Toum Tiou Review
Lovely, enriching experience with Road Scholar on Toum Tiou along the Mekong
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My friend and I sailed on the Toum Tiou from December 6-13, 2022 as part of a Road Scholar tour from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap on the Mekong. We had a Vietnamese guide provided by Road Scholar who was excellent, along with two specialist Cambodian guides -- one for the Mekong and Phnom Penh and the other for Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and the other sites nearby. All were excellent and I think that the two Cambodian guides may have been part of the boat arrangements but it wasn't clear since we were part of a Road Scholar program and it was all seamless.
The Toum Tiou has a wonderful crew of Cambodians -- all very friendly and eager to please though with limited English. The bartender, main server at meals, and chief purser were our main contacts and spoke some English. All were very kind and tried to respond to every need, given limited resources at times. On our last night, we had a dance party together (we were a group of 13 -- about the same size as the crew) and these 20-40 something Cambodians got all of us 55-75 year olds dancing and laughing with them. One evening we were treated to a lovely and skilled Aspara Dance performance up on the top deck with live traditional music. I will concentrate on the boat itself and the crew since our program and tours were not organized by the cruise line directly, but by Road Scholar.
The ship, or call it a boat, is very small -- just 10 passenger cabins, six on the main deck and 4 at "duck level." Each has two narrow bunks -- not quite as wide as twin beds, a tiny closet, tiny desk and stool and in some cabins a very narrow two drawer table between the bunks. In some cabins where there was a slight narrowing, there was no table between the beds at all which was difficult because the only outlet for charging devices was at that end of the cabin. All is dark wood, highly varnished. There was under bed storage for the suitcases which really had to be used as drawers, too and the doors to these spaces were very awkward. Bedding was nice enough and cabins were made up quickly each day while we were at breakfast.
Cabin Review
See above. The only difference in cabin class was the level and I would certainly try to get a main floor cabin rather than duck level. I'd also try to be positioned away from the anchor chain which was very noisy at 5:30 a.m. on two days of the cruise.