Viking Irawaddy River Cruise

[katz]

Does anyone know why Viking discontinued cruising this river?

[Rebel54]

I'm surprised that Viking hasn't responded. They are usually very quick to jump in here.

 

Avalon still does theirs if you are interested.

[NeilWM]

Possibly because of ethical concerns???

 

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=5&ved=0ahUKEwinyPe164jZAhWJlpQKHUdBDRMQFggjMAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ftravel%2Fdestinations%2Fasia%2Fmyanmar%2Farticles%2Fburma-myanmar-rakhine-is-it-safe-to-visit%2F&usg=AOvVaw227udBeiwt0zQBdwhXdTYJ

 

 

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[katz]

Thank you for your responses. We did the cruise their first season. There were a lot of problems, but it was still a great adventure. After that, the cruise disappeared from their brochure. I have always been curious why they stopped.

[HDS]

We cruised the Irrawaddy with Pandaw in October 2013 and I reported on this board after we returned. Pandaw offers several itineraries. Ours took us past the tourist strip of Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay, north almost to the China border. We found it fascinating and found the Pandaw product superior to any of the four cruises we have done with Viking.

[tring]

We cruised the Irrawaddy with Pandaw in October 2013 and I reported on this board after we returned. Pandaw offers several itineraries. Ours took us past the tourist strip of Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay, north almost to the China border. We found it fascinating and found the Pandaw product superior to any of the four cruises we have done with Viking.

 

That is good to know as we are booked on their one week Bagan to Mandalay next January and are planning to spend a month or so all told in Myanmar and Thailand at that time. Pandaw do a lot in Myanmar and other countries round there and have done so for a long time, so they seemed the obvious people to book with.

 

Viking were not offering the Irrawaddy for next season, even before the problems in North Eastern Myanmar took off last year. There has been problems between both ethnic groups over the past few years though. It just got a whole lot worse and made the international news this year and from what I understand, tourism in general has gone down since it made international news. Has not put is off, but we are hoping that our cruise books reasonably well, or we could end up with a gap in our itinerary and we fancied a week on the river with the main tourist sites in that area organised for us.

 

Viking are using a Pandaw ship for their Mekong itinerary, presumably they have leased it for the season.

[Balloon Man]

We are sailing the Irrawaddy with Scenic in November and very much looking forward to it. I have visited the country previously (got arrested by the military!) and it is beautiful. Once the civilian government genuinely gets control Myanmar will be a major tourist destination.

 

So the time to go is now. And I'm not closing my eyes to the awful refugee problem which I understand has been caused by an over reaction from the military and will hopefully be resolved according to reports. I don't like it, but if we didn't visit countries with problems of one sort or another where would we go?

 

And please don't tell me to stay-at-home. If you believe in that you wouldn't be on Cruise Critic.

[gnome12]

We are sailing the Irrawaddy with Scenic in November and very much looking forward to it. I have visited the country previously (got arrested by the military!) and it is beautiful. Once the civilian government genuinely gets control Myanmar will be a major tourist destination.

 

So the time to go is now. And I'm not closing my eyes to the awful refugee problem which I understand has been caused by an over reaction from the military and will hopefully be resolved according to reports. I don't like it, but if we didn't visit countries with problems of one sort or another where would we go?

 

And please don't tell me to stay-at-home. If you believe in that you wouldn't be on Cruise Critic.

Thanks. I am also sailing in November, with Avalon, and your comments give me some comfort with my decision to go. I have had mixed feelings about the current situation, but feel that now is the time to go.

 

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[tring]

Once the civilian government genuinely gets control Myanmar will be a major tourist destination.

 

So the time to go is now.

 

I agree with much that you said, but from what I understand the major tourist sites are overrun with tourists now as it has become very popular over the last few years. Myanmar is not exactly the undiscovered tourist destination it was a few years ago, though if you visit places away from the main areas of Bagan, Mandalay, Lake Inle and parts of Yangon, you may well find some less visited places. I also would much prefer the current problems were not happening, but it seems that tourist numbers are down because of it.

 

The Trip Advisor forums on Myanmar are interesting places to find good reads and is where I have picked up a lot of information. The river cruise is only part of our planned itinerary.