from 'Delta trip' by zeke7 (April 2007)

Pathein - Ngathaingchaung ferry: discovered a ferry going this route up the Mawdun River on a Myanmar tour co. website. Inquired in Pathein, M W F, $4 salon class from IWT advance ticket office, first large teak building on left as you proceed east up the street leading directly out from the IWT pier. Bring Burmese language ability or interpreter for the relatively dour folk there.

Boat must be close to 100 yrs old (if anyone knows their old riversteamer boats, contact me and I'll email you a photo for possible ID; I'd love to know its vintage). 2nd-story wooden flat-roofed salon built directly over prow, following its triangular lines, gives boat a distinctive wedge-shaped look. Mine extremely crowded with large group of Delta-dwelling Karen Baptists going to big 3-day revival meeting upcountry riverside. Very atmospheric dawn start, with heavy river mist lingering for a couple of hours. Very rural, between the two town's bridges little land motor vehicular traffic observed. Huge processing plant and very modern shiploading docks for unknown product installed about 1/3 way upriver. Bundled-bamboo pontoons for overloading stability on some smaller boats provide a Waterworld look. Boat never exceeded the speed of a fast-moving bicycle. Mostly west-bank stops (hwy runs the east side). Idyllic but very long day (and night). Karens' mass exodus and later getting overloaded boat stuck in mud for an hour after loading many bags of shrimp at one stop turned 12-hr trip into 18hrs, post-midnite arrival in Ngath.

Nightmare in Ngathaingchaung: provided with a non-uniformed police escort to lead me to Guesthouse (was given name of one, West Wind, by a Pathein man). Escort meekly tries unsuccessfully for 15min to roust Guesthouse proprietor; meanwhile non-uniformed obese betel-chewing night cop approaches, I politely explain my business in sign language and clear Burmese ("tourist, sleep here tonight, go to Gwa tomorrow morning"). Night cop goes away, escort gives up, says we'll go find another Guesthouse, on foot. But night cop, lounging on swing next door, has words for escort, who then acts momentarily confused before leading me up streets and hailing trishaw. Head to police station on town's outskirts, he goes in with my data (collected by other officials on boat) & registers me, we get back in trishaw and soon are on highway getting blasted with dust by oncoming logging trucks. Near bridge, driver pulls up at bamboo shack at 1:30am, escort says "Wait here for next Gwa bus." Blow stack, "clarify" to escort your intention to sleep in Ngathaingchaung and get bus out the next day. Driver goes to adjacent shed, calls night cop, upon his appearance on motorbike immediately begin "reclarifying" your intentions to him. Return to original Guesthouse, trishaw driver rousts proprietor in short order, and of course wants money for his services. Register on two separate but duplicate forms, plywood cubicle room with light switch controlled only by front desk, snoring locals on either side. Should be 3000kyat, they want 8000 but take less, no doubt several kyats go directly into cops' pockets here. Explain to escort no call for me to pay for what I didn't need, want, or ask for (trishaw driver). See that further discussion will just consume time and turn uglier, determine that alternative of just paying to end it here and now is better, toss minimally sufficient bill in escort's lap in disgust, and finally retire for the night @ 2am.

In morning, get tractor-trailer to Yedanaw, the Gwa-Pyay road junction a few km west of Ngathaingchaung. Discover that next "bus" (the term gets used synonymously for "wood-bench truck" in these parts) for Gwa arrives that evening. Kill time at the restaurant there; board large wooden-bench truck at 5pm, 4000kyat (probably overcharged). Ascend into sizeable hills that separate the valley from the coast; atop the range, observe rampant deforestation, hills now covered in scrubby short brown bamboo as far as eye can see. Continue to pass incoming fully loaded logging trucks headed for the valley, so realize that there must be some forest left somewhere near here, for now. 4 hours later encounter large log-loading site, then while beginning descent down to Gwa, smell pockets of lush green tropic.

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