Globespotting: Ayeyarwady River, Myanmar, August 2007

Published November 11, 2007

---

Life on the flooded river 

We spent 11 days on the Ayeyarwady River aboard a 73-passenger river boat from Mandalay. The Ayeyarwady floods every year in August, so that's the time you can get nearly to the Chinese border. The man in the photo is guiding a primitive wooden boat. No motor. When the river floods, the people move from their houses to little strips of land that are probably 10 feet wide, near roads that are built up. They take all of their possessions and their cattle and grain for the cattle and they live there for about six weeks until the water recedes and they can go back to their houses. I was up on deck of the river boat and I saw them crossing the river late in the afternoon. I think it tells a story. You can look at the people and try to figure out where they're going, why they're crossing the river, how much money they have or don't have. It's so different than in America and where I live, a mile from the Intracoastal. We flew out the night before the monks began protesting.

Susan Rose of Belleair as told to Fred. W. Wright Jr.