The alarm sounds at 4am and we are up, gear shuttled downstairs, bikes loaded and we are off riding to the jetty. We are wearing our headlamps to navigate the darkness. Yesterday, with the e-bike we searched out the location to know exactly where are how to get there.
Finding the boat RV Panorama, it's now close to 5am. The crew sees us and come ashore to help us load the bikes onto the boat. Good thing too, it was a narrow gangplank from shore to the boat. We have assigned seats, and boy are they plush! About a dozen more passengers board, we are given a welcome and safety speech and at 5:30am the boat is headed for Mandalay, an on-time departure, and we watch the sunrise.
Breakfast was served on the upper open deck, basic with scrambled eggs and toast, but plenty of coffee! We meet Darren and Elise, from Seattle, they are travelling for a year spending longer times in places volunteering. Elise's father lives in Boise. We shared a table at lunchtime, another delicious meal. The only drawback was beer cost $4 or 5600 kyat and a large bottle of water $1 or 1400 kyat, 2-3 times more than onshore. The crew though is very professional and friendly.
When almost to Mandalay, we are given a demonstration of Thanka, the yellowish-white cosmetic paste made from ground bark painted on the face. The man was very creative with the decoration by painting a leaf on the cheek. After this, the crew demonstrated the tying of the longyi, the cylindrical long cloth men wear tied at the waist. Demonstrating not just the basic way of tying, but included how to tie the cloth into a jacket, or sling to carry a baby.
This filled in the time nicely, for after this, we are getting very close to Mandalay. The sun is setting. The jetty at this end though was across a couple of barges and up a steep incline of stairs. The crew again was very helpful shuttling the gear to shore, and Darren and Elise helped watch the stuff and carried bags up for us.
We said goodbye to them, and headed off in the dusk. We had 4km to ride to our hotel. By the time we turned onto the larger main street, it was dark. We didn't have lights at this time, though we were in good company, lots of locals on motorbikes and bikes didn't have lights either. We found Victory Point Hotel and were welcomed by a very professional staff. Bikes are stored in the basement garage, bags were loaded up on a cart, and in the elevator the staff person pointed out where the breakfast room was located, and about the SkyView Rooftop restaurant.
We quickly headed up there for snacks, a Mandalay Beer and a nice night view of the city.
Irrawaddy fisherman on golden water just before sunrise.
Lots of river traffic on the Irrawaddy River. The river is low and many loaded boats have smaller craft ahead of them checking the water depth with a sounding stick.
People living in temporary camps on the sandy mudflats along the Irrwaddy. They fish and grow crops along the river. When the river rises they must move to higher ground.
Mandalay harbor. There are many landing spots along the river's edge, but no real jetty. We land against a couple of moored barges and carry our stuff to shore.
We have met two travellers from Seattle, Darrin and Elise, who help watch over our gear while we shuttle it up to the road. Two guys from our boat crew are very helpful pushing the bikes up.
