I have just returned from an eventful trip to Burma, and will post a trip report hopefully next week.

The Pandaw cruise was exceptional....apart from the first night when a mini hurricane estimated by the captain of the vessel to be about 90 miles per hour struck the Pandaw IV, making it heel over at an angle of about 40 degrees. It forced us to abandon ship for several hours (it was well after dark) and stand in the torrential rain for about an hour or so on a small low lying ankle deep mud island...

Considering the Pandaw (like most river vessels) is like an iceberg in reverse with 7/8's above water and 1/7th below the water we were lucky not to capsize, such was the force of the wind and rain.

There were many cuts and bruises, but no-one was seriously hurt. The crew was astonishingly good, putting our safety well ahead of their own.

I should have believed my wife who read my stars while on the flight from Singapore to Rangoon: “Your lifestyle begins to improve but be careful of travelling by boat”!!!!

Needless to say, the incident occurred on September 13....

But apart from that the trip was superb.....and the Burmese are soooo friendly and hospitable...

More next week.....hopefully!

Woo hoo! Sounds great already. I hope you had your camera with you.

I didn't actually! We were in the saloon for the briefing about the next day. And you know a bout those. Who in his right mind bothers to take a camera to them anyway?

But I managed to get aboard after an hour, rummaged through the cabin in the dark (everything was every which way and wet) and grabbed the Pentax. I was the only one to get shots of the people on board as they huddled in the rain. The shots are taken at a very high ISO becausde the flash wasn't alays working, so they are poor quality and noisy. But at least I have some pics of the drama.

Excellent stuff. I can imagine the scene. What an adventure. I'm tremendously jealous it didn't happen to ME. And what a fantastic 'bonding' thing to occur, eh? I bet that changed the group dynamics.

Well, now that you've caught my attention please go ahead and post that trip report.

Great start...

Yikes! What a beginning to a cruise! I look forward to your report.

Can't wait to read all about it!

I have a pic here:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/p...ndon-ship.html

Wow.

Great photo! Makes me cold and miserable just looking at it!

Can I make a special request before you start your report? I'd love it if you would start another thread with a more descriptive title... something along the lines of " "Mitch04's Burma Report".

Makes it so much easier to find - especially since I have a feeling this is one I'll remember and want to look at when planning my own Burma trip!!

Thanks!

I agree....I just on a whim clicked on this thread and what a surprise to find this content. Wow!

This is like the movies Beyond Rangoon meets The Perfect Storm.

I was curious - could it be Dogster???? or after all this time ........Oksana!

Glad it's Mitch from Burma - I love to read about Burma.....and Mitch always rights great trip reports.

And the picture is interesting - but how did everyone get chairs?

Some of the chairs blew off the top deck onto the island...others were taken from the lower deck of the Pandaw and simply placed on the island for the passengers to use.

God knows where the massive sundeck tarpaulin is! Probably found by some lucky villagers about 10 miles away *lol*!

The dining room was a complete mess with broken glass and crockery strewn all over the floor - plus busted furniture. Yet the crew worked like demons all night, and had a hot breakfast prepared for us the next morning, although we used make-shift tables.

Nah, not me - this little adventure is ALL Mitch's. I'm completely jealous.