Our Mekong Adventure Part 1

So our journey started back on the 01st December where we flew overnight from Manchester via Dubai to Ho Chi Minh City (formally known as Saigon) in Vietnam, where we stopped overnight at the Continental hotel in the city. As explained before unfortunately we were unable to do the 3 night pre-stay due to child care arrangements and lack of annual leave entitlement left.

We arrived just after 9pm on the Sunday evening and took the 20 minute transfer to the hotel. Then to my astonishment when you think people would be retiring back to their homes for work the next day there was hundreds of thousands of people on mopeds and lining the streets of the city as Vietnam had just won the semi final of the South East Asia Cup. Our transfer driver to the hotel explained how fanatical they are of football and to them this was like winning the World Cup. As we had been travelling non-stop for 19 hours we only just had something quick to eat and went straight to bed as tomorrow was when the journey was going to really begin.

We were instructed by APT to meet at 11am at the luxurious Park Hyatt Hotel Saigon were the rest of the party were residing for the past 3 nights before the cruise. So we managed to have a quick look around and I was amazed how clean, modern and cosmopolitan the city was. An astonishing fact that there is over 12 million people living in Ho Chi Minh City with over 7 million people owning and travelling about on mopeds.

After meeting with the tour organisers of APT we then took the 90 minute transfer from the city to My Tho where our accommodation awaited for the next 7 nights sailing the Mekong Delta from Vietnam to Cambodia on the RV AMALotus. The ship which at 93 metres had 54 cabins in total and all come with a balcony as standard, with a crew of 50. As soon as we got on-board lunch was served in the Mekong restaurant, which was spacious and decorated to the region of the Khmer accents and had a very colonial feel. Lunch was semi buffet style with some main dishes needed to be ordered and served, with plenty of choice for all tastes.

After a few glasses of wine with our lunch are cabins were ready. We were on Tonile deck (or deck 2) in a deluxe balcony suite, the cabin was very spacious again decor in the dark woods and keeping within the region. As I mentioned before all cabins come with a outside balcony, plus a panoramic balcony, plenty of wardrobe space (and hangers), flat screen TV, mini fridge/bar, safe, seating area and a spacious en-suite with a hairdryer, bathrobes, slippers and toiletries.

After a few drinks on the sun deck watching the sunset, it was time to meet the Captain Hiep, hotel manager Patrice and cruise director Tony in the Saigon Lounge for a welcome cocktail and tour briefing. To advise all local beverages on-board such as soft drinks, beers, spirits, house wine, tea and coffee are complimentary and are served throughout the day. Any premium spirits, liquors, wines and cocktails were chargeable.

Then it was time for our Signature dinner served by Luke Nguyen who is a acclaimed Vietnamese-Australian chef, author and television personality, this was a truly memorable experience. It was then back into the Saigon Lounge to enjoy a traditional folklore performance from the Mekong Delta whilst chatting and getting to know others on-board.

Next time our first excursions in Cai Be, Sadec and Tan Chau.