Cruising the Irrawaddy

To get from Mandalay to our next destination, Bagan, we had several transit options: bus, train, plane, or boat.  The choice was obvious - what could be better than a 10 hour cruise down the Irrawaddy?  We took the tourist boat Shwei Kennery.  There is another option, which my brother did years ago, that is the "slow boat" and takes two days, but it didn't depart the day we wanted to leave.  And I wasn't sure I wanted to spend two days on the river in any case!  The tourist boat used to leave 'a couple times a season', but there's enough tourists now - even in the shoulder season - that it departs daily.

Hardworking local women carry the suitcases of a French tour group onto the boat.

The captain contemplates the river ahead before we left the dock.  It is the dry season, so there are many sandbars to contend with, along with all the river traffic. His careful attention was essential.

Cruise coffee in British colonial style.

The sun rose over Mandalay as we were departing.

The Irrawaddy is Burma's original superhighway and has lots of traffic.  Barges of logs and food and who knows what else are run up and down the river, which is also plied by fishing boats, local ferries, long distance ferries, and dredgers.  It's a busy and exciting place, with no shortage of activity to watch.

Typical Irrawaddy traffic.  People live in the house on the right.

Lounge chairs for our voyage.

An incredible collection of temples in the ancient capital of Amarapura.

Did I mention it was dry season and the river was riddled with sandbars?

No navigation worries with sophisticated temporary channel markers like these!

Despite all kinds of zigzagging tactics by our captain, it was probably inevitable that we were going to run aground at some point.  And we did.

Checking the river depth at the front of the boat, currently wedged onto a sandbar.  Only about a metre!  The 'depth sounder' broke at the next stop when a woman disembarking the boat tried to use it as a handrail.  Luckily we didn't need it again.

Happily, with a lot of shouting back and forth and churning up the sandbar whilst backing up, we were on our way in only about 15 minutes.

The cruise was not only relaxing, but a great way to see how people live along its banks.  Certainly much different than Yangon or Mandalay - more rural, and much poorer.

It seems a bit futile to be doing your laundry in this water. But it seems to work.

Vacuums suck up dirt from the river bottom and deposit it onto sieves in these boats. Not sure what they were after, but perhaps freshwater shellfish?

Flat, dusty plains behind me as far as the eye can see.

The sun is setting, but we're not there yet!

It ended up being about eleven hours before we caught our first glimpse of the temples of Bagan.  The cruise was totally worth it.  A lovely way to spend a day, and much better than a highly air conditioned bus with blaring political speeches (yet to come), a bucking bronco of a train, or a plane with a questionable safety record.  Highly recommended if you make it to Burma!

Hello, Bagan!