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Just how different is a European River cruise and a Mekong River cruise through Vietnam and Cambodia? I take a look at the key similarities and differences and the things that surprised me as I had expected them to be very different but were not. A Europe river cruise and Mekong river cruise are great travel and cruising experiences and this will help you understand what to expect from both.
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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 60+ cruises.
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what are the similarities and
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differences between a european river
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cruise and a mekong river cruise i'm
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gary beverage this is another of matt
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cruising tips of terrorists i'm
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currently cruising on board across
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europe indogene
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- down the mekong and i want to share
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with you things that struck me that are
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the same and different from going on a
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european river cruise starting with this
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one the first key difference is the
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ships themselves they certainly look
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very different and they are usually much
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smaller so the indogene - for example
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has 31 cabins 62 guests whereas if you
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go on a European River cruise you would
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normally expect the river boats there to
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hold between 150 and 200 passages so the
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ships are definitely much smaller they
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certainly look very different from the
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outside they tend to be much taller
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because they're not constrained by the
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bridges in Europe and of course by
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definition because they're smaller there
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are shorter the other key differences
0:55
they look very different so the river
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cruise ships in the mekong tend to have
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a sort of a colonial style and look to
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them from the outset so they do look
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very different however where there are
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similar is once you are inside so though
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the de corps is different again often
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harking back to that colonial look and
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feel like other river cruise ships in
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europe the facilities are very similar
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and of course relatively limited because
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of the size of ships so for example on
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an indogene - we had a sun deck here it
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actually had a plunge pool for some row
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boats in europe have those as well lots
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of plate space to sit outside there was
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a key lounge which has a bar which is
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where you have your briefings and that's
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real sort of social heart of the ship
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you then have a restaurant which is open
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sea to dining open three times a day
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breakfast lunch and dinner
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it had a massage room on board this ship
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of course some ships in Europe will have
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a fitness center or a similar kind of
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facility so you'll find once you're
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inside the ship's are pretty similar in
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terms of the range of facilities but
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they certainly look very different and
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are much smaller another area where
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there are pretty similar is when it
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comes to fares river cruising generally
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is pretty all-inclusive and the mekong
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river cruises are similar to the
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european
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in that respect so for example they
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include you accommodations as you would
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expect they include all your meals so
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breakfast for example on indogene 2 was
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a buffet breakfast lunch was buffet
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lunch alone had a cooking station as
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well dinner was a full served meal would
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start soup main course choice of a meat
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dish a chicken dish vegetable dish and a
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dessert 24-hour tea and coffee was all
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included that was self-serve Wi-Fi of
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course being on the rivers like in
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Europe it was a little bit more erratic
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but it was included in the fares all
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excursions are included so it everywhere
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you stopped it was an excursion included
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the key exclusions were gratuities which
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of course are optional if you have
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something like a massage by something a
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little shop onboard and then of course
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drinks if you had those extra drinks at
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mealtime or at other times throughout
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the cruise so very very similar to river
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cruising you know where your large you
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find all in Therese Affairs we're
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depending on the cruise line slight
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variances and differences between how
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much drink is or isn't included
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exclusions would be things like air
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fares as well and transfers of course
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you can bundle those together the same
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as you can do with European at river
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cruising so the fares are pretty similar
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they're structured similar when I look
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at the price of going on a cruise in
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Europe per day and look at the price of
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going on the mekong per day their prices
3:32
were relatively similar of course the
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big real difference is you have the
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flight to Asia which of course if you're
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coming to a European River cruise from
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the US you have that flight cost anyway
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of a long-haul flight the next area is
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one that I perhaps hadn't really
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expected to be quite a similar that was
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incredibly similar and that's the basic
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format of the cruise that may make sense
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of course because the format may work no
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matter where you are in the world if
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you're on a river cruise so you'll
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normally have in the evening before you
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get to a portal of some sort of port
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briefing you might have after dinner
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some informal entertainment which might
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just be a film perhaps a dance troupe or
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musical group come on board morning
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you'll have some sort of announcement
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you'll have breakfast you then will head
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off on an excursion which is included
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you know we hear back for lunch you
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either be cruising in the afternoon
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you're going another excursion and
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you'll normally also be docking or
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mooring somewhere in the evenings so
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very very very similar
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process it's relatively structured like
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river crew see in Europe so the day is
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pretty laid out so you look at the daily
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program there's not lots of choices of
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options things to do everyone does the
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same thing at the same time and it's
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pretty structured as per in Europe so
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the format very similar one of the key
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differences though was what you find in
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Europe is the ships normally will cruise
4:46
along and more to clean in the evenings
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they'll often be moored in one of the
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towns right up in the towns you can walk
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off in the evening and go out what I
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found on the Mekong is most of the
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evenings we would stop setting at some
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point of time and would be moored in the
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middle of the river rather than actually
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in a local village or town and the only
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places that we mowed were in the big
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cities like norm Penn for example
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so overall the format in the structure
5:10
is very very similar between the two the
5:13
next thing I want to talk about is
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excursions as I mentioned it's quite
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normal for both european river cruises
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amir khan river cruises to have
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excursions included but what i found
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though is actually what the excursions
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focus on is surprisingly similar
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obviously what you're seeing is very
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different and they're probably four key
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things that I observed that on both the
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European river cruise and on the Mekong
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that you likely to go and see the first
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of those is you're going to go and see
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the iconic sights in major cities the
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same as you would do with you in Europe
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or you hear on the Mekong so in Ho Chi
5:44
Minh City and in Phnom Penh you gonna
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head off and see all the key sites in Ho
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Chi Minh City you're gonna go and see
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things like the Town Hall the Opera
5:53
House the Noctor dom the old post office
5:57
in Phnom Penh you're gonna go to see the
5:58
Royal Palace this love a goad so all of
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those big classic sights in the big
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cities you gotta go and see the same as
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you would do in Europe so that's one key
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thing called the big cities and the
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iconic sights the second group of
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excursions are once you head out into
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the smaller towns or villages where
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these excursions tend to focus much more
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on how people live so you might go to
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farms you might go to handicrafts
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produce markets and you get a slice of
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how people live so on the Mekong for
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example went to lots of local markets
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we're going to see lots of craftspeople
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making pottery or honey products or wood
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carving or palm sugar and the same on
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excursions when you're in Europe
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into various farms or you go to home
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visits or you again you go to factories
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where people make handicrafts so
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certainly when you into the smaller
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villages it's very much focused around
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the culture and how people live the
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third type of excursion are going to
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historically significant places so in
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Europe you'll go to all the places where
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big major historical events have
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happened in that particular country in
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that particular place the same is true
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in the Mekong so we went to for example
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in Ho Chi Minh you likely to go to the
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Gucci tunnels which is where the Viet
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Cong operated just outside of Ho Chi
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Minh City during the Vietnam War so
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you're going to explore those and learn
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more about the Vietnamese war in
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Cambodia in Phnom Penh you'll go to
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prison s-21 section 21 which was an old
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secondary school to converted into a
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torture Center where people were in
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prison they were tortured and eventually
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sent off to the killing fields and again
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you'll learn all about Cambodian history
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so again a common theme that I found
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across the two is visiting really
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important historical sites the fourth
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area is whether you're in Europe or
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whether you're in on the Mekong you're
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going to go and visit a lot of religious
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centers so obviously in Europe you go
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and visit cathedrals and big churches
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what you do on the Mekong is you go and
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visit temples or as they call them here
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pagodas and we went to see some amazing
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and beautiful pagodas and temples my
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favorite probably was the Tay and pagoda
8:01
in charaka in Vietnam which had these
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incredibly intricate statues there was
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the wacked Kampong trochlea where we
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went to on ox carts very old pagoda
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built in the late 18-hundreds
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and then we also went to of course
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Angkor Wat which is the big famous world
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heritage site with incredibly beautiful
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and amazing temples now of course ruins
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another area that is actually I think
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quite different is around how busy
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things are if you head down the rivers
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in Europe they are incredibly busy
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particularly the Rhine and the Danube
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and often you'll see loads of ships
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sailing bar past you as you can head up
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and down and often when you're docking
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in many of the key places the ships are
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often dr. next to each other and backed
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up so lots of people lots of tours out
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in town sitting on the Mekong that's
8:53
very very different we did see one or
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two other ships along the way but for
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most the time we felt like we were the
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only passenger ship on the mekong so you
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don't when you get off at different
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stops see loads of other tall parties
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the only time that we saw more tour
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parties were for example in Phnom Penh
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because many of the cruisers will say
9:15
more than one night so there's more of a
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chance to see people so definitely it
9:19
feels much much quieter on the river and
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it feels a little bit more special a
9:23
little bit more unique another key area
9:25
which i think is broadly similar is the
9:27
passengers so the passenger mix on the
9:29
mekong does seem to be a very similar
9:31
passenger mix to those on european river
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cruises so it does tend to be a little
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bit older you have people your 50s 60s
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70s lots of couples traveling together
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the ships are it designed for a couples
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experience I actually came on this as a
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solo passenger and I was the only seller
9:45
passenger onboard as mostly couples of
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course there's some extended groups and
9:48
sometimes bigger groups of people who
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were traveling together I guess through
9:52
a travel organization or or a group so
9:55
very much the same sort of passenger
9:57
again quite a diverse mix being on
9:59
across Europe it tends to have a much
10:01
more European focused passenger mix so
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there was French there was some Spanish
10:06
there was english-speaking people mostly
10:09
from the UK there's some Japanese
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English speaking of course was here
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another cruise you're gonna find this
10:14
perhaps more Americans Canadians and
10:16
Australians it's a very very similar mix
10:19
to European river cruising a river
10:22
cruising Europe a real cruising the
10:23
Mekong both are incredibly experiences
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for different reasons I loved my time on
10:28
the Mekong and it was quite surprised
10:30
because I hadn't expected quite so many
10:31
similarities to the way that European
10:34
river cruises run and the way that the
10:35
Mekong River cruise runs hope you found
10:38
that interesting and helpful I have
10:39
loads more videos about river cruising
10:41
mekong river cruising ocean cruising so
10:43
why don't you watch another one of those
10:44
right now
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