River cruising
attracted to the Mekong by a combination of scenic beauty, diverse cultural heritage and, when their adventure was over, the growing portfolio of luxury properties in which to relax. “Angkor Wat has always been a focus of tourists, but what makes the Mekong so special is its concentration of interesting highlights,” says Rudi Schreiner, co-founder and president of AmaWaterways. “You can start in Ho Chi Minh City and end up in Angkor Wat, and in between you have Phnom Penh, which is an absolutely fascinating city, as well as beautiful, charming little towns on the Vietnamese Delta side and floating villages. Excursions on AmaWaterways’ 12-day itinerary include blessings at a Buddhist temple, visits to local markets and villages, and rides in sampan boats and ox-drawn carts.
“Every member of staff that works at
AmaWaterways is entitled to one river cruise a year as part of their employment package, and the Mekong itinerary has always been a favourite. “It’s an incredibly rich itinerary and there’s a huge cultural difference,” Schreiner says. “For them, it’s an eye- opening learning experience to see a totally different culture. It’s the same for our customers; it is very different than being on a European river.”
Exploring life on the river At Aqua Expeditions, which offers three, four and seven-day itineraries departing from Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap, the focus is on the remote experiences. Most cruise operators in the region stay 24 hours in Phnom Penh. There are good reasons for this, including a wide variety of activities for guests, and the opportunity to save on fuel and give the crew a few hours of rest. But the Aqua Mekong arrives in the morning and leaves at 5pm. While other cruise companies are limited by the availability of ship-to-shore services, Aqua Expeditions has a private fleet of speedboats, as well as ten bikes for its guests to use. “We can stop, drop off the bikes, disembark the guests in the speedboats and go and explore life on the river, rather than always getting ashore and walking around,” explains CEO and founder Francesco Galli Zugaro.
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“A lot of our experiences are water-based. I wanted to build a product that allows guests to have soft adventures – biking, kayaking and speedboating up and down the river. They can basically choose their own adventure and that’s the beauty of it. They can wake up and say, ‘I don’t feel like going kayaking this morning, I actually want to go on a speedboat ride’. Our largest group is four couples to a guide. That flexibility is our strength.”
Keeping things fresh At present, Aqua’s most popular itineraries are the Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh or Siem Reap tours. “It fits the flow of guests arriving in Vietnam and working their way up to Cambodia,” Galli Zugaro explains. However, the group is now heavily promoting its Cambodia-only itineraries.
“In the last few years, Cambodia has had incredible product development. You’ve got new hotels in Siem Reap, the island resorts of Sihanoukville and other properties outside of Song Saa, as well as Shinta Mani Wild. You’ve got an incredible product that can develop Cambodia as a one-stop shop for multiple types of guests.”
“A lot of our experiences are water-based. I wanted to build a product that allows guests to have soft adventures – biking, kayaking and speedboating up and down the river. They can basically choose their own adventure and that’s the beauty of it.”
Francesco Galli Zugaro
The worry for Schreiner is that some of the cities that drew him to the region before it became so popular are losing their charm. Alongside the wonderful restaurants and hotels in Siem Reap, he laments, are more and more tourist bars and massage parlours, the cost of the country’s rapid recent development. He, too, is always trying to find new itineraries to keep things fresh for his guests, even if the areas that are most soaked in culture and tradition sometimes bring up challenges. The AmaDara used to cruise
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Above: Speedboats allow visitors a closer look at life up and down the river.
Opposite: The Aqua Mekong makes its way through scenic South East Asian waters.
Aqua Expeditions
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