Heading up the Irrawaddy River

21^st April 2013

An early start to beat the heat is the plan for the day, so we are on the bus at 7am, and will have breakfast when we return to the ship at around 9.30am, after which we set sail up river.

By the time everyone makes it to the bus, we don’t leave till 7.15am, and arrive at Shwezigon Pagoda about 15 minutes later. It is quite spectacular, with lots of gold leaf covering and a surprising amount of activity for this hour of the morning.

We find ourselves in the middle of an initiation ceremony for young novices who will become monks, and it is quite a colourful affair. It seems a whole village is involved, as it is cheaper to do it in bulk rather than individually. All young males in Myanmar go through the process before they are 19 years of age, but they need only be a monk for a minimum of 1 day.

Next we go to the main market , Nyaung –Oo Market, which at this time of the morning is a hive of activity. Whilst most markets are similar, there is always a few new things to see, particularly at a food market.

These women are cutting lengths od wood from which the bark is ground up and used as sunblock

Bamboo shoots

Betel Leaves imaginatively displayed

             No child minding service here, so the baby hangs in a hammock above the stall

               You can see the make up on the womens' faces that is made from the crushed bark

Finally we go to our last temple in Bagan, before we move up river, the Hti-lo Min-Lo Temple.

On our way back to the ship, we stop along the side of the road to get a last couple of pictures of the temples, from ground level. It helps illustrate just how many there are and how close together they are.

And how dry and dusty the landscape is.

Back to the ship by 9.30am, we cast off almost immediately and head upstream against a 3 knot current. The river is quite shallow, and we draw 2 metres. The path up river is tortuous, as we weave our way from one side to the other following the channel, which needs to be remarked weekly. The main markers are bamboo poles sticking out of the water and some other temporary navigation marks on shore. In many places we go so very close to the shore, which in a ship this size, feels very strange.

At one particularly shallow patch, the zodiac is launched and the crew goes ahead, sounding the depth with marked bamboo poles and the ship follows them through the shallows. This went on for about half an hour.

Depth sounder  pole being dipped on the left side of the zodiac

Once back in clear water we pass under a very, very long bridge across the river and eventually anchor in the middle of the river at around 6.30pm. Navigation at night is not on apparently.

During the afternoon sail, there is a demonstration of a few local customs including how to wear the local dress (a type of sarong called a Longyi), and how to apply the local make up, which is a paste made from the bark of a tree. It is supposedly a very efficient sunblock, and keeps you wrinkle free.

Mike models the longyi

Also in the afternoon, one of the guides gave a very interesting talk about life in Myanmar, and filled in some more detail on our cruise and what we should see along the way. We have already seem a fair bit of activity along the river, so it was good to be able to explanations of some of the things we saw.

There is a cocktail party on the upper deck from 6.30 to 7.30 pm, followed by dinner.