When in 2016, Pandaw became the first Western river expedition operator to break into Southern China, we were following ' as befits our company heritage ' in famous Scottish footsteps.

Our Mekong: From Laos to China itinerary allows our passengers to experience the floral glories of Yunnan, the Southern Chinese province known as The Kingdom of Plants, once the hunting-ground of George Forrest, one of the greatest of all the 'plant hunters'. It is this opportunity to enter the horticultural Aladdin's cave that Forrest first revealed over a century ago that makes this unique 14-day expedition unmissable by all serious gardeners.

If any of the highland plants encountered on day excursions from the MV Laos Pandaw and the new Sabei Pandaw, as they ply the upper Mekong en route to and from Jinghong, that is because of the mass of botanical trophies that Forrest brought back to Britain in the early 1900s. The specimens that were catalogued by the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh were to thrive in his native soil and proved hugely influential in determining how Britain gardens for generations afterwards.