 

Pandaw's new itinerary in Laos launches in November.

The vessel will sail an 11-day itinerary that will begin in the French colonial city of Vientiane and continue north to Ban Paklay, Pak Lai, Tha Deua and the Unesco World Heritage site of Luang Prabang. There will be a stop at the Pak Ou Caves, and the itinerary will end in Chiang Khong, Thailand.

The Laos Pandaw is being custom-built with a shallow draft to sail the Upper Mekong. The staterooms will measure 180 square feet each, and there will also be an open-air lounge; a bistro-style dining room with outside seating and air conditioning inside; and a bar that will be open around the clock. The cruise-only price starts at $3,250 per person, based on double occupancy. Pandaw pricing includes all excursions, crew gratuities, meals, nonpremium drinks and airport transfers.

Additionally, Pandaw has introduced an 11-day Halong Bay and the Red River itinerary that will initiate a new route along Vietnam's Red River. The sailing will take place on the 32-passenger Angkor Pandaw, which will reposition from the Mekong River in Vietnam and Cambodia at the end of June. 

Vietnam's Lower Red River, part of a new Pandaw itinerary for 2015.

The itinerary will begin in Halong Bay. From there, the river cruise will head up the Kinh Thay River and on to the Duong River. There will be two days of sightseeing in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, before continuing on to the Upper and Lower Red River. 

The Angkor Pandaw was built in Ho Chi Minh City in 2012. It features 16 staterooms at 170 square feet each, and the public spaces consist of a main dining room, bar, lounge, shop and library. The cruise-only price starts at $2,340 per person, based on double occupancy. 

Pandaw is testing the waters beyond Southeast Asia, as well. The company is chartering some vessels in India this year, with the hopes of perhaps introducing its own vessels there in the coming year. For 2015, Pandaw offered a single, 16-day departure on India's Ganges and Hooghly rivers on the 40-passenger Rajmahal, which has already sold out.

Pandaw's new Ganges itinerary begins in the holy city of Varanasi.

There is also a new eight-day cruise on the Brahmaputra River in northeastern India onboard the 46-passenger Mahabaahu, with departures starting next month. 

The cruise will visit the largest river island in the world and will include an encounter with the Mishing people who inhabit India's Assam region. Pandaw guests will also learn more about the aromatic tea the region is known for. Included will be an excursion to Kaziranga National Park and areas known for their single-horned rhinos, buffalos, Indian tigers and river dolphins. The snow-covered Himalayan Mountain range can be seen from the Brahmaputra River. The cruise-only price starts at $2,430 per person, based on double occupancy.

The company also added four departures of a new seven-day itinerary in southern India's Kerala region starting in December, which includes a three-night land program in Cochin and a three-night cruise aboard the 18-passenger Vaikundam from Thottapally through Kanjipada and on to the Champakkulam village. The Backwaters of Kerala trip is priced from $1,530, based on double occupancy.

The Pak Ou Caves in Laos will be a stop on Pandaw's new Laos itinerary.

"We're constantly trying to go further and further up these rivers into remoter areas. That's our ambition," said Strachan, adding that Pandaw is hoping to ultimately introduce an itinerary that will include all six countries through which the Mekong River flows: and China.

Getting permission to sail across the border into China has proven the biggest challenge and is what the company is working toward in order to be able to eventually offer a complete Mekong sailing. 

Strachan said that he also isn't opposed to looking at opportunities beyond Asia in places like the Amazon, for instance, if he were to find the right partners. 

Courting more Americans

Pandaw's largest customer base consists of Australians, followed by Brits and then Americans. But that's something the company is hoping to change.

"We're trying to grow our direct-sales market in America," Strachan said, referring to Pandaw's desire to sell more of its product directly to agents and consumers in the U.S., rather than predominantly through partner river cruise lines and operators. "That's very important to us. We're working on that." 

Pandaw doesn't currently have a U.S. office, but San Francisco-based Sayang Holidays is the company's preferred agent in the U.S. for booking Pandaw vacations.

Pandaw's new seven-day itinerary in southern India's Kerala region includes a three-night cruise aboard the 18-passenger Vaikundam.

As U.S. river cruise lines have been expanding beyond Europe into Southeast Asia over the past five years, many of them have partnered with Pandaw on various charters on the Mekong and Irrawaddy rivers, including Viking Cruises, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection and Avalon Waterways.

But as demand for Southeast Asia picked up, so has shipbuilding competition. Pandaw isn't the only game in town anymore. Some companies, such as AmaWaterways, forged their own shipbuilding partnerships in the region to develop ships they partially own, while others, such as Haimark Travel, are working to build vessels and partner with U.S. companies on charters, similar to what has done.

In fact, Haimark was formed in 2012 by a group of three former Pandaw employees who struck out on their own. The Breckenridge, Colo.-based company has come on very strong in the last two years, building luxury vessels in Southeast Asia and India, which many U.S. companies, including Uniworld and Abercrombie & Kent, are now chartering.

"You've got to tip your hat to them. It's amazing how they've grown so quickly," Strachan said of Haimark. "It's a completely different style from us, it's a different market they're going for."

As for Pandaw's market, the company continues to operate charters for several U.S. operators.

Last year, Pandaw hired Hugh Clayson to serve in the newly created role of commercial director. Clayson oversaw the opening of a global sales and marketing office for Pandaw in West London.

River cruising’s staying power

For those of us steeped in the world of river cruising, the fact that river cruising is a hot trend is old news. 

But last week Virtuoso released the results of its annual survey of travel advisors, who for the first time picked river cruising as the top trend for the coming year, beating out heavyweights such as multigenerational travel, adventure travel and celebration trips.

Clearly, there are still plenty of travelers and travel sellers who are only just now discovering and fully embracing river cruising as a travel style, which indicates that it likely has a long journey of growth ahead of it, despite the rapid rate at which Viking Cruises and others have been churning out new river cruise vessels in Europe and farther afield in recent years.

Michelle Baran

While it may seem like there is only so much that the river cruising segment can grow, the Virtuoso survey results are a reminder that in many ways the segment is arguably still in its infancy.

With demand and hype still strong, we can only expect to see more new ship announcements in Europe as well as further development of exotic river destinations such as Myanmar’s Irrawaddy and India’s Ganges. We can anticipate that some more new players will try to enter the market and that the competition will become even fiercer. I see greater design innovation and even more amenities on the horizon. 

Perhaps there will come a time when we all realize that river cruising isn’t just a hot, new trend, but that it is here to stay;  dynamic and permanent fixture of the travel industry. What has been a booming trend over the last several years, will eventually just be a travel reality.

Pandaw river ship sinks

By Michelle Baran

Pandaw River Expeditions’ Saigon Pandaw sank last week while being towed, a representative of Pandaw confirmed.

The 60-passenger Saigon Pandaw launched in 2012 and was sailing the Mekong River in  and Cambodia. It was being repositioned to Myanmar when it sank.

Pandaw said that the company is still investigating the cause, but that early reports indicate that strong winds were to blame. There were no deaths or injuries, as the vessel was being towed as cargo without any crew onboard.

For the remainder of the season, Pandaw is going to deploy the 10-passenger Kalay Pandaw in Myanmar, a vessel that launched in 2013.

Pandaw has two additional 40-passenger river cruise vessels launching in Myanmar in July, the Kindat Pandaw and the Kalaw Pandaw, on which the company plans to accommodate passengers affected by the loss of the Saigon Pandaw.

“Our reservation and sales team is working to shift all bookings and if necessary to offer alternatives,” the company said.

Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection had previously chartered the Saigon Pandaw as the River Saigon, but the company now exclusively sells the 60-passenger River Orchid for Mekong cruises. The River Orchid launched last January.

AmaWaterways introduces 2014 Myanmar itineraries

By Michelle Baran

After teasing the news earlier this year that it had plans to enter the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar (aka Burma), AmaWaterways is now taking bookings on two new Myanmar river cruises that will take place on the 56-passenger AmaPura.

The two new itineraries are a 11-day Golden Treasures of Myanmar trip and a 15-day Hidden Wonders of Myanmar, which are outlined in the company’s “River Cruises through Myanmar (Burma) 2014-2016” brochure as well as on the company’s website.

The cruises will include stops in Bagan, home to more than 2,200 temples, stupas and pagodas; Mandalay, the country’s former imperial capital and its second-largest city; the ancient royal city of Inwa, which was the capital of Burma for more than 400 years; Amarapura, known for having the world's longest teak bridge; and Yangon, the country’s capital.

Launching on the Irrawaddy River in November 2014, the all-suite AmaPura will feature 28 suites, all with either a French balcony, a step-out full balcony or indoor/outdoor twin balconies. The ship's public areas include a restaurant, main lounge and bar, gift shop, spa, pool and a sun deck for lounging.

AmaWaterways is also offering an optional four-night post-cruise extension, featuring three nights in Inle Lake and one night in Yangon. A two-night pre- or post-cruise extension in Bangkok is also available.

Genesis of a river cruise

By Michelle Baran

It's high noon in New Delhi at the tail end of the monsoon season, and it's difficult not to be distracted by the mounting heat as we tour Humayun's Tomb. Our still-jet-lagged group is trying -- and admittedly largely failing -- to stay tuned in to the explanation of the historical and architectural significance of the site when I hear a Polish-accented voice ask our tour guide with total focus, "And how many steps are there?"

I glanced over to see Wanda Kowalczyk, vice president of product development at Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection, taking notes on a red clipboard that would be her constant companion during much of the two weeks we traveled through India as part of a scouting trip hosted by Haimark Ltd.

Kowalczyk noted every little factoid about the destination, from descriptions of the monuments to the hotel amenities to, yes, even the exact number of steps that must be climbed to reach certain sites -- steps Uniworld's clients will have to climb if the company decides to introduce an India itinerary in partnership with Haimark.

Wesley Bosnic, senior vice president of strategic development at Uniworld, explained, "We have to keep in mind the profile of our guests. The expectation from our guests is that they trust Uniworld; they trust the brand."
Bosnic was traveling with Kowalczyk on a two-week preview trip that would help Uniworld and several other potential partners decide whether to charter a Ganges River ship that Haimark will launch in 2015 and develop a corresponding India itinerary.

"Obviously," Kowalczyk chimed in during our interview onboard a train from Jaipur to Agra toward the end of our journey, "the services are very important: the hotels ... transportation, quality of the guides. We need guides who tell a story. You look to have some Unesco [World Heritage] sites, great museums, as well. And to have fun!"

After years of destination reconnaissance, product development teams like Kowalczyk and Bosnic know exactly what they're looking for. Having pored over guest feedback, they have learned what their customers want -- and what they definitely do not want -- from a vacation, and they factor that into every decision they make about creating and building itineraries.

Depending on the company, the process can be extremely refined, a precise checklist that product development staff take with them to determine if a new destination or itinerary is fit for their travelers. Or it can be a bit more fluid and intuitive, with looser parameters.

But what struck me most as I got a rare glimpse behind the curtain of the product development methodology (normally companies only want to have the media see the complete and polished package) is just how much effort and emotion go into vetting itineraries, an exercise that rarely gets much exposure due to its very behind-the-scenes nature.

Deciding on new destinations

The very first step in product development is determining which destinations are worth the time and energy to scout out. Operators take their inspiration from myriad reference points.
Pam Hoffee, vice president of product and operations for the Globus family of brands, wrote in an email: "New destinations or itineraries start from many sources: trade requests, consumer media coverage, customer suggestions, tour director suggestions, etc. Once they are agreed upon, our product team starts the process of vetting the itinerary and turning an idea into a vacation. We start with a lot of online research, talking to tourist boards, hotels and cool attractions in the region, to start to understand what there is to see and do."

Not surprisingly, many operators rely on "people on the ground" -- operators, guides and destination marketing organizations -- to tip them off to interesting new destinations, sites and attractions.

Haimark is building its business on discovering new and emerging markets in which to develop product with its river cruise vessels, then partnering with larger tour operators to sell it. In essence, Haimark actually pre-vets emerging destinations for larger tour operators and serves as a bridge between the operators and the destinations.

Haimark Managing Partner Tom Markwell said the company has to address a host of questions and concerns before it decides to invest in a destination and sell it to potential partners.

"First of all, what's the airlift like?" Markwell said. "How easy is it to get in and out of this place? If it's not easy to get there, you're already reducing a large number of passengers. Then, is there life along the river? Is it overly touristic? Are there authentic experiences, or are they going to see just sand banks? That's a large part of validating whether a river cruise is justifiable. If there's no life, architecture, people-to-people experiences, it's not going to work."
Scouting new destinations, of course, depends a lot on which demographic the company is targeting: their age, physical ability, budget, discerning tastes, level of adventurousness. Those and numerous other qualifiers are all integral to deciding where and what to explore.

For companies that have built their business on going farther off the beaten path than their competitors, scouting new destinations means getting innovative.

"We spend a lot of time researching different destinations and finding out which is the next one," said Scott Avera, vice president of product development at General Tours World Traveler.

General Tours has built its legacy on taking travelers to countries that are off the mainstream travel market's radar. For one thing, the company keeps an eye on new destinations for the European source market, because, Avera said, Europeans tend to venture into emerging destinations before U.S. travelers do.

Another thing that tips off the General Tours team to emerging destinations are places that clients book through the tour operator's custom travel department.

"Those people tend to want to be in those destinations first," Avera said. When the company detects a critical mass of custom tours being booked in a new destination, he said, it's usually a good sign that it's time to look into developing a brochure product for it.

General Tours President Bob Drumm recently scouted Sri Lanka as a potential emerging market, and consequently the company is introducing the destination for 2014.
When it comes to new destinations, almost no place is off limits for adventure tour operator G Adventures, which already sends clients to 110 countries around the globe. Finding new places to sell means continually pushing the envelope.

"Our customers, they can be a bit hard-core," said Jeff Russill, vice president of innovation at G Adventures, which just introduced the Philippines and Sierra Leone to its product mix.

Whether or not G Adventures will scope out a new destination isn't dependent on the airlift or the hotel infrastructure.

"No. 1 is safety," Russill said. "We're an adventure travel company, so we have to be even more on guard than anybody else. That's the cost of entry for us; that's table stakes."

Asked if some destinations in the world simply aren't compelling enough to check out, Russill responded, "Every country has something that's going to interest someone."

The checklist

Once it has been decided that a destination is worth exploring, out comes the checklist, however formal or informal it might be, to determine which elements of the itinerary will stay and which will go, as well as if and when the itinerary gets developed, contracted, marketed and, hopefully, sold.

"That guide will not be taking Uniworld clients around," Kowalczyk whispered to me about a tour leader in India who had rubbed a few of us the wrong way with some curt comments and flippant remarks. Kowalczyk's spot decision about a potential supplier is indicative of the observations made on the road that inform contract decisions further down the line.
Uniworld serves a high-end clientele, so it has set the barometer for service and amenities on its European river cruises rather high. As the company seeks new and emerging destinations to enter, it has to be sure it can maintain brand consistency with its European product.

Not surprisingly, before all the other elements are assembled, Uniworld first has to be sure there's a suitable vessel for its passengers in any new destination.

Asked what first entices him and Kowalczyk to scout out a new destination, Bosnic said, "It is the hardware. And when I say it's the hardware, it's the experience onboard. We want to make sure that the onboard experience is as close as possible to [our European experience]. Whatever we do, we want to be confident that we are doing the very best in the destination."

Working with third parties in destinations outside Europe means that Uniworld has to go in and make sure that, on the ship and off, its standards are upheld.

Markwell, who is working to sell exotic product in places like and Cambodia to upscale partners like Uniworld, observed that different partners have different priorities. Some, for example, want to be sure there is Western food available, while other companies push for more local cuisine.
He is also sure to communicate that certain things that might be expected in established markets just aren't going to be available farther afield. For example, he said, river cruise ships in India and Southeast Asia just can't offer dry cleaning or direct-dial phones. Part of the product development process, he said, simply comes down to managing expectations.

Good guide, good food

Perhaps one of the destination must-haves most consistently emphasized by product development teams is a knowledgeable and personable guide, one who will sell the destination and the experience and, most importantly, make it a memorable trip.

"A definite no is if there's not a good guide in that area," Avera said, echoing a sentiment that has practically become an industry-wide maxim. "Without a great guide, packaged travel just doesn't work."

In Avera's case, that condition tops the criteria of a company that seems willing to go almost anywhere in the world.

On the other hand, niche travel companies that cater to adventure-seeking customers are less concerned about the destination's tourism infrastructure (they've found ways around that) than they are about good guides and safety conditions.

In order to go into less-developed regions of the world, they often simply create their own infrastructure.

G Adventures, for example, will do home stays or set up campsites in areas where hotels are not sufficient. And in West Africa, the company uses its 150-passenger vessel, the Expedition, which sails from South Africa to Morocco, to provide an alternative to the minimal land accommodations available in that part of the world.

But even more rugged travelers have their standards. Russill noted that no matter how rudimentary the accommodations, it's important to most G Adventures customers that the accommodations be clean. WiFi availability is also becoming increasingly important as travelers of all ages and backgrounds become more attached to their mobile devices and social networks.
Food presents another interesting challenge. Bringing people to remote corners of the world means not having full control of the quality and sanitary condition of the food being served or of the hygiene of all the staff who participate in its preparation, which could result in travelers getting ill.

In areas where the tour operator can't be confident about the restaurants or dining options generally available, General Tours has been forced to get creative and have a local expat host guests for a meal at his or her home.

For its part, G Adventures relies on those trusted, all-important guides to steer travelers toward local eateries and away from touristic restaurants in order to avoid food-borne illnesses.

"Most Westernized restaurants in far-out countries, those are the ones that you're going to get sick at," Russill said. "Eat where it's busy with locals, because then it's freshly made."

Clearly, General Tours' and G Adventures' travelers are cut from a different cloth than clients of a more mainstream or upscale tour operator would be. While an adventure operator's product development team might be scoping out a roadside eatery in Yunnan province, product development managers at a more traditional upscale brand might be comparing tasting menus at five-star resorts in Marrakech.

But no matter what kind of traveler they're serving, the goal is the same: to create and build an itinerary that delivers customer satisfaction.

From approval to print

One of my favorite anecdotes from traveling through India with Uniworld's Kowalczyk and Bosnic came after a hair-rising rickshaw ride through the packed streets of Varanasi, en route to the Ganges River bank to witness the evening's spiritual ceremony.

As we descended from our carriages, half terrified and half exhilarated at having survived the utter havoc of the holy city, Kowalczyk told me of a similar white-knuckled ride they experienced on rickshaws when scouting out Hanoi for Uniworld's Mekong River cruise.
Back then, Kowalczyk concluded that such rides would be a bit too much excitement for Uniworld guests. But Bosnic countered, "They're going to love it!"

"And he was right," Kowalczyk admitted. "They love it."

Reconnoitering a destination and deciding whether or not it will make a good packaged travel product for consumers is only one piece in the process of creating a successful itinerary.

After concluding the trip in India, Kowalczyk and Bosnic said they would head back to Uniworld's headquarters in Encino, Calif., to prepare a presentation for the rest of the company.

"We enjoyed [the India product]," Bosnic said. "It's great, but what type of commitment? What kind of volume? All of that requires a little more research."

Having ventured out and experienced the product themselves, it seems only natural that product development teams would get a bit emotional about the destinations they have visited. But they also realize that just because they enjoyed certain places doesn't always mean those destinations would work for their clients.

I asked if Bosnic and Kowalczyk had ever been disappointed by a decision the company made not to create product for a destination they felt had potential. Bosnic immediately threw out Myanmar.

"We really liked Myanmar," he said. "We thought it was a destination that was different enough from Vietnam and Cambodia. But the shareholders felt that it's still a little early to get in there."

Once they've done the reconnaissance, product development teams hand over their research to other tour departments, which do additional research to decide if it can become a viable, sellable product. If they decide to move forward, the process moves on to pricing, marketing and selling the new itinerary.

"The product manager creates the itinerary and hands it off, along with some notes of hotels they'd like to see in the mix," Globus' Hoffee said. "We have a separate contracting team who then source the hotels and other vendors to bring the vacation to life."

The product development team members represent the front line, and their job is only the beginning of a much longer process than sometimes can take several years to complete.

But their very existence on the payroll at any tour or river cruise operation is a testament to how hands-on the product-building process is. While an operator could probably build a rudimentary itinerary with a few phone calls and email queries to some suppliers, there would be no guarantee that those suppliers or the destination itself would actually deliver. Firsthand immersion is really the only way to find out.

As we traveled through India, we heard stories about bygone emperors' food tasters, whose job it was to test the meal for assassination-by-poison by putting their own lives on the line. It struck me that product development teams are a bit like food tasters. While a negative outcome is far less extreme, it falls to them to test every bit of the product for safety and viability before it gets consumed by travellers.