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Luxurious cruise to Kanchanaburi
Issue of Bangkok Post, May 15, 2003
Don Ross
I learned that river sailors must ponder over logistics that would rarely trouble other travellers.
They worry about bridges, water levels, dams and even steel cables villagers might stretch across a river to drag a makeshift ferry.
Asian Trails Managing Director Luzi Matzig ventured into the riverboat business last month after observing the successful boat trips on the Irrawaddy River in neighbouring Burma.
With partners from that country he built a teak riverboat and sailed south from Rangoon, hugging the Andaman coast to Singapore and north to the mouth of the Mae Klong River in the Gulf of Thailand.
At an appropriate time he broke a bottle of champagne over the bow of the 16 million baht boat and named it RV River Kwai. It was ready for its maiden voyage to Kanchanaburi from the coastal town of Samut Songkhram, a trip that should have taken two days.
That's when the proposed seven-day upstream trip unravelled. Billed as the river trip of a lifetime, passengers were invited to join a leisurely cruise along the Mae Klong and the length of the Kwae Noi River, all the way to Khao Laem Dam, just 48 km short of the Three-Pagoda Pass.
Two rivers, the Kwae Noi and Kwae Yai flow into the Mae Klong near the town of Kanchanaburi, a two-day sail from the estuary at Samut Songkhram.
It turned out to be a more leisurely affair than the itinerary had suggested when the luxury vessel left the coastal port for its maiden voyage upriver.
Mr Matzig got his first real test of river sailing when the captain called to say there wasn't enough water to sail upstream. Even with its shallow draft of just 90 cm, the 10-cabin vessel was running aground on sandbanks. The Mae Klong was proving a mite too mean with its water flow.
In fact it wasn't Mother River's fault at all. Engineers had much earlier completed a massive commercial project that cut a canal just south of Kanchanaburi to siphon off tons of water to quench the thirst of Bangkokians and towns west of the capital.
Instead of powering up the Mae Klong, the boat had to wait for the daily ration of water that was released to irrigate the farms downstream of Kanchanaburi. So the boat rose and rode on the ebb and flow determined by river authorities. It even took a few telephone calls to plead for a few more additional minutes to see the boat through the sandbars.
By the time the teakwood board sailed under the historic River Kwai Bridge, its owners had already decided to whittle the trip down to three nights. RV River Kwai had found a new homeport at the confluence of the Kwae Noi and Kwae Yai.
Its designers had made allowances for the next problem: three low-slung bridges that, depending on the river height, would force the crew to winch the upper deck as flat as a pancake.
For most of us the prospect of flattening a deck and re-assembling it would be enough to turn our thoughts to trouble-free tour buses, but not for Mr Matzig's boat builders and venture partners.
They designed an ingenious winching system that used the power of the anchor mechanism to lower the upper deck and raise it after sailing under the obstacle.
Conveniently passengers alight after morning coffee for a daily tour to nearby attractions while the crew conduct acrobatics with the deck.
None the wiser, the guests return for a buffet lunch on the upper deck and back there in the distance they might just be able to see the outline of a bridge that should have lopped off everything above the brass railings.
Three times such obstacles test the patience of the crew. Also with the rise of water levels during the rainy season, a wide-awake tourist might one early morning see a quaint teakwood ferry carrying off a footbridge into the dawn mist.
Just as the captain thought he had a clear run to the Khao Laem Dam, with all three bridges behind, he noticed villagers had strung a steel cable to guide a makeshift ferry across the river. It took a round of delicate negotiations to convince the villagers to raise the cable to allow the boat to pass. That painstaking exercise will need to be repeated on each leg of the up- and downstream trips and will probably require a few cases of beer to raise the energy levels on shore.
Commercial cruises begin later this month with a maximum capacity of 20 passengers per sailing.
Predictably, Mr Matzig points out that most of the really interesting tourist sights are north of Kanchanaburi, so cutting the tour to three nights and four days rather than seven nights is not a major setback.
There are two cruise options upstream and downstream. Travellers can book the standard cruise which features half-day mini-bus excursions to visit the tourist sites near the river, while the boat steams along to the next meeting point.
All meals and overnight stays are on board in what the company describes as teakwood state cabins.
Golfers are a target audience too. Instead of them taking a side trip to the museum, or an elephant trek, they are whisked off for a daily round of golf at one of three River Kwae valley courses. They return for the cocktail hour to view the river from their luxury boat and ponder over the game planned for tomorrow.
Chefs prepare a buffet spread in the galley and waiters serve drinks. The further the boat sails the quieter the valley becomes until it reaches Ban Hin Dad where the cruise ends.
Until this October a one-way trip costs US369.80 per person (sharing a twin cabin) or add US$106.30 for single occupancy.
A charter will cost US$5,780 for a maximum of 20 passengers sharing twin cabins, or US$289 each. Prices include transfer ex-Bangkok, all meals and sightseeing land tours.
A drop in bookings from the European market due to the Sars panic means there are berths for the taking at least until this October. For more details take a look at www.cruiseasia.com.
- Readers can e-mail Don Ross at
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