Exotic Chindwin River Cruise

Arrive on your own at Gaw Wein Jetty (Near Mandalay Karaweik Mobile Hotel) at 9:00 a.m. As you board the majestic Anawrahta, berthed at the quay of Mandalay’s riverside, our staff will warmly welcome you with some refreshments. And also guide you with a short safety briefing before you begin your journey here for the next few days. Relax on a tranquil sailing day to Sagaing. As you sail, you can indulge yourself with an excellent treatment of our Thazin Spa or plunge in the 360-degree spectacular view pool on the sundeck. Today, you will be addressed on “Myanmar’s ways of life,” followed by a cultural demonstration on “Traditional Longyi and Thanakha,” Myanmar’s traditional costumes and a natural paste applied on the face and body. Then in the afternoon, you are requested to join and enjoy afternoon tea served in the Kipling’s bar.

You will enjoy it while watching the broad river view of the Ayeyarwady River. And tonight, there will also be a longyi cocktail party – an opportunity to meet your fellow travelers and have pleasurable chitchat with them.

Mandalay to Confluence: 87 miles. 
Confluence to Yesagyo: 15 miles. 

You will love the early morning session of Yoga on the sundeck - stretching and easing your mind- before Anawrahta enters the Chindwin River. We will go for morning excursion at Ah Myint; it is a historic village that lived through nearly all of Myanmar’s dynasties. You will enjoy every bit exploring the village life and also their ancient pagodas built in 11-13 AD.

Back on board, we will cruise a short distance to Monywa with lunch, which they will serve on board. After lunch, we will go to Monywa by bus. Here, we will see a remarkable Thanboddhay Pagoda (Thambuddhei Paya) with over 500,000 Buddha images and hundreds of golden spires and also the second tallest Buddha statue in the world. It measures 116m and is situated behind a beautiful religious site with Bodhi trees, gardens with hundreds of sitting Buddhas, and a vast lying Buddha. On several floors, every interior features illustrations of Buddhist teachings. Back on board, we continue to sail up the river. Tonight, relish BBQ dinner and a “Yamayana” dance performance on the sundeck. 

Yesagyo to Ah Myint: 23.5 miles.
Ah Myint to Alon: 22 miles.

Today, we get off for a morning visit of Moktaw; it is a typical riverside village where we will get familiar with their traditional way of life. If luck favors, we may see a special ceremony at the local monastery. In the afternoon, you will have the chance to join a ship tour with our cruise general manager and discover the mesmerizing Anawrahta. As the evening approaches, there will be a special event taking place at the Kipling’s Bar. So you may want to dress up to the best in style if you're going to. We raise a toast to the past during a British Club gathering where you may enjoy according to your choices and also enjoy listening to music and poems of a bygone time.

Alon – Moktaw: 34.25 miles.
Moktaw – Lon Pyi: 44.75 miles.

Begin your day with a morning hike through the small village of Maukkadaw. This village once used to be a busy teak port, so, we will guide you to their remaining teak enterprises. We will then visit the local school and walk through this village to board. Back on board, we carry on sailing upstream. As we sail, we will pass small villages amidst rolling hills at the riverbanks. In the afternoon, at the Mandalay Lounge, there will be a lesson held on Burmese speaking that will prepare us for our market rally the next day. Tonight we reach the riverside port of Kalaywa passing by its bridge that links the mainland with the Indian border for trade.

Lon Pyi – Maukkadaw: 13.5 miles.
Maukkadaw – Kalaywa: 59.75 miles.

We will take a tour around Kalaywa by local tuk-tuk today morning. Visit the Pagoda on a hilltop to have a cosmic view over the Kalaywa Town and Chindwin River and continue to the bustling and colorful local market of Kalaywa. At Kalaywa Market, you can enjoy your shopping, and this is also the best place to practice your Burmese language skills during a market rally. There will be a language lesson, assistant and some cash for shopping.

Kalaywa – Kindat: 47.25 miles.

This morning, you can choose to join a lecture by our guide or laze around and watch the passing sceneries of jungle-covered gorges. We will reach this small village of Sittaung in the afternoon. There are only 28 houses and only 200 inhabitants in this village. In today’s tour, we take you to the ships of Irrawaddy Flotilla Company - the most significant river fleet that was ever assembled worldwide! The British ruined many of these and did not leave any for the Japanese Army. We will get back to cruise and continue sailing upstream, and they will serve you afternoon tea at the Kipling’s Bar. 

Kindat – Sittaung: 50.25 miles.
Sittaung – Paungbyin: 21.75 miles.

As the ship sails towards the most beautiful part of the upper Chindwin River, you can enjoy some quiet time for an early morning yoga session on the sundeck. After breakfast, you can join a demonstration on the old habit of betel-chewing as well as smoking cheroots cigars, and you can taste too if you want to! We have an afternoon excursion where we will visit the town Homalin, the end of the 400 navigable miles on the Chindwin River. Here we will visit the spectacular views from the high vantage point of the Buddha Lotus Garden before we start our downstream cruise. Our guide will explain the importance of the different statues portraying scenes from the life of Buddha. On the way back from this viewpoint, you have a great chance to visit the village of the Naga tribe. They are one of Myanmar’s minorities that still possess their own unique culture and customs. Join their traditional tribal dance and relish their traditional cuisine and drinks. 

Paungbyin – Homalin: 63.25 miles.

Today we will sail around 142.25 miles. Today is the day to unwind, admire the passing scenery, and relish the facilities onboard our beautiful ship. You may appreciate the power of the river as we sail with the force of the current on our side. There will be a cooking demonstration in the late morning. It will be executed by our Executive Chef, who will demonstrate you to prepare local dishes. And you will also be provided with recipes to try them at home!

In the afternoon, there will be a presentation where our onboard guide will lecture about “Buddhism in Myanmar.” And to wrap the day, tonight, there will be a BBQ dinner served together with an entertaining performance by our crew. We will moor near the city of Mawlaik. 

Homalin – Mawlaik: 142.25 miles.

Mawlaik has been used as the administrative capital of the British. Even now, many of the colonial-era houses built by the Bombay-Burma Trading Company exist. Our colonial heritage tour will take you to the post office, former British administrative buildings, the home of a former British commissioner, and the Mawlaik Golf Course. All these were built in the old colonial times. We will end our tour with a fun mini-golf match at the greens of the Mawlaik Golf Course, and later, we return to the ship and enjoy lunch on board. If sailing goes well, we will have the time to visit the small village of Kyi Taung Oo. In this village, we can discover the only remaining and work still in process, a wooden monastery that pre-dates the Konbaung Dynasty’s foundation in 1752. “Kyi Taung Oo” means “Great Sacred Hill,” as you might expect, there will be some remarkable views over the river and its surrounding area. There will be free medical services included in our ship for the village people.

Mawlaik – Kyi Taung Oo: 82.25 miles.

Solely unwind and relish the passing scenery along with our facilities on board. Our afternoon excursion will take you on a 45 minutes’ bus ride to Pho Win Taung to discover the cave-temple complexes outside of the city and the Shwe Ba Taung Mountains. The caves are believed to be around 500-years-old and contain many sandstone carvings of Buddha images, animals, plants, demons and ogres. In the evening, enjoy a puppet show performed by a group on board in the lounge. 

Kyi Taung Oo – Monywa: 103.25 miles.

Since this is the last sailing hours on board, this morning relax, have fun, and watch the passing scenery. We will arrive at our final destination- Bagan – in the afternoon. Bagan is the ancient city of King Anawrahta, and in this orientation tour, we will explore the magnificent Ananda Temple and Shwe San Daw Temple. Our evening concludes at one of the “sunset “pagodas or a high plain ground to watch an incredible view of the sun setting over the temple-strewn plain. 

Monywa – Bagan = 94 miles.

Today, your fantastic stay on the majestic Anawrahta ends. After breakfast, bid farewell to the crew and your floating home.

In the morning, embark in Mandalay and sail north through the Dolphin Sanctuary. You will attend a morning lecture on Myanmar culture entitled “Myanmar Ways of Life” and in the early afternoon, demonstration of a Myanmar Traditional Dress. In the late afternoon, when the air is fresher, we will visit the pottery village of Nwe Nyein. Here the traditional techniques to produce a wide variety of decorative pots are still being used. Tonight a cocktail party is an opportunity to meet and have fun chitchat with your fellow guests.