Newly built from scratch and open to the public NOW – the “Bonsai I” wooden royal dragon boat – a wee bit out of the ordinary
Dragon Boat:
“Bonsai I” the multi purpose dragon boat is built to follow its slogan “events–dining and more”. It serves as an event dining and conference center in lieu of the meetings in four tedious and containing walls as well as for private parties and dining spectacles for the public on a regular basis. “Bonsai I” stands for the biggest existing dragon boat in Vietnam and is a replica of a royal Vietnamese-style dragon boat dating back to the 19th century. By that time, such dragon boats used to be in sole possession of the Vietnamese emperors. The design and artistry are oriental royal but the internal decoration is after occidental aristocratic fairyland manners.
Made of high class “Sao” wood (Hopea odorata) from Khanh Hoa Province and built from scratch in 2004, the boat is 40 meters long, 9 meters wide and about 11 meters high. The wooden dining and meeting platform can carry up to 170 passengers next to its 50 piece-crew and weighs over 340 tons. The three decks are occupied by 3 stylish bars (Cocktail Lounge, Village Bar), the large buffet and dining deck, live cooking stations, show stage, wheel house, toilets, cabins and a fully operated kitchen – a real jewel.
“Hoa Mai” Orchestra “east meets west”
Get entertained and delighted by our well– known traditional Viet-namese Orchestra “Hoa Mai”. The 6-member band is famous for its traditional folk music nationwide and performs on such exotic instruments like the stone-xylophone, clapping bamboo, Champa-drums, 36-string guitar, Chinese guitar and last but not least the funny and astonishing mono-string violin. Nevertheless you won’t get stressed out by Vietnamese music – “east meets west” is the name of the program – rocking and shaking classic western tunes will add few more highlights to the cruise-experience.
Once the boat approaches its harbor the lights are getting dimmed and the show comes to its highlight with the neon-enlightened Champa-drums show.
sound samples to download: Sample 1 – Sample 2 – Sample 3
Crew and Management
Above all is the unexpected fascination of the elegant and well-mannered service of the professional waiters and crew on board. The friendly crew is well– trained and capable of handling 8 Languages on board such as English, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian as well as Viet-namese. The crew (50 in total) consists of captain, sailors, service crew, bartender, the “Hoa Mai” orchestra, executive chef, cooks, massager, and our Master of Ceremony.
Last but not least – the Austrian Management with Mr. Stefan Ernest (Austria) and his charming (Sales and Marketing manager).