The Chindwin (Downstream)

Registration Details
Flight to Homalin and transfer from airport to jetty at Homalin.
For Flight from Yangon: Registration at 08.30am Sule Shangri La Hotel, Yangon
For flight from Mandalay: We will pick you up from your hotel in Mandalay at 10.00am.
This domestic flight is included in the cruise price.
Please note the flight times for your flight from Mandalay or Rangoon to Homalin are currently as follows:
Yangon – Homalin YJ-261 11.00-14.35
Mandalay – Homalin YJ-261 12.40-14.35
Flight timings are subject to change.
Transfer to Homalin, the furthest navigable point on the Chindwin for vessels of our size. Alister McCrae wrote of his visit there 1935 ‘I loved the atmosphere of quiet and peaceful living there. At night I could hear greylag geese as they came in to the flooded land around us from far away north’. Until we get there and explore the place there is not much we can say!
IMPORTANT: Please note that Water levels drop dramatically as of December and we might not be able to reach Homalin. You will be well rewarded with alternative excursions. We will be flying you to Kalay (instead of Homalin) where you will embark your ship in Kalewa, cruising up north to Mawlaik and returning downstream towards Monywa.

Toungdoot or Hsawng-hsup in Tai, is an ancient Shan enclave which in British times still had a ruling sawbwa complete with palace and court. It will be interesting to see what has become of the royal family and their home and to see these Shan people so far from their Tai-Shan homelands. On the way to Paungbyin. Patha was an important oil refinery belonging to the Indo-Burma Petroleum Co (Steel Brothers).

Sitthaung was the final resting place of a number of IFC steamers scuppered there in 1942 in an ‘act of denial’ from the advancing Japanese who were a matter of hours behind. We hope to find remains of these ships as we have in the past at Katha on the Irrawaddy. It was from here that the survivors of the Japanese invasion marched out to Tamu on the India border. We pass the mouth of the Yu River which drains the Kubu valley that provided the route for a Lieutenant Grant to march to the relief of the Manipur garrison when the chief commissioner of Assam was massacred in a local rebellion.

Explore Mawlaik replaced Kindat as the administrative capital but ironically the Myanma refused to move there from upstream Kindat. It was mainly settled with the company houses of the by the Scottish owned and run Bombay Myanmarh Trading Corporation in the 1920s and 1930s. There are many splendid ‘Dak Bungalows’ set around a verdant golf course. Mawlaik and the other towns of the Upper Chindwin can only be reached by boat so cars are few. There is a dreamy otherworldly quality to such places and truly one feels that one has travelled there in the Pandaw time machine! Then the gateway town for the Chin State. We explore Kalewa with its markets and quaint wooden architecture.

Mingkin was rediscovered by Paul Strachan in 1987 and described in some detail in his book Mandalay: Travels from the Golden City. It remains for Paul the most art historically interesting site in Myanmar (more so than the now spoilt Pagan) with its Konbaung court style teak monasteries sumptuously decorated. Mingkin may be described as the Luang Prabang of the Chindwin. And we pass a number of attractive villages like Kanee where we can stretch our legs.

Entering the lower Chindwin where the river widens and the forested hills fall away from farmland, we pass a number of attractive villages. We will explore Monywa and make a trip to the Thanbodi Temple with its million Buddha images.

In the morning, coach to the Phowin Taung Caves, where we will admire beautiful mural paintings and Buddha statues in riches.

Disembark at Monywa and transfer to Mandalay.
Please input the following information into the notes box of your booking or email us at [email protected]:
For Monywa to Mandalay Airport (transfer 2.5 hours):
your departure time and flight number
For Monywa to hotel in Mandalay (transfer 3 hours):
your hotel name and hotel address.
IMPORTANT: Please note that water levels drop dramatically as of December and we might not be able to reach Homalin. You will be well rewarded with alternative excursions. We will be cruising up to Mawlaik and return to Kalewa where you will be flown out to Yangon or Mandalay.