The Irrawaddy rises high in the Himalayas on the fringes of Tibet and South-West China. Bhamo is the most northerly navigable point for larger vessels and is nearly a thousand miles from the Indian Ocean. The river's course and character is constantly changing and in the Monsoon the river can rise over 50 feet. As one travels downstream spectacular gorges give way to expansive vistas of shimmering water, jungle-clad banks to endless paddy. The river eventually filters into the ocean through a thousand square mile delta.
Sands constantly shift and the channels can be ill-defined.
For this reason the river has never been charted. The Irrawaddy is a natural challenge that man, for all his technical abilities, has been unable to tame. The Chindwin joins the Irrawaddy just above Pagan, and though a tributary, it too is one of the great rivers of Asia. The Chindwin is even more treacherous to navigate than the Irrawaddy. Rising in the wet hills of Assam, the Upper Chindwin dissects successive mountain ranges to divest its vast cargo of melten snow into the aptly named Dry Zone of Upper Burma.