The First Luxurious River Cruise In S1BU.

The Pandaw Cruises - RV Orient Pandaw.

The Cruises in our longest river ,the Mighty Rejang River, are being operated by the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company and it's a 9 to 8 days cruises costing about USD 4,995 to 3, 225 per person . It's a 3 trips per month . According to the company write up or information, the river cruiser was named after the 1st original Clyde-built Steamer called PANDAW.The company had 6 cruising vessels at present and the Rejang River cruiser is called RV Orient Pandaw. The brochure of the Rejang or Borneo itineraries is very impressive and all the informations can be viewed at http://www.pandaw.com/.

I managed to take a few pixs of the Cruising Vessel berthed at our famous jetty ( the Pulau Babi) as follows:-

1. Side View



2. Rear View.

I was wondering whether it really benefited the tourism industries in S1BU like the hotels, travel services etc., Looking at the prices offer by the cruise management is quite high to us but I think is peanuts to the holiday goers from aboard.

Let's roughly count the number of person against the cabins /rooms offered at the Vessel is about 30 rooms multiply by 2 person per room equal to 60 person per trip. From the press release that the cruise is fully booked until next year and let's count 3 trips per month for 6 month is about 18 trips & each trip cost about USD 3,495.00 per person and you imaging how much that the company is making ( 18 trips multiply by 60 multiply by USD 3,495.00) equals to a cool USD 3,774,600 and what's about in Malaysian ringgit ??

How much S1BU can get the Share? 20 locals employed as cruise staffs, foods for the cruise, cost of arrangement of alternate small boats , a little bit for the long house folks for organizing the longhouse activities and two (2) local tourist guides (arranged by the Management) might get the share. The management should considered the 1 or 2 overnight stay at our local hotel and perhaps a day tour of Sibu which will benefited the hotel operator & the local shop owners rather staying in KUCHING for the last leg of the Tour. Also, the booking is done over the Internet and thro' the Cruise Company website in overseas, S1BU lose the benefit of gaining from the foreign exchanges and if the bookings is done in our country, that's will be a different story.

Anyway, whatever, S1Bu got the name being the first to have the honor of getting the PANDAW Cruise in the State.