Sailing into Thilawa, Myanmar (Burma); Port City for Yangon

by Janis on January 19, 2015

Yangon River, Myanmar (Burma)

Myanmar (pronounced MEE’-an-mar) is a country in Southeast Asia that shares borders with China, India, Laos, Bangladesh and Thailand. It was formerly known as Burma, and Yangon was the country’s former capital. After three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century, the British conquered Burma and the country became a British colony until 1948.

Initially, Burma was as a democratic nation until a 1962 coup that resulted in a military dictatorship, which remained until 2011.

The country was generally closed to Western travel during the military rule.

The first episode of Season 1 of this show – Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Season 1 – Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown piqued our interest in visiting Myanmar.

Via a Holland America 14-Day Asian Holiday cruise on the Volendam, we had the opportunity to visit Myanmar for three days in late December, 2014.

This map shows the location of the Port of Thilawa on the Yangon River in relationship to the Andaman Sea and the city of Yangon, Myanmar. (Source: Google Maps.)

After sailing up the Yangon River from the Gulf of Martaban, an arm of the Andaman Sea, the Volendam docked at the Port of Thilawa on the Yangon River.

Thilawa Port is the largest and busiest port in Myanmar. Regardless of what the Google map above indicates, this port is about 1.5 to 2 hours drive to reach the heart of Yangon, depending on traffic.

One of the benefits of cruising to Myanmar is the view while the ship is sailing up the Yangon River.

We were out on deck to watch the sunrise as the ship sailed up the Yangon River. While we were scheduled to arrive in Thilawa at 7 am, the captain advised that we needed to sail in slower than planned due to strong tides and the shallowness of the river. At the time of our late December sailing, the river was about three meters deep in some spots with the Volendam requiring a minimum of two meters of water depth to sail.

For reference, Mr. Jones (right), is 6 feet, 6 inches or about 2 meters tall.

(For those who are metric challenged like I am, Jeff (Mr. Jones) is 6 feet 6 inches tall which is just about 2 meters. So I pictured the water in the Yangon River as 1.5 Jeff’s deep.)

We headed to the bow (which was open for viewing, a nice perk of Holland America ships on scenic cruising locations.)

Sailing up the Yangon River was similar to sailing on the Missouri River or the Mississippi River or Germany’s Kiel Canal in the fall; the view was of agricultural fields, brown after harvest.

Golden Pagoda along the bank of the Yangon River in Myanmar. Photo by Rick Fenton.

Upon a closer look, however, there was one major difference: golden pagodas dot the landscape at the edge of the fields.

Along the Yangon River, Myanmar. Photo by Rick Fenton.

Most temples and pagodas found throughout Myanmar were built during the 12th and 13th centuries under the Pagan Empire as Theravada Buddhism spread throughout the country.

While thousands of the pagodas are concentrated further north in Bagan, there were plenty to see as we sailed up the muddy, wide river with small fishing boats.

Have you visited Myanmar by cruise ship? What was your impression? Please share in comments below.

To follow other parts of our 14-Day Asian Holiday cruise on Holland America’s Volendam, check out these posts:

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