Mandarin Cruises, An Giang Province, Vietnam

4StephenWestSussex 5:00 PM Mar 20, 2016

Wonderful speedboat ride
Having left Can Tho after breakfast we travelled to the dock to join our speedboat for the journey to Phnom Penh. This on one of their fleet, a 45 seater, with a popular covered area at the rear. The high-speed (45-50 kmh) run to Phnom Penh gave an unforgettable opportunity to observe riverside life on these higher reaches, arriving in Phnom Penh to a spectacular sunset

3TJA950 5:00 PM Jun 9, 2016

An Arduous Journey
We joined this boat as part of a tour that was to take us from Vietnam into Cambodia along the Mekong. At first sight, the boats are comfortable and modern and we were looking forward to the trip. The problem is that with only one “on-board” toilet and extremely limited catering facilities, they are not suitable for long trips which is what ours was. We had to take packed lunches otherwise no food would have been available. Add to that the limited space to walk around and the limited ventilation and you can imagine what a journey of nine hours was like for a party of some forty people on a hot day! Those seats are also hard, they get sticky and they are not as luxurious as they look. The boat was clean and obviously fairly new, even so, some of the fittings were already broken and poorly repaired. My advice is to avoid any long journeys if you can. The boats are fast and for short journeys they are fine but these vessels are simply not suitable for long trips. On our boat, no-one spoke English, so no commentary or pointing out the points of interest. I note that our tour company no longer uses them to cross the boarder now so I guess that says it all!