Page 340 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

338 NortherN MyaNMar Katha to Mandalay
from the roadside north of Katha’s market. Your hotel Shwegu (4hr; K6000), with tickets for both services
can confirm departure times, or alternatively arrange a available shortly before departure from the Special Express
taxi (40min; K18,000). Naba is served by three trains in ticket booth (T09 250 559 104) on Riverside Rd. Tickets for
each direction each day, with services to Myitkyina IWT ferries are available an hour before departure from the
(12hr) leaving at 1am, 4am and 9am. Train times IWT office (T074 25057) on Riverside Rd, a little north of
towards Mandalay (12hr) are slightly better, departing the fast ferry ticket office – look for the Myanmar flag
in the late afternoon and evening. outside. Tickets can also be purchased on board. The IWT
By boat Fast boats depart daily at 5am for Mandalay ferries themselves depart 600m south of the office, just
(14hr; K25,000) and 9am for Bhamo (8hr; K12,000) via past a large pagoda.
aCCoMMoDatIoN
Along the waterfront are basic guesthouses with plywood partitions, some of which no longer accept foreign guests.
Ayarwaddy Guesthouse Riverside Rd T075 25140. This ★ Hotel Katha Lanmadaw Rd T075 25390,
old-school guesthouse has small rooms upstairs with shared Whotelkatha.com. This friendly hotel in a colonial-
bucket showers, and a few en-suite rooms downstairs. The style building opened in 2015. It has a wide selection
walls are so thin you’ll hear every time your fellow guests of rooms, from $18 singles to $50 VIP rooms, all with
yawn, snore or play tinny muzak on their phones. Try to get their own bathrooms and a/c. The hotel brochure
one of the double rooms with river views at the front of the includes a very useful illustrated map of Katha in
building. No breakfast, no wi-fi. Single rooms K8000. K16,000 Orwell’s time. $25
eatING aND DrINKING
8 Katha has an interesting night market (daily 5–9pm) offering various options beyond the usual noodles, including fresh
fruit lassis and good curry-and-rice combos. The market is on a street running away from the river, just south of the fast
boat office – it’s known locally as “Night Market Street”.

Jet Sun Night Market St. One of the few places open early speciality. Daily 9am–10pm.
in the morning, this small teahouse is a good choice for a Zone Café Lanmadaw Rd. On Katha’s main road, south of
hearty breakfast of sweet tea and hot paratha. Daily the market and near AYA Bank, this café is owned by local
5am–6pm. artist and Orwell enthusiast Nyo Ko Naing. Serves tea,
Shwe Sisa Riverside Rd. This restaurant offers grills and coffee (K300 each), cold drinks and snacks including tea-
stir-fries (from K2000), draught beer, Premiership football leaf salad (K500) and some fried dishes (K1000). Daily
and a balcony overlooking the river. Barbecued fish is their 7am–10pm.
DIreCtory
Bank There are two or three banks with ATMs in the vicinity of the market.

Katha to Mandalay
The broad ribbon of the Ayeyarwady flows almost due south between Katha and
Mandalay, through low hills that have been intensively logged for teak – elephants
hauling tree trunks and barges loaded with logs can still be spotted along the
river. Just before the town of Inywa, the river traffic negotiates its way around
wthe Shweli sandbar, where the Shweli River dumps silt at its confluence with the
Ayeyarwady.
Fast and slow boats alike stop at Tigyaing and Tagaung, but the place most likely to
interest travellers is Kyaukmyaung where potters produce huge Martaban jars, using
techniques that have been unchanged since King Alaungpaya forcibly relocated
thousands of Mon captives from Mottama (formerly Martaban) near Mawlamyine in
the eighteenth century. Alaungpaya also left his mark on his birthplace, Shwebo, where
he established his capital between 1752 and 1760. Outside Shwebo are the ruins of a
far more ancient city, Hanlin.
FROM TOP FISHERMAN ON INDAWGYI LAKE (P.351); MONKS, KATHA (P.337); HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE, PYIN OO LWIN (P.319) >

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