Myanmar
River
Irrawaddy
River Ayeyarwady
Irrawaddy
Burmese
Myanmar
river,
Irrawaddy,
Ayeyarwady.
The
water of the Irrawaddy River
come
down from the
mountains of
northern Myanmar,
offshoots of the
Tibetan Himalaya.
This
great 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
the Irrawaddy river, 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 Myanmar or
Burma
and the exotic beauty of
the scenery on the
riverbanks and
further inland is
amazing.
A painter or
photographer who
travel the waterway
will find awesome
scenes for great pictures. The
Ayeyarwady as the
river is known in
Myanmar language is
also a great cruise
destination. The
Irrawaddy Flotilla
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
river panoramas are
waiting. The top
cruise tour is
done from Bagan to
Mandalay and vice
versa with the "Road
to Mandalay" river
cruiser, this cruise
open up sights and
sounds how Myanmar
people
live on the banks of
the river.
This is Myanmar's lifeline
where the
Thiri Ayayar or Glory of the Ayeyarwady
moves, the people drink, water plants,
wash in the morning and late afternoon
and more. The double decker (pics below) 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 Myanmar's Chindwin, Thanlwin, Sittang and the Ayeyarwady.
When the British launched their
second campaign against Myanmar,
the
East India Company supplied four cargo
steamers and a few barges to be used on
the Ayeyarwady river in the war, check the
Irrawaddy Map. The Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river
became more important when the
British took control of lower Myanmar
and
Double decker river ship
on the
Irrawaddy
or Ayeyarwady river
established an
administration which used these ships and
barges for their own purposes.
A team of Scots took over the small river
fleet during colonial times and established
the 'Irrawaddy Flotilla Company' in 1865.
Initially the Flotilla company operated from
Yangon to Thayetmyo, 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 river to business in lower
Myanmar, especially to the agricultural
sector, King Mindon granted permission in
1868 to extend the operation up to Mandalay.
During the reign of King Thibaw, in 1882,
the company was given the concession to
expand
operations to the Chindwin river. By 1885 all of
Myanmar was under British control and the
“Irrawaddy Flotilla Company” extended their
routes to Bhamo on the Ayeyarwady river. By
the time World War II began, the company
managed a fleet of some 600 vessels mainly
on the Ayeyarwady river.
The “Flotilla
Company” ceased operations by 1948 and the
fleet was taken over by the Inland Water
Transport Department of the government (IWT).
Many of the passenger and cargo vessels are
now old and rundown, needing repair or
replacement.
Of the 353 mechanically powered vessels
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.
Delta
In June, 1993 IWT contracted with Yunnan
Machinery Import and Export Corporation (YMIEC) to build 14 vessels in China
and 28 barges in
Myanmar.
Three triple-decker and two push-tugs were received from YMIEC in January,
1995 and havebeen put into service.
Here is the
video, this is the complete version embedded
into Adobe Acrobat.
Expanding services in the
delta and opening new
routes, not only on this
waterway, the country has
several of them. In
January,1990, the
Yangon-Mandalay Express
Service was initiated and increased to three runs a
month.
A
Yangon-Mandalay
market boat service
was introduced in 1993. Joint ventures with the
private sector were formed to operate the Pathein-Yangon delta service and
Mandalay-Bhamo
service on the river and in the delta.
By now almost 20 years later there is still no regular service between this cities.
is a journey back
in time, just the right trip to discover
the nature, the beauty of the
country and the life of Myanmar
people. The main Irrawaddy river cruise for
the traveler is
between Mandalay and Bagan a unique visual
experience,
more.
Irrawaddy river
life
with ancient
Myanmar or Burmese
sites, pagodas, temples
and remote villages let
you enjoy a
extraordinary scenery,
more.
the longest river in Asia but the
absolute lifeline of the Myanmar people.
Coming down from the high peaks
of the Myanmar Himalayas, the
river flows southwards and
emptying the brown water into
the
Myanmar Andaman Sea through the huge
delta around Yangon. The
river is
historically, culturally, and
economically very important to
Myanmar or Burma.
The 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 of the river with the
Chindwin River. Since British
colonial times
Myanmar Mandalay has
grown into the second biggest
city in Myanmar.
Irrawaddy river cruise
Mandalay
is a absolute top
journey on the river
passing Amarapura,
Sagaing and Mingun.
Mandalay has a large river
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.
A
completely rebuilt
Mandalay Palace
-the old one was hit by
a Japanese bomb during
WW 2.
Mandalay River Port
Irrawaddy
cruise
with tourists is done
with river 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
Irrawaddy
cruises Bagan
are probably the most
interesting.
There are two more
sightseeing river vessel
operators between Mandalay and
Bagan using refurbished old
colonial steamer who already did
their river cruise under the
Irrawaddy Flotilla Company of
the 19th century, but still
going strong. This stretch of
the
river is almost made for a great
Asian cruise. Other river 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.
Here
is one of our Irrawaddy Videos.
One of
the great waterway of the world.
Gliding serenely on a
Myanmar river travel cruise up the narrowing
waters around the Hlaing river island, the
water is slow moving, brown
in color and large. Our Myanmar river travel leads
eastwards and after to the north of Myanmar. Yangon the capital
already seems far away and the true Myanmar 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 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 Myanmar river travel. The spires of lonely
monasteries are like Myanmar
Irrawaddy travel marks in
the air, the monks go by in small canoes,
under a nimbus of yellow glory shed by their
umbrellas. The fishers spread their net's
over the river. 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
fishermen try their luck.
The 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 into our
Myanmar river travel 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 river pulses there with the life of a great
city bordering the Indian Ocean. 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 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 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.
Over our
Irrawaddy river
tour
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 main river, read more about the
Shwedagon.
As we move on, the minor
incidents of Myanmar travel 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 house of
the Chinaman, pushing his way to fortune. Myanmar
farmer plough through the slush to the river's edge,
the Chinaman 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
Irrawaddy Delta and
Pagoda
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 of the river. Miles of glistening
plantains follow its curves, and hedges of tall
river-grass wave over the lips of the water. There
is, in spite
of tropic
exuberance, a regularity and order in the scenery which give
it a park-like character.
Brown
Burmese villages
with palms and pagodas appear at intervals
between the river and the lines of trees, and 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 Myanmar
travel tourists on the steamer.
On the
Irrawaddy Burmese
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 with
rice, go gallantly down to their traffic with the world. 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,
Palms and Pagodas Canoeing and
rice boats
the produce 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 river'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.
River Banks
Irrawaddy Cruise
Irrawaddy
river life goes on in the same way aa
it aöways was since hundreds of years. The
sailing boats, rowing sampans and some
modern but almost rotten steamer and other
engine driven vessels move slowly on this mighty
river, more.
