Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady River

Irrawaddy, River, Ayeyarwady, Myanmar, video, Burma, cruise, delta,
flotilla, Mandalay, people, travel.

- The waters of the Irrawaddy River come down from the mountains in northern Myanmar the offshoots of the Himalaya.

The Irrawaddy moves down seaward into the huge delta, the waters from eternal snow sink with the Irrawaddy into the ocean. 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. Its importance as the artery of Myanmar or Burma and the beauty of its waters that mirror the sky and great tropical sunsets reflecting the colors.

A great painter or photographer might travel the Irrawaddy and picture this great river. The Ayeyarwady as the river is known in Myanmar language is also a great travel and cruise destination.

There is no Irrawaddy Flotilla anymore but great river panoramas at Mandalay with bust people. The top cruise tour is done from Bagan to Mandalay and vice versa with the "Road to Mandalay" river cruiser. Open up sights and sounds how Myanmar Buddhist live on the banks of the river.

- Myanmar's lifeline is the Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river.

The Thiri Ayayar or Glory of the Ayeyarwady or Irrawaddy in a delta waterway - picture below -. This Irrawaddy double decker plying the delta routes is a legacy of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, Glasgow, Scotland whose fleet plied the more than 8,000 kilometers of navigable waters of Myanmar’s Chindwin, Thanlwin, Sittang and the Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady rivers.

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 Irrawaddy or 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 established an administration which used these ships and barges for their own purposes.

ayeyarwady riveror irrawaddy double decker river ship
Ayeyarwady river or Irrawaddy double decker river ship

Ayeyarwady - Irrawaddy life on the river, Irrawaddy.

A team of Scots took over the small fleet on the Irrawaddy and established the “Irrawaddy Flotilla Company” in 1865. Initially the Irrawaddy Flotilla company operated from Yangon to Thayetmyo, a garrison town 350 miles away which marked the northern outpost of the British colony.

Recognizing the value of the Irrawaddy to business in lower Myanmar, especially to the agricultural sector, King Mindon granted permission in 1868 to extend the operation on the Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river 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 Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river. By the time World War II began, the company managed a fleet of some 600 vessels mainly on the Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river.

The “Irrawaddy 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 on the Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river, 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 mainly on the Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river that should have been retired years ago, are gradually being replaced by larger ones bought from China or built locally.

Ayeyarwady - Irrawaddy river in the Delta

But there is still no functioning ship route from Yangon to Mandalay as it was during British times.

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 great Ayeyarwady - Irrawaddy Ayeyarwady river Video, this is the complete version embedded into Adobe Acrobat. Delta Myanmar Burma, Irrawaddy flotilla company.

In line with the policy of building new Ayeyarwady vessels to upgrade and expand its services the IWT has opened several new routes. In January, 1990, the Yangon-Mandalay Express Service was initiated and increased to three runs a month in July, 1992.

A Yangon-Mandalay Market Boat Service on the Ayeyarwady - Irrawaddy river was introduced in March, 1993.Joint ventures with the private sector were formed to operate the Pathein-Yangon delta service and Mandalay-Bhamo service on the Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river and in the delta. By now 10 years later there is no regular service between this cities.

Irrawaddy at Sagaing

- A Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river cruise 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 or Ayeyarwady river cruise for the traveler is between Mandalay and Bagan a unique visual experience.

Visible from the mighty Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river are Ancient Myanmar or Burmese sites, pagodas, temples and remote villages let you enjoy a extraordinary scenery along

The Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river is not the

Irrawaddy at Mandalay

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 Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady 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 Myanmar. Mandalay is an exciting and dynamic city just north of the confluence of the Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river with the Chindwin River. Since British colonial times Myanmar Mandalay has grown into the second biggest city in Myanmar.

Mandalay has bustling urban streets, a large Mandalay 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. A completely rebuilt Mandalay Palace -the old one was hit by a Japanese bomb during WW 2 and plenty of pagodas and temples. In most of the handicraft shops the work is done like always since hundreds of years ago.

Mandalay River Port

Irrawaddy cruising is done with river vessel “Road to Mandalay” 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.

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 Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river is almost made for a great Asian cruise. Other river cruises are possible in the Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady river 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

- One of the great waterway of the world is the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar.

Gliding serenely on a Myanmar Irrawaddy river travel cruise up the narrowing waters around the Hlaing river island, the Ayeyarwady or Irrawaddy around is slow moving, brown in color and large. Our Myanmar river travel leads eastwards and after to the north of Myanmar.

Irrawaddy river travel at Pathein or Bassein

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 Irrawaddy river fishermen try their luck.

Irrawaddy River Fishermen

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 Myanmar travel tour gleam the golden bell-top of the Shwe Dagon, serene, majestic, almost divine, and it is the last object upon which the eyes rest before the ship, swinging out of the main river, enters the narrower channel towards east

Irrawaddy 19.th Century

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. Red villages 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.

Returning rice-boats, high out of the water, lie at anchor, waiting for the tide to take them home, while others with bellying sails and holds 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. Flags and streamers flutter in the air, and slow grey rafts of

Palms and Pagodas at the Irrwaddy

Irrawaddy Canoeing

timber and bamboo, 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.

Irrawaddy River Banks