These
government ferries run several times a week.
An “express” had left that morning which would only take two days and
one night but we were on the slow boat. They
carry passengers and a lot of produce along the Irrawaddy, on a route which is
ill-served by buses or other forms of transport. The ferry had spent all afternoon in port
loading goods onto the lower deck. One
of the crew led us to the corner of the main deck and offered us a raised
wooden frame. With its excellent vantage
point, we snapped it up and settled into our new home. A lady soon came to see us and, with her
small amount of English, informed us that she ran the kitchen selling rice and
noodle dishes. Perfect!
We had hoped
to be the only foreigners on board but in the end were joined by two Germans,
an Austrian and an Australian. They were
instructed to take up position on the floor near us. It makes the staring game a lot easier if all
the foreigners sit together… As they
were far less prepared than us, the captain’s wife went off and found some old
mats for them to use.
We departed
from Katha just after 5pm, in time to enjoy our first sunset on board. We didn’t go far before we stopped to collect
more people and goods and this carried on until the early hours, finally
anchoring around 1am. After a hearty
meal of vegetable fried rice, we curled up in our sleep sheets and
blankets. We enjoyed some interaction
with the locals, discussing where we were all going to and coming from, taking
their photos and the local face paint “tanakha” was brought out for Lynn to
try. Our neighbours were two lovely
giggling ladies and two very fashionable boys in their early twenties. The boys would have fitted right in in Soho
or the East Village: white jeans, blue jeans, skinny shorts with tartan rim, a
selection of belts, ripped t-shirts, winklepicker boots... and the occasional longyi.
For the rest of the trip, they changed outfits at least five times a
day.
The thick
blankets performed admirably in the cold of the night, so much so that we
missed the loading of three large wooden benches and the arrival of a lot more
people onto the main deck. It didn’t
take long in the morning for the locals to realise that these lovely wooden
benches were a perfect viewing position in the “stare and laugh at the
foreigners” game. As everything we did
caused great amusement, it seemed only right to provide as much entertainment
as possible. Rather than going and
sitting in the kitchen area, I brought our breakfast of rice with nuts and tea
leaf salad back to the bed along with a flask of tea. Stepping up onto our bed and over the flask
caused the audience to collapse in hysterics.
Although
very misty, we set sail around 8.30am but by 10am we had stopped again. We were beginning to fully understand why
this was referred to as the slow boat.
To enjoy this journey, you really must be able to switch off from any
sense of time and sit back and absorb the sights around you. A few good books help too…
In the end
the loading at this stop took four hours and the porters’ work was
back-breaking. A group of very lean men
set about loading ~50 oil drums onto the bottom deck. Each one required the guidance of two men
down a wooden plank. The oil drum was
definitely in charge, the men there to do their best to guide the drum onto the
ferry. A huge thud was heard each time a
drum landed on board. A bamboo pole was
then inserted into the two handles on top of the drum, placed onto the
shoulders of two men and lifted into its storage position. Hundreds of big bags of rice followed along
with other sundries – bananas, wooden planks.
The sand on the bank deteriorated with each load and remedial work had
to be continually carried out to prevent a landslide. Fascinating viewing.
Late
afternoon we stopped at a busy small town where some of our new friends left us. As we pulled in alongside
a very similar ferry, we spotted two fellow travellers, Kristiaan and Klaus,
who we had met in Katha. They had been
due to remain in Katha for another couple of days but it turned out that an
“express” had left that morning and they had both decided to jump on board. We were a little amused that they had left
only that morning and had still reached this town ahead of us. We only unloaded a small amount of produce at
this stop and were soon on our way again.
After a beautiful sunset and another vegetable fried rice for dinner (we
had mimed for plain rice and vegetables…oh well), we were ready for bed at
6.05pm. The boat continued to stop and
load more produce and people until midnight.
Sometimes we would simply anchor in the middle of the river and a small
boat would pull up alongside and pass over their produce.
The 2nd
night was much warmer than the first and we woke to a beautiful sunny
morning. The boat set off by 8am and we
seemed to be making excellent progress.
This progress was suddenly halted mid morning when we had to stop and
provide assistance to the “express” boat which had become stuck on a sandbank
in the middle of the river. The captains
spoke for a couple of hours by radio and in the end we moved slowly around
them, seemingly creating sufficient agitation in the water and sand to free
them. I will admit that it was a little
upsetting to see them steam past us about an hour laterJ. Kristiaan and Klaus waved.
We had been
due to arrive into port in Mandalay that afternoon at around 5pm but it became
clear as the afternoon progressed, and we continued to stop at every small
village, that another night on board was likely. Our friends (the fashion victims) told us
that we would likely arrive into Mandalay at around 9am the next morning. A brief “but I really need a shower*,
preferably hot” moment was solved by watching sunset from the top of the boat. Those foreigners without cosy blankets looked
like they might cry whilst we smugly considered the extra cost benefit from
another night of usage.
We were much
reduced in passenger numbers by now as we had been unloading people all
afternoon, often just onto a random section of isolated beach. Come nightfall, the wooden benches reached their
destination and our audience had to find new positions for monitoring our funny
foreign habits. There was quite a party
atmosphere as everyone on our side of the boat had been together for
several days. A much quieter night
ensued though as we were no longer loading people or goods.
Of course we
didn’t arrive into Mandalay at 9am but at 1pm!
We donated our blankets and mats to those who looked like they needed
them more than us and enjoyed one last meal from the kitchen. With so much more room on deck, we played
with the cook’s young children and some of the shyer teenagers suddenly
discovered a love of posing for the camera.
After four days, it felt sad to disembark. If you would like time to stand still for a
short time, there is little better to recommend than the slow boat from Katha
to Mandalay. It is helpful in Burma to
remember that for much of the country (unlike the developed cities of Rangoon
and Mandalay), small scale agriculture is the way of life. All you see along the banks of the river are
farms and pagodas. Boats of all shapes
and sizes chug up and down the river, creating connections.
We decided
to walk the hour into town to re-introduce a sense of exercise into our lives,
slightly annoying the trishaw drivers at the port. About halfway into town, a trishaw driver
approached me to see if we needed a ride.
“No thank you,” I said, “we’re walking”.
“Have you just come off the Katha boat?” he asked, before cycling off
laughing. When we later bumped into
Kristiaan for a beer, we were happy to discover that the “express” ferry had in
fact only reach Mandalay one hour before we did! Not so fast after all; exactly as it should
be.
* I would
like to note that whilst the foreigners may not have showered for four days,
all the locals took a wash each day in the river using their longyi for
discretion.
Irrawaddy / Ayeyarwaddy = same same
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