Pandaw Magazine

Victorian neo-Gothic style. On the hill is the Old
Moulmein Pagoda and a sumptuously wood
carved royal monasteries.
Pandaw offers two great day excursions from
Moulmein. The first is by car to Hpa-an, capital of
Karen State on the mighty Salween, the longest
river in Burma (see also Ma Thanagi’s article on p.
22). Along the way we pass the most extraordinary
rock formations and stack-like mountains, the
most famous being Mount Zwekabin. Here we see
a very welcoming Karen culture at first hand. The
town is delightful and after lunch we return to our
ship back down the fast flowing Salween on a local
boat by way of Martaban.
The other car excursion is to see the war graves
at Thanbyuzayat about two hours south of the city.
Immaculately maintained by the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission servicemen from the
UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands are
interred here, all victims of the Japanese and their
‘Death Railway’ that was to connect Thailand with
Burma.
We sail on, hugging the coast to explore Tavoy
about which very little is known, but it is a famous
old name behind which all sorts of discoveries
remain to be made. Then we enter the northern
part of the archipelago before entering the bustling
port of Mergui. These are areas of mangrove as
countless rivers flow off the hills, through
labyrinths of creeks, and mazes of channels, to
eventually find the sea. Mergui was once home to
the writer Maurice Collis and setting for his
wonderful book Siamese White. Mergui, like all
these southern ports, seems like the backdrop to a
tale of colonial-era intrigue by Somerset Maugham.
The Mergui Archipelago with its 800 islands is one of those
areas that remains almost totally unvisited by Westerners. Though
now some dive boats and yachts venture with special permission
into the southern islands from their bases in Thailand, the bulk of
the archipelago has remained unvisited since colonial times.
During that period when the archipelago was first charted, most of
the islands were named after colonial civil servants, a number
retaining these quaint names to this day.
The local population are Mokkein, often called sea gypsies and
sometimes pirates. During the Burmese socialist period the
Mokkein controlled the smuggling routes and would prey on
shipping. Nowadays they have reverted to fishing and fish curing.
They are a people with their own language and culture who
entirely live on the sea and have evolved a remarkable way of life.
Our tour will visit Mokkein islands such as Lampi in the Sullivan
Islands.
The maiden voyages have no itinerary provided. The sailing
directions and stops indicated represent “only what we would like
to do” says Pandaw founder Paul Strachan.
“All is subject to, trial and error, not to mention navigational
directions, tides, weather and government restrictions. Some of
these stops may be missed whilst others included in their place.
We will certainly work to make this expedition as interesting and
exciting as possible. Given the natural beauty of the area, the
wealth of things to do and see, this will not be difficult.”