Cruising the Ayeyarwady River

We cast off and moved into the center of the Ayeyarwady River (formerly referred to as the Irrawaddy) channel and began to power upstream on this gentle moving river. The river serves as a welcome metaphor, a river of respite from the turmoil around us. Only the sound and vibration of our ship’s engines violate the quiet, as they power us towards the northern-most stop at Bhamo.

After a few quiet moments and time to settle into our cabins, we met the 48-person crew and staff of our home away from home for the next 11 days, the river boat Anawrahta. There are only 26 passengers on board, including a freelance writer for a travel magazine, and a three-person photography team retained by the cruise line to film and photograph our trip for a promotional video and brochure. It looks to be an exceptional experience.

As a start, let me frame the 11-day voyage. Our cruise started in Mandalay, which is about halfway down the length of the river. We will cruise upstream to a town never visited by a cruise ship, Bhamo, before doubling back, passing Mandalay on our way to our final destination, Bagan, located 250 miles downstream. Each day we will stop at different villages along the way, exploring and learning. A smaller ship with a very shallow draft will accompany us the whole way and will be used to get us on shore. There are no docks at any of the stops. The smaller ship will allow us to get close – close enough to drop a plank to reach the shore.

Our small shuttle boat to reach shore.

The Ayeyarwady River is the largest river in the country and flows north to south through the center of Myanmar. The thousand-mile long river serves as the main commercial waterway, moving goods up and down the country before emptying into the Indian Ocean. It starts at the confluence of two rivers, the Mali and the N’mai rivers, in the northern Kachin State of Myanmar. The Mali river has its source in the northern section of Kachin while the N’mali has its source in the Himalayan glaciers of eastern Tibet. As the Ayeyarwady River meanders south, it passes through narrow, deep canyons at times, then opens up to very wide but shallow sections. The depth and current vary dramatically with the monsoon season. Sandbanks and islands may be completely hidden during high water and reveal themselves as the run-off slows. The sandbanks become navigation hazards while islands provide rich farm land for the farmers during the summer months. Our ship is required at all times to have a river pilot on board who is familiar with the local conditions.

A joint venture between China and Myanmar is currently building a large dam and hydroelectric power plant at the confluence of the Mali and N’mai rivers (source of the Ayeyarwady River). Scheduled to be completed in 2017, it is controversial and has put the completion date at risk. The enormous flooding area upstream is forcing the relocation of thousands of people and homes, the environmental impact, the location just 60 miles from a major fault line, the impact of water flow in the Ayeyarwady River, and the biased sharing of the generated electricity between China and Myanmar is at the core of the controversy. The plant will be owned by the Chinese for the first 50 years, before being turned over to the Burmese. Almost all the electricity will be exported to China and have almost no impact on Myanmar. As Chinese influence and exploitation continues to grow, the fear of China begins to grow. It seems that only the international community’s watch, and Burma’s willingness to succumb to China’s desire, through negotiations, has kept the borders in check. The current hot spot in the nation involves the Muslim Rohingya community that live in the northern Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh. I’ve tried to sort out the cause of all this attention and have spent several hours discussing it with Tin, as well as to read recent news published in U.S. papers as well Aljazeer. It is a complex, multidimensional mess. Here is what I understand, but cannot attest to the real truth – truth seems to be highly dependent on whose eyes are looking at the situation:

Bangladesh is a small Muslim nation bursting at the seams, with a population of 170 million (compared to 70 million Burmese) resulting in the highest population density in the world, with more than 36% living below the national poverty level of $2 per day. They represent a large percentage of the Rohingya community.
Myanmar’s military government is highly xenophobic and has taken measures over the years to remove Myanmar citizenship from the Muslim community, including expulsion from the country. The current fires are stoked by an ultra-right monk, Ashin Wirathu, who wants to prevent the establishment of an Islamic state.
Our guide Tin echoes Maththew Walton’s (Oxford University researcher) findings that it is a political play, not due to discrimination and religion. In order to insure that Myanmar’s military regime would win the popular vote and seats in parliament, they issued 1,000,000 White Cards to Bangladeshi Muslims to enter the country providing they vote for the military candidates, therein exacerbating the situation.
Pakistani trained terrorists have infiltrated the Muslim community and are attacking Burmese police and military forces.

As I said, it is a mess with no clear solution.

A third hot spot of conflict is the result of large ethnic groups who want to be independent states. The largest of these are the Shan people, located in the north, between China and Burma. The Shan host a guerrilla army that continues to battle the central army of Burma, yet is economically most closely tied to China. The whole thing resembles a three-team scrum (rugby), all engaged in the ‘crouch, touch, hold,’ while waiting for some event to trigger ‘engage.’ These tensions have impacted our itinerary. A couple of stops were eliminated or modified from the original itinerary for security purposes. Ultimately, the ship’s security services, which melded into the crew, determined the itinerary and accompanied most shore-excursions to ensure security.

The ship’s guests were broken up into smaller teams, each with its own guide. Our guide is Tin. Tin is in his mid 40’s, is married and has a young son. He lives in a small village across the river from Mandalay. His mother lives with the family. He is a survivor of the 8888 revolution and is very honest and outspoken about the conditions of life in Burma. When I asked him about his education, he claims to be a physicist, and his business card reads: Tin Aung, B.Sc.(Physics), Licensed Tour Guide. Yet he readily admits that his education is a gross exaggeration. Learning was all about rote memorization, not understanding how things work nor how to solve problems. All he remembers is Einstein’s equation on relativity, but he doesn’t know how to apply it or use it to solve problems. This is the sad state of education in Myanmar, brought on by the 1962 take-over by the military and total destruction of the educational system. Not finding any work in Myanmar, Tin left for Singapore to work in a restaurant, improve his English, and take lessons on Burmese history. Upon returning, and the opening of the country in 2015, he qualified as a guide. He is very optimistic about his and his family’s future.

Going on shore is not a simple process.

Tip-Toeing thru the Rose garden!

Our first excursion is a visit to a small village and home to the Mingun Pagoda. Getting on shore was our first taste of what was to come. We had to walk across an unsteady 16-foot plank, then onto a 30-foot long carpet the crew unrolled across the field of trash, mud, and rocks. It is not a pleasant entrance. The village is the home of three historically important sites. First, the Mingun Pagoda, which was started by King Bodawpaya in 1790. It was never finished – intentionally – and only reached one-third of its 150-foot planned height. The king was advised by an astrologer that he would die as soon as the pagoda was completed. The second historically significant item is the Mingun Bell. Cast in 1809 and dedicated to the pagoda, it is the second largest bell in the world and four times larger than the bell in St. Paul’s Basilica in Rome. Finally, the bright white Myatheindan Pagoda built in 1816 by Bagyidaw and dedicated to his consort, Lady of the White Elephant, who died in child-birth.

Mingus Pagoda – unfinished and only 1/3 the intended height.

The 90 ton Mingus bell.

Young nuns and novice monks in school.

White Myatheindan Pagoda

Local mass transit.

Local version of a pick-up truck.

A little further up river we stopped at the New Neyin Village, famous for its manufacture of large glazed earthenware pots or urns used to store fresh water. Each pot can hold up to 105 gallons of water. The pots are handmade using the same process for hundreds of years, molding the clay soil from the nearby banks of the river. After firing the pots in a very large and crude kiln, the urns are transported to markets in Mandalay. Rather than using large rafts, they turn the pots upside down in the river, trapping air to provide buoyancy, and then latch them together to make a ‘field of pots,’ before towing them downriver – very clever.