Pandaw River Cruises, the Singapore based company that is domiciled in England, will widen its range of cruises in Burma and India plus introduce a series of 14 night cruises on the Amazon.

The company, which traces its roots back to 1866, will add the River Salween to its Burmese river cruise programme. From October 2016 to the following march, the company will offer a series of seven night cruises on the longest river in Burma, of which only about 100 miles are navigable.

The programme includes land transfer from Rangoon to Hpa-An via the Golden Rock at Kyalktiko and a cruise from Moulmein to Hpa-An, with the downstream itinerary operating in reverse.

The company will also add a series of seven night cruises on the south coast of Burma to its portfolio, using a 12 passenger sea going yacht called Drenec. The itinerary will include Moulmein, Tavoy, Mergui and Kawthanung. And departures run from 3 February to 9 March next year.

In India, where Pandaw has already introduced a series of cruises on the Brahmaputra river, it will add a 17 night cruise between Kolkata and Varanasi on the Ganges, with departure on 15 October.

Pandaw will also include the Amazon its its programme by offering a series of 14 night fly cruise holidays that include three nights in Rio de janeiro, followed by flight to Iguacu Falls and then another one to Santarem, with four ports of call in the lower Amazonian region.

Pandaw River Cruises is the trading name of The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company. Originally founded by Scottish merchants in Burma in 1865, it built a large fleet of vessels that traded on the rivers of the country, until Japanese invasion in 1942 forced it to scuttle its entire fleet of 650 ships. After the war, the company was not revived for a long time.

A Singapore based Scotsman with links to the company restarted it in 1995 and re-registered it in the UK. It currently owns 12 ships and operates a number of others through partnership arrangements.