Discover south-east Asia with a cruise along the mighty Mekong
I’m not afraid to admit that I was secretly avoiding cruises. I swerve crowds when I travel and I cringe at the mention of organised fun, so the thought of being herded onto a ship with rowdy strangers for a week was a far cry from my idea of a relaxing break. That said, I’ll try most things once. Heritage Line’s uniquely authentic lower Mekong River cruise along the untouched riverbanks of Vietnam and Cambodia (two countries I had yet to visit) sounded like the most appealing cruise option I’d seen.
I spent my first night in Cambodia at Jaya House River Park (jayahouseriverparksiemreap.com; doubles from £220), a locally owned boutique hotel in Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor’s 285 temples and ruins. I then took a tender to The Jahan, Heritage Line’s 26-cabin river ship, early the next morning to begin my all-inclusive seven-night voyage. The Jahan resembled a colonial paddle steamer (albeit diesel-powered) and was moored on the edge of Tonlé Sap, a 65km-wide freshwater lake that stretches as far as the eye can see.
Along the way, our affable tour guide, Wanty, pointed out small floating villages where buoyant restaurants and wooden homes sat atop crocodile and fish farms submerged beneath. The journey took a few hours, and that evening, we were out on The Jahan’s deck in the warm air, sailing past the rainforest-cloaked Cardamom Mountains under a burnt orange sky. Swallows and insects hummed around our heads, driven up from the tall grass that becomes flooded during the high water season.
The Jahan is built for quality over quantity. Rooms are larger than the average cruise ship, each with a private balcony and lounge area. The romantic Raj-inspired interiors were characterised by plantation-style dark-wood furniture, silk and decorative wallpaper. I was one of just 14 passengers (a welcome perk of travelling in the quieter month of September) and the sole Briton amid a mix of seven nationalities. One Hong Kong-born American travelling solo was drawn to The Jahan’s appealing lack of single supplement, while an Australian couple had booked the cruise for its range of cycling tours.
I settled into ship life surprisingly fast, helped by the courteous assistance of my female butler, Long. The days quickly took on a natural cadence. Delicious soups and buffets for breakfast and lunch (chef Bora’s king prawn pho became my mainstay) and set menus for dinner, interspersed with immersive excursions that took us deep off the tourist trail.
We took sampans (flat-bottomed wooden boats) ashore to weave through rural villages flanked by floating markets and rice paddies. We cycled past wooden stilt houses, rode oxcarts around lotus ponds and met women who make their living by weaving silk scarves, reed mats and moulding clay pots.
The Mekong is the largest inland fishery in the world. Millions depend on its banks and waters, evidenced by the crab pots, frog farms and palm sugar trees dotted across the landscape. Another regular sighting was the orange-robed monks, both young and old, who we observed collecting their daily alms.
Buddhism is Cambodia’s predominant religion. Its teachings are rooted in the country’s culture and helped to deliver collective strength in the face of insurmountable horror under Pol Pot’s 1970s regime. Our last stop in Cambodia took us to the fragrant capital city, Phnom Penh, to see the Royal Palace (including the now decommissioned elephant waiting room), and a sobering but educational visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, one of the many confession centres where the Khmer Rouge carried out their atrocities.
I was grateful to have The Jahan to retreat to, not least for the cold face flannels and icy drinks handed to us by the welcoming crew (and a daily shoe cleaning service), but to take stock and make the most of our slow border crossing into Vietnam. I indulged with a dip in the pool and a hot stone massage at the Apsara Spa and took in the view from my balcony as we continued our cruise into the Mekong Delta, the “rice bowl” of Asia.
The abrupt shift between countries arrived with the all-pervading honk of moped horns, dense tropical foliage and the symbolic conical “nón lá” hats worn by locals to keep the sun at bay. In the scenic backstreets of Binh Thanh island, we gorged on juicy mangosteen, jackfruit and the less appealing custard-textured durian, a local delicacy that “tastes like heaven but smells like hell”. When the bursts of monsoon rain arrived, we dashed for cover, to the delight of giggling children nearby.
Our arrival into cosmopolitan Ho Chi Minh City marked the end of my slow sojourn down the lower Mekong and I longed to be back aboard The Jahan cruising past purple flowering water hyacinths. To my surprise, it was the thrum of city life that I now wished to avoid.
Julia was a guest of Heritage Line (+84 (0) 28 777 010 80), which offers the seven-night Lost Civilisation trip from £1,970 per person (based on double sharing occupancy), including daily guided tours, full-board dining and drinks.
Vietnam Airlines flies from London Heathrow to Siem Reap from £927 return.
