Uniworld Mekong river February 13

[Gardendog]

First afternoon in Saigon was free time for us. Many joined the cooking class and LOVED it. I heard no complaints from the others. DH and I walked to the market and shopped in some nice shops as well. We got some nice silk scarves. Sometimes I think when we as tourists go to places with these kind of markets, that’s what we think we are supposed to get, however we found some real nice authentic Vietnamese items in nice shops and fixed prices, just like at home.

 

We had our farewell dinner a day early, Uniworld had booked a cruise ship on the Saigon river, the Princess. We were taken there by bus and the ship was just for the 49 of us. Lovely dinner and then a live band on the top and we were dancing again. It was a great evening!

[Gardendog]

Breakfast at the Park Hyatt Saigon was delicious, quick and pleasant. Excursion took off at 8 and again we had our 3 buses. It was a long trip, almost 2 hours to Co Chi tunnels, but the guide informed us about a lot of things as we were traveling. We asked questions and he answered. Many were of a personal nature and also information about the war and the aftermath. I have a much greater understanding of Vietnam after this.

 

The tunnels are a must do excursion, wow! After another long and informative bus trip, we were served our last meal together, a lovely 4 course lunch at a very lovely restaurant that used to be a French home.

 

Some people had signed up for the optional A/O show, we had not, so we went for a long walk. We have now figured out how to cross streets here, just walk! We ended having a drink at a local, very much so, brewery and walked home to the Park Hyatt with neon lights in the buildings as our decorations.

 

Saigon seems much more advanced and beautiful compared to Hanoi. Traffic lights seem to be observed and it’s a lot cleaner. It seems like forever ago that we arrived, so much has been learned, experienced and seen.

[TLCOhio]

First day in Phnom Pen was spent taking a tuktuk to the royal palace and then to a museum with very old artifacts. In the evening, some children came from a local orphanage to entertain with dance. Very nice! That was the only entertainment we have had so far on the ship.

 

Appreciate the very nice series of postings and details from your Mekong River "adventure", plus, plus. Since we just completed seeing many of the same spectacular sights, I thought I would share a few of my visuals to help document and prove that there is so very much to see and enjoy in these areas of Southeast Asia. Many more pictures and details are on my live/blog as linked below.

 

THANKS for your sharing! Keep up the great postings and fun details. Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Bangkok/Mekong River, Etc.! Just completed a Jan. 21-Feb. 20, 2018, first adventure through Southeast Asia with stops in Hong Kong and Bangkok, before traveling all over Vietnam and Cambodia. This includes seven days sailing on the Mekong River. Lots of fun, interesting pictures!! See more at:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2591474

 

For the "Big Star" in Phnom Penh, it was their Royal Palace complex!! We were very impressed by its details, design, style, maintenance, etc. Kings of Cambodia have been here since it was built in 1860's.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these pictures larger/better!)

 

 

Here is one of my visual samples from inside the Silver Pagoda that is a part of the Royal Palace complex in Phnom Penh.:

 

Here is one example of the architecture and style of the 1920's-constructed National Museum of Cambodia. The structure had a nice interior courtyard as shown below. Love those unique design touches used on the roofs here and in other parts of Southeast Asia.:

 

During our tour of their National Museum, one of their top curators was our guide. She offered much background on this collection, including so much connected with Angkor Wat and other historic locations in Cambodia.:

 

[Gardendog]

Thank your Teri for posting those pictures, we only brought our iPhones and the quality surely will not be like yours.

 

Last day of the tour was organized extremely well. There were many departure times, going every hour. Some had 6 in the group, and some fortunate got private transfer. Each group, regardless of size, had their own escort! Our escort talked to us the entire time, and we learned more from him. We were dropped off right at the departure gate, and we took it from there. We flew premium economy and those lines were much shorter. Flight home was pleasant and uneventful. We are now back at home and will need to adjust to the time change.

[Gardendog]

whatnot - I'm so glad the restaurants treated you well!

 

Sounds like maybe they changed the cooking class excursion as well. Ours was in Phnom Penh, inside a restaurant, and all the utensils were great. I wonder what's going on on the ground own there....especially with the puppet show inconsistency.

 

I guess that the inconsistencies are due to the fact that this is a chartered trip if you will. Uniworld does not own the ship, just lease it and they hire outside folks to run it. None of the workers that we saw were Uniworld employees except for the one Uniworld representative, Bosko, who was on the ship. That is probably why the tipping was strange to me.

 

The program guide”before you go” clearly states that tips were extra for the tour guide and the crew on the ship, but that all tips for tuktuks, local guides, riskshaw drivers etc were included in the fare. I understood that to mean that Uniworld paid such tips. However, every time we used such vehicles, our guide told us to give them a few dollars as a tip. Other groups were told to tip the bus driver as he was now leaving us etc etc. we did tip, but I know that I tipped more on occasion than the tuktuk ride would have cost. I chose Uniworld because I did not want to deal with this constant tipping.

 

I know that some people in our group, nice people but on their first ever cruise, river or ocean, found a need to tip heftily for every.single.thing. It kind of ruined the tips included part.

 

There was an envelope in the room on the last night on the ship to give the crew their tips to share among all of them so we did and dropped it in the gratuity box. Extra tip was given by many in the morning.

 

This ship restaurant had fantastic wait staff. Every table was every waiter’s table it seemed. They all helped each other and it was superior.

 

When we arrived in Saigon we got a gratuity envelope for the tour guide as well. Those were handed to him directly.

 

Random thoughts; Sofitel in Siem Reap offers bag of laundry for $40. That seems like a good deal to me, especially if you don’t get the one bag that Uniworld offers for returning guests. Laundry on the Mekong Navigator was priced individually and it seemed pricey to me.

[EASTBROADOAKS]

Good day Gardendog

I am also adjusting sleep schedule after my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Your interesting posts caught my eye as my DH and I left the Mekong Navigator the morning of you embarked in Siem Reap. We spent 7 fabulous days on the Mekong River. Our trip was yours almost exactly in reverse but not organized by Uniworld, starting in Hanoi and ending in Siem Reap. Ours consisted of 3 joint university travel alongside Smithsonian Journeys which supplied an expert on Southeast Asia.

My cruise critic goal on return was to extol the Mekong Navigator as you did so well. I will add that besides the lovely crew the food was absolutely wonderful. I told the cruise director & chief that he matched the quality on Crystal(the chef had no idea what I meant but the top guy certainly did). BTW our hotels, excursions including the English class and the authentic means of transportation matched yours almost exactly. The detailed logistics were so well done. I am so grateful to have experienced the sights and beautiful people of Vietnam and Cambodia.

[Gardendog]

Thank you Eastbroadoaks for your kind words.

I have spent a lot of time trying to import my iphone photos to Photos on my PC. However, I took all my photos using the "live" mode and they do not import. Grr. I'm sure there is a way to do it, but I can't figure it out. They are safe in Google photos and in my camera, but cannot import them. I took a bunch of pictures of the ship that I wanted to post, so hopefully I can figure it out. There was so little information about this trip, also no pictures that I could find, so I wanted to do my bit for the CC community.

[TLCOhio]

Thank your Teri for posting those pictures, we only brought our iPhones and the quality surely will not be like yours.

 

Appreciate your nice follow-up and continued great sharing/posting. Good luck on getting your pictures uploaded, etc. That must be frustrating!! You can still get good pictures from an iPhone, but it can be limiting under some situations and for certain needs. Keep up the great work for allowing others to learn from your experiences.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 197,968 views for this posting.