Flotilla News 2019

PANDAW

Nobody ever said that running river
expeditions would be easy. Those of
our Pandaw Passengers who have
been kind enough to read my rather
exhausting book ‘The Pandaw Story’, which stops
in 2013, will be amused to learn that in the past
years we have had further excitements and
adventures and I could easily pen a sequel.
Since then we have set up in Laos, building
three ships to ply that most difficult of waterways.
With flow rates three times faster than the
Irrawaddy or Lower Mekong, these ships have
engines four times more powerful than ships of a
similar size have on our other rivers. There are
rocks the size of double-decker buses, whirl pools
that might whizz a boat round and round for ever,
and white water that would chill the heart of the
most experienced skipper. Yet we do it, up and
down between Vientiane in Laos, Chiang Saen in
Thailand, touching Burma and on to Jinghong in
China. That is four of the Mekong countries on a
single sailing.
On the Lower Mekong, we sail through
Vietnam and Cambodia (making it six Mekong
countries) where there are now so many river ships.
We remain ahead of the game thanks to the shallow
draft design of our ships reaching parts that others
cannot reach. From the dolphin grounds far up the
river at Stung Treng in Cambodia, to the bird
sanctuaries in the depth of the delta, we remain
pioneers and offer a very different experience.
In the past year we have seen Burma near
collapse as a destination. It’s tragic. I have been
living and working in Burma on and off for thirtyeight
years and never have I experienced a
government so rudderless. There can be no excuse
for what happened in the Arakan. The tragedy is
that the ordinary Burmese are being punished by the
media for the stupidity of their masters. We at
Pandaw have had to downsize our operation by 50%
with painful redundancies; it is very difficult to make
long-serving, loyal crew understand that they are
being let go because of bad press in the West.
On a more positive note for Burma, the
Pandaw Charity thrives with a new central clinic
opened at Pagan in the grounds of a friendly
Buddhist monastery. With over 5000 treatments a
month and a commitment to provide free
medications, we need all the help we can get as
Burma passenger numbers shrink. We are very
grateful for the many donations that made this
new clinic possible and keep all seven running.
India now beckons. We were the first in back in
2009 and ran into troubles. This time our legal setup
is solid whilst the waterways buoyed and charted
which they were not before. Annoyingly, for us and
moreover for the people who booked, we had to
cancel the sailings planned for early 2019 as we had
problems getting the ships out of Burma and over to
India, such is the muddled state into which Burma
has fallen. But all is on track now with the first ships
delivered and ready to start up come September 2019.
Both our shorter Lower Ganges expedition
through West Bengal or the longer Upper Ganges
from Varanasi to Kolkata are proving very popular
and many departures have been fully subscribed. We
have therefore decided to send a third ship. In 2020
we anticipate opening on the Upper Brahmaputra
sailing as far as Dibrugarh in Eastern Assam thanks
to the ultra-shallow draft of our K class ships.
This magazine brings together the best of the
blogs posted on our website over the past year,
many by Pandaw passengers, and the writing is of
the highest quality, and as with all past Flotilla
News issues, the subjects are of varied interest.
One year ago, we launched the Pandaw Member’s
Club and so far over 10,000 past passengers have
signed up, taking advantage of numerous benefits
and special member’s only discounts in
recompense for past loyalty.
The ‘Pandaw Community’ is essential to our
continuation, and ever since we began nearly 25
years ago our most powerful marketing tool has
been word of mouth. It has even become
generational: I get letters from folk who tell me
their parents came with Pandaw back in the 90s
and now they are following (just like our crews
where there is a growing second generation). I get
letters too from regulars who have been with us a
dozen times! Some say they come not for the
destinations but for the atmospheric ships and
their friendly crews. Others eagerly await the next
Pandaw adventure into the unknown, with all that
can go wrong!
On behalf of all our crew members thank you
for your past and continued support of Pandaw.
We warmly look forward to taking care of you on
future adventures. If you have not been with us
before, there is much in store, but, be warned,
these are not ‘cruises’ in any sense at all. π
Pandaw Founder
3

Taj Mahal
Kolkata
Kalna
Andaman Islands
Brahmaputra
Varanasi

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NEW EXPEDITIONS WITH PANDAW
Diburgarh
Upper Ganges
Farakka
Guwahati
Upper Brahmaputra
Lower Ganges
Varanasi
GANGES RIVER
The Ganges River is the 34th longest river in the world at
2,620km, flowing down through the Himalayas to form the
Gangetic Plain of North India and eventually to discharge into
the Bay of Bengal through Bangladesh. The Hooghly river
connects the Ganges river to Calcutta with a ship lock as part of
the Farakka Barrage that diverts water away from Bangladesh. The
Ganges river is the cradle of Indian civilisation and is sacred to
Hindus. To bathe in the waters of the “Holy Ganga” is a form of
purification, and to be cremated at the Ghats [stepped riverside
terraces] of Varanasi is the ambition of every living Hindu. The
river was used for navigation in British colonial times with
steamer services between Kolkata, Patna and even further
upriver. Massive irrigation schemes later diverted waters and the
construction of railways, and later roads with low bridges,
effectively killed river transportation and the navigation channels
silted up.
In recent years much has been done to improve navigation
and Patna can be reached year-round, and at certain times
Varanasi too. A river cruise on the Ganges river is really the only
sensible way to see India avoiding now-congested roads and all
the other inconveniences of travelling today in India. There is
much to see along the way – historically, culturally and for bird
and wild life. This is a river that offers rich experiences. π
Kolkata
B AY O F
B E N G A L
BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER
India's Brahamputura River is the 29th longest river in the world
at 2,948 km long, and has a discharge of 19,200 cubic litres per
second which puts northern India's great waterway in the top 10
when it comes to volume. Indeed, this is a massive waterway,
being the only river on Earth clearly visible from the Moon during
the Apollo missions. Flowing down from central Tibet through
the legendry Tsangpo gorges, the Brahamputura river opens out
as it enters Assam to flow across that state and then through
Bangladesh to flow out through the vast Sunderbunds Delta,
merging with the Ganges River, as they discharge into the Bay of
Bengal.
The Brahamaputra river may be little-navigated today, but in
colonial times steamer services operated as far as Dibrugarh. The
river in places can be up to 20 miles wide and in the monsoon it
floods the entire Assam plain. Indeed, East Bengal is not called
“the wettest place on the planet” for nothing – it literally does
have the world’s highest rainfall.
The river is so vast that any river cruise expedition undertaken
here can be movingly wondrous, as you pass through this great
emptiness of water, sand and shoal. There is not a lot of human
activity on the riverbank, but that means the wild life and bird
life are profuse. π
ANDAMAN ISLANDS
The Andaman Sea, glimpsed at from the sandy shores of Phuket and southern Thailand, is
traversed only by the most intrepid of yachtsman. The sea is perhaps the most exquisite corner
of the Indian Ocean, stretching five hundred miles from South East Asia to the Andaman and
Nicobar chain.
From Burma’s Mergui Archipelago to India’s Andamans there is a most extraordinary
ethnographic mix not to mention biodiversity and marine life. It is also very beautiful with many
uninhabited islands ringed by dazzling white sands.
For the first time ever, Pandaw will be offering two ten night expeditions across this sea
exploring both the Mergui and Andaman archipelagos. Both areas have until recently been
closed by their respective governments and such an expedition would have been unimaginable.
For those with less time, we also offer a small number of seven night expeditions exploring
the Andaman archipelago flying in and out of airports on mainland India. π
Andaman
Islands
Port Blair
Diglipur
A N D A M A N
S E A
FOR MORE INFORMATION CHECK ONLINE AT PANDAW.COM/INDIA 5

FLOTILLA NEWS - PANDAW.COM
N E W F O R 2 0 1 8
NEW ADDITION
TO THE FLEET
R V S A B A I D E E PA N D AW
We are excited about the addition of a seventeenth ship to
the Pandaw Flotilla, which was completed in Laos in
October 2018 to meet demand on our very popular Laos
to China route across Yunnan.
In true Pandaw style, this double decked vessel is designed to meet the
navigational challenges of shooting rapids in the Laos gorges and sailing
through shallow waters all the way to China.
The SABAIDEE, like her sister ships, belongs to Pandaw’s unique
ultra-shallow draft K-class. These were pioneered in Burma by the
Irrawaddy Flotilla Company in the 1880s as the shallowest draft vessels
of such a size on the planet, which they remain so today. This means
that year-round they can sail all the way up to Varanasi and beyond.
Being only twin-decked, they can also get under low bridges!
The SABAIDEE has just fourteen classic Pandaw staterooms; eight
on the main deck and six on upper deck as well as an open plan saloon
with flexible indoor or outdoor dining. The SABAIDEE has been
handcrafted to our usual level of excellence in teak and brass and provides
all the comforts of the personalised service our guests expect. π
Vessels Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sabaidee Pandaw
Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inland Waters Navigation
Year built . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2018
Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laos Class
Flag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laos
HP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2x 350
Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41m
Beam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8m
Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2m
Draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0m
Airdraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8m
PAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
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W W W . P A N D A W . C O M
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FLOTILLA NEWS - PANDAW.COM
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands
(ANI) refer to two island groups –
the Andaman Islands and the
Nicobar Islands – located east of
the Indian mainland in the Bay of
Bengal. Together, the two islands consist of
over 500 islets, and are separated by the Ten
Degree Channel spanning 150 km. An Indian
territory covering approximately 3,185 square
miles, the islands have caught in recent years
the attention of leisure tourists drawn to their
stunning scenic beauty and interesting history.
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF THE ISLANDS
Archaeological evidence from around 2,200
years ago indicates that the indigenous
Andamanese people may have been cut-off
from other populations during the Middle
Paleolithic era, and diversified into different
territorial groups. Meanwhile, people of
various backgrounds occupied the Nicobar
Islands, and over time, united into two groups
speaking Shompen and Mon-Khmer
languages.
There are more theories than facts about
the origin of ANI. Ancient Indian epic poem
Ramayana contains references to Lord Rama
seeking to bridge the sea to find his kidnapped
wife Sita with the help of monkey-god
Hanuman, and that it was achieved by
grouping islands whose inhabitants were
known as Handuman, from whom the name
‘Andaman’ was derived.
Another theory brings in a Malay
association, claiming that ancient Malays
owned slaves on the ‘island of Handuman’ and
travelled here by sea to capture aboriginals and
sell them. Another reference is found in the
work of Chinese Buddhist pilgrim I-tsing, who
embarked on a voyage to India in 671 A.D. and
called the islands ‘the islands of cannibals’ or
‘Andaban’, even describing the place in detail,
including the barter of coconut for iron.
Marco Polo stopped at the Andamans en
route his voyage to China in 1290 A.D. In his
book Oriente Poliano or The Travels of Marco
Polo, the legendary traveller speaks of the
‘Angamanain’ island whose people he
describes as having ‘heads, teeth and eyes like
dogs’ and the propensity to eat everyone they
can catch. He also mentions that the islanders
don’t have a king, and subsist on flesh, milk,
rice and fruits that he has never seen before.
The Chola Empire, one of the longestruling
dynasties ever, whose antiquity is
unknown, used the islands as a strategic naval
base to combat the Sriwijaya Empire (modern
day Indonesia). The Cholas called the islands
Ma-Nakkavaram or ‘naked land’ as well as
Tinmaittivu or ‘impure islands’. The islands
also served as a maritime base for ships
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ABOVE The Andaman
Explorer cruising the
Andaman islands
RIGHT ABOVE
View of Port Blair
RIGHT BELOW
Cellular Jail at
Port Blair
belonging to the Maratha Empire. Navy
Admiral Kanhoji Angre bolstered naval
supremacy by setting up base on the islands.
Maratha rulers also attached the islands to
India, with the ANI today being one of the
seven union territories of the country.
In 1755, the Danish East India Company
made the Nicobar Islands a Danish colony,
changing their name to New Denmark and
later Frederick’s Islands. Bouts of malarial
outbreaks caused a change of heart and Danish
colonizers eventually bid adieu to the islands
in 1848.
The British East India Company found the
islands ideal to hold mutineers of the Indian
Rebellion, a major but unsuccessful rebellion
against the British rule. In 1858, Dr. James
Walker landed in Port Blair on a frigate hauling
hundreds of convicts. Taking advantage of the
heavy rainfall and being aware that the
Andamans were connected to Burma by land,
the convicts make attempts to escape. The
islanders killed many of the convicts, captured
men were hanged, and some who had fled to
the jungles surrendered. Among many more
mutineers who were packed off to the islands,
some died of malaria and dysentery. Walker
was admonished and instructed to make peace
with the aborigines and allow well-behaved
convicts to relocate their family from India to
the islands.
The penal settlement gradually expanded.
Forests were cleared to plant rice, vegetables,
coconut trees and bananas. In 1896,
construction of the Cellular Jail began. It was
initially envisioned to architecturally resemble
a prison in Pennsylvania but later inspired by
the HM Prison Pentonville, the Category B
men’s prison operated by Her Majesty’s Prison
Service. Nearby, a church, mess, barracks and
a residence for the Chief Commissioner were
built, followed by tennis courts, a golf course
and football grounds. A school for convicts’
children also became a part of the district.
Cellular Jail had 698 cells designed to hold
mutineers in solitary confinement, and housed
such notable dissidents as Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar, Yogendra Shukla and Batukeshwar
Dutt.
In 1868, over 200 inmates tried to escape
but were captured soon after. Walker ordered
some to be hanged. In 1933, inmates began a
hunger strike opposing the treatment of
prisoners; three among them died from forcefeeding.
After intervention from Mahatma
Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, inmates
were repatriated from the jail in 1938.
Cellular Jail is one of the island’s key
modern-day tourist attractions. It resembles a
wheel with the central tower as the main axle
and seven wings as spokes. Its Panopticon
design scheme allowed for all inmates to be
observed by a single guard without prisoners
able to decipher whether or not they are being
watched.
During the Second World War, the islands
caught the attention of the Japanese because
they could hold a large number of ships. By that
time, only one British Infantry company was
stationed at Ross. Between 1941 and 1942, the
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service began air
raids on Rangoon. After the fall of Burma, the
garrison convicts, settlers and officials were
evacuated. Only a few British officers and those
who had no home elsewhere chose to stay back.
One of the officers was executed by the
Japanese. During this time, Netaji Subhash
Chandra Bose, a freedom fighter who
collaborated with Imperial Japan and Nazi
Germany to drive the British out of India,
visited the islands and offered the moniker
Swaraj-dweep’ or self-rule island.
After India and Burma gained
independence, the British moved to resettle
Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmese on the
islands. Their plan failed and in 1950, the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands became a part
of India and a union territory in 1956.
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FLOTILLA NEWS - PANDAW.COM
ABOVE
Group of
Andaman men
and women in
costume,
catching turtles
ORIGINAL INHABITANTS
OF THE ISLANDS
Four Negrito and two Mongoloid tribes are the indigenous
inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, having lived here for
30,000-40,000 years. Settlers to the islands arrived in the
1950s, after being persuaded by the Indian government to
inhabit large swathes of unoccupied land, with 10 acres of
free land as inducement.
Negritos comprise different ethnic groups inhabiting,
besides ANI, Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Thailand and
Philippines. They are characterized by their small stature
and dark skin. The Negritos of ANI are claimed to resemble
African pygmies. The Negrito tribes of ANI are the Great
Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge and Sentinelese.
The Great Andamanese originally consisted of ten
tribes, each with its own language and population of 200-
700 people. The British invasion decimated large numbers
of tribe members and in the 1970s, the Indian government
moved survivors to the Strait Island, providing them
shelter, food and clothing. Less than 60 Great Andamanese
people exist today.
The Onge population has also declined and the
territories they occupied on Little Andaman Island have
also shrunk, now shared with settlers from Bangladesh,
India and the Nicobar Islands. And although their
settlements fell prey to the Tsunami’s fury in 2004, no tribe
member lost their life. After feeling the tremors and
watching water levels recede, the Onge made their way
inland and escaped the waves.
The Onge decorate their faces with white clay and chew
bark to impart a reddish hue to their teeth. While they hunt
for wild boar and collect honey, for the large part, the Onge
rely on the Andaman authorities for food and commodities.
The Sentinelese are one of the world’s last uncontacted
tribes, and live on the small North Sentinel island. They are
highly resistant to human contact and have made their
distaste for outsiders apparent in both harmless and lethal
ways. But the Sentinelese seem to be doing well – they
enjoy good health and photographs have shown children
and pregnant women. However, despite thriving in
isolation and surviving the tsunami, they are at a risk of
falling prey to diseases to which they lack immunity, which
also makes contact with them a dangerous proposition.
Like the Sentinelese, the Jarawa population is selfsufficient,
although it does not live in extreme isolation. A
few tribe members first ventured out of the forest in the
late nineties to explore nearby towns, and by the 2000s,
authorities announced that the Jarawas would be free to
decide their own future and won’t be settled forcibly to
bring them into the mainstream.
Today, about 470 Jarawas co-exist with settlers. While
most prefer to hunt and live amongst their own, a few can
be seen walking along roads and interacting with tourists.
Still, their survival is threatened by illegal fishing and
gathering by poachers. Concerns have also been expressed
over the threat posed to the Jarawas by the encroaching
Andaman Trunk Road.
The Nicobarese are one of the two Mongoloid tribes in
the ANI. A designated Scheduled Tribe, their population is
estimated at 30,000. They depend on horticulture and
receive free education from the government. The Shompen
tribe, also a designated Scheduled Tribe, inhabits the
interior of Great Nicobar Island, and has a predominantly
hunting-gathering culture, and some pig-rearing and
horticultural activities. Relatively isolated, the tribe has a
high male to female ratio, which has resulted in marriage
by capturing women of different groups within the tribe,
and a large number of unmarried adult males.
10

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ABOVE
Havelock
Island Beach
RIGHT
Andaman
Explorer
FLORA AND FAUNA
The islands are home to an impressively rich variety of flora
and fauna. Their location in eastern Indian Ocean assures a
warm tropical climate ranging from 22°C - 30°C, while
annual rainfall ranges from 3,000 -3,800 millimeters. Close
to 90% of the islands are forested, boasting more than 2000
plant species, many of which are endemic to the territory.
Scattered with mangrove and coastal forests, the islands’
trees can reach heights of 40-60 meters.
In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami,
Nicobar Islands lost more than 70% of their mangrove cover.
However, researchers say that new habitats can potentially
generate to regrow mangroves and new, unrecorded
mangrove species.
The islands’ nine national parks and many wildlife and
marine sanctuaries offer an opportunity to experience the
diverse ecosystem. Whether you want to observe wildlife
in their natural habitat or view innumerable species of
butterflies, ANI has you covered.
The islands are also a bird-watcher’s paradise. Among the
200+ bird species found here are the Narcondam hornbill,
Andaman wood pigeon, Andaman scop’s owl, fulvous
breasted woodpecker and the blue-eared kingfish. Rain forests
on the Andaman Islands are home to 45 reptile species,
thirteen of which are endemic. The Malayan Box Turtle on the
Nicobar Islands is the world’s only non-marine turtle. Ten of
the forty species of snakes found here are venomous,
including the Andaman Cobra, Andaman Krait, Pit Vipers,
King Cobra and sea snakes.
Of the 62 mammal species on the island, 32 are
endemic, including the Andaman wild pig, crab-eating
macaque and Andaman masked palm civet.
The Indian government recently modified an earlier
order that made it mandatory for foreign tourists to ANI
to register with the Foreigners Registration Officer within
24 hours of their arrival. The white sand beaches of
Andaman have become a favorite tourist haunt in recent
years; while some are buzzing with tourist activity, you will
also find a few serene beaches that provide a private and
tranquil experience.
EXPLORE THE ANDAMAN
ISLANDS ABOARD THE MY
ANDAMAN EXPLORER
Your expedition aboard the Andaman Explorer will take
you through the South Andaman Island with its beautiful
ferns and orchards, Havelock and Lawrence Islands that
house some of ANI’s best beaches for swimming and
snorkeling, Northern Andaman Island where you can
interact with local communities and partake in folk dances
and workshops, Mayabunder where you can gain insights
into Karen cultural life, and Rangat Bay and Long Island
whose virgin beaches promise an idyllic experience. π
11

FLOTILLA NEWS - PANDAW.COM
A trip up the
Chindwin River
BY
GENERAL
MIKE
RIDDELL
WEBSTER
The Japanese first bombed
Rangoon on the 23rd of
December 1941. Between then
and late April/early May 1942,
the British were to conduct a
difficult, demoralising and dangerous retreat
of some 900 miles as they fell back to the
Imphal Plain, nestled in the hills of North East
India, pursued every step of the way by the
relentless Japanese onslaught. It was to be the
longest retreat in British military history. And
it was not just the Army. The whole British
and Indian expatriate communities were on
the move. Whilst many opted for routes west
over the Arakan or north to Bhamo and
beyond, many chose to aim for Imphal and
travel up the Chindwin valley; it is estimated
that a total of 500,000 made it to India, with
10-50,000 perishing on the way. The route to
Imphal takes in some 250 miles of the
Chindwin River, traveling upstream from its
confluence with the Irrawaddy River to the
town of Sittaung, from where it is possible to
cross the Burma/India border at Tamu.
ll forms of transport were pressed into
service for this chaotic move with a hostile
force snapping at their heels: cars, lorries,
elephants and boats of the Irrawaddy Flotilla
Company, for which this was to be their last
mission before being scuttled. The story
resonates as one of a desperate, moralecrushing
journey, with glimpses of humour,
self-sacrifice and extraordinary courage.
The military forces opposed to the
Japanese consisted of the 40,000 strong
British Burma Corps (or Burcorps),
commanded by Lieutenant General William
Slim, and three Chinese Armies, with a total
strength similar to Burcorps. At first, these
forces acted in concert, but the Chinese were
to retreat on the northern route towards
Bhamo as they made for China rather than
India. As a result they played no part in the
retreat up the Chindwin, once north of
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ABOVE Lieutenant
General William Slim
Irrawaddy/Chindwin confluence.
To travel the Chindwin River, whose valley
was one of the main arteries of the retreat, is
not possible without reflecting on the horrors
of that journey. As the retreat was taking part
in the early months of the year, the weather
was dry and hot. Water levels on the
Chindwin would have been dropping and, by
the time Burcorps were crossing the
Irrawaddy in late April 1942, the river levels
would have been very low. So low, indeed, that
the Chindwin itself was ruled out as the main
route for the withdrawal; the route would now
have to be along jungle tracks as Burcorps
found their way to Imphal.
As Burcorps attempted to cross the
Irrawaddy at Sameikkon, west of Mandalay, it
became clear that the promised ferries were
not there. Simultaneously, the Irrawaddy
Flotilla Company was beginning to scuttle
some of its river fleet at Mandalay. John
Morton, the manager of the Irrawaddy Flotilla
Company, was in Mandalay; his diary for the
28th of April records:
"Mandalay was evacuated yesterday, the
IF being the last to go. The Army is retreating
up the Chindwin. Our men won't be many
days at Monywa and I expect them to retire
up the river and so through to Manipur.
Macnaughtan has been at Sameikkon (below
Mandalay) ferrying the Army across the
Irrawaddy. I have a guarantee from General
Slim that he and the crews of the steamers
there will be taken safely to Monywa.
We are being chased out even quicker
now than was expected and I have orders for
more sinkings here at Kyaukmyaung. There
are over two hundred of our fleet sunk at
Mandalay. Imagine how I felt drilling holes in
their bottoms with a bren gun."
Once the Irrawaddy Flotilla boats,
commanded by Flotilla Assistant John
Macnaughtan, now a Lieutenant in the Burma
RNVR, had ferried elements of Burcorps
across the Irrawaddy, they did indeed retire up
the river and were to be instrumental later on
in the retreat.
Others of Burcorps managed to cross the
Irrawaddy by the Ava Bridge, nearer to
Mandalay and, once the entire Corps were
west of the Irrawaddy, the Ava Bridge was
blown at midnight on the 30th of April
signalling, in the words of General Slim,
"that we had lost Burma".
Travelling by car from Pagan to our
embarkation point at Monywa provided a
number of opportunities to reflect on that epic
military retreat. As we flicked effortlessly
across the Irrawaddy on a new bridge at
Pakokku, just south of the Chindwin/
Irrawaddy confluence, we pondered that
altogether more complicated crossing by ferry
of an Army Corps. Driving up an almost
empty road into Monywa from the south
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FLOTILLA NEWS - PANDAW.COM
reminded us of those soldiers of the Glosters
(The Gloucestershire Regiment) and Royal
Marines, who had been holding the town in
1942. During the night of 30th of April/1st of
May, there was much confused fighting. It
was thought that the Japanese had taken the
town, and the General Officer Commanding
1st Burma Division, Major General Bruce
Scott, found himself fighting for his life as his
headquarters was overrun. Reinforced early
on the 1st of May by six or seven hundred
troops who had come up the Chindwin, the
Japanese took Monywa later that day and,
despite a counter-attack and some fierce
fighting on the 2nd of May, the town
remained in Japanese hands. The capture of
this town confined the British to their land
route and gave the Japanese access to the
main waterway.
Today Monywa is peaceful, has a large
bridge crossing the Chindwin and is a hub of
river transport. How extraordinary is it, to be
boarding the graceful Kalay Pandaw in bright
sunshine and being greeted with fruit juices
and lunch rather than mortars and bullets!
For the next two days we followed the
footsteps of Flotilla Assistant Macnaughtan
and his doughty men. In the most
tremendous comfort, we literally watched
Burmese life pass us by. In late January the
river levels are already low, making our
progress slow as our crew checked the depths
with their painted bamboo depth finders. Side
trips on mountain bikes took us to some
wonderful Burmese villages, considerably less
encumbered by the piles of plastic found in
the more popular parts of Burma. Highlights
included calling in at a small village called
Mingin, where our host and Pandaw founder,
Paul Strachan, knows the Abbot. The village
was wonderful – not a shred of plastic
anywhere as the Abbot exerted his influence
and called for order. Rather, water fights
between playful locals as they cleaned a
pagoda in advance of a religious ceremony,
and solar power plants and batteries were the
order of the day.
The next early morning presenteda very
real link back to that awful retreat of 1942. At
about 0730, the little bay of Shwegyin came
into view. Known as "The Bowl", Shwegyin is
just that: a large area surrounded by hills
about 200 feet high. It was in this bowl that
the Army gathered as it came out of the
jungle in search of somewhere to cross the
Chindwin. The surrounding hills were
picketed as the last line of defence from the
pursuing Japanese and there was fierce
fighting as the Japanese attempted to cut
Burcorps off completely from further retreat.
Here it was that Flotilla Assistant
Macnaughtan had gathered his little fleet of
six "S" class sternwheeler steamers to help in
the evacuation of Burcorps across the river to
the town of Kalewa, six miles upstream.
Today, there is a shiny new bridge which
crosses the river at Kalewa, but in 1942 the
difficult jungle track reached the Chindwin at
Shwegyin and its jetty. Doubtless the legacy of
the teak traders, who would have used the
"chaung" or stream that issues into the
Chindwin at this point, the track and jetty was
the only sensible place for loading troops. The
six Irrawaddy Flotilla ships worked tirelessly,
in increasingly dangerous circumstances to
evacuate troops and refugees. Light vehicles
were also loaded and transported, but the
tanks had to be abandoned. Unlike our
luxurious Kalay Pandaw, those Flotilla ships
were steam driven and soldiers boarding had
to bring a log with them to fuel the boilers,
rather than carrying a ticket.
A boom had been established across the
Chindwin to stop the Japanese moving up the
river by boat, and this measure was successful
until it was broken by shelling on the 7th of
May. Despite breaching the boom, the
Japanese failed to get sufficiently far up the
river to cut off the British crossing.
Looking around Shwegyin today, little
seems to have changed and it is all too easy to
imagine the fighting, the chaos as troops were
loaded onto boats, and the suppressed air of
urgency; it must have been something of an
inland Dunkirk. General Slim described it as
"one huge bottleneck". Loading the Flotilla
ships was slow, as they took on board their
cargo of 5-600 tightly packed troops. Slim
recalls hundreds of civilian vehicles in "The
Bowl" and, although there is nothing left now,
it is not difficult to picture dozens of
abandoned vehicles getting in the way as their
owners jostled for places on board a steamer.
The Japanese finally forced their way into "The
Bowl" on the 10th of May and the remaining
troops had to march up the east bank of the
river until they were opposite Kalewa, although
the redoubtable Chief Engineer Hutcheon,
who was by now captaining an Irrawaddy
Flotilla ship, managed to evacuate about 2,400
troops from a creek about half way between
Shwegyin and Kalewa. Hutcheon's fellow
Chief Engineer, John Murie, was awarded a
Military Cross in the field by General
Alexander on the 16th of May for his part in
maintaining the Irrawaddy Flotilla's
contribution to the evacuation. The history of
that evacuation is still sharp in the folklore of
the locals at Shwegyin. We met one resident
who had a Japanese bayonet and another
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whose mother had learnt to speak Japanese
when she was six, during the Japanese
occupation of the following two years.
Making our way along that final six
miles upstream to Kalewa, it was also easy
to see how troops would have been landed,
as they prepared for the start of their long
march up the infamous Kabaw Valley to
Manipur and relative safety. The retreat
had, for some time, been a race against
three competing dangers; the Japanese,
reducing rations and the rains. The
Japanese had been held just enough to
allow the evacuation and rations had been
cut time and again. But now the rains
arrived. On the 12th of May, they broke in
full fury, rendering marching conditions
indescribable and the going underfoot
treacherous, but they stopped the Japanese.
That day the Japanese occupied Kalewa,
but came no further, allowing Burcorps to
struggle their way back over the hills to
Manipur. As Slim watched the last of them
arrive in Imphal, he wrote:
On the last day of that nine hundred
mile retreat I stood on the bank beside the
road and watched the rearguard march into
India. All of them, British, Indian, and
Gurkhas, were gaunt and ragged as
scarecrows. Yet, as they trudged behind
their surviving officers in groups painfully
small, they still carried their arms and kept
their ranks, they were still recognisable as
fighting units. They might look like
scarecrows, but they looked like soldiers
too."
The Japanese were to remain where
they had stopped for nearly two years, until
they invaded India in March 1944. Starting
with the huge struggles for the Imphal
Plain and Kohima, Slim and his
"forgotten" Fourteenth Army were to
defeat the Japanese in a series of epic
battles, ultimately forcing the Japanese
back into Burma. The British finally
returned to the Chindwin in early
December 1944 and crossings followed at
Sittaung, Mawlaik and Kalewa as the
precursors to the re-conquest of the whole
of Burma, all of which is another tale of
extraordinary ingenuity, endurance and
courage.
As we travelled the Chindwin in luxury,
admiring its glorious beauty, it behove us
all to spare a thought for those of Burcorps
and, later, those of the Fourteenth Army
who had fought so hard to ensure that
Burma was liberated from Japanese
occupation. I certainly raised my glass to
them all as we sailed so comfortably past
the sites of their struggles. Not for us was
the Fourteenth Army forgotten. π
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BY THE OLD
MOULMEIN
PAGODA
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder
Kipling only spent a day
in Moulmein where he
disembarked for a day's
tour on his way to Japan
in 1889. Of course, the poem
makes geographical nonsense, as
Moulmein is nowhere near the
Irrawaddy River and the paddles
chunking to Mandalay, which he
never visited. Moulmein sits on
the estuaries of three rivers: the
Salween, the Gyaing and the
Ataran that spread out like a great
map when viewed from the Kyaik-tun hilltop
pagoda.
Kipling later wrote that that day he fell in love
with a Burmese maiden whilst visiting the town's
main pagoda. "Only the fact of the steamer
departing at noon prevented me from staying at
Moulmein forever...". We have to thank this
nameless belle who was an inspiration for one of
the greatest poems in the English language.
Ironically, the words 'Kipling' and 'Burma' became
synonymous yet he knew the country little,
jumping off the steamer for a quick sightseeing in
Rangoon and Moulmein. Despite the brevity of his
visit, no European ever captured the magical
essence of Burma better than Kipling, whether in
the 1890s or today.
16
“
BY THE old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:
"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!"
Come you back to Mandalay,
Where the old Flotilla lay:
Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay?
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!
by Rudyard Kipling
”
Moulmein was a British creation following the
First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824 when the
territories of Tenasserim and the Arakan were
ceded to the British. The choice was strategic, as
opposite was the Burmese town of Martaban,
which had been an important provincial capital for
centuries, sitting at the mouth of the great
Salween, the longest river in Burma. Strategically
with rivers on two sides, the northern point
opposite Martaban was called Battery Point, with
its guns pointing across the river at Burmese
territory.
The East India Company absorbed this new
territory with some degree of reluctance, as it
would be costly to garrison and administer with
little potential for profit. Colonel Bogle, the first
Civil Commissioner (equivalent to
a governor), built himself a palatial
mansion called Salween House
set in a spacious park on one of
the hills. Later this was considered
too grand for a civil servant's
residence and it was turned into
the court house and town offices.
The Board of Directors in Calcutta
were soon proved wrong and
Moulmein developed into an
important economic hub: initially
teak extraction, then obviously
ship building taking advantage of abundant
timber; later, rubber planting and tin mining.
John Crawfurd, a native of Islay who had been
an army doctor and former 'resident' at the Court
of Ava and Dr Wallick, the superintendent of the
Botanical Gardens in Calcutta, travelled on the
Diana, the first steam paddler in Burma that had
been brought over from Bengal in 1824 for the
Anglo-Burmese War. Despatched to Moulmein she
made an expedition up the Ataran River with
Crawfurd and Wallick to inspect the forests and
logistics of its shipping. What they found
surpassed all expectation. Even after power shifted
to Rangoon, Moulmein remained a teak town,
shipping by the 1910s 60,000 tons of teak a year,
about one fifth of the country's total production.

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William Darwood, the Diana's chief engineer,
realising the possibilities, stayed on in Moulmein
where he married the daughter of the ship owner
Captain Snowball, who had also just settled there.
Snowball was famous in all the Indian Ocean
ports and it was significant that he chose to settle
in Moulmein. In 1825 this was the place to be. An
Englishman, Darwood had served in the Bengal
Marine and lost a leg in the Diana's assault on
Martaban in 1824 for which he had been awarded
a pension. He set up as shipbuilder and between
1833 and 1841 launched eleven vessels. Darwood
was one of over twenty ship builders established
in Moulmein by the 1840s. As wooden hulls gave
way to steel ones by the 1850s, ship building
declined in Moulmein and after the Second
Anglo-Burmese War larger vessels were to be built
on the Rangoon River at Dalla. The river banks
still abound with boat builders constructing
trawlers and river launches.
Many of Moulmein merchants were Scots.
TD Findlay came to Moulmein in 1840 by way of
Penang where he was to be a partner in a family
owned store. He passed on that opportunity
preferring to set up shop in Moulmein, where on
a visit he realised the potential and formed a
partnership with James Todd. Todd Findlay & Co
imported goods from Glasgow and sent back teak
in the same ships. Everything was in the hands of
a small interrelated group of Glasgow families: the
factories that produced all necessities for life and
trade in the tropics; the ships that transported the
goods; the shops that sold the goods; the insurers
who covered the risky sea voyages; the logging
companies; and, the banks that financed it all.
Findlay and his network encapsulated this model.
Later, with the shift to Rangoon, Todd Findlay &
Co would become the main investors in another
great Scot's project: the Irrawaddy Flotilla
Company.
Moulmein was important for only thirty
years, as after the Second Anglo-Burmese War
Rangoon became the capital of all Lower Burma.
Thereafter Moulmein became a somewhat
sleepy provincial town, of economic rather than
political importance. Most of the great Scots'
commercial houses relocated to Rangoon,
leaving branch offices in Moulmein. Gone too
were the governor and the military garrison.
Moulmein was regarded as a very pleasant and
comfortable town and a place of retirement for
Europeans who chose not to go 'home'. This was
the Bournemouth of Burma with quiet shady
streets, dak bungalows and huge gardens strung
along the three roads of the British town.
Climbing the Kyaik-tha-lun pagoda hill to
stand where Kipling stood, mistaking the
Salween for Irrawaddy and becoming besotted,
you can see the original town laid out between
the corniche and the small range of hills which
the pagoda dominates. It originally consisted of
three thoroughfares, the Strand, Main Road and
Upper Road, running parallel to the river along
which the merchant's godowns and counting
houses sat looking out across the Strand at their
ships at anchor. You can see now that the town
has spread inland to the eastern side of the hills.
Ranged along the town hills are diverse pagodas
and monasteries, nearly all dating from colonial
times and in a hotchpotch of colonial classical
and Rococo Burmese styles. The largest and
most splendid Hindu temple in Burma sits
brilliantly amongst this architectural melee.
Gazing across the town you will see that all
religions are represented and I would hazard
that, there are as many mosques as pagodas, for
under the British this was very much an Indian
town. Not to be outdone by mosque or pagoda,
church towers and steeples soar skywards in a
mix of Gothic and Romanesque. Just beneath on
the west side you will see a huge prison radiating
out from a main block like a fan. Moulmein Jail,
once a model prison, memorialises the legacy of
the British as much as the churches and
godowns. For the British were to pacify a territory
where dacoits terrorised villages and pirates
prayed on coastal traders. (Looking through my
zoom lens I could see a very active prison
population playing football or chinlon, cheered
on by the guards.) To the north the great Salween
graciously curves its way on the journey to distant
Tibetan peaks. Closer you will see the jagged
Zwekabin range of hills, the most prominent of
which was known as the Duke of York's nose,
though which Duke of York remains a mystery.
From the east the Salween is joined by the Ataran
and Gyaing Rivers that brought rafted teak down
from the great forests that abutted Siam. Three
enormous rivers thus meet in the estuary
between Moulmein and Martaban and it is no
surprise that Moulmein was to become an
important port and trading post.
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Moulmein was once home to a young colonial policeman
called Eric Blair, who later adopted the pseudonym George
Orwell. His essay 'The Shooting of an Elephant' was set in
Moulmein and begins with the wonderful line: "In Moulmein,
in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people —
the only time in my life that I have been important enough for
this to happen to me."
Orwell had strong Moulmein connections as his mother's
family, the Limouzins, were from here. A Frenchman, his
great-grandfather was a shipbuilder from Bordeaux and
founded Limouzin & Co in 1826. Orwell arrived exactly one
hundered years later and in the previous year his grandmother
had died in Moulmein. There is still a Limouzin Street in
downtown Moulmein.
In 'The Shooting of the Elephant', Orwell shows an early
disillusionment with the colonial system of which he, as the
town's police superintendent, was a pillar. He describes how
he was pressured by a crowd into shooting an elephant in musk
even though it had ceased rampaging and was no longer a
danger. Somehow the prestige of the British required him to
act in an unnecessary and cruel way causing immense
suffering to the beast as it died a long slow death. The shooting
was a symbol of colonial rule. In Burmese Days, which is set
up on the river in Katha, Orwell went on to ridicule the tedium
of provincial colonial life. His record of life in Burma was
deeply cynical, somewhat at variance with nearly all other
contemporary accounts from this time.
The fact that the poor elephant was a Moulmein elephant
is relevant, for Moulmein was 'elephant city'. Teak rafts were
floated down the three rivers to be gathered at their mouths
and brought ashore by elephants, the logs were transported by
elephants, even stacked in neat piles by elephants. Working
elephants were everywhere in Moulmein and a feature of daily
life. I wish there were statistics on this but there must have
been several thousands stabled here. Elephants have identical
life spans to humans, so most beasts were good for forty years
of service. They were thus very valuable items. I once met a
member of the Wallace family of Bombay Burmah Trading
Corporation who returned to Burma in the nineties and
encountered elephants branded BBTC before the war still
working away.
I first visited Moulmein in 1986. I was going to visit
Professor Hla Pe who had been emeritus professor of Burmese
at London University, before my time there, and had retired to
Moulmein. I had heard many stories of Saya Hla Pe's charm,
wit and eloquence and had longed to meet him. Back then
under the Ne Win dictatorship foreigners were only allowed to
travel to the usual tourist spots and I had to get special
permission to go down to Moulmein. As the roads were so bad
the train was the best way to get there. The terminus was at
Martaban from where a ferry took me across the mile-wide
Salween to Moulmein.
As I crossed from the railway platform to the jetty I was
confronted by a beaming police officer, "you are going to visit
Saya U Hla Pe", it was a statement rather than a question, for
the only foreigners ever to arrive in Moulmein were Saya's
guests. The police were very kind and insisted on taking me
across the river in a police launch and on the other side a police
jeep was waiting to take me to Saya's mansion.
This was the first of several visits to Saya over the years and
the professor was one of the most erudite man in Burma and
a fount of information on Burmese literature, language and
culture. After a dram or two, he would hint that life in a
provincial town, the Burmese Bournemouth, could at times be
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ABOVE Adoniram
Judson 1846
LEFT Bamboo
Buddha
RIGHT
St Matthews
Church Moulmein
dullish and thus he was all the more delighted to receive guests. His
wife was from Moulmein and had insisted that they live there after
his retirement from London University. Back then an index-linked
UK pension went quite a long way in Burma and Saya lived in fine
style and was something of a local celebrity receiving the obeisance
of the town's great and good. On one occasion, not long married to
Roser, we were sitting having dinner and the lights went out. Saya
rushed to the phone and I heard him berate the manager of the local
power station "didn't you hear that I have VIP foreign visitors staying".
Saya is no longer with us, and Moulmein, as with so many
Burmese towns, has seen some change. When we returned in the
early 90s, after the SLORC putsch and a scramble to develop the
country that collapsed into sanctions and the clasp of the Chinese, the
old wooden godowns and counting houses were being demolished
along the Strand in favour of the most architecturally miserable
apartment blocks imaginable. Yet there are still many architectural
gems to be found in the residential areas.
It is best to start with the churches. My favourite is St Mathews,
which is C of E, and so quintessentially English that for a moment
you might think you have been transported back to the Home
Counties. Consecrated in 1890 by Bishop John Miller Strachan (my
adopted ancestor!) who was the first bishop of Rangoon, it was
designed by the fashionable London firm of St Aubin and Wadling,
and said to be identical to the English church in Dresden. The
construction was funded by a single donor AW Kenny of whom I wish
we knew more. The tower was added by the Bombay Burmah Trading
Corporation, in memory of their young men who lost their lives in
the Frist World War. Nearly all the memorials that would have covered
the walls were desecrated by the occupying Japanese forces in the
Second World War, except for one plaque remembering those of
Moulmein who fell in the First World War. Burma buffs will recognise
one or two old Burma names there including two Foucar boys, their
family firm of Foucar & Company being a leading timber merchant.
Moulmein and its colonial families go back further than anywhere
else in Burma except perhaps Akyab in the Arakan. People like the
Foucars stayed on and on, they may have sent their children back to
be educated in England at absurdly early ages, but those kids came
back, generation upon generation. ECV Foucar, a Rangoon lawyer and
the fourth generation of his family in Burma, was author of I lived in
Burma which is one of the best anecdotal descriptions of colonial life
between the 20s and 40s – far more real in my opinion than Orwell's
diatribes.
St Mathews dedication stone remains outside and you will see
that the stone was laid by Sir Charles Crosthwaite, Chief
Commissioner for Burma and author of The Pacification of Burma, a
classic work on insurgency that the Americans ought to have read
before heading into Afghanistan. The choir stalls and ceiling bosses
are said to be made from English oak and if you climb the belfry you
will see the bell, cast in the foundry at Madras. There was a complex
clock mechanism, with four clock panels working of one mechanism.
It was explained that the one man in Moulmein who knew how it
worked, and could repair it, had died and alas the clock died with him.
The church had been used by the Japanese to store salt during the
war and the salt has caused erosion into the brick work. One Pandaw
passenger in the 90s was kind enough to donate a considerable sum
towards the churches restoration. Some pointing work has been done
but there is still much to do. When I was last there the priest showed
me a collection of Christian headstones he had rescued when SLORC
appropriated the Christian cemetery for redevelopment. I did not see
them this time and wonder what happened to them?
The Roman Catholic Cathedral, with its broad nave and lack of
aisles, is more French in feel and was reroofed following war damage.
The presbytery adjacent is a fine brick colonial house and typical of
nearly all the colonial residences of Moulmein, with its shaded loggias
running around and crisscross leaded fenestration. I love the
anchored crosses found on the doors, something I have only seen on
the churches of Burma emphasising a strong nautical element within
colonial Christianity. An elderly nun showed us the tombs of French
priests, set within the north transept including Pere Chirac, MEP
(Mission Etrangers de Paris).
Across the road is the American Baptist Church. This was the first
church in Moulmein and its first incumbent was the Adoniram
Judson (1788-1850) of Middlesex, Massachusetts, who had been in
Burma since 1813. An indefatigable character, he travelled throughout
Burma with personal bibles in English, Latin and Hebrew. Judson was
the first person to translate the entire scriptures into Burmese. Still to
this day his bible is used in most Burmese Christian churches, whatever
their denomination. He is the King James of Burma. Judson also
produced the first Burmese-English dictionary, a well-thumbed copy of
which sits on my desk as I write. His success amongst the Burmese was
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minimal, but amongst the animistic Karen in the
jungles of Tenasserim, just up river from
Moulmein, Judson was viewed as a messianic
figure. His legacy is huge: not just in Burma,
where there are Judson Memorial churches
everywhere, but right across in America there are
Judson colleges, universities and libraries; there
is even a town called Judsonia in Arkansas. In fact,
far away in torpid Moulmein Judson theologically
defined the American Baptist Church, some
would say invented it, and his legacy lives on not
just in Karen villages but in the counties of Texas.
Of the religious edifices in Moulmein,
whether cathedral, masjid or joss house, my
favourite remains the Buddhist monastery of Sein
Don Mipaya, situated on the town hills just to the
south of the Kyaik-tha-lun pagoda and connected
to its south stairway. Sein Don had been one of
King Mindon's queens who fled to British
territory following the palace coup of Thibaw in
1859 and the subsequent cull of rival
claimants. Given a house and pension,
she lived with her court in some style in
a Moulmein suburban house and
decided, as her act of merit, to build this
most sumptuous of monasteries. Despite
its appalling condition, it remains one of
the finest in Burma. The queen
summonsed artists and craftsmen from
across Burma to work and you can see
they were the crème de la crème when it
came to wood carving. The bracket
figures supporting the column capitals
are dynamically carved and full of vigour.
The figures carved on the doors are full
of wit and humour. When I last visited in
the early 90s, the monk showed me the
gaps where figures had been stolen in a
nocturnal break in. At that time, when
Burma was so poor, there was much
thieving from religious sanctuaries, the
loot going onto the international art
market. Today Moulmein is a rich town
once again and you can see that wealth
being showered in ambitious new
shrines throughout Mon State, it is a
shame some of that money does not go into
restoration.
It is well worth pottering around the
monasteries dotted along the town hills. There are
several fine examples of colonial Burmese
religious buildings and do not miss the
monumental bamboo image. You can see that it
was not just the dour scottish merchants who
prospered during these times. These splendid
monasteries, prayer halls and shrines are the work
of merit of a very prosperous Buddhist
community, whether Mon or Burmese.
Along the Strand, despite the depredations of
SLORC military planners in the 90s, there is still
a good feel. There is a lively night bazaar where
you can gorge yourself on barbequed sea food and
a couple of very good restaurants. Moulmein
today is the cleanest city in modern Myanmar and
I was amazed to see plastic recycling stations. It
would seem the Mon are far more house proud
than their neighbouring Bama. There is a good
museum of Mon culture that is worth a visit too.
It is great to see the Mon going around in their
traditional costumes with very jolly coloured
checked taipon jackets. Moulmein is visibly
prosperous today, same as it was two hundred
years ago, as it sits astride the three rivers and
commands all trade and the sea. The estuarial port
is too shallow for modern shipping, but today the
connections go the other way with the Pan Asian
Highway passing through and connecting
Moulmein to Thailand and beyond.
Over the river to the west of Moulmein is Bilu
Kyun or Devil Island which is now connected by
a bridge. Guide books will tell you of artisanal
villages: there is one that specialises in making
slate tablets for schools and another for smoker's
pipes. We visited the pipe village and bought quite
a nice pipe for Roser's brother. The shop keeper
explained that before trade for pipes had been
good but nowadays few people smoke, so the
wood carvers had branched out into other heavily
carved products, more suited to the local market.
I am not sure I will be hurrying back to Bilu Kyun.
An essential excursion out of Moulmein is to
Than-byu-zayat, about one hour south of
Moulmein. Situated close the 'Death Railway'
built by the Japanese in the Second World War,
where they brutally expended prisoner of war
labour, not to mention local slave labour. Here the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
maintains the war cemetery as immaculately as if
it were in the English counties. A visit is deeply
moving and it would be a hard-hearted sort of
person not to feel the tug of tears coming on. Look
at their ages: many the same as my own son at 21.
Alongside British servicemen are laid to rest
young Australians, Dutchmen, Gurkhas and
Indian. The Muslims point to Mecca and
Christians to the East. Their sacrifice was huge
and their name really does live forever more.
We went down to Amherst Point, now called
Kyaik-ka-me, partly in the hope of finding some
good beaches and party to look at possible
mooring positions and road access points for the
Andaman Explorer when she moors here next
year as part of her Burma Coastal Voyage. There
were no nice beaches (they are further south) and
the pagoda complex on the point tacky and of little
interest. Along the way, you will see endless
rubber plantations and judging by the number of
trucks we saw bearing mats of raw rubber, the
industry must be booming. More fun is a stop at
the Wan-sein-toya complex on the road back from
Than-byu-zayat. Here you will find the largest
reclining Buddha in the world that the fit can
climb up through a system of internal staircases.
This was the work of the late Wan-sein-toya
Sayadaw whose tomb you can visit close to the car
park. He is enshrined within a very symbolic
gilded sampan. I just wish he had channelled
some of those generous donations into restoring
some of Moulmein's Buddhist heritage.
From Moulmein you can travel easily to Hpa-
An, capital of Karen State, by car in a couple of
hours but better a day trip by boat up the Salween.
The Salween is very lovely with the
Zwekabin mountain range running
alongside and at times you would think
you were in Guelin in China, so
wonderfully mystical is the karst
landscape around. Hpa-An is now another
lively, prosperous Burmese city and a
centre of education with several
universities and colleges. The Karens here
are predominantly Buddhist, having not
succumbed to Judson's appeal. Worth a
stop is the Mahar-sadan cave. You can
walk through several great Buddha-filled
caverns (carry your shoes as you will need
them later) and you pop out of the other
side to be rowed back round the mountain
across a lake, through further grottos and
then along a mini canal which the
industrious Karen had dug out all in the
name of local tourism, which they seem
to benefit from.
Moulmein was only for twenty-seven
years under the British when it was of
political importance, but its legacy
remains strong, whether with its literary
connections or architectural remnants. It
is now the heart of a resurgent Mon regionalism,
where after fifty years of Myanmar suppression
the Mons can emerge again proud of their
identity, language and culture. The Mons were the
first of the South-East Asian peoples to be
enriched by Buddhism producing moving
sculpture and an enduring interpretation of
Buddhist texts. It was thanks to the Mon-Khmer
that we have the temples of Angkor Wat; and in
11th century Pagan the captions on the mural
paintings are in Mon, not Burmese. It was
through the Mon that Buddhist literature, art and
iconography disseminated through the region.
The town at the confluence of the three rivers may
not be very ancient, or may not have been
important for very long, but it represents today a
long, rich and deep culture. π
ABOVE Thanbyuzayat
war cemetery
20

A special opportunity to share an educational family adventure during school
holidays. Explore Asia in the comfort of a Pandaw vessel including daily excursions,
cultural performances, movie nights and free mountain bikes to explore rural
villages, temples and countryside.
W W W . P A N D A W . C O M

FLOTILLA NEWS - PANDAW.COM
NAGA STORY
It suddenly dawned on me, after spending a couple of days
cruising up the Chindwin River through the heart of
Burma, that we hadn’t seen a single westerner. Even when
our group docked up on the muddy banks to visit tiny local
communities, we were the only outsiders to be seen.
Pandaw’s very intriguing-sounding Voyage to Nagaland
promises a real taste of adventure - and it certainly
delivers. From the get go, I felt as though I was well off
the beaten track with wavering Wi-Fi signal and the
chugging of the boat engine being the only mechanical
noise sounding among the birdsong or rain showers.
My journey through one of Burma’s most remote regions
started in the bustling city of Yangon. The throbbing
metropolis, which was formerly the capital and known as
Rangoon, is home to some of the worst traffic along with a
spread of the world’s most revered temples, including the
shimmering gold and diamond-encrusted 2,500-year-old
Shwedagon Pagoda.
On the first day of our Pandaw expedition, we met with
our trip leader Ronald at the enormous 484-room Sule
Shangri-La hotel in the heart of Yangon, before getting on a
bus to the airport to catch a 1 hour 45-minute flight up to the
town of Kalay. Once landed, we took another bus ride
through the lush, rain-drenched countryside to board our
boat at Kalewa. I felt as though I’d stepped into a scene from
an Agatha Christie novel as I explored the luxury Pandaw
vessel, with polished wooden decks complemented by brass
fixtures and lazy palms wafting in the humid breeze. There
wasn’t another passenger boat to be seen, and a small rafter
of colourful fishing boats bobbed along nearby. The reason
the Chindwin River is so quiet, is the fact that the water is
very shallow. But luckily, Pandaw’s specially-designed boat –
which has a flat bottom and a draft of just 2.5 feet – can
navigate the treacherous waterway without getting grounded
on the brown clay banks.
The aim of our seven-night trip was to get to Nagaland –
a northerly region of Burma bordering India – which is home
to more than 16 tribes with some once famed for their
headhunting activities. Ronald kindly informed us that the
last head was hunted in 1983 which put our minds at rest but
somewhat heightened my sense of intrigue. We all couldn’t
wait to get to our destination but the stops along the way
proved to be equally as magical.
One of my favourite days on land was at the small town
of Khamti, where we explored a chaotically colourful food
market and trekked to a hilltop monastery blessed with
wonderful views. In the foreground palm trees injected a
touch of tropical, with the endless rice fields giving way to
the mountains afar. In this town, I purchased a longhi – a
traditional long skirt worn by both men and women – while
Ronald got a big bag of traditional deep-fried breaded treats
for us all to enjoy back on board.
Another memorable visit during the trip occurred a little
earlier, when we stopped at the charming village of Yuwa.
Like many of the communities we visited, it centred around
a school and dusty mud-paved main street with a run of
wooden houses perched high on stilts. As we explored the
village, I ventured up one path which led me to the start of a
rich carpeting of rice plants. In amongst the tapestry of
rippling green, puddles from the afternoon rain glistening in
the golden sun with birds swooping, silhouetted against the
cotton wool-puffed sky. As I made my way back to find the
group, I spotted a villager feeding her two rather large pigs
with their noses firmly fixed to the bottom of their silver food
bowls. All of a sudden, a gaggle of young children came to
walk alongside me with a couple of little ones holding my
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hand and looking at my blonde hair and silver jewellery with
a look of wonder. I complimented one of the little girls on
her nail polish – her hands and feet appeared to be much
more manicured than mine! The string of communities
along the Chindwin – some of which don’t even have names
– get supplies shipped in by delivery boats and there is also
a waterbus taking passengers to neighbouring towns. So,
things like nail polish appeared to be on the radar in these
villages, despite their apparent isolation. Some of the
traditional huts were even decked out with solar panels and
satellite dishes seemed to be on trend. When I reached the
end of Yuwa town with my new friends, we stopped to watch
a group of apes on the other side of the river bank,
monkeying around in the evening sun. From there, we bode
a fond farewell to the community and continued our journey
upstream.
While agriculture is the main source of income in this
rural stretch of Burma, the land is also rich in minerals. In
between the lengths of land used for rice farming, we spotted
the occasional gold mine and in one village we visited, amber
was being extracted from the woodlands. It was fascinating
sitting with locals as they showed us some of their prize
specimens with prehistoric bugs frozen inside the chunks of
caramel-coloured rock. Many of the men and women proudly
wore large beads of polished amber around their necks and
gold also proved to be a popular accessory throughout the
area, with the vibrant shade of yellow metal difficult to miss.
By day six – after some talk of not being able to make it
to Nagaland due to low waters – we eventually got there,
mooring up at the remote town of Khamti. Everyone was
excited to get on shore and we set out early to make the most
of our day. After driving around in little buggies to see some
of the sites – including a school, the local police station and
a town hall – we stopped at the Naga museum and cultural
centre. Two Naga elders came to meet us at the A-frame
timber building, dressed in traditional attire. The two wiselooking
men looked magnificent in headdresses fashioned
out of tiger’s teeth, wild boar tusks, feathers and tufts of hair.
They also wore waistcoats with tapestries forming images of
animals, weapons and human skulls – a reminder of times
gone by. Ronald explained that all of the Naga tribes have
their own dialects and they often can’t understand each other.
Many of the tribes used to be involved in bitter disputes but
over time, they have worked through their differences to fight
for common causes. One of the Naga elders informed us that
one of the best times of the year to visit Nagaland is at New
Year, when all of the tribes get together to celebrate their
traditions at an annual extravaganza. There are also
numerous other festivals throughout the year, with many
events taking place just over the border in India.
After our visit to the Naga museum, we went to a small
eatery next door, where we were served some traditional
dishes from the area along with some pretty drinkable rice
wine. The sweet home-made liquor was needed, as the
culinary treats –which included some crunchy chicken feet
– came served with a generous douse of spicy sauce!
That final night we docked in Homalin – a growing town
which was occupied by the Japanese during World War II –
before taking a flight from the local airport back to Yangon.
The whirlwind voyage to Nagaland had provided us all
with a fascinating glimpse into life around this remote area
of Myanmar. It felt like we’d packed a lot into a week but I
also felt well-rested, with a well-balanced itinerary allowing
for ample time to sit back and admire the floating views.
Landing back into the chaos of Yangon, I yearned for the
pleasant peace of the Pandaw boat and the friendly embrace
of the people along the Chindwin. Nagaland is a spot on the
map I feel privileged to have explored. π
23

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Burma
WHEN THE FAIRY TALE IS OVER
Filmmaker and historian Alex Bescoby makes the case
for why even in these dark days it’s more important
than ever to consider a visit to Burma.
Ethnic cleansing. Jailed reporters.
International sanctions. Travel
boycotts.
It was headlines like these that
haunted my steps as I first crossed
into Burma (now Myanmar) in July 2008.
For much of the last ten years I’ve called
this country home, and been witness to one of
the most remarkable periods of political and
societal change in this country’s modern
history.
Finally, Burma was emerging from
decades in the darkness.
I watched the joy on families’ faces as
their relatives were freed after years wrongly
held behind bars.
I joined the hustle at the news-stand as
censorship was lifted, and the bustle of new
business as international sanctions were torn
down.
I danced in the streets on November 8th,
2015, wide-eyed in wonder at the country’s
first credible election in more than 50 years.
And I saw those same streets fill with
curious tourists, itching to roam a country so
long closed off from the Western world.
But over the last 12 months the tide of
good news has turned. Burma’s fairy tale
march towards a peaceful, democratic, multiethnic
utopia at first stumbled, then fell flat
on its face.
Week after week, news bulletins filled
with the desperate sight of hundreds of
thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing an
orchestrated campaign of indiscriminate
killing, rape and destruction by the Burmese
military.
Meanwhile, Burma’s democracy icon –
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi – shocked the world
with her refusal to condemn the crimes of the
military, or the jailing of Burmese journalists
who sought to reveal them. The world swiftly
turned on ‘The Lady’ who could once do no
wrong.
Calls for drastic action ring out around
the world, the same grim headlines fill the air,
and tourist boycotts are back on the agenda. It
feels like the last ten years never happened.
What happened to the fairy tale we were
promised?
Well, like most fairy tales, it turned out to
be nonsense. Take that as your starting point,
and the events of the last 12 months start to
make a little more sense.
Ethnic conflict, oppressive government,
political crisis – they are in fact the norm, not
the exception in the story of modern Burma.
What we see today is just the latest spike in a
series of deeply rooted and interconnected
problems afflicting this country.
It was something I quickly began to learn
when I arrived in Burma ten years ago to
study its history. Part way through I swapped
pen and paper for a camera crew, and began
to explore through documentary film a story
in which my own country, Britain, has played
a leading and often rather villainous role.
I spent three years filming with Burma’s
lost royal family, learning how in 1885 Britain
toppled Burma’s millennium old monarchy
and turned this fiercely independent kingdom
into a mere colony within British India. I
listened how during the decades of colonial
rule, Burma’s politics, economy and society
were radically disrupted, while the memory of
monarchy refused to fade away.
I spent a further two years tracking down
veterans of World War II in Burma. Heading
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into the country’s most remote corners to
meet men who had risked their lives fighting
for Britain against the Japanese, I discovered
how what had been a decisive victory for
Britain and her allies had simply been the
start of a series of intractable civil wars
between Burma’s many ethnic groups.
I learnt how at independence in 1948,
Burma’s economy was in ruins, its
institutions fragile, and its population heavily
armed and bitterly divided. It’s clear from
events today that 70 years on, the country has
not yet moved beyond this legacy of poverty,
war and political crisis.
“What went wrong?” is in fact the wrong
question. With history as our guide, the better
question should be: “Did we expect too
much?”
Now the fairy tale is over, there are two
burning questions that face today’s potential
tourist – is it safe to go, and is it right?
The answer to the first question, from
my own experience, is a resounding yes. In 10
years of travelling to every corner of this
incredible country, I have never faced so
much as a rude remark.
Where foreigners can travel to is still
quite strictly controlled, and as the number of
new arrivals plummets, local and national
authorities have an even keener interest to
keep tourists safe and well.
Anywhere remotely contentious due to
ongoing conflict remains off limits, and the
country’s most famous sights – the ancient
temples of Bagan, the old royal city of
Mandalay, the floating gardens of Inle Lake,
remain perfectly safe and accessible as ever.
The second question is more difficult to
answer. Is it right to travel to Myanmar? My
answer is, for now, yes.
The grim reality is that a travel boycott by
Western tourist will do little to punish those
responsible for the treatment of the Rohingya.
More importantly, it will do precisely nothing
to help the Rohingya themselves.
What it will certainly do is damage a
home-grown industry of family-owned guest
houses, shops and restaurants across the
country who have invested everything they
had into Burma’s tourist boom. They had
nothing to do with the events in Rakhine
state, and now face losing it all as tourist
numbers slump.
On my many journeys across the country
this year, I can already see reality biting - the
child kept back from school, the urgent
medical treatment delayed, the debt-collectors
descending.
But I fear the most valuable thing Burma
stands to lose from tourists turning away is
the most tangible change I have seen in my
ten years living and working here. It’s a
growing confidence among its people to speak
to, and a burning hunger to learn from the
outside world.
Over the last decade I’ve watched Burma
shake off the dust of isolation and embrace an
explosion of art, literature, thought and music
fired by a period of unprecedented
intercultural exchange with visitors from
abroad.
It was a hard-won chance that for
decades the people of Burma were denied,
and it’s one that risks disappearing just as
quickly as it arrived.
The people of this country are expressing
themselves in ways that will continue to
surprise you. As an informed, responsible and
curious tourist, you can be the audience that
now, more than ever, they so badly need.
Whether it’s the former political
prisoners exploring the trauma of dictatorship
and war through modern art at The
Secretariat Building in Yangon, or it’s rappers
and punk rockers preaching religious
tolerance in the backstreets of Mandalay, or
it’s brave journalists battling for press
freedom in one of the countries Englishlanguage
weeklies – the people of Burma are
refusing to go quiet.
And I believe we owe it to the longsuffering
people of this beautiful, benighted
country to keep listening.
In these darker days, you might not like
what you hear, and it certainly won’t be the
fairy tale we were all hoping for, but I can
guarantee it’s still a story worth hearing. π
ABOVE Filmmaker and
historian Alex Bescoby
25

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A Walk in
the Mergui
By
Paul Strachan,
Pandaw Founder
ABOVE View from the
roof of the Green Eyes
Hotel
We flew down from
Yangon to Myeik or
Mergui on one of
Myanmar's many fancy
new airlines to join our
coastal expedition ship,
the Andaman Explorer. We spotted her moored
some way out, glistening white against a
gunmetal sea. My wife Roser and I were last in
Myeik in 1994 and expected to find terrible
change, as one does now in most Burmese
cities. Surprisingly there was less change here
than expected.
Mergui, as the town was known as until the
military government changed all the names in
1997, goes back a long way. A southern outpost
of the Pagan empire, following its fall in 1287 it
was administered by successive Siamese
kingdoms, latterly from Ayutthaya. Mergui was
strategically important as it commanded the
western flank of a trade route crossing the
isthmus between the Indian Ocean and the
Gulf of Siam. Goods moved up the river to
Tenasserim (Tanintharyi) and then overland to
the Siamese east coast. Both Chinese pottery
and Roman coins have been found along this
trail, indications of itsimportance in global trade
from the earliest of times. The Arabs were here,
their most northern outpost on the Malay
peninsula, and some of the town's many
mosques may date from this early period. By
the 16th century the first Europeans arrived,
initially the Portuguese and then French and
English ships were calling and refitting here,
taking advantage of abundant native teak.
In the 17th century an English pirate by the
name of Samuel White was appointed governor
by the King of Siam and built up his own
trading empire, taking on the East India
Company's monopoly of trade and shipping.
Known as 'Siamese White', his life and
adventures are described by the English author
and one-time Burma civil servant Maurice
Collis, who had been District Commissioner
(equivalent to a governor) in Mergui in the
1920s. Collis's house was on the same hilltop
spot as White's gubernatorial mansion three
hundred years before, then more of a fort.
Through his greed and rapacity White was
eventually deposed and made his escape to
India in 1687 whilst most of the English
population were slaughtered in his wake. The
Chevalier de Beauregard was then appointed
governor reflecting a new period of French
interest at the Siamese court, antipathetic to the
interests of the East India Company.
In 1765 the Burmese retook Tenasserim
and held the region until 1824, when it was
ceded to the British as part of the spoils of the
First Anglo-Burmese War. The governorgeneral
of India regarded this addition to his
empire as something of a poisoned chalice, it
was expensive to administer with little potential
profit. However, over the next 150 years the
British found considerable wealth in the region:
rich forests full of teak, tin mining, rubber
plantations and pearl farms; on the islands of
the archipelago there were granite quarries, rich
fishing grounds and boundless possibilities for
coastal trading. Moulmein was to become the
greater and richer of Burma's southern coastal
ports, but Mergui, as its rich architecture
demonstrates, was hardly insignificant. Collis
in his autobiography describes a European
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ABOVE Maurice Collis
RIGHT Residence of
Mr E. Ahmed MBE
community of planters and traders that steps
straight out of a Somerset Maugham short
story. Mergui was a lost corner of the empire,
its expatriate population peopled with shakyhanded
aristocratic remittance men and
rootless beachcombers taking native wives. The
Mergui Club was hardly the pukka
establishment of Raj India, with its dress code
of longyis and vests and sneering
at the conventions of empire. It
was probably far more louche
than any expat watering hole you
find in Thailand today.
Harald Braund in his most
read memoir of a life in Burma
tells of such outrageous
characters as club mainstays.
There was the gruff
Yorkshireman Benjamin Bateson
Jubb who emigrated young to
Australia, was sent to Gallipoli
where he was injured, and on his
way home landed in Mergui,
married a Burmese and raised a
family. Jubb was a successful
businessman with various
enterprises including mining. In
the Second World War he
escaped with his family in his
yacht, crossing the Indian Ocean to Ceylon.
After the war, he was one of the first Europeans
to return and got the port going enabling relief
supplies to prevent a famine for which he was
honoured by the district commissioner. After
Independence, he was suspected of assisting
the Karens with food and munitions and
eventually he was forced to return to Australia.
Braund describes how Jubb had fallen out
with one of the aristocratic remittance men. He
bided his time and planned his revenge
carefully. Returning to England, he visited a
tailor and generally scrubbed up, then paid a
call on the family of his compatriot at their
country mansion deep in the English counties.
Presenting himself as a bosom friend of their
son, who had been long ago disgraced and
despatched to that furthest corner of empire.
Enquiring as to their son's state of health, Jubb
hinted that, out of concern for his friend, it
would be best to reduce his allowance due to his
predilection for the bottle. His objective
achieved, Jubb returned triumphant to Mergui.
We first visited Mergui in 1994 in the hope
of getting out into the archipelago. The town
was controlled by the Burmese military, but it
transpired that they had little hold over the
seaways that were under the suzerainty of the
sea gypsies, or Moken, who controlled the
smuggling routes in and out of once closed
Burma and prayed on all other shipping. We
persuaded the local commander to allow us to
go to King Island, the closest large
island to Mergui and we were
despatched somewhat gingerly on
a heavily armed naval patrol boat
that would only go as far as a navy
base on the island and then come
back again. We had to wait for
twenty-five years to come back,
and now the pirates have turned
to more peaceful occupations, like
fishing and seafood industries.
But still the arm of the Myanmar
government does not reach far in
the wondrous archipelago. We
were to discover that many of the
islands are peopled by Karen loyal
to the KNU, and are no go areas
for the Myanmar navy, though
they seemed very happy to receive
visits from the Andaman
Explorer, and we had a very warm
welcome in Port Maria on Lun Lin island where
we made a spontaneous stop.
My main memory of that visit was the
smelliness of the hotel, which we found
unchanged from the 90s, and which is still the
nastiest building in an otherwise picturesque
town. In those days it was very difficult to get
flight tickets, and in the airline office I met a
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charming old gentleman who wanted to
postpone his return flight to Yangon and gave up
his seat to us. We got chatting and I learnt he was
Andrew Mya Han, the Anglican Archbishop of
Burma. When I told Andrew my name was
Strachan he looked at me with newly found
respect. For a Bishop Strachan was the first
Bishop of Rangoon. When asked if I descended
from the great man, I rather naughtily did not
deny it and thereafter when visiting his cathedral
in Rangoon, I received royal treatment. Andrew
was then a well-known poet and much feted in
Burmese literary circles.
The best way to explore Myeik is on foot. Log
onto Felix Potter's wonderful website on your
phone and use this to navigate around the town.
Felix is currently researching a book on the
history of Mergui and for now we must be
content with his guide book that accompanies
the website. Felix has identified nearly all the
historic buildings and every single one has a
story. You can for example see the
aforementioned Benjamin Jubb's house, one of
the oldest in Myeik. Felix took us to Maurice
Collis's house, once site of Siamese White's
stockade, where I came over all tingly with
excitement and was then told by an officious little
jobsworth that it was forbidden to take photos of
government buildings (I told him in politest
Burmese in no uncertain terms to crawl back
into his hole). A short distance away on the hill
we walked to the courthouse where upstairs
Collis had his office, the District Commissioner
also being the magistrate. The prison, now
abandoned, conveniently next door.
Visit the residence of Mr E Ahmed MBE, who
held the monopoly for pearling and clearly did
very well judging by the size of his house and the
splendid mosque he dedicated just down the
street, both built in the 1920s. His family resides
here to this day. Or visit the house of Mr Tan Guan
Seng, a wealthy Chinese merchant, which has
now been split into several residences, butdespite
this it is well preserved and utterly splendid.
Across the road is the Green Eyes café; this was
the Portuguese quarter where the girls to this day
have green eyes with the Catholic Church of the
Assumption just around the corner.
The original church must date from the 16th
or 17th century, and by the 19th century the
priests were French, sent out by the Société de
Missions Étrangèrede Paris (MEP). The current
church was rebuilt on the site by George and
Isabella d'Castro, a Portuguese-Indian couple
whose tomb is behind the apse. There is a
fascinating tombstone written in Portuguese and
Thai that dates from before the Burmese
annexation of 1765, the inscription reads:
Aqui está sepultado o corpo de Anna Paschoela,
fllh de Aretun Paschoela, ede Vrula Toa: de 3
annos, aqui falleceo aso 12 de Dbr de 1740 AD
Here is buried the body of Anna Paschoela,
daughter of Aretun Paschoela, from Vrula Toa
[mother]: aged 3 years, here died on the 12th of
December 1740 AD
The owner of the Green Eyes café popped out to
have a chat with us. A Chinaman, Mr Tang had
some difficulty understanding my Burmese, but
then I had the feeling he had not been long in
the country himself, part of a wave of over a
million Chinese immigrants who settled in
Burma after sanctions were declared by the West
in the 1990s and then the military regime
opened the floodgate from China. Mr Tang also
owned a smart new hotel across the road and
insisted on conducting us to the rooftop
restaurant where we could photograph the view.
And what a view! Spread all around us was the
town, studded with pagodas, mosques and
church spires, and port with countless trawlers
moored in the channel and the islands of the
archipelago beckoning beyond.
Down by the port are the godowns and
trading houses of old, little changed from when
the tramp steamers would trade up and down the
coast. Mergui was not connected to anywhere by
rail or road and the only way in and out was by
steamers of the British India Steam Navigation
that plied regularly. Most famous of these was the
Sir Harvey Adamson , a vessel eccentrically
manned by a crew which had been there forever,
never changing to a man, who all went down
with her when she sank in a hurricane after the
war and not a piece of wreckage was found.
Think of the chatter in the wardroom as Surreyborn
planters mixed with Punjabi pearl
millionaires; the Armenian banker deep in
hushed conversation with the Jewish gemologist;
the Cornish tin miner sinking stengahs with the
Scottish timber dealer; the 'heaven-born'
administrator, fresh from Oxford, ogling the
dusky Indo-Portugese temptress. All presided
over by a Madrassi butler, irascible and ironically
respectful, eavesdropping on every conversation.
There on the bridge, coming up with the tide
through the tricky Mergui straits, is the great
bearded master, veteran of the British merchant
marine, garrulous and standing no fools. Each
and every cheeky lascar knows his place and
hardly needs to be told what to do. Down below
in the purgatorial bowls of the ship the chief
engineer cusses the Bengali firemen in broadest
Glaswegian and they admiringly smile back.
Think of the crew of the Sir Harvey Adamson
who could never be parted, refusing any attempt
at transfer to another vessel, and who went down
together, shipmates from all nations united in
death as they were in life.
Here along the wharfs of Myeik you can feel
the presence of that ghost ship. Indian chandlers
sell rope and anchors, the boat yards are busy
with caulkers and riggers. Trade is brisk for these
days are no less than 20,000 fishing trawlers
registered in Myeik. This must be the fish capital
of Asia and a huge new fish market has been
built just outside the town by an enterprising
Frenchman. Seafood is chilled and packed and
trucked into Thailand to appear fresh in the
Bangkok markets the next morning. So the
French are back, just over 300 years after the
Chevalier de Beauregard's tenure.
Perhaps because of the town's wealth, Myeik
has miraculously escaped the destruction that the
bulk of Burma's colonial heritage has suffered in
present day Myanmar. The old families who
inhabited these great houses, partly out of
sentimentality and partly out of financial security,
did not need to sell off their houses to be
bulldozed to make way for jerry-built apartments
or ugly mirrored glass bank buildings, all
financed by a flood of Chinese cash. Mergui as a
port and crossroads has layers of wealth
accumulated over half a millennium from the
Arabs to the Portuguese, the British battling it
out with the French, the Siamese battling it with
the Burmese, then the British again and now, as
Myeik, it is Myanmar once more but claimed by
both the Karen and Mon independence
movements. Meanwhile the people of Myeik -
Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Muslim and
Christian have happily coexisted busy trading
away, oblivious to proconsuls from afar.
After a day of considerable excitement, in
which we forgot to eat lunch, we found our
tender by the wharf with Captain Brendan, our
Irish-American skipper, waiting to take us out to
the Andaman Explorer riding at anchor in the
bay, itself a moment from Myeik's wonderful
vibe of being a city with a living past or perhaps
a past living on. π
ABOVE
Residence Mr
Tuan Guan Sen
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FLOTILLA NEWS - PANDAW.COM
Laos tribes we visit along the
way and other attractions
Join our Laos Mekong river cruise
to experience the village life and
interact with tribes populating
small riverside villages. The
government recognizes 240
ethnic subgroups and 49
ethnicities. Your expedition will
offer a glimpse into ethnic minority groups
whose practices stand in pretty stark contrast
to the western way of life.
Laos is home to three major ethnic
minority groups: the Hmong, the Khmu and
the Lao Lum. Little is known about the
history of the Hmong people, although
linguistic evidence suggests that they may
have occupied some areas of southern China,
30
while DNA samples have proposed a genetic
relationship between the Hmong people and
Mon-Khmer people, a large language family
of over 110 million speakers distributed
throughout Mainland China, India, Nepal,
Bangladesh and China’s southern border.
In the 60s, the CIA recruited the Hmong
people to quell the Pathet Lao communist
political movement, supported at the time by
North Vietnam. But the subsequent takeover
of Laos by Pathet Lao led to thousands of
political and economic refugees in western
countries. The Hmong people represent the
largest group of Asians in Milwaukee, and in
2018, five Hmong candidates were elected to
the Minnesota House of Representatives, the
highest since Hmong refugees began
arriving to the USA in the 70s.
Don’t expect to see Buddhist temples or
signs here as the Hmong in Laos practice
shamanism and animalism. Agriculture is
the major economic activity (villagers grow
rice and vegetables); the Hmong have also
traditionally grown more opium than any
group in Laos.
During your visit to Ban Pak Leab, you
will get the opportunity to interact with the
Lao Lowland people. The Lao Lum/Loum
community lives in self-contained houses in
the flat areas along the lower part of Mekong
river. Although the soil here is fertile, the Lao
Loum have preferred not to keep reusing the

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land to cultivate crops, relocating often to
other fertile areas. In contrast to the
Hmong people, Lao Loum are Buddhists,
form nuclear families, and have faith in the
power of the spirit.
The Hmong are known for their
knowledge of the jungle and medicinal
herbs. Many tribe members are expert
blacksmiths and skilled weavers. Traditional
Hmong attire is adorned with exquisite
embroidery and silver jewelry.
Midland people and Upland people also
inhabit Laos. The homes of the former,
known as Lao Theung, nestle along the
mountains and valleys of Mekong river and
shelter extended /joint families. The latter
have settled in the upper basin of Mekong,
grow white rice and corn, and share
similarities in family structure with the Lao
Theung. Of the three regions, the lowland is
the more prosperous region, as you will
come to witness during your visit.
The Khmu community are divided into
several clans, named after a vegetable, bird or
mammal. Members of the clans are
disallowed from eating or killing the vegetable,
animal or bird they represent. Like the
Hmong, the Khmu are animists, believing in
spirit guardians of rivers, forests, livestock and
rice. They also happen to use every part of a
pig, practicing elaborate knifework, which
includes collecting still-running blood and
stirring it continuously to prevent coagulation.
The blood is mixed with water and herbs in a
precise ratio to serve as topping over meat.
The community also makes rice wine, which
is both pungent-smelling and sweet-tasting.
The Khmu most densely populate the
provinces of Luang Prabang. Khmuic
traditions and beliefs are quite interesting.
Usually, a traditional Khmuic house is
designed in such a way that its direction
intersects with that of the sun. Khmuic
people worship the sun and believe its rays
expel negative energies out of their homes
and kill harmful bacteria.
Story-telling sessions are conducted
regularly around evening fires. Many men
participating in these sessions use silver pipes
to smoke. Many Khmuic people are heavily
tattooed. Khmuic people believe that offering
rice souls on their rice fields will result in a
good harvest. The tribe has separate
cemeteries for people who died due to natural
causes, children, people who died away from
home, and people who died in accidents.
Khmuic people consider certain
activities such as entering someone’s house
without their permission and organising
ceremonies for children born feet-first as
taboo and believe that these activities can
bring bad luck.
Many of the Khmu Ou – who represent
a majority of the Khmu people in Laos –
practice Christianity. Missionaries who
landed here first in 1902 and continued
contact from then on, reported a great
interest in Jesus Christ among the Khmu
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FLOTILLA NEWS - PANDAW.COM
Ou, with stories revealing a near- obsession
with watching spiritual movies on VCR
round-the-clock.
At Ban Pak Yun village, you can meet Lao
lowlanders, Khmu and Hmong people, who
all live together. Your itinerary will cover at
least five villages, with each offering distinct
experiences and sights.
As our itinerary is not fixed, you may also
visit Pak Lai, a port and administrative town
with a few historic structures built in Lao and
French colonial style. The town is famous for
its bustling local market and hosts South East
Asia’s largest elephant festival. Other than the
Laos Mekong cruise, our Laos to China and
Halong Bay, Red River and Laos Mekong
expeditions make stopovers at Pak Lai.
The first day of your expedition begins at
Vientiane, the national capital stretching
along the eastern bank of the Mekong. Laos’
largest city was destroyed by the Thai army in
the 1820s and restored by French colonists in
the early 20th century. Vientiane is famous for
its golden Pha That Luang Stupa, Sisaket
Temple, the President’s Hall, Wat Prakeo
Temple and the Phatouxay monument. The
city also boasts a legendary night market
selling an unbelievably vast array of trinkets
and souvenirs.
WAT XIENG THONG:
AN IMPORTANT LAO
MONASTERY
The Laos experience is incomplete without a
leisurely visit to the renowned Wat Xieng
Thong. Located at the northern tip of the Luang
Prabang, Wat Xieng Thong is a richly decorated
temple (“wat”) built by King Setthathirath in
1559 near the confluence of the Mekong and
Nam Khan rivers. The monastery’s
congregation hall (sim) is a prominent feature,
its exterior and interior detailing gold stenciled
images on black lacquer. Another awe-inspiring
feature is the sweeping roof that nearly reaches
down to the ground. The roof has a three-tiered
center flanked by many two-tiered sections. The
central crest consists of an ornamental element
comprising 17 miniature stupas (hemispherical
structures containing Buddhist relics) protected
by seven-tiered parasols.
Of special interest is the reclining Buddha
sanctuary with the original reclining statute
dating to the temple’s construction. The
reclining Buddha is a major iconographic
pattern of Buddhism representing Gautama
Buddha during his illness prior to leaving his
mortal flesh body and entering the realm of
infinite consciousness.
The sim’s exterior wall depicts a tree of life
mosaic, with the standing Buddha on top and a
man walking as well as different animals at the
bottom of the picture, all against a red
background. A beautifully carved gilded
entrance door flanks each side of the mosaic.
The interior walls depict scenes of daily life,
animals, floral motifs and Jataka tales, an ageold
body of literature narrating the previous
births of Gautama Buddha and communicating
moral messages.
TWO NIGHTS AT
LUANG PRABANG
Luang Prabang, the ancient capital and town
center, is a UNSECO World Heritage site dotted
with French colonial buildings, beautiful wats
and an excellent night market. In December,
thousands gather on the streets to watch a
procession of elephants, some of which have
travelled hundreds of miles from conservation
centers and passed through villages to educate
children about elephant conservation. As
fireworks go off in the sky, the unique and
majestic view stimulates excitement and delight
even from the otherwise sedate young monks.
The city’s increasing popularity as a unique,
charming and old-world tourist destination has
led to the establishment of many fine hotels
and restaurants here. You can step into fancy
bakeries and cafes, stay at an upscale hotel,
savor noodle soup at soup stalls and even enjoy
authentic Indian food behind the indoor Dara
Market. Three years ago, China embarked on a
high-speed rail project through Laos en route to
Thailand.
An unmissable experience is the early
morning monks’ walk, where hundreds of
monks make their way silently from their
monasteries to the town center, in descending
order of age. Locals offer the monks alms, and
you can also join in with offerings. Although
most tourists quietly appreciate this centuries-old
ritual from a distance, some have unfortunately
been seen to be disruptive, shoving cameras at
the monks’ faces and taking selfies with them.
Bask in the night market – thronged by
tourists – that spans 1km and runs every evening
from 4pm to 10pm. Local textiles, silver jewelry
and hand-crafted souvenirs retail for reasonable
prices. There is no dearth of food options along
the way, with a variety of local street food
replenishing you through hours of shopping.
Also on your Luang Prabang itinerary – a
32

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morning exploration of the city’s Buddhist
temples, libraries, royal palace and National
Museum. Get around in a tuk-tuk, the iconic
vehicles plying Laos streets. Tuk-tuks come in
different designs, from a one-piece
motorbike-style steering rear-wheeled drive
called Skylabs, that can carry up to eight
passengers, and smaller Jumbo tuk-tuks that
seat fewer passengers and often squeal on
roads, to traditional tuk-tuks with a
rudimentary van-like design and small pickup
trucks with a partially closed back and
benches along the sides.
MEKONG RIVER —
THE BACKBONE OF
LAOS AND SOUTH
EAST ASIA
The Mekong river is the SE Asia’s longest
river, flowing from Tibet through Burma,
Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to
the South China Sea. Flowing for 4,602
kilometers/2,870 miles, it is an important
source of food and water for 60 million
people populating its banks and immediate
surroundings. The river is home to 1,300
varieties of fish, including the giant catfish
and Irrawaddy dolphins. In an article,
Natural History magazine wrote that the
Mekong’s name translates from Lao as
‘mother of the waters’.
The river becomes easier to navigate as
you travel south on it. From the tripoint of
Burma, Laos and Thailand, the Mekong
snakes southeast to create a border of Laos
with Thailand and then meanders east into
the interior of Laos, flowing some 400
km/250 miles before once again touching
the border of Thailand. Continuing on for
850 km/530 miles, it flows east to pass in
front of Vientiane and then takes a southerly
route. Here, it once again leaves the border
and takes an easterly journey into Laos,
passing the populous city of Pakse and then
turns south into Cambodia. π
33

Pandaw Opens
NEW Central Clinic
In November 2018 we were excited to finally open the new
‘Central Clinic’ at Pagan in Burma. This is a substantial twostorey
brick building costing just under USD 100,000 It is
situated in the grounds of a monastery at New Pagan thanks to
the kindness of the abbot who gave the charity the use of the
land. The charity provides over 5000 treatments per month with
free medication. Currently there are four doctors, a dentist and over
ten paramedics and pharmacists who rotate around the other six
village clinics all within a twenty-mile radius of Bagan. The charity
was founded in 2008 as a result of Pandaw’s relief work in the
aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and is supported by Pandaw
passengers and corporate donors, including the Pandaw company
itself who pledges a portion of its annual revenue in Burma.
Breaking ground back in 2017
Supporting education and healthcare in Burma
please donate at
W W W. P A N D AW C H A R I T Y. C O M
34

PANDAW 2018 PHOTO
COMPETITION WINNERS
1st Prize - Jackie Chapman
Taken on Laos Cruise 2016: Local boys at this riverside village were quite unconcerned by our
visit. They simply saw our river boat as a new plaything and made the best of it!
2nd Prize - Christine Watson
En route to Shwezigon stupa, we came across a procession of
novices with family and friends on the road to the temple. These
ladies had dressed up in their best for the occasion.
3rd Prize - Paul & Beatrice Spinnler
Monywa to Holamin, on the way we stopped at small
villages. There we met fantastic people and enjoyed
the wonderful landscape.
22

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