Road to Mandalay

The ship itself originally began life as a Rhine cruiser in Germany and made her maiden voyage on 6th July 1964. Originally built to very high standards for its day, the ship was purchased by Orient-Express Hotels, Trains & Cruises in 1994 following a period as a floating hotel in Dresden.

The ship underwent a major refurbishment programme at Lauenberg/Hamburg at a cost of US$6 million. This mostly consisted of reducing the number of cabins from 98 to 72, and installing decorations that blend contemporary designs with traditional Burmese, plus a state-of-the-art sewage system to preserve the purity of the Ayeyarwady River. Once the refurbishment was completed the ship was transported, courtesy of a specialist transporting ship, via the English Channel and the Suez Canal to Myanmar, arriving towards the end of 1995. The Road To Mandalay was unloaded in Yangon and, after attracting a great deal of local interest, sailed up the Ayeyarwady River to Mandalay.