Irrawaddy Cruise Irrawaddy river Cruise

Irrawaddy cruise, Irrawaddy river cruise, Ayeyarwady cruising

Irrawaddy cruise

We are moving slowly up the mighty Irrawaddy river through the lazy brown water which empties into the Andaman Sea a couple of hundred km down in the delta. Through the gaps in the endless avenues which line the river's banks I 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; the slant sunlight falls with a new glory on the opposite shores, and the face of the river grows beautiful with a lustrous calm.

On our Irrawaddy River Cruise

I cease to ask the names of villages as they pass by, to take account of the passing hours, to count the miles. Nothing seems here of much account beside the dreamy endless river; nothing of any consequence at all in this El Dorado of peace.

A climax comes with the setting of the sun. At this season of the year, when the sky is not overcast with rain, this last hour of the day is inexpressibly beautiful. The river turns to a flood of gold, and the marble clouds become transfigured in mysteries of It would be useless to attempt the description of so much glory in words, the " shadows of a shadow world."

Lastly there comes the night, and the crickets cheep from the thickets and the frogs croak from the marshy fringes of the river. And here it may be noted that this paradise breeds the largest and most virulent mosquitoes in Myanmar. " At this place," wrote an ambassador of England two hundred years ago, " we spent a very comfortless night ; it is a part of the river remarkable for being infested by mosquitoes of an unusual size, and venomous beyond what I ever felt in any other country ; two pair of thick stockings were insufficient to defend my legs from their attacks." As long as the steamers run at full speed the draft made by their movement keeps the enemy at bay ; but the grinding of the anchor chains is a signal for attack, and he invades in hordes. The slow-moving boats of the country fare worst, but a night in the Panhlang creek is an experience that all travelers willingly avoid.

Immensity is now its main characteristic. It trails away from one end of the misty horizon to the other; it dominates the entire landscape, and conveys the impression of a world of waters

As we near Donabyu there is a village on our right protected by embankments against the flood. All along here these embankments exist, and the bed of the river is being slowly lifted above the level of the surrounding lands. Some day the river will burst its bonds and produce great catastrophes.

Ayeyarwady Cruising

The little village is graced with a small pagoda covered with new gold. On the foreshore the village boys play football with such a degree of vivacity and animation as only the laziest people in the world are capable of. Sometimes the football falls into the river, where it bobs helplessly to and fro till it is rescued and sent back ashore with a kick from a naked toe.
The village cattle and the village dogs reflect in their appearance the general prosperity. Wealth is stamped upon every feature of the landscape, and there is room for many millions more than there are at present to share it.

On the farther shore lies Donabyu,

its importance marked by its golden pagoda and its long lines of iron roofs. Facing it is one of the many low-lying islands engulfed by the river in its flood season. It is covered with a dense forest of river-grass, which bends under the breeze, and is blown about like the tresses of a girl. Here as all along the river the peingaws, drawn ashore and loftier than the houses, or propelled by twenty rowers, or flying like great birds up the river with the gale behind them, are the feature of every landscape and objects of perpetual interest. Myanmar craftsmanship has produced nothing to surpass them

Donabyu (White-Peacock Town) has played its part in history, and one cannot pass it by without thinking of the brave Bandoola, who tried all in vain to stem the tide of British invasion. Yangon had already fallen and the hopes of the country were centered in the little town with its fortress and its garrison of fifteen thousand men.

killed or wounded. General Cotton then retreated down the river waiting for reinforcements.

Sir Archibald Campbell, the Commander in Chief,

who was advancing north up the valley of the Hlaing, fell back, established his headquarters at Henzada and proceeded down the river. On arrival before Donabyu he constructed batteries of heavy artillery, the enemy making numerous sorties with a view of interrupting the work. When the batteries were completed they opened a fire of shot, shell, and rockets, and next day the Myanmar’s were discovered to be in full retreat. This was subsequently found to be due to the death of Bandoola, who had been killed by the bursting of a shell." -'

Again, a little later, a Dacoit chief held for a little while a British colonial force at bay at Donabyu. But the tale is an old one fading swiftly into the past. The rice-fields in their season wave yellow in the midst of Bandoola's entrenchments, and a grave or two and lines of grass-covered ramparts are all that survive of that episode. Two hours north of Donabyu there become visible for the first time the blue outlines of those hills which henceforth to the uttermost northern frontier are never absent from the landscape.