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Discover the 4 essential things you need to know about a Mekong River cruise through Vietnam and Cambodia. I was invited by CroisiEurope to cruise on the Indochine II between Ho Chi Minh City and Siem Reap on a classic Mekong River cruise itinerary. Along the way I discovered four things that I think anyone interested in, or considering doing, a Mekong River cruise needs to know. I explore what the river is, where it goes, best times to go, the main experiences and sights and what you can expect from a Mekong river cruise ship and on-board experience.
Note: CroisiEurope sponsored my Mekong River cruise and I travelled as their guest. Find out more about their Mekong River cruises at https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/CroisiEuropeMekong
Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 77 cruises at time of making this video.
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you're about to discover the four
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essential things you need to know about
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a Mekong River cruise
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I'm Gary beverage this is another on my
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cruising tips for travelers I'm
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currently onboard the across Europe
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indogene to cruising down the Nikon and
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I'm going to share with you four things
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that I've learned that I think you
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absolutely need to know if you're going
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on am Yukon River cruise starting with
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this one first of all where exactly does
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a mekong river cruise go the microrna
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vez an enormous river it's over 3,000
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miles long and passes through six
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countries China mine ma Thailand Laos
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Cambodia and Vietnam most of cruises
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tend to go between Ho Chi Minh City in
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Vietnam and seem rip in Cambodia and the
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cruises tend to be around about 400
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miles of the river so about 600 K meters
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long
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passing through Vietnam and Cambodia the
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cruises they go all year-round so unlike
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in Europe where it has a very specific
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season you can go all year round on the
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Mekong and the temperatures are pretty
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consistent so they're about a low of
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about 20 degrees up to a high of about
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34 degrees the cruises they tend to be
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around about 8 nights long about 9 days
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long but most people and I strongly
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recommend you do this we'll add a pre
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and a post to the cruise so you get time
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to spend time in Ho Chi Minh City and
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very importantly see him rip so you do
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want to spend time check to go up to the
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Angkor Wat temples the second really key
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thing I think you need to know is what
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are the experiences that you're going to
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have our enemy Kahn river cruise and I
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think they're probably for critical
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experiences the first on which is you're
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basically going to cruise through
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Vietnam and Cambodia and get a real
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sense and a feel for the sights the
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sounds of these two amazing countries
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plus you're also going to cruise on some
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very important waterways so as you
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cruise through you're gonna see various
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villages floating villages you're going
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to get a chance to see the diversity of
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the vegetation and then you're going to
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go through those two really important
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water areas the first of which is known
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as the Cho gall canal the other really
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magnificent and important waterway you
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go through is known as the Tonle Sap
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Lake this is the biggest freshwater lake
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in Asia the second really important
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experience I believe is you get to see
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three major cities or centers the first
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of which is Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh
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City of course used because
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go on or the locals still actually call
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it Saigon and it's a really buzzing busy
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place there are something like 7 million
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scooters it's crazy busy with scooters
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zooming all around now unlike most
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mekong lines cross europe docks in Ho
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Chi Minh Center which makes exploring
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and excursions really easy you get to
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see some really interesting remnants of
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the French time when it was a French
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colony and you get to see beautiful
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French at buildings like the Nostradamus
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icon post office the Opera House and the
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very beautiful Town Hall and then you
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also get to which I think was one of the
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most interesting excursions learn a bit
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about the Vietnamese War and you go out
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of Ho Chi Minh City to the Gucci tunnels
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this is a network of something like 200
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miles of underground tunnels where the
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Viet Cong waged big part of their war
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against the South Vietnamese of course
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sponsored by the Americans it's a
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fascinating place you could actually go
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down some of the tunnels if you want to
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the next critical place which is a place
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I hadn't been to before was norm pan
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which is the capital of Cambodia again a
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very busy city or a dynamic city some
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beautiful things you see in Phnom Penh
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the most magnificent of all was the
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Royal Palace I was just blown away when
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I walked around the corner and saw this
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place absolutely magnificent
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in the grounds as well as the silver
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pagoda where the king will go and
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worship really magnificent there's also
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a great museum the National Museum of
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Cambodia which is chock full of
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different statues from different eras of
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Cambodian history you also get to learn
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about the pretty dark times in Cambodia
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and this is the Khmer Rouge period in
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the 1970s when almost 2 million
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Cambodians either were executed or died
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of starvation you get to go to prison
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s21 is now a genocide museum and there
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you get to see and learn about the
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torture and the massacre of locals the
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third critical Center is Sima rep sim
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rep used to be centuries ago the capital
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of Cambodia but now it's really the
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gateway to the famous
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Angkor Wat temples and not a news anchor
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what here there are some other key
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places like the thar prom temple and the
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anchor Tom which is the old royal palace
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these of course are now ruins
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they're huge big structures and Angkor
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Wat is a unesco world heritage site and
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really worth it then the third amazing
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experience is you get to go to little
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villages out-of-the-way really rural
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places in both Vietnam and Cambodia and
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we went out to lots of small villages so
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you get to see how people live you get
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to see the markets you get to see the
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produce how they grow crops and really
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interestingly you get to see the
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traditional ways that they still make a
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lot of products so we went to some
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incredible places so for example in
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Vietnam we went to a beef farm where
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they then produce all sorts of honey
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products so we got to chance to see how
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they cultivated the bees and then we got
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to taste some of the products and
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actually hear some local singing we also
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went in Vietnam to a factory which
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produces rice products so we saw how
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they made rice crackers we saw why they
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made puffed rice and made those into
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candies we also saw how they made rice
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wine which is kind of surreal because
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they put cobras and scorpions in but
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very interesting once we're in Cambodia
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we went to a few other places so for
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example went to the senses to Angkor
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which is perfume area where they make
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candles and soap and the artisans to
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Angkor where they have wood and stone
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crafts we're into loads over the places
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like pottery places loads of different
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places that we saw traditional crafts
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and traditional ways of making things we
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also got to see the local markets where
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people head out every day and they buy
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that they fish in their meat and their
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frogs and their turtles and all the
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various pizza pieces that form part of
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the cuisine the fourth amazing
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experiences you get to see some amazing
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temples probably my favorite was the Tay
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and pagoda and we saw this in charaka in
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Vietnam this is a magnificent building
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and inside there was just such ornate
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and detailed statues and of course you
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had the altar and the Buddhas
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another memorable temple that we went to
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was wet camp
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on trellis lair at camp on collar this
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is in Cambodia and what made it
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remarkable it is very much a local
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village temple but we also got to travel
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there on traditional ox carts so that
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made it particularly memorable the third
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thing that I think you need to know is
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how do you experience this mekong river
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cruise what are the ships like well it's
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actually a pretty luxurious way to
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travel through what is still a pretty
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rugged and remote part of the world with
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is not mystery lots of infrastructure
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the ships themselves are smaller
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generally than you would have in
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european river cruises so have example
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the induction - from crusty work that i
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was cruising on that only had 31 cabins
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62 guests this ship's themselves are a
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very different shape to the european
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river cruise they tend to be a little
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bit higher and shorter because they're
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not constrained by the bridges that you
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would have in europe what do you
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actually have on the ships well most the
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ships on the mekong that you see
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including the indogene do you have a
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sort of a colonial look and feel to them
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despite their small size they still have
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a fair range of facilities you'll have
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for example on the indogene we had a Sun
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Deck which actually a plunge pool great
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spaces to sit actually had some
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equipment you could work out if you
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wanted to out there some cardio
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equipment you had on the sundeck level a
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bar area where you'd have your briefing
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entertainment and just a place to relax
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up here on the Sun Deck was also where
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you had the Wi-Fi then you had the
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cabins and then down on the lower deck
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you had the restaurant which for
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breakfast was a buffet for lunch was
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also a buffet me Jules had a cooking
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station making something special dish of
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the day dinner was a sit-down meal and
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it was a multi-course meal with a
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starter soup a choice of either meat
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fish or chicken everyday--
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and then a dessert as you cruise through
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what is still pretty remote and rugged
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part of the world you will certainly
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appreciate the fact that you have a way
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of traveling through this area in
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comfort and luxury so what is the
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experience that you can expect on board
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one of these ships that's a fourth key
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thing I think you need to know well
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first of all what you can expect is
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largely all-inclusive affairs so you'll
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find with river cruising
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Kong similar to Europe a lot of things
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are bundled into the face so I'll give
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it again an example of micro see Europe
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experienced accommodation was included
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all meals were included wine beer and
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soft drink with lunch and dinner was
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included all excursions are included so
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his excursion at every single stop and
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that includes a local guide who travels
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with you the whole way through the
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cruise so in Vietnam we had a Vietnamese
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guide that was with us the whole way in
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Vietnam and then we had a glocal guide
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from Cambodia that was with us the whole
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way in Cambodia for our very specific
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group Wi-Fi is also included of course
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on the rivers it's relatively patchy so
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on a machine - it was available up on
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the sundeck area and in the lounge but
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again of course it would vary based on
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where you were on the river also
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including the ferry as some onboard
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entertainment so we had some dance trips
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for example came onboard those movies
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every night and there was occasional
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talks so all of that is included within
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the fair so what's not included well
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gratuities which are optional or not
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included of course if you want to have a
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massage that's included and things like
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the affair - the cruise transfers those
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kind of costs are not included of course
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you can work with your travel agent to
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build a whole package together and of
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course drinks out a meal time are not
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included within the fare you can also
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expect a high degree of regional
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immersion obviously as I mentioned you
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have the local guide so you spend a lot
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of time with them really understanding
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the history the culture of the region
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and you have time to build a
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relationship with your Vietnamese guide
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and your Cambodian guide you also have
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some of that entertainment on board and
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also sometimes when you have an
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excursion you'll have entertainment as I
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mentioned the excursions are very much
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focused on getting you into the region
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into the small villages and to interact
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with local people local markets and
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craftspeople
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the food is very much linked to the
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region so in Vietnam you'll have more
10:42
Vietnamese dishes in Cambodia more
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Cambodian dishes so the menu every night
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at lunchtime was very much focused on
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food from the region so you get a real
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chance to solve that service levels are
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very high because again the ships as
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small there's not a lot of passengers
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but the crew numbers are quite high so
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for example on indogene 2 there were 62
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guests but 32 crews so that's a 2 to 1
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Croatia's a very high level of service
11:06
Mekong River cruise
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you know my wish list for a very long
11:09
time I found an incredible experience I
11:11
enjoyed my time on board across Europe
11:14
and I can strongly recommend a Mekong
11:17
River cruise it's an amazing way to see
11:20
this part of the world remember I have
11:22
loads more videos with tips and advice
11:24
about river cruising ocean cruising all
11:26
types of cruising so why don't to watch
11:27
another one of those
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