Sister to the Katha and from the same yard delivered in 2013, the only difference with the Katha is an enclosed air conditioned dining room insisted on by an American charterer. Originally on the Mekong in 2015 we transferred her to the Red River in North Vietnam. In fact the enclosed dining room has proved useful as it can be cold up there in winter.

The third of these rather grand Vietnamese sisters, along with the Orient and Indochina. She is a good looker, and turns many a head as she ploughs in state across the Delta or into the bustling hub of the Phnom Penh port.

The Champa Pandaw, sister ship of the Laos Pandaw, began cruises on the Upper Mekong from September 2016. The ship has quality mountain bikes for your independent exploration.

Sister to the RV Angkor, the RV Hanoi will operate on the same route her sister has been for over a decade in Northern Vietnam from November 2026.

Sister to the Orient and Bassac, the IP was built in Vietnam in 2009 and transferred over to Burma in 2011. The ship has quality mountain bikes for your independent exploration.

Sister to the Kindat and identical in design the Kalaw was launched with her in 2014 Kalaw is named after the PS Kalaw launched in 1917 and sunk in 1942 in the War. Paul Strachan witnessed the salvaging of the Kalaw in 1998 and managed to acquire her name plate and bell, the former of which has been reused on her namesake.

The Kalay Pandaw was built in Mandalay in 2013 by our own team from within the company.

Pandaw are delighted to announce the construction of a new fourteen cabin K-class ship for Burma, now renamed Myanmar. These ultra-shallow twin decked K class vessels can go where other ships cannot and are perfect for Pandaw’s style of soft adventure river expeditions.

This was a radical new design, based on the old K class used in Burma from the 1880s on. This ship is the third Katha to run on the Irrawaddy. The first was built at Dalla in 1887 but lost on the Chindwin in 1889. The second was built by Denny of Dumbarton in 1904 and decommissioned in 1937 and the third was built by us in Vietnam in 2012. 

Launching in December 2026, the ten cabin Kerala Pandaw has been specially designed for the backwaters of Kerala, whilst maintaining the much-loved classic Pandaw cabin and wrap round promenade decks. This will be Pandaw’s fifth ship in India and reflects the increasing demand for river cruises in India.

This ten cabin K class was completed in 2016 and is currently serving as the Pandaw Academy training ship at Pagan.

The original Kindat was built in 1886 by Yarrows in London and sank in 1920. She was named after a small Upper Chindwin town. Following experiments with the Katha and Angkor Pandaws, in this build we perfected this concept of a two deck shallow draft vessel and repeated the formula again with her sister the Kalaw.

Launching in October 2025, the ten cabin Kochi Pandaw has been specially designed for the backwaters of Kerala, whilst maintaining the much-loved classic Pandaw cabin and wrap round promenade decks. This will be Pandaw’s fourth ship in India and reflects the increasing demand for river cruises in India.

Seeing the quality of this ship it is hard to believe it was built in a hurry. There are no proper ship yards above the Khone Falls and we could not persuade our Vietnamese builders to assemble a ship trucked in in bits on the river bank.

Built in Rangoon in 2002 she was sailed round to Saigon under her own power and many a drama described in Paul Strachan’s Pandaw Story. This ship was designed specially for the Mekong and unlike our other P class ships does not have a flying bridge. The reason was so she could get under a road bridge. She did actually scrape under on her maiden but it was so scary that Paul Strachan, then standing on the bridge, never dared attempt it again. As a result, we ended up with this incredible 750 square meter teak deck that even has a full size billiard table.

The first ship we built in Vietnam in 2008, the OP has seen service in five countries now – Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysian Borneo and now Burma. Where next? And in each of these countries she was re-commissioned according to local religious rites – Confucian, Budddhist, Animist and now she is a Buddhist again in the Golden Land. Despite a huge mileage the Orient chugs along as if fresh from the yard. Her design was based on the Tonle Pandaw, which was copied in every detail by the Vietnamese and indeed this design has been repeated three times on her three – all larger thirty cabin vessels.

Pandaw II was our first ever new build back in 2001. Though our oldest ship she is still young in river terms – her prototype the old Pandaw is now over sixty years old and many ships in this fresh water environment are at least 100 years old. She was built in Rangoon at the Dawbone dockyard, then belonging to the Marine Department. In those days there was no electricity and numerous generators surrounded the growing hull powering the welder’s torches. Timber mills were rare too and great tree trunks would be delivered to the dockside and be cut into planks on the spot. The result was magnificent and still is.

The RV Sabaidee is our seventeenth ship to the Pandaw Flotilla which was constructed to meet demand on our very popular Laos to China route across Yunnan.

Modelled on Pandaw II and originally called Pandaw III, the Tonle saw a year’s service in Burma in 2002/3 before being sent under tug-tow to the Mekong where she has done continuous service between Saigon and Kampong Cham ever since.

We acquired this Z craft in 2008 and fitted her out as a floating clinic as part of the Cyclone Nargis relief effort.