Travel Blogs
An Irrawaddy Voyage
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder By the 1920s, travel to Burma became all the rage. To give an idea of the destination's popularity,....
The Delta
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder When we launched a Pandaw river expedition across the Irrawaddy Delta in 2017, I was being a bit naughty....
The Business: how did they run the Irrawaddy Flotilla?
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder Having struggled over the past twenty-five years to keep a few boats running on the Irrawaddy river it d....
The Flotilla at War
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder The Irrawaddy Flotilla may be remembered for opening up a great and rich country to trade and travel, an....
The Irrawaddy Steamer
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder By the late 1880s, the Irrawaddy Flotilla was the single most important instrument for the opening of Bu....
The Irrawaddy Commander
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder To captain an Irrawaddy ship is no small challenge. Still without charts and few navigational ....
Bhamo: City of Rumour
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder Bhamo, a town on the very frontier of the Chinese enigma, where caravans incessantly come and ....
Katha and The Upper Irrawaddy
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder The only way to arrive at Katha is by water, which can take three days by express steamer or a week on....
World Heritage Site Status for Pagan
It was extraordinary that Pagan did not have World Heritage Site status, all the other great historical sites in South-East Asia, like Angkor or....
By the Old Moulmein Pagoda
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder BY THE old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea, There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she....
A Walk in the Mergui
By Paul Strachan, Pandaw Founder We flew down from Yangon to Myeik or Mergui on one of Myanmar's many fancy new airlines to join our coasta....
Reflections on the Chindwin by Pandaw Founder Paul Strachan
'The Chindwin is the loveliest of rivers. . . ' so wrote my late friend Alister McCrae of his 1930s trip up the great tributary as a young assis....