The water of the
Irrawaddy
come
down from the
mountains of
northern Myanmar at
Kachin State,
offshoots of the
Tibetan Himalaya.
This
great Irrawaddy river
moves down seaward
into a wide delta.
Waters from
eternal snow sink into the Indian Ocean or
Andaman Sea. It is
not easy to describe
this waterway,
the best description
is to have a look at
the pictures and
videos here and
this
Irrawaddy river
pictures. This
waterway is the
artery of
Burma
and the exotic beauty of
the scenery on the
banks and
further inland is
amazing.
A painter or
photographer who
travel the waterway
will find awesome
scenes for great pictures. The
Ayeyarwady as it is
known in Burmese language is
also a great cruise
destination.
The
Irrawaddy Flotilla
Company
which was run by
some Scottish during
colonial times is
not anymore,
sandbanks moved in
since then and
navigation the water today over long
distances is only
possible with small
ships. Great
panoramas are
waiting. The top
cruise tour on this
Myanmar river is
done from Bagan to
Mandalay and vice
versa with the "Road
to Mandalay" and
other cruise ships,
it open up
sights and sounds.
The Irrawaddy
river is Myanmar's lifeline
where the
ships move, the people take their water,
wash in the morning and late afternoon
plus more. The double decker (pics in the
slide show) plying the delta routes is
a legacy of the
Flotilla Company,
Glasgow, Scotland whose fleet plied the
more than 8,000 kilometers of navigable
waters of Chindwin, Thanlwin, Sittang and the Ayeyarwady.
When the British launched their second
campaign against Burma the East India
Company supplied four cargo steamers and
a few barges to be used on
the Ayeyarwady in the war, check the
Irrawaddy Map.
The waterway
became more important when the
British took control of lower Burma
and established an
administration which used these ships and
barges for their own
purposes. A team of Scots took over
the small
fleet during colonial times and established
the 'Irrawaddy Flotilla Company' in 1865.
Initially the Flotilla company operated from
Yangon to Thayetmyo and on another Myanmar
river, a garrison town 350
miles away which marked the northern outpost
of the British colony. At that time many
Irrawaddy dolphins where still seen, they
are almost gone today.
Recognizing the value
of the waterway especially to
the agricultural sector, since everything was moved
on the Irrawaddy and the other big waterways
such as the Chindwin a tributary to the
Irrawaddy. King Mindon granted permission in
1868 to extend the operation up to Mandalay.
By 1885 all was under British control and the
“Irrawaddy Flotilla Company” extended their
routes to Bhamo on the Ayeyarwady. By
the time World War II began, the company
managed a fleet of some 600 vessels mainly
on the Ayeyarwady. The “Flotilla
Company” ceased operations by 1948 and the
fleet was taken over by the Inland Water
Irrawaddy River
Delta
East of Shwebo
Irrawaddy ferries
Transport Department of the government (IWT).
Of the 353 mechanically powered
vessels and ferries operated 292
have exceeded their specified
serviceable life. In the case of
engine-less vessels, 184 of 266
exceeded normal service and 52 of 69
pontoons, piers and jetties had also
outlived usual service periods by
the end of the former century.
Older vessels that should have
been retired years ago, are
gradually being replaced by
larger ones bought from
China or built locally, find
a Irrawaddy video in the video
section.
This
is one of
the great waterways
of the world. Gliding serenely on a cruise up the narrowing waters around the Hlaing island, the water is slow moving, brown
in color and large. Our travel leads
eastwards and after to the north. Yangon
the capital already seems far away and the true
Burma is unfolding before the eyes. The air blows
free here over the wide fields, green with the young
rice ; the little villages deploy on the water's
edge ; the beautiful
Burma travel
Double decker
Myanmar river ship
on the
Irrawaddy
or Ayeyarwady
long boats of the people lie at anchor like ships of
the Vikings, or drawn up ashore mingling in the
landscape with the gardens and the palms and the brown
house-tops and we enjoy this unique Burmese travel. The
spires of lonely monasteries are like travel marks in
the air, monks go by in small canoes under a nimbus
of yellow glory shed by their umbrellas.
The fishers spread their net's over the water, sailing-boats slowly move by
and the white gleams of their sails flash
over the country-side as they sweep along
their waterway. They look very beautiful and
a little mysterious, for the creeks lie low
below the level of the fields, the sails are
the only pattern the air and some
Irrawaddy fishermen try their luck.
Some Myanmar river banks are
broken down into the water and vast
plantations of toddy palm's, whose
green and orange blades curve and shimmer under every
breath of the passing wind. A full hour is accomplished before the ship gets clear
of the suburbs of Yangon, and into the heart of the
country. Near Yangon itself there is a different
picture,
scarcely less attractive ; for the waterway pulses there with the life of
a great city bordering the Indian Ocean. Irrawaddy cargo-boats
heavily laden, move slowly ; sampans move up and down
the channel, bobbing on the waves like gulls ; rice
mills sit like amphibians at the edge of the water,
their pent and gabled roofs glistening with yellow dust.
Clouds of
Irrawaddy delta rice
boats
dark smoke trail away from their lofty chimneys, dun
cataracts of husk pour incessantly from their
waste-pipes to see the stuff floating helplessly away to
sea. From the mills the Myanmar river banks slope down
to where the peingaws and the gnaws ride buoyantly at
anchor, and a living stream of men flows to and from
between. Very swiftly the rice is borne away from their
holds near the Myanmar river, the rice boats are packed
and slowly moves downstream to unload the cargo into a
Yangon storage, along the waterway some bridges orchards
and vegetables, rice field and plenty of people can be
seen.
Over our
cruise
gleam the golden bell-top of the
Shwedagon, serene,
majestic, almost divine, and it is the last object
upon which the eyes rest before the ship, swinging
out of the waterway, read more about the
Shwedagon. As we move on at the Irrawaddy
minor incidents unfold themselves,
each with its inner significance.
I note the superiority of the
iron-roofed monasteries over the
humble tenements of the villages and
the prominent houses of the headmen,
pushing his way to fortune. Farmer
plough through the slush to the
water's edge, the headmen makes for himself a wooden
causeway.
The villages, each like a little
ruddy-purple island in a vast
wind-ruffled Irrawaddy delta. Creek after creek
leads inland to other centers of life and vistas of
shining palms and pagodas and
winding water. Gradually the face of the
landscape changes, the Irrawaddy river passing
slowly from a tidal creek to an inland water. No
longer does my vision range over vast deltaic
spaces. The mightiest trees, dark and splendid,
clothe both banks.
Miles of glistening plantings follow its curves, and hedges of tall
grass wave over the lips of the water,
sometimes the view opens to a village at the Ayeyarwady banks. There
is, in spite of tropic exuberance, a regularity
and order in the scenery which give it a park-like
character is a great tropical experience, the only
real problems are the mosquitoes an other insects.
passes
Burmese villages with palms and pagodas appear at
intervals between the water and the lines of trees, as
the ship goes by little children bare as Adam in his
better days, dance and clap their hands and mimic the
chant of the leadsman as he calls
the deeps of the
channel. The more curious of the village folk come out
of their houses to look at the passing show and make
remarks about the tourists on the steamer. Rice-boats
are slowly moving, high out of the water, lie at anchor,
waiting for the tide to take them home, while others
with bellying sails and rice boats full to the brim move
down. A stray launch sends her shrill whistle down the
lane of waters some are just canoeing. Flags and
streamers flutter in the air, and slow grey rafts of
timber and
bamboo, the product of primeval
forests, float down the yellow stream. It is yellow
and thick with loam, and far away on the fringes of
the ocean it is building up a new world as in bygone
days it built up all that the eye now rests upon
here. Through the gaps in the endless avenues which
line the water's banks we get a glimpse of the world
of tropic splendor that lies beyond. Heart-shaped
creepers cluster up the giant trunks of trees,
parrots shriek, and kingfishers tremble in the air.
An added richness of color comes with the afternoon.
The trees in shadow gather new depths of green, and
look as if they were cut in velvet at the side of
this Myanmar river.
This Myanmar river
is not the longest waterway in Asia but the
absolute lifeline of the people.
Coming down from the high peaks
of the northern mountains, the
Irrawaddy river flows southwards and
emptying the brown water into
the
Andaman Sea through the
wide
delta around Yangon. The
water is historically,
culturally, and
economically very
important to the
country. Luxury Irrawaddy river cruises
usually start or end in
Mandalay
or the ancient pagoda city of
Bagan.
Mandalay is an exciting and
dynamic city just north of the
confluence with the Chindwin,
after British
colonial times
Mandalay has grown into
the second biggest
city in the country. Life in Burma is always
somehow related to this Myanmar river from
the mountain extensions of the Tibetan
Himalayas to the green waters of the Andaman
Sea.
Cruises Bagan-Mandalay
are probably the most
interesting.
There are two more
sightseeing vessel
operators between Mandalay and Bagan using refurbished old
colonial steamer who already did
their Irrawaddy river cruise under the
Irrawaddy Flotilla Company
of the 19th century, but still going strong,
refurbished colonial steamers are still
used.
This stretch of
the Irrawaddy is almost made for a great
Asian cruise. Other cruises are
possible in the delta
between Yangon and the Bassein
or Pathein, as it was known
under the British. A beautiful
journey through the huge paddy
tracks of the delta,
more.
Irrawaddy River Cruises
Bagan
Ayeyarwady
life
with ancient Burmese sites,
pagodas, temples and remote villages let you enjoy a
extraordinary scenery,
more.
A cruise around Mandalay
is a absolute top
journey passing Amarapura, Sagaing and Mingun. Mandalay
has a large port with lots of ships, bamboo rafts and
teak logs show the pictures of a great Asian city.
Modern houses and
Mandalay hotels,
plus a very interesting old quarter around the
Mahamuni
Temple and Pagoda, read
more.
The
cruise is done with the
vessel 'Road
to Mandalay' among others, operated by the
Orient Express Company from Britain. They are very
expensive but if you have enough cash on your account
this is one of the events worth to spend it, it's a
experience of a lifetime,
more.
This waterway is the
biggest in the country but not the only big waterway,
there is the Chindwin which merges in south of Mandalay.
The
Salween, Sittang,
Mekong,
Kaladan
and more.
Irrawaddy delta
Irrawaddy
Flotilla Company
Irrawady
Flotilla Company Bagan
Some waterways near the border to
Thailand have a huge potential to generate electricity
by blocking the Sittang and Salween since the
topology is very favorable at the border area to
Thailand where both waterways move from north to south
but there is a fierce opposition to this projects
since they still know what happen on the Thai side
when they built their dams in Kanchanaburi province,
the problem was that the Thai electricity generating
company is a "state in a state" they do what they
want and they didn't care a lot about the local
population and almost no compensations were paid for
the huge tracts of lands which were flooded. This
Thai company was behind some projects on the Myanmar
side which were blocked by the locals, because they
know very well it is not possible to trust this
company. Tweet
