The Irrawaddy and Salay

Join us as we explore Salay, Myanmar from the comfort of our river cruise ship, Viking Mandalay. Photo © 2015 Aaron Saunders

Sunday, November 29, 2015

It only took me about forty minutes of sweating through every piece of my clothing this morning to determine that this must be what hell is like.

Viking River Cruises’ Viking Mandalay arrived at the small town of Salay, Myanmar just before nine o’clock this morning. Salay – referred to as Salé by Viking but “Salay” everywhere else – is a small town situated about 50 kilometres to the south of Bagan that claims over fifty active monasteries and around 100 Bagan-era monuments, stupas and temples, all of which are clustered within this remarkable village.

Today, another gorgeous morning of cruising the Irrawaddy awaited us. Photo © 2015 Aaron Saunders

For our morning excursion, we’d set out on a two hour walk through town to visit a handful of these monasteries. And as soon as I left my stateroom and locked up with my rather-large key, I began to suspect it was going to be a hot one out today. Already, I could feel the heat radiating off the brass handles of my double sliding stateroom doors. I unlocked the stateroom and went back in to re-slather myself in sunscreen. Better safe than sorry.

Click here to continue reading!

Our Live Voyage Report from Viking River Cruises’ Myanmar Explorer continues tomorrow with another day of exploration along the Irrawaddy River! Be sure to follow along with our adventures on Twitter @deckchairblog.