Pandaw River Cruises and the Irrawaddy Flotilla
Mekong River Cruises

Cyclone Appeal Burma

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Pandaw Cruises have been active in Burma since 1995 and have the logistical team in situ to operate our river ships to assist in the cyclone relief effort. We have deployed both our Burma ships to the worst affected areas. The ships have been converted to hospital ships and currently have teams of Burmese doctors and paramedics on board.

Pandaw IV is being operated by Merlin, a UK based charity - www.merlin.org.uk - who were already operating in the Laputta area with a good existing network of medics and health workers in the area. The ship is well supplied with emergency kits and medical equipment.

Pandaw II is being operated by Save the Children in association with the Rangoon Pun Hlaing Hospital. A team of over 20 Burmese doctors are on board. She will operate south of Bassein.

The Pandaw Appeal has hired a 200ft barge and tug in Yangon which we will use to send supplies down to our ships in the Delta . This will be loaded with food, medical supplies and building materials bought locally and flown in once cleared. This barge will then be moored in a secure mid stream position to act as distribution point and handed over to Merlin. Seagoing supply ships have no where to land (jettys were lost in the cyclone) so the barge pontoon will also act as an off loading centre.

As of today, our Pandaw Appeal has raised over $400,00 with over $150,000 from old passengers and the balance from corporate donors and  $50,000 from the Pandaw Cruises Pro Bono Fund. This is amazing and all our Pandaw team in Burma are totally moved by the outstanding generosity of our old Pandaw passengers and other well wishers.

Citimart the leading supermarket chain in Rangoon have made a substantial donation of food and water, now on board Pandaw IV.
An old friend based in Thailand has offered his two private planes to fly our people in and out.  From Scotland the Blairgowrie Rotary Club sent us £1000 and the Kenmore Bakery gave us 10% of a day's takings. From Kuala Lumpur one very generous fund manager has sent $200,000 to hire and load 2 barges. All of the travel companies we work with have been exceedingly generous including Noble Caledonia who have sent $20,000 and Thurgau Travel in Switzerland who are have launched an appeal with a target of $50,000.

Many people have written in offering to go out and help. Right now we have enough people, what we need is more money! Some people are offering to send supplies - with the cost of shipping them and then the nightmare of clearing customs it is much easier to send money in and buy the same stuff locally and much cheaper than in the West.

You can help hire and load barges with vital supplies bought up country and sail them down. You can help pay for the fuel for these ships. Fuel prices have escalated since the crisis began. We calculate that to hire a barge and tug for 3 months, load it up with locally bought supplies from Yangon to send it down will cost $100,000 per barge.

As insiders with over 25 years experience of working in Burma we are not confident that in bulk aid can be flown in and cleared through the airports speedily. We are doubtful if traditional diplomacy, the UN or the intervention of Asean or China can resolve this impasse.

We know we can supply the relief operation from locally available supplies - these supplies are much cheaper bought within the country than flying them in. Everything is there and comes in cross border from India and China. Right now the issue of flying aid in is not so relevant.

Though foreign aid workers can not visit the worst affected areas, Burmese nationals can. We can help support teams of Burmese medics aid workers, who are well trained and very competent, from our bases in the capital and supply them.

The Pandaw team are all working pro bono on this project and there are NO administrative costs at all. We are absorbing these within our usual company operating expenses. We have a great team on the ground, expert in the logistics of Burma’s inland waters, and they are all totally enthusiastic about this mission. We move fast – no meetings or discussion – just real action.

Burma is a river country and understanding her rivers is the key to any successful operation there. This is what we are good at and where our dedicated Pandaw teams can try and help.

All of us who have worked or travelled in Burma feel that this is a country that has touched us in some way. Now we can repay the Burma for all the warm hospitality and enriching experiences we have in the past enjoyed there.
 
Thank you for your support.
 
Paul Strachan

Updated 18 May 2008.

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With four luxury ships we are the largest river cruise company in South-East Asia. In 1995 we were the first to pioneer and explore the region’s great rivers and their tributaries: the Irrawaddy and Chindwin in Burma, the Mekong  and Tonle Rivers in Cambodia and the backwaters of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

These small ships can penetrate remote and otherwise inaccessible areas. Whilst we offer a real adventure experience, travellers are cushioned with incredible  comfort, fine dining, great cocktails and choice wines, not to mention extraordinary levels of service.

Our four boutique ships were built new and designed and finished as replicas of colonial river steamers. These small ships have the highest passenger to space ratio of any ships afloat.

Dining is single sitting with dress smart casual. We also have the highest staff guest ratio of any ship in the world to ensure an incredible level of care.  It is more like being on a 1920s private yacht party than a cruise ship.

The much loved Pandaw staterooms are spacious at 15 square meters and, whilst finished in traditional marine brass and teak, have all necessary modcons. All cabins on main and upper decks open onto promenade decks with their own seating.

A feature of all river cruises is the once or twice daily shore excursions led by expert local guides to explore Buddhist temples, historical sites, markets and handicraft workshops.

The Pandaws have an ultra shallow draft enabling them to moor where other  larger ships could not stop. Inland water navigation in these regions is challenging and the Pandaws have been specially designed to cope with constantly changing river conditions.

Our river cruises connect Saigon (Ho Chi Min City) with Angkor Wat via Phnom Penh and cover over 1500 miles of Burmese waterways from Rangoon (Yangon) to Pagan (Bagan) and Mandalay to Bhamo close to the China border.

Rudyard Kipling based his great poem ‘Road to Mandalay’ on the clunking paddles of Irrawaddy Flotilla Company paddle steamers. Over the past 150 years other poets and writers such as Somerset Maugham and George Orwell have celebrated the company and the river.

Successive Viceroys of India, the Crown Prince of Siam and King Edward VIII as Prince of Wales, are but a few of our former passengers. Today we continue to carry celebrities and royalty, but pride ourselves on treating every passenger the same regardless of fame or rank.