Cruising on the Irrawaddy River

In the morning we board M.S. HINTHA, a teak river vessel that has been completely renovated and reconstructed in 2013. Now it is a rather comfortable little cruise ship with four well- furnished cabins and a large sun deck with state of the art deck chairs and a bar. Enjoy life on the mighty river while slowly sailing upstream; children splashing in the water, farmers watering their cattle, women doing their laundry. And see the fascinating traffic on the river: passenger boats, tankers, cargo ships as well as large bamboo rafts floating slowly downstream. M.S. HINTHA stops for the night at the famous village of Yandabo, where the treaty was signed that ended the first Anglo-Burman war. Lunch & dinner aboard. ( Easter Crossings Guide )

Overnight cruise on the Irrawaddy River on board the M.S. Hintha. From Bagan to Mandalay. The best boat to cruise the Irrawaddy is the Orient Express which we did not take :-O The Orient Express can fit 50 guests while our boat was chartered for just our group and at we went at our own time and pace. Our goal was to ride the Irrawaddy River to get to Mandalay. We had limited time of seven days for our whole trip. Riding the MS Hintha is true Myanmar roughing it out style while The Orient Express is Riding in style! haha

So there are pros and cons

The boat is owned by our tour guide. Dr. Axel. He recently bought the boat and renovated it. He recommended this boat since we go straight from Bagan to Mandalay which only takes overnight.

Our guide, Dr. Axel Bruns. He is German and was a guide for 25 years. 20 years ago he moved to Myanmar and specialized in Southeast Asian tours. He also teaches tour guides to be good tour guides. He is now 65 years old and is semi retired. He got married two weeks ago to a Burmese lady. He is a doctor in Philosophy which explains why he is pilosopo 🙂 He’s a nice guy and funny too. Inés told Axel to give us the best tour guide so he brought himself ( mayabang too haha ) He told us that next time we should bring more time. Wish we could have stayed longer

Our captain with his bed behind him 🙂

Some scenes on the Irrawaddy

That looks like a nice boat too 🙂

The rooms of the MS Hintha

There are 4 rooms with names named after cities in Myanmar – ours was Sagain

Very “cowboy” haha!! I love adventures but maybe good for one day! hahaOnly because the bathroom is a bit difficult for me :-O

Upper deck where we stayed most of the time and congregated together – to eat, to work and to hang out

The kitchen – preparing our meals Terence the Boat Manager multi tasking and helping out in the kitchen

Candlelight dinner literally! haha

Breakfast 🙂

Terence the boat manager went to the village where we docked and came back with our Burmese breakfast – freshly made Eikyakhway with honey. It’s like bitcho bitcho 🙂 yummy