Orient Express - Road to Mandalay

[cruiser100]

Has anyone cruised in Myanmar on the "Road To Mandalay".

I cannot find any reviews & would appreciate any feedback.

[harrodsfan]

We did a 7 day cruise in February 2005. Would be happy to answer any questions.

It was a wonderful trip.

[MMDown Under]

I'd love to know more also thank you. This is the old Burma isn't it?

 

Is this a river cruise? Which cruise line? Journey from to?

[harrodsfan]

Here goes...

The "Road to mandalay" is a cruise ship owned and managed by Orient Express...(The same group that owned the trains..)

It was previously a river cruise ship that cruised German Rivers.

The boat cruises the Irrawaddy River in Myamar which was previously Burma.

The cruise is 3 to 7 days and includes all land excursions.

We did the 7 day cruise. We first flew to Yangon the Capital from Bangkok and spent two nights there. A three hour private tour was included.

The morning of the third day we flew to the town of Mandalay where we boarded the ship. We had an afternoon tour in town that day as well as an early morning tour the next morning.

The boat sailed at about 10:30 am. We sailed south all day. The scenery was just fascinating. On board there were lectures and other activities.

The next morning we docked at Bagan at about 10 am. We immediately left on a morning tour. After lunch we elected to stay on board. (there was another tour offered.) We hired a horsecart in the late afternoon and went out to see the sunset at the temples...Bagan is a world heritage site and has more Buddist temples than any other place in the world.

The next day there was an all day tour offered but we elected to stay in Bagan and do more local sightseeing. We had lunch at a lovely hotel and saw more temples.

The next morning some people left the ship and others boarded. There was an early morning hot air balloon ride offered. We then set sail back north.

Some of the new passengers were a group of previous british soldiers from WWII who had fought in the battle of Burma. As we sailed north they told us the story of their experience 50 years earlier. It was fascinating.

The next morning we were to arrive back in Mandalay. Instead we hit a sandbar because the river was low. We had to evacuate the ship by boat and travel to a town where we boarded a bus to Mandalay.

We did some sightseeing on the way and arrived a nice 4 star hotel in the town of Mandalay.

We spent two nights there with a tour the next morning.

The crew could not have been nicer..

We then flew back to Yangon and on to Bangkok.

The Ship

The ship was very nice. We had a larger cabin which we were glad we had.

The lower priced cabins are quite small.

The public rooms were comfortable and we especially liked the top deck which had lovely overstuffed wicker chairs...a perfect spot to watch the scenery. even when in port.

The bathrooms were small but had Bulgarie toiletries...and lovely linens.

The beds were comfortable.

There were tv's with movies and news when we were in port. also documentaries on the sights.

The Food

The food was quite good. Everything was flown in from Australia...

Good reasonable selection of wines. A nice cocktail lounge.

Lunch was a buffet of different local specialties from Burmese to Indian to Thai..

Breakfast was full English cooked.

 

Entertainment

Every night there was entertainment including acrobats,,musicians, dancers and artists..

 

Service

from the minute we were met at the airport the service was amazing. Personal, and organized..No wish was forgotten or unfulfilled if possible.

A note .. the ship has stairs and no elevators.

 

Politics...

Of course many people feel that one should not visit a country with such an oppressive government. we were respectful of their culture...no shorts or sleeveless tops...barefoot in the temples..We had many interactions with the local and all were pleasant. Some brought up government...and were relatively candid about problems...some were not.

Our thought is that we brought our culture to exchange with theirs. Perhaps we could erace some negative attitudes. It is a very poor country..I would say 4th world.

 

We had such a positive experience that we took the Eastern Orient Express Train from Singapore to Bangkok last fall. That was also an incredible experience.

I direct you to the Orient Express Web site which is very good and includes many pictures...sample menus etc. of all their products.

Please feel free to ask me any other specific questions you may have..

[cruiser100]

Many thanks for your interesting & useful report.

 

Cruiser 100

[MMDown Under]

Thank you so much for your interesting review on your travels through such a fascinating part of the world.

 

We passed the Orient Express Train in Thailand, whilst travelling by train from Bangkok to Hua Hin, and it looked like it would be a lot of fun.

[mpfund]

We took a different line, Pandaw (http://www.pandaw.com) on the Irrawaddy and loved the trip. The company has 4 purpose built ships (copies of original river boats). We felt the Pandaw was better value, and further understand that "The Road to Mandalay" often cannot make her full trip as she was not designed for the shallow waters of the Irrawaddy.

[MMDown Under]

Thanks for your comments and link to the Pandaw cruiseline, which I look forward to reading.

[annmarz]

Could you please give us more details about the Pandaw experience? We are booked on the Mekong River cruise this summer. how much do they charge to do laundry? Do they have lectures/talks in the evening? Thanks

[42kiwis]

There are local folk type shows and talks about where you are going etc. The following was posted in another thread, too. I would do the trip again, but there are sooooooo many other places to see! :D I think there was a laundry bag but I did not use it, just rinsed out a few bits for myself. Bugs were not really a problem but I did take repellent and they do recommend covering up. One person did get bitten by something 'funny' and that needed seeing to. On the first night there was a cockroach from hell in my shower (dead, I think!) I tried to flush it down the drain but it got stuck so I had to ask for assistance.:( Fellow passengers were mainly British and Australians with ages from 40 up. Lovely ship and crew, fantastic food and mostly free booze. Excursions - just tie up to a tree, dig a few steps and the crew help you off on your next interesting excursion. Lots of shoe taking off for temples so take plenty of wipes. It really was terrific and worth every penny.

[hrprof]

We did the "Road" cruise in 2000 as part of an A&K SE Asia tour. I concur with comments of others about the quality of the experience. But, do brace your selves for criticsm from others re support of the government. Also did the Bangkok - Singapore train and recommend it - The bridge on river Kwai is a highlight. However, both Rovos Rail and the Blue Train in South Africa provide better service and accomodations, in our opinion.

[john990]

I love the above intresting views.. I have watch this on Orient TV Live ... Plz tell me details.