CRUISING MYANMAR ON THE ROAD TO MANDALAY
Story and photos by Barb & Ron Kroll
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It's dawn on the Ayeyarwady River in Myanmar (formerly Burma). We rub our eyes and draw the curtains in our cabin.
The rising sun is burnishing the golden temple spires dotting the forested Sagaing Hills. A fisherman tosses a circular net from his boat into the broad river. Women, carrying pails of water on shoulder poles, up the banks to their thatched homes, stop and stare.
Our sleek, white, 102-metre-long riverboat must be an impressive sight to the villagers. Myanmar is an exotic, enigmatic country, bordered by Thailand, Laos, China, India and Bangladesh. Outside the major cities, its people live, for the most part, as they have for the past 50 years.
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| Road to Mandalay cruises on the Ayeyarwady River in front of temple-studded Sagaing Hills. Myanmar. |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
Orient-Express Hotels acquired the 126-passenger ship, a former Rhine cruiser, in 1964. After a US $6 million refurbishment, the Road to Mandalay began cruising the river that runs 2,170 kilometres north-south through the heart of Myanmar.
Learning about Myanmar culture
Our four-night cruise was an enlightening one, thanks to the 77 Myanmar staff and guides who travelled with us. Dressed in longyis, the traditional sarong-like national costumes, they took great pleasure in introducing us to their culture.
One afternoon, for example, Yin Yin Htwe prepared thanaka, the yellowish, pleasantly-scented paste which women and children wear on their faces to protect their skin from the sun. Yin Yin rubbed a chunk of sandalwood on a circular stone tablet, adding water to form the paste. She then painted it on our cheeks, in the shape of bodhi-tree leaves.
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| Woman, with thanaka leaves on her face, sells marionettes. Mandalay. |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
The open-seating meals were also an education. At four-course dinners and buffet lunches, we tried local foods, like pan-fried butterfish, from the river, served with a cognac and lemongrass sauce, and specialties of the Shan people who live in the northeast. As we dined, musicians played traditional Burmese harps, xylophones and drums.
After dinner, villagers came on board to show us how they weave baskets and mats from rattan and how they roll tobacco and sebastian stalks into cheroots. (Passengers who tried the cigars claimed they were surprisingly good.)
Marionettes & folk dances
One night, we enjoyed a lively marionette show. The next day, we found similar handpainted, sequin-costumed puppets in the market — a steal at two for US $5. Another evening, colourfully clad performers demonstrated traditional folk dances.
Life off-ship merged seamlessly with onboard activities. Our first stop, Bagan, was awesome. Shortly after sunrise, we boarded horse carts for a ride past some of the 2,200 temples and pagodas that dot the 42-square-kilometre site.
During Burma's golden age, from the 11th to late 13th-century, 13,000 monuments stood here. They survived raids by Kublai Khan's Mongols, but later, many were damaged by looters and earthquakes. At dusk, we returned and removed our shoes to climb one of the temples and watch the setting sun paint the sky tangerine behind a panorama of silhouetted pagodas.
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| Bagan, a 42-sq.-km archeological site, preserves over 2200 pagodas and temples. Burma. |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
Between visits to the archaeological site, we toured a lacquerware factory, where artisans incised designs into red and black bowls, plates and furniture, using techniques unchanged for decades. In Bagan's gold and scarlet Shwezigon (Golden Plum Bush) Pagoda, we watched people light candles and ring enormous bells, to spread their good deeds.
Buddha covered with 3,000 pounds of gold leaf
More than 85 percent of Myanmar people are Buddhist. At our next stop, in Mandalay, we visited Mahamuni Temple, where merit-seeking devotees have plastered the 11th-century Buddha image with 1.5 tons of gold leaf.
Later, we toured a gold leaf factory where a sinuous worker used a sledge hammer to pound one ounce of gold into 10,000 feather-light sheets. (For US $10, 100 squares of the glimmering metal make unique souvenirs.)
Mandalay is well known for its arts and crafts. We photographed entire families chiselling enormous marble statues of Buddha, on Stonecarvers' Road, then made our way to silver and bronze factories, where craftsmen fashioned beautiful jewellery and bowls, using simple tools.
Everyone was delighted to show us, not only their crafts, but also their way of life. In busy local markets, vendors happily posed for photos in front of bunches of green onions, baskets of tomatoes and trays of lemons. Tourism has not yet spoiled their genuine welcome.
This was especially true in Shwe Kyet Yet (Golden Chicken Scratching) village, where the Road to Mandalay docks. (The ship funds a nursery school here.)
Life unfolded as we walked through the streets: children walking to school, villagers sitting on low stools while eating at tiny outdoor tables, and burgundy-robed monks, walking door-to-door, to collect their single morning meal in alms bowls.
Back on the boat, as we relaxed by the pool on the upper deck, more scenes awaited: ferry boats plying the placid waters and women washing clothing in the river as their children splashed alongside.
Monasteries & nunneries
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| Woman washes statue at planetary post. Shwedagon Pagoda. Yangon, Burma. |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
Across the river, in Sagaing Hills, there are 500 monasteries and 300 nunneries. One evening, we entered a nunnery where pink-robed nuns, with shaved heads, knelt on a wooden floor in front of an altar. Their chanting of Buddhist scriptures remains a cherished memory to this day.
A van brought us up to one temple filled with 45 sitting Buddha images and to another which overlooked the Ayeyarwady River. Looking down on the Road to Mandalay, docked at Shwe Kyet Yet, we regretted not taking the seven- or eleven-night cruises.
The former includes a trip to Mount Popa, home to nats (ancestral nature spirits) and a summit monastery. The latter brings passengers to Bhamo, near the Chinese border, and through scenic gorges to elephant camps and gold-panning regions.
Our trip did, however, include two nights in the capital, Yangon (formerly Rangoon). At the city's Shwedagon Pagoda we, and hundreds of local people, strolled barefoot on the marble platform surrounding the 98-metre-high jewel-topped golden dome.
For us, the Road to Mandalay was more than a luxury cruise. It was a cultural awakening to a way of life that few people have seen. We were privileged to experience it.
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