We're squeaking through the Irrawaddy's powder-soft banks when a sailor painting our riverboat's canopy pauses mid-stroke. "Welcome home!" he booms from the rooftop, prompting laughter all round.
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It's a greeting we hear every time we return to the Cruiseco Explorer from a shore excursion (although it's usually delivered at ground level). A string of crew members – everyone from room attendants and waiters to the chief engineer – take our elbows, even when the ground isn't difficult, to welcome us back. Up on deck, we pass through another routine: a squirt of hand sanitiser, a rolled cold towel, a glass of cool juice (pineapple and green capsicum one day, pomegranate, orange and carrot the next), a pair of slippers and the return of our cabin key.
Routine while cruising can be a comfort, and it's not long before I look forward to passing through the welcoming committee each day as we explore the sights between Pyay (Prome under colonial rule, a six-hour bus ride north of Yangon) and Mandalay some 540 kilometres upstream.
As the days pass, my fellow passengers settle into their own routines. Some pound the decks or the treadmills in the mornings for their daily constitutional. I take to sneaking up to the bar in my bathrobe to ask for milk to go with the cup of tea I brew in my cabin. In between shore excursions and mealtimes, others lounge around the outdoor deck reading or chatting.
Each day, meal details are posted on a noticeboard. The lunch buffet can include a Shan-style rice noodle salad, lamb curry, fish in sweet chilli, pineapple suzette or even a chocolate fountain. The four-course dinners embrace Asian and Western flavours, with everything from a clear seaweed Myanmar soup or spicy Thai chicken soup, river fish baked in foil, grilled tiger prawns, beef in black pepper sauce, deep-fried tofu or New Zealand lamb with couscous.
The Explorer was launched in late 2014, catching a wave of interest in Myanmar that's grown since historic democratic elections were held in 2010, the same year democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in Yangon. With each passing year, it grows easier to visit Myanmar. There are ATMs in major cities, mobile phones are common and these days you can even drive past Suu Kyi's formerly off-limits home.
Cruiseco's custom-built vessel is similar to its Adventurer, which plies the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers in Vietnam and Cambodia. The Explorer, which is 10 metres shorter and more nimble in the water, is especially built to cope with the Irrawaddy's challenges.
During our cruise, one of the last before the rains that top up the river, sailors regularly check water levels from the front of the boat with long poles. At one point, a small vessel guides us through a serpentine channel, passing a fishing boat firmly stuck on a mid-river sandbank.
The Explorer features two types of cabin layouts: those on the upper deck include a balcony and deckchairs; those on the level below feature a French balcony. Both are 26 square metres. Bathrooms include a roomy shower and generous bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, handwash and moisturiser from the French luxury brand L'Occitane.
The bedroom/living area has a decorative ceiling, polished floorboards and ornate wall panelling. Over the bed (made extra-comfortable with a thick mattress topper) is a print showing Europeans with parasols strolling near a golden stupa overlooking a busy river. The Irrawaddy, I presume. Explorer's on-board Wi-fi is patchy, so expect to be out of touch for several days at a time.
George Orwell famously captured the country's time under British colonial rule in his 1934 novel, Burmese Days. His fictional town of Kyauktada was based on Katha, north of Mandalay and a port of call on Cruiseco's 17-night journeys.
There are moments during our cruise when it's hard not to feel like one of Orwell's pampered expats. While no one's sipping gin for breakfast (at least that I'm aware of), there's a chasm between our shipboard life – where we can lie in bed and watch CNN on our flat-screen TVs – and the lives of those working the fertile riverside fields, kaing, exposed only when river levels drop.
These farmers live in flimsy shelters, dogs and precious pigs nearby, tending to crops of corn, cucumbers and other vegetables. When water levels start to rise and cover the fields, the farmers return to their villages.
Some of Explorer's 44 passengers (there's room for 58) have cruised the Mekong, and we swap notes about which of the two Asian rivers we prefer. Their opinions are as diverse as their backgrounds: I'm cruising with a forensic psychologist travelling with her father who's celebrating a birthday, a public servant, a property stylist, retired teachers, former IT guys, poodle lovers, grandparents, dancers and book-clubbers.
What I love most are the golden stupas bejewelling the countryside and how the Explorer's arrival in small villages doesn't deter anyone from their daily rituals. Women park themselves in the shadow of the riverboat to thrash their laundry or discreetly bathe. Children come to play or fetch pails of water. Everyone returns a wave and a smile. Some are keen to practise their English or ask us questions.
In the village of Salay, a 30-year-old woman pulls up on her motorcycle, flips the visor and chats to me about her life as a teacher. At Salay's one souvenir stall, I ask the girl who sells me postcards and a bracelet about her life. She is 17 and wants to study electrical engineering.
The people we meet along the way are so serene that it's a shock to dock in Bagan – famous for its thousands of ancient temples and pagodas – and be surrounded by hawkers. They meet us at the jetty, try to make deals through bus windows, and follow us on motorcycles until we're all back at the boat. Men, women and children push their lacquerware, longyi (sarongs), cotton trousers, postcards, hand-coloured drawings, paintings, and books and novels about Myanmar. "Think about it," they cry, as we swing onto the bus. "Don't forget about me!" they implore as we return to the boat.
It's a relief to cast off from Bagan, even though my hot-air balloon ride there is a highlight. I prefer Myanmar's simpler pleasures. In a pottery village that's our last stop before Mandalay, some of us linger in a rustic café to sip tall glasses of sugarcane juice, freshly pressed. It's these moments that make me want to one day return to Myanmar.
TRIP NOTES
MORE INFORMATION
Australians travelling to Myanmar require a visa. See evisa.moip.gov.mm/NewApplication.aspx
CRUISING THERE
The Cruiseco Explorer cruises in Myanmar from August to April. Fares from $5399 a person twin-share for an 11-night tour that includes seven nights aboard the Explorer, two nights at the Chatrium Hotel in Yangon, two nights at the Mandalay Hill Resort in Mandalay and return economy fares from four Australian cities. The 17-night tour that includes Katha starts at $8299 a person twin-share. See cruising.com.au/ship/cruiseco-explorer
SPENDING THERE
With meals and most beverages included in the fare, money is really only needed for souvenir shopping and shore excursions. ATMs are available in Yangon and Mandalay; hotels can change US dollars into Myanmar kyat.
The writer travelled as a guest of Cruiseco.
FIVE CRUISE HIGHLIGHTS
SHWEDAGON PAGODA Our Yangon city tour includes a visit to Shwedagon Pagoda, the country's most sacred Buddhist site. Footwear (including socks) must be left at the entrance and shoulders and knees should be covered. Find out before you go what day of the week you were born. Myanmar Buddhists pray at one of eight points dedicated to their day of birth (Wednesday-borns are divided into morning and afternoon). Each of these points is marked by a different animal figure.
LE PLANTEUR Before leaving Yangon, passengers dine at this haute French fine-diner housed within a colonial-era mansion with lawns overlooking a lake and a vintage car out front. The interior designer sourced colonial pieces from Myanmar and Vietnam, combining them with pop-art touches. Duck into the bathroom to see the elephant-shaped spouts over the basins. And sit down before browsing the wine list: it includes a $17,000 magnum of 1961 Petrus.
MAGWE CENTRAL MARKET Dive into the alleyways of this very local produce market. Buy two bunches of long-stemmed perfumed roses, wrapped in a banana leaf, for your cabin. The purchase will cost about $1.20.
TEAK BRIDGE Mandalay's city tour includes time to stroll along U Bein Bridge, said to be the world's oldest and longest teak bridge. The 1.2-kilometre walkway, which includes four covered pavilions and spans Taung Tha Man Lake, was built around 1850 from timber reclaimed from a former royal palace.
MONKS EN MASSE Each morning at Mahagandayon Monastery, close to the teak bridge, more than 1000 monks silently line up before filing into the dining room for a meal. The spectacle attracts a crowd so arrive early for a good spot.
