Through I should have to begin writing my travelogue along the Chindwin River from Yangon, because since there has been no shipping route I shall start it from Mandalay. Again, passenger boat has long discontinued running from Mandalay to Monywa by water. And, thus, I set out on my journey to Monywa that stands in the north-west Myanmar, for my Chindwin River journey, by car.

Day 1: The distance between Mandalay to Monywa is 136 km, passing through Ava (Yatanarbon) Bridge, the appearance and disappearance of the ridge of Mt. Sagaing and Nanmadaw Mei Nu’s bricked monastery, were seen. The latter stands at Ava, the second royal palace of Kone Boung Dynasty; the monastery has preserved its modernity of works of art.

It takes 3 and half hours from Mandalay to Monywa. Monywa city is well-known for its unbearable heat in the hot season, the temperature in Fahrenheit being from 108 to 111. Monywa, being in the vicinity of the rings of sand, in the cold season, the coldness is excessive.

In Monywa I paid homage to Shwe Guni Pagoda, a historic ancient one, at Kyauk Kar village, a distance of seven miles from Monywa. The worshippers, out of intense faith, had completely covered the whole image of Buddha in thick layer of gold-leaf as holy cloth that the entire face of it has puffed up with gold, and thus deviating from its originality.

Then, I proceeded to the One-Thousand Bo-tree Pagodas where one thousand Bo-trees have been planted and one thousand of Buddha’s Images erected. It is the greatest Reclining Buddha’s Image ever had in Myanmar, and within the precincts of the pagoda there are paintings related with the life of the Buddha.

In Upper Myanmar, Monywa is a busy town and my Chindwin River Journey started here. Overnight in Hotel. (Monywa)

Day 2: Monywa harbor is chiefly a place from where goods have been sent to Kalaywa, Home-ma-lin and Kham Tee. Tharlarwaddy (1) vessel has a seating capacity of 350 passengers, and is with a capacity of 60 tons of weight of goods. The ship left the Monywa harbor at 7 o’clock in the morning. The ship, in summer, only runs from Monywa up to Kalaywa; but, in rainy season when the sea raises to its high level, the vessel complete its up-and-down journey from Monywa up to Kham Tee, distance of 454 miles within nine days. There are five Tharlarwaddy vessels and all of them traveling up-and-down river.

20-minute voyage after leaving Monywa harbor will send you to Kyauk-Myet Hill that stands at the left of the sea. There is a port at the foot of the hill and copper plates produced from it are loaded on to the ship. The crimson feature of the hill displays the copper reserves.

Soon, while our ship was running some motorboats followed us in our wake. To the middle of the river, and the travelers and vendors boldly jumped up and into our ship. It was a thrilling spectacle indeed! They had hired motorboats in groups and climbed into our ship. After a half and hour when the motorboat left they remained behind in the ship to continue their selling. Not long after that they all dived from the ship into river, swimming and floating away with the current of the river. Mostly, vendors were women. Our ship passed through; at 11 Am, Shwe Sayay village, the well-known village of Chindwin River. The river, though calm in the cool season, is full of whirlpools in the rainy season; and the current is also violent. It is the point where the narrowest defile exists between the two Rocky Mountains.

The Chindwin River rises from the Ta-Ron-Kha Creek that is above NanYun in the vicinity of the Kachin State and Sagaing Division, the northern part of Myanmar. Tributaries of Ta-Naing-Kha and Ta-Ron-Kha Creek, in combination flow down. They, again, start to flow from the Naga Hill above Kham Tee Town, in the form form of a river. The river, in the rainy season, streams down violently and washes away the beaches.

In the Chindwin River huge wood-rafts towed down away by a motorboat, drifting down-stream were seen. Over the rafts are houses made and used for dwelling. The big logs tied together with strips of bamboo to make a raft; it is risky, indeed, to travel in such a raft.

We passed the Moe Kyoe Village at one o’clock in the afternoon. We saw people sifting gold on the beach. It is learnt that the Chindwin River produces gold. Overnight on board.

Day3: The night had been shrouded in mist and I came to know, when I woke up, that the ship had been compelled to drop anchor at the entrance of the Min Kin Town since midnight. Min Kin is 104 nautical miles away from Monywa.

In the hot and cold seasons, at ebb-tide the ships have to anchor at the deeper site ahead the river, that is a half mile from Min Kin. Scarcely when the ship approached the harbor the vendors came jostling up the ship to sell for their grilled lobsters and fishes. I went out to enjoy a walk in the town.

The ship resumed when the mists broke at 8am in the morning. There are plenty of pagodas along the meanderings of the river. Since we started to leave Min Kin the weather noticeably began to be cold. Far beyond over the hills was cloaked with mists.

3-hour voyage from Min Kin required passing through the long lines of rocks. The reefs at the east coast run about two miles in length. Having passed the large reef made up of nine hills for a half hour, Kalaywa town came into sight. The Kalaywa port is the door to the Indian border trade. Because the unloading of things would take about a half hour, I managed to visit the town. Kalaywa is built on the hill and full of twists and turns with a chilly weather. In the hot season it is intensely hot. Historically speaking, it had been a passage to the Indian border, and King Ba-yint-naung and Alaung Paya, who had occupied Assam and Manipurr, were thought to have reached.

Six miles or so away from Kalaywa traffic road stands a coal industry. At 3 o’clock in the evening the ship left Kalaywa. As we were proceeding to the north Kalaywa disappeared in the valley between two big hills. Because of the waters becoming shallow, the speed of the engine of the ship had to be reduced. The 90 degree–steep cliffs were seen at some places. At some other places, having seen twenty numbers of motorboats fully loaded with barrels of engine oil, and when asked of the reason, it was learnt these boats were engaged for carrying oils to the gold mines.

At about 6pm, seeing a black mass in the distance on the river, and upon enquiry, it was said to be a mass of gold-sifting boats. The gold-sifting coast is called Ma-sein Village. The boats of large-and-small-sized were around 1000 members in my estimation.

Waters becoming shallower, the ship had to run steadily and at 11pm it was stranded on the sand-bank. Overnight on board.

Day4: It was 6 o’clock when I awoke in the morning. The tea-shop on board the ship was having a good sale. The crew stepped down into the river struggling out of the sand-bank was an amazing spectacle. The task was dangerous for the crew. After a lapse of three hours the ship was freed. The ship resumed the voyage and after one hour, at 11am, we had arrived Maw Lite.

Maw Lite had been designated a town by the British after the occupation of Myanmar. The woods of teak and Pyin-Ka-Toe (Myanmar iron-wood) largely attracted by the British are growing within the reserved forest area of Maw Lite.

Looking around Maw Lite, there had not been any huge buildings except the Deputy Commissioner Office by British.

It was noon when we left Maw Lite harbor. The coldness becomes growing intense. Teak production camps were also visible. And there was a log-floating raft came into our sight near the Yuwa creek. The raft carrying 50 numbers of log seemed to be in difficulty to flow down the river.

There is a saying: if each vessel going up-stream after having bowed its head three-times before pagoda upon Shwe Palin Mountain will reach Home-ma-lin. The reason is that having seen the pagoda from very long distance, and the ship on account of having passed the winding route by negotiating for several times.

At 8pm, while the ship was being anchored at Out-Taung Village, the raindrops blended with mist blurred the vision, and for that reason the ship had to make a night stop over. Overnight on board.

Day5: Until 10am the sun was not yet vision at all. Having thick warm shirts while taking a walking around the village, I felt not sufficient. It is known that Indian border can be reached from the rear of the Out-Taung Village by land. The characteristic of the village is that a certain village-headman named Khant San Kyaw Hla appointed by Shan-chief who founded and governed that village had been worshipped as Nat and a temple erected.

At 10am the ship set out. Some upper parts of the Chindwin River were the routes used by the British in their retreat.

Just beyond the Sit-Thaung Village the long stretch of sandbank was seen again. A number of ten tents or so were sparsely seen on it. They were built on the bamboo rafts. In the hot and cold seasons, at the lower part of the river, cutting canes, the platting of mats, growing beans were the means of raft-makers’ livelihood. The majority of the workers were from the lower Myanmar; they go down-stream when the sandbank grows submerged when the cold and hot seasons are over. Scarcely when they started to arrive there the bamboos having been cut and bamboo-rafts made ready for emergency. The rafts with the huts upon them, there is no need to worry about rain-storms. They would simply float down with the current. They make a living and are even born on it.

The color of the Chindwin River is changing from green to brown and to red-brick colors. Upon enquiry, it was heard that that was due to the proximity of the gold-sifting area farther along the river.

At dusk, the view being covered by the haze, our ship had to make a night stop-over at Thoung Thut Village. Overnight on board.

Day6: At 11 in the morning, the haze having dispersed, the ship began to leave. Arriving at three miles, a group of bamboo-rafts were seen floating down the river. From the distance, it looked as if a village had been floating. It was said that the origin of the bamboo-raft has its origin in Hta-Man-Thee Village. According to some sayings it takes from one to five years in advance to place an order for bamboos. It is also said that when an inch of a bamboo-joint is burnt and if it has been left grown in a sloping position on the ground, it will, after the lapse of five years, grow into a cluster of bamboos, comprised of 25 to 50 bamboo trees. A bamboo-raft is loaded with twenty to fifty thousands of bamboo poles. The scene vividly displays the combination of the money capital financed by the owner of the raft and the labor contributed by the worker who steer the raft struggling in the mist under the scorching sun, in the hot wind; it is a scene that cannot be erased from the mind.

Chindwin River due to the landslide and river banks having been pulled down for gold-sifting caused less water. The river banks have been pulled down for gold-sifting; the pieces of land on which the villages being built were purchased by the gold-sifters for gold-sifting so that the villages were no longer in existence.

Beyond the gold-sifting area the surface of the river turned greenish and pellucid. Even at 2 o’clock in the afternoon it was bitterly cold in the immediate vicinity above ft.5700 of the sea level. Bean is largely sown in Naung San Kyin Village along the Chindwin River.

Home-ma-lin, dimly seen in the eastern part of the river, coming into sight, was drawing nearer. The river, three miles from the entrance to Home-ma-lin is characterized by forming sand-bank, being turbid and the narrowness of the way through the mountain; it becomes pellucid and greenish. Uru Creek flows into the Chindwin River from the rear of the Home-ma-lin, going along the creek to the end of it for a night-ride in the motorboat, the Nam-Taw, the largest gold-sifting area, will be reached. It was growing dark when we had arrived Home-ma-lin in the evening. Tharawaddy(1) vessel I was riding in ended its journey here. Having run for 327 nautical miles, it was utterly exhausted. The traffic road is 308 miles long Monywa to Home-ma-lin.

The majority of the inhabitants of the locality through having engaged in cultivation on island resulting from silting and yet many others are still occupied in gold-sifting business. And the number of malarial patients is large.