Irrawaddy boats

We saw less traffic than we expected - for a river called the "Road to Mandalay" we thought there would be substantial volumes of ships, but the river is often shallow- Vessels drawing more than 4ft will have trouble in the dry season. Missing from these pictures were the many barges of teak logs going down river and a few LPG barges.

 

R.V. Pandaw 4

ready for her maiden voyage with us from Prome to Mandalay - 333 miles

Goods & passengers

More like an old flotilla boat

Sailing up the river

Only a few small sailing vessels - and usually with red lug sails like this.

Fishing canoe

They lay nets along river bottom with floats - about 50m long. We saw only tiny fish being caught this way.

Built in 1865 in Glasgow by Yarrow. A side wheel paddle steamer.

Owned by former head of state Ne Win - no longer operating but advertised as a floating restaurant. It is moored at Pagan.

Push rowing boat in Mandalay

These are fitted for a mast & rudder but I saw none sailing

Casting his net

At Mandalay - he seemed to target schools of small fish and had better success than others.

Long-tail

very common on the river - noisy, smokey. Some cargo barges had as many as three longtail motors running together!