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Cruising the Irrawaddy Now


twototravel
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We are on day 4 of our 9 night Irrawaddy Cruise in Burma with Vantage. This is the first of nine departures scheduled using the Makara Queen. Boat is beautiful. Cabins are extremely large, as are the bathrooms. All meals are buffets, and quality of food has been good. There is soup with lunch and dinner and two Asian entrees, along with multiple salads. Those with special diets are accommodated. Big surprise was that soft drinks, beer and wine are complimentary all day long! We usually get a welcome drink onboard after returning from excursions. Getting on and off the boat is an experience. Luckily most of the staff lines the path to give a helping hand up the small cliff sides. Thong type sandals are provided to use while your shoes are being cleaned. Something not mentioned on the website...if you book the presidential suite (there are 2), you will get free laundry service, bottle of wine everyday and canapés delivered every night. Both are booked on this trip. We have a total of 43 passengers this trip with two Vanguard guides and 2 local guides. Many times some of the boat staff tag along on excursions. Passenger birthdays are celebrated in style...staff all participate wearing hats and singing while the birthday person gets a huge cake. Temps right now are in the low 90’s with temps at night and early morning in the 60’s. Many people, including ourselves get up early and walk around the top deck for exercise. There is a very small pool as well.

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Thank you so much for taking the time. Are there lifts between any decks? I will watch here in case you can post again during or after your cruise.

 

There are no elevators on board. Passenger cabins are on the first deck when entering the boat and the second deck which also has cabins and the dining room. The third deck has the lounge, bar and pool.

 

Forgot to mention that ship WiFi is mostly unusable. You can connect to the router but the router does not connect to the land towers. I bought a local SIM card in Yangon before getting on the boat which has provided me internet throughout. You must have an unlocked phone for the SIM card to work. Cost was 5000 kyat for 2 gigs of data...about $5. What a bargain! My husband used my phone as a hot spot to check email on his iPad.

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...Bad news in the lifts...
I did the Irrawaddy in Nov 2016 with Vantage's previous boat, which also did not have lifts. Virtually all landings are at unimproved sites, and require at least moderate (generally more than moderate) mobility to get up the banks. Sorry to be blunt, but if you can't handle the stairs on the boat, don't even think about getting off the boat (assuming that you can even get on it). A wonderful trip, but like much of the developing world it does require a certain level of fitness and mobility.
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