UPDATED
Covid and tourism
In 2019 Covid19 appeared in China and rapidly became a pandemic. It spread to every country in the world (except, apparently, Turkmenistan). Now, three years later, it is still with us.
So far about 700,000,000 cases and 7,000,000 deaths have been reported
Early in the pandemic most countries closed their borders and tourism ground to a halt.
Airlines, cruise ships, hotels, restaurants suddenly had no customers and didn’t need the crops grown by local farmers. Hotel staff, waiters, bar staff, souvenir makers and sellers had no jobs.
Numerous companies went out of business as lockdowns stopped people using them.
Pandaw River Cruises
One of these companies was Pandaw River Cruises with their small ship expeditions along Southeast Asian rivers.
The Irrawaddy and Chindwin trips had already stopped because of the political situation in Myanmar.
In October 2021 the journeys in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and India also ceased and the ships were laid up.
With no income there was no money for maintenance or to pay staff. It looked as though Pandaw was finished, a victim of covid.
Recovery
But two months later, in December 2021, the company announced that they had funding to see them through to September 2022, when they planned to restart expeditions in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and India. Some were already fully booked.
The 22/23 season is now underway.
Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and India all allow fully vaccinated tourists to visit.
Update
Pandaw’s founder Paul Strachan has a comprehensive update of the current situation here.
I edited the video when Pandaw stopped trading, with footage from all the trips I went on.
Now that they’ve started up again it’s timely to revisit all the places, people and experiences.
Firstly, the Myanmar and Borneo expeditions no longer exist, Myanmar because of the political situation but Borneo probably because of government bureaucracy and landowner problems.
However, most of the ships have been repositioned and are still operational along with several new ones.
The Andaman Explorer is the exception. It was an ocean-going motor yacht specifically for use in Myanmar’s Mergui Archipelago. Pandaw no longer has Myanmar voyages. The ship appears to be somewhere in the East China Sea.
Find details of forthcoming cruises here:
See more Pandaw memories videos here:
Videos from Borneo
https://www.havepension-willtravel.com/videos-from-sarawak-borneo/
Videos from Burma
https://www.havepension-willtravel.com/myanmar-videos-from-mandalay-gokteik-and-lashio/
Videos from Cambodia
https://www.havepension-willtravel.com/cambodia-and-mekong-river-videos/
Videos from Laos
https://www.havepension-willtravel.com/destination-laos/
Videos from Vietnam
https://www.havepension-willtravel.com/videos-from-vietnam/
Check out life aboard here