Some Places Are Best Seen From the Deck of a Cruise Ship By Wendy Determan number of destinations are so moving or awe-inspiring that to discover them any other way than by ship is either intrusive or impossible. You can experience Alaska's Inside Passage and the Panama Canal only from the water. A cruise provides a means of discovering the essence of a place without treading too heavily on the landscape. Vietnam Deserted warships are the ghosts of the Mekong River Delta. The even motion of the river presses around their frozen stillness.
Voices drift over the water as rain begins to fall.
Slender girls in long white dresses with schoolbags draped across their shoulders appear from the shadows of the trees and stare at our ship as we cruise slowly down the river. With only 296 passengers, the ship is small and very private. It's so unobtrusive that when passengers go ashore, they fade into the cities. The ship moves gently through the country, slipping in and out of harbors and attracting almost no attention. Like the wind.