The Tharrawaw Flyer, Burma 2009, Part 1

This is the twenty third part of our 2009 Burmese Odyssey. To read more about our 2009 bash which includes many non-steam items, please see Rob and Yuehong in the Golden Land 2009.

The bed in the Hinthada guest house is so rock hard that getting up for a 03.30 start seems a positive relief. We have no less than six trishaws, the first three failed to show on time and a relief set ordered... Eventually the lucky three are identified and sent away with 'money for nothing' and we bounce through the empty streets lit only by a nearly full moon. 

Twenty minutes later, on the outskirts of town we cross the remains of a railway line, we have arrived at the 'ferry terminal', not so much a building as an open expanse leading down, we assume, to the Irrawaddy River. There are a few shacks visible but not a single person present. My trishawman struggles to prevent his vehicle with me and my heavy backpack from running away for an early brown water bath and in due course we find a row of medium sized boats - one of which is identified as the 04.00 service. Walking the narrow plank in the gloom, it is clear that there are only one or two other passengers.

Amazingly, almost as soon as we sit down, even before the appointed hour, our boat casts off and the crew try to start the engine. It takes several attempts, but just when it is running sweetly they switch off and for the next half an hour we sit in the gloom while the boat slowly goes round in circles, only the noise of the chanting from a nearby temple tells me that. Eventually, there is a debate between the crew members and Han tells us that they think it is too misty to cross, it seems that the boat doesn't yet have a SatNav system.. Someone finds a paddle and we return to the shore and tie up, for some strange reason there are at least a dozen passengers waiting who had apparently missed the original sailing. No-one complains (they never do here) and someone finds some kind of light which enables me to search the bags to extract our jerseys because although it is mid-February and daytime temperatures are uncomfortably hot it is uncomfortably chilly on the river.

Yuehong had no wish to go back on the bus we came up on from Yangon and happily accepted my plan which was to catch the early train from Tharrawaw to Letpadan, but she is beginning to have second thoughts. Quite what will now happen is one of Burma's great imponderables... It's 90 minutes since we first cast off and only the jerseys are keeping us from freezing, the sensible locals have brought blankets. Han borrows one, curls up and goes to sleep.

Yuehong and I amuse ourselves by talking dirty. There are no bushes for her to hide behind on the bank when nature  calls, but it doesn't matter as the mist is getting thicker. The tea shop owners are coming down to collect their liquid, in this area you don't need tea leaves, the water comes in the right colour naturally. Finally at 06.15 in the half-light we are summoned on board and set off at a sensibly restrained pace. After ten minutes the pilot at the front frantically starts to wave his arms and we ram the river bank. Start again... At 06.30 we set off gingerly and ten minutes later we are overtaken by a man paddling a canoe. The pilot asks him for directions and he then vanishes into the mist. Two minutes later, we stop in midstream, while sitting there for more than half an hour we can hear the hawkers selling breakfast but if they are on a boat too they can't find us. Suddenly it is clear we are on collision course with a much larger boat:

Actually it's no accident, we tie up on it and walk to the bank, 5 minutes later we are in a market:

We're back where we started at the train ferry station. It's 08.00 and breakfast time and we shan't miss the boat as the three crew are with us. But we have certainly missed our train!

I get quite used to seeing all sorts of rubbish in Burma, but there are dozens of empty yellow boxes on the river bank:

Hairy bananas! What's your favourite flavour? It's time to get back on the boat and get started...

Click here for Part Two of the Tharrawaw Flyer: