You say Ayeyarwady, I say Irrawaddy, by any name it's one long, important river

The Ayeyarwady River ( Irrawaddy is the English name) flows some 1,348 miles from the Northern most reaches of Myanmar, in the cold of the Kumon Mountain Range, to the warmth of the Andaman Sea. It was our "Road to Mandalay" for fourteen days, as we plied upstream on the river boat AMAPura, a delightful, comfortable little boat populated with well-traveled, mainly seniors from Canada, Great Britan, Mexico and the USA. With space for 56, our group of 36 bonded well over the cruise and that added to its enjoyment.

We started our journey amid the hustle and bustle of the Botataung Jetty in Yangon which is right next to the pagoda by the same name. Yangon has been a major port throughout its history and this jetty hummed with commercial activity and commuter ferries, but not like what you might imagine.

Much of the work in Myanmar is still done by hand and the ferries were really only longboats.

As nightfall came on our first night on the boat and the jetty quieted, the beauty of sunset in Myanmar began to reveal itself.

As we travelled upstream, we quickly left twenty-first-century life behind and ventured into what was, for the most part, an agrarian or fishing life with only a glimpse of the modern world in some of the larger villages we passed. Seventy percent of the population live in rural areas and over 50% are unemployed with the number living at subsistence levels incalculable because the former dictatorship refused to acknowledge the issue by publishing statistics. By any measure, it is one of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita annual income of $916 US.

At first, there were a few towns on the river banks, but as we travelled upstream they became mere villages and, for the most part, temporary settlements lined the shores with the few towns and villages perched on the high banks. The Ayeyarwady floods vast portions of the land it flows through and covers the delta with a rich silt that helps produce the abundant rice crops that help feed the country.

The river truly is life for the people who live along it. Everything depends on it from water for drinking, cooking and washing to putting food on the table and providing employment for those fortunate to find work on it.   

Life goes on for these people no matter that a large ship has pulled right up to the bank. These shots were taken mainly from our room.

River life is tough and the work is mainly done manually. Women and men have it equally as tough.

One of the joys of travelling on the river boat was seeing all of the pagodas and stupas sprinkled  along the banks. A surprise was the morning and evening music that wafted from them. 

One also never knew what fascinating sight might be seen on the river.

At the end of the day, no matter how tired we were from the days activities, the sunsets provided the perfect ending to it and a welcome opportunity to sip a cocktail admiring one of Myanmar's many natural beauties.

 

In future posts, we will leave the ship to delve into the many outstanding sites we saw and the things we experienced.

Time to Recap, Reflect and Write

It's hard to believe that one week ago today, we were leaving our hotel in Yangon for the long trip back to Scottsdale and home. The night before, we had dinner at Le Planteur, which is the best restaurant in Myanmar and one of the best in Asia. We had planned this occasion months earlier and after sticking to pretty much to a regimen of local cuisine, we were eager to dine in the lap of luxury. 

The setting is in this old colonial house with a long lawn that extends to the banks of Inya Lake. We were fortunate to have a table at the edge of the lawn with a clear view to the lake. I had the price-fix menu and Kathy the vegetarian one. The wine list was expansive and mainly French. We had a wonderful Gigondas to accompany our meal.  Here's a look at the menu's. As you will see, fine dining in Myanmar comes at a very reasonable cost. 

  

The meal certainly lived up to its billing. Every course was wonderful and the service was attentive without being intrusive. The pace was leisurely and it gave us ample opportunity to reminisce about what we had experienced over the last twenty-three days.  Myanmar had more than exceeded our expectations.

We had traveled over 600 miles on the Irrawaddy River from Yangon to Mandalay. Then we flew to Inle Lake, in the Shan Region, to spend three more days, before flying back to Yangon, to spend four more days on an intense, immersive, photographic adventure with our wonderful guide Win.

Even with the time we had spent in the country, we had barely scratched the surface of this land that is as large as Texas and that is currently going through momentous change as it transitions to democracy from decades of dictatorship.

In the ensuing posts, I will do my best to give you a look at the people, places and things we encountered and did during our time in the country. The posts will range from the gridlocked streets of Yangon to the quiet and tranquil villages we visited....

 And to the many the many stupas and pagodas we saw that dot this Buddhist land and also take a look at the impact Buddhism has on the people. The more we travel Buddhist countries the more confused I become. The realities of life for these people make Buddhism very different from the depictions of the Dali Lama we see and the many books I have read on the subject. Yet the religion plays a part in most people's lives far more impactful than religion in the secular west.

Stupa

Pagoda

There is so much to share, we hope you will enjoy our travels. We did try to start the trip out correctly, by visiting the Sule Pagoda, in the heart of Yangon, and making merit by honoring our birth days, there are eight in Myanmar. ( Mine was Wednesday morning as opposed to Wednesday evening. Which is a good thing since Kathy's is Saturday and she is a tiger while I am a tuskless elephant and they get along well.) We did that by praying to the buddha at our birth day shrine, pouring water on the Buddha and ringing the gong for all to receive Buddha's blessing.

It must have worked because the rest of the trip was wonderful. 

On the Road to Mandalay or Traveling without Internet

Burma has been called the “Land of the Smiling Faces” and our first week here has certainly shown  that to be true. It could also be called the “land of no connectivity.”  At the Shangri-La Hotel, we had no problems with the internet, but that changed as soon as we embarked on the river boat. Our only way to communicate has been by text and telephone, and with text, one cannot send pictures from here. It’s not that the ship doesn’t have great wi-fi. The signal is very strong. There just isn’t anything for it to connect to.

I am writing this with the hope that when we get to Bagan, in two days, I can send something to tell you all that everything is fine and that we are having a marvellous time. Hopefully there will be enough bandwidth to even transmit a few photos to wet your appetite for what will come when we get home. There are great shots everywhere.

We have seen many pagodas and stupas, also many small towns and markets. Life on the river has a certain rhythm and we are in sync with it. Although life on this floating palace is much different than what we have observed on the passing boats and shores, we still anchor at night and continue our journey at daybreak, as the locals do. 

We have been treated with warm smiles and friendliness everywhere. It’s hard not to really like the Burmese and to hope that they finally get the opportunity to live in freedom, for the history of the country is one of oppression, either by the  British during the Colonial Period or by their own military since independence in 1948. One facet of the new “openness” is that the Burmese are no longer afraid to talk about their past and their government, as well as their aspirations for the future, and talk they do. We are learning much.

We have been without internet since we boarded the ship. There is a very strong signal on board, but it doesn't connect to anything since they don't have satellite, but analog to cell towers, which are pretty much non-existent. We lucked out today as we are having a break at a nice hotel in Bagan and they have a great connection.

We are having a fantastic time and really love every aspect of the trip. I will post when I can, but it's anyone's guess when we will be able to do it again.

On the Road to Mandalay

We are off on the road again. This time,  a trip to Myanmar, where for the next 17 days we will explore the country from Yangon to Mandalay via the Irrawaddy River and the river boat AMAPura. We will then fly from Mandalay to Inle Lake for three nights in that fascinating region. Then returning to Yangon for four more days of photography. We should get to know the country pretty well by the end of the trip.

First, we had to get there and it is a long trip from Scottsdale. We left on Saturday morning at 6:00 AM going to LAX to connect with a Singapore Airlines flight that took us from LA to Tokyo to Singapore, where I am now writing this in the Singapore Airlines Lounge, and finally to Yangon. Through the magic of the International Date Line, it is now 5:30 AM Monday morning although it is 2:30 on Sunday in Scottsdale. All up we will have been traveling about 37 hours since we locked the door to the house.

We really don't want anyone to fret about the rigors of our travel. We do try to handicap things as best we can. Business class on Singapore Air is not all that bad. This is our first trip on an Airbus 380 and when we stepped onto the second floor of the plane, which is where Business Class is located,  we were pretty impressed.

These are the largest Business Class seats we have ever seen and they lay perfectly flat. They may not be as comfortable as the ones on Emirates, but the space they allow one is incredible and sleeping was a breeze. I do have the say the food and beverage service was pretty great as well. Here were some of the choices.

 We both had the multi-course Japanese dinner and it was fabulous.  Served Bento Box style, here's what the first box looked like. I regret that I was too busy eating to photograph the others.

All in all a great flight from LAX to Narita. We slept most of the way from Narita to Singapore. Upon landing, we had a mini-adventure. The tram to our next terminal was closed, it was 3:00 AM. So we decided to walk. Well, these self-assured, well-traveled folks, went the wrong way and walked about a half-mile to a dead end in the terminal and then had to retrace their steps back to the start point and then find the correct way to the next terminal. Changi is a big place and one hour later we finally made it to the lounge. It's not all champagne and canapes for us on the road. On the other hand, we did spot a unique sign and machine. How's that for a foot massage contraption.

It's almost time to board our next flight. Hopefully, we will have many more stories and interesting experiences along with some great pictures to share with you over the coming weeks.

A Fjord, A Miracle and A Crepe

Serendipity can be a wonderful part of the travel experience or not. Our bypassing Prince Edward Island, due to winds, allowed us to travel up the Saguenay Fjord to see the statue Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay. So while we were unable to savor Prince Edward Island Mussels at the source, we were able to travel to a seldom visited spot on most cruise itineraries, learn more about geology than most people would care to do and be told the story of Charles-Napoléon Robitaille.

The weather that day was brisk as we entered the sixty-five-mile long fjord. It was a good day to be indoors and it was hard to believe our eyes when we saw a group of people flying by on a speed boat, all bundled up in their orange and yellow slickers, doing some type of mad adventure tour. We couldn't imagine what they were up to. After all, it was cold, windy and there was snow on the mountains.

                                                                                                                                                                   












From the comfort of our warm stateroom, we watched the fall colors, passed by some small villages and under numerous hi-tension lines, all sagging ominously towards the ship, as we learned about Quebec's abundant hydro-electric power, the Precambrian era and the birth of the Laurentian Mountains, which may be the oldest in the world, and the aforementioned story of Robitaille.

Robitaille was a traveling salesman in this part of the world in the late 1800's. He did his work with horse and wagon and in the winter, with horse and sleigh. Today this area is sparsely populated. It's hard to imagine what it must have been like then, but like a postal worker of old, he carried on no matter the weather, and on a faithful winter's day in 1878, fell through the ice of the Saguenay River while riding in his heavily laden sleigh on the way to make a sale.

With death drawing near, as he flailed to get onto solid ice, he prayed to the Virgin Mary for one more chance and miraculously found himself on the ice and safe. Unfortunately, once he was returned home, he fell seriously ill from the event and when his demise seemed imminent, he again prayed to the Virgin asking for ten more years to raise his children, this time promising to do something to commemorate her miracles (nothing like hedging your bet). He survived and made good on his promise and thus we have the statue of Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay, erected on a point overlooking the river, which in of itself, is a miracle given it's three-ton weight, thirty-foot height, and erection in 1881. It's quite inspiring coming across this beautiful monument to one man's faith in such an out of the way place.

Unfortunately, with a fjord, you go out the exact same way you came in. It was starting to get dark, not to mention colder, and frankly, one can only take so much of the same scenery. Quebec City beckoned the next day and then Montreal. Quaintness would be fading along with the leaves and we were looking forward to a little more action. So we turned our backs on the Saguenay and headed for the wine bar. It was time to warm up a and think about the restaurant reservations I had already made.

It had been almost twenty years since we last visited Quebec City, but when I opened the curtains in the morning, it looked very familiar. Chateau Frontenac stood proudly atop the highest point in the city as it has since 1893, dominating the landscape. It is arguably the most photographed hotel in the world.

The weather was overcast, windy and cold, but being the intrepid travelers that we are, we bravely bundled up and headed out into the fierce Quebec fall. Our goals were modest for the day; shop, stroll, shoot and find the best crepes in the city for lunch.

Quebec City is nothing if not quaint and very European in feel. Split between upper and lower city, it is compact, comfortable and easy to get around especially with the Funicular connecting the upper and lower city. Without it, it would have been much more difficult to get from lower to upper.

The lower city seems dominated by galleries, restaurants, shops and great photo ops. We strolled the cobblestone streets shooting and shopping thrilled by the modern designs in so many of the shops that are so sorely lacking where we live. We could have shopped all day, but it was past noon, we were cold and it was time to find the crepe shop.

Reading a map in the wind and trying to decipher streets that were once cow paths, changing names after every little jog, is quite a challenge, but Kathy was up to it and we found our way to the charming little crepe shop. It was as authentic a Breton crepe shop as one could find outside of Northern France. Staffed by three of the hardest working women one could imagine, with one making all the crepes, one serving the entire restaurant, one washing dishes in the back, we savored our crepes. I had wild boar in a cider sauce, Kathy a traditional ham and cheese and John had a sampler trio that ended with a chocolate/banana crepe. They were from heaven.

Thoroughly satisfied and warmed up enough to brave the cold and return to the ship, we headed out knowing that the next morning our cruise was over and we were headed to Montreal by train. It had been a wonderful cruise. While not transporting us to exotic ports nor adding to our country count, it was by far the easiest going, most comfortable cruise we had taken. 

As we strolled back to the ship, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this sign.

Poutine, actually designer poutine, had come to McDonald's. When will it come to the States?

Quebec City delivered what we wanted. It really is a special place in North America. If you can't get to Europe, this is about as close as you will get. 

We had a wonderful dinner that night at Cafe Du Monde. As we strolled back to the ship, Chateau Frontenac stood guard over the city as it has for so many years.