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NORTHERN MYANMAR
MYITKYINA & THE UPPER AYEYARWADY
FAST BOATS^ In the rainy season most boats are
faster and there may be a direct seasonal fast
boat to Mandalay departing at dawn.
Katha Services (K15,000, around eight hours)
via Shwegu (K7500, 2½ hours) depart 8.30am
from the northern end of the central waterfront.
Myitkyina Two-day trip starts with the 9.30am
boat to Sinbo (p 242 , K7000, six hours), depart-
ing from the middle of the central waterfront. Bus & Pick-Up Trucks
Myitkyina Bus leaves at 7am (K12,000, six
hours) from Bawdi St, around 400m south
of Friendship Hotel. Book one evening ahead
(hotels can help) and prepare five photocopies
of your visa and passport for checkpoints.
Mandalay via Shwegu No foreigners. Train
A Katha–Bhamo railway is under construction.8 Getting Around
LOCAL TRANSPORT Motorcycle/three-
wheeler taxis cost K1000/2000 to the airport,
K2000/3000 to the IWT ferry dock.
BICYCLE Rent from Breeze Coff ee & Cold
(Letwet Thondaya Rd; per day K2000;
h8.30am-7pm), a small shop almost opposite
Friendship Hotel.
PICK-UP TRUCKS Intervillage pick-ups (called
‘Hilux’ after the vehicle brand) are an unusual
mongrel where the rear section is a goods car-
riage with seats fi xed high on the roof as though
for a safari. Dangerously top-heavy.Around Bhamo
Popular with Chinese visitors and local week-
enders, Stone Village is a picnic spot where
a thatched-roof karaoke restaurant overlooks
a mountain stream cascading between large
boulders. The scene is pretty enough but only
really worth the trip if you’re desperate for a
time-fi ller. If so, do also take a look at some
of the water-powered cottage industries in
Kyauk Sahan, the village where Stone Vil-
lage’s half-mile access track branches off
the newly cobbled China-bound road, 15
miles east of Bhamo. The China-bound road
branches off the Bhamo–Myitkyina road at
Momauk where there are teahouses and
( just east) some attractive rice-paddy scenes.Bhamo to Katha
Between Bhamo and Shwegu, the scenery
reaches a modest climax in the short Sec-
ond Defi le where the Ayeyarwady passesthrough a wooded valley with a rocky cliff
face at one section (often described mislead-
ingly as a gorge).SHWEGU
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%074 / POP 15,000
Every year around a dozen foreign travellers
jump ship at historic Shwegu, a long ribbon
of township, known for its elegantly unfussy
pottery and for the fabled Shwe Baw Kyune
monastery on mid-river Kyundaw (‘Royal’)
Island. Few locals speak English. 1 Sights
Shwe Baw Kyune BUDDHIST MONASTERY
Although at fi rst glance this monastery looks
ostensibly 20th-century, historians say it
was built in the 13th century while monas-
tic fables suggest that the place was founded
some two millennia ago when an Indian
prince turned up with seven holy bone frag-
ments of the Buddha. These are now encased
within small buddha statuettes that have be-
come lumpily unrecognisable with centuries
of added gold leaf and form the monastery’s
priceless main treasure (d at taw).
However, for non-Buddhists, visiting the
monastery is far more interesting for its
extraordinary array of over 7000 closely
packed stupas, ancient and modern, which
fi ll the eastern end of the island. Some are
whitewashed, others gilded and many more
are mere piles of antique bricks with just
traces of former stucco detail. Most appear
to have been suff ocated for years by foliage,
Angkor Wat style. The bushes were recently
cut back to reveal the spectacle, but getting
to the outlying stupas is very uncomfortable
barefoot given all the stubble and thorns
(carry your sandals).
Hidden here and there are dozens of tiny
buddha statues and the odd brick-and-stuc-
co lion, The whole scene is made even more
photogenic by a series of pyathak (stepped
towers) that fl ank the monastery’s central
golden tipped stupa. And the island setting,
with its tree shaded village of wooden stilt
houses, makes for a wonderfully peaceful en-
vironment. There’s a big local festival here in
the week leading up to full moon of Tabaung.Old Shwegu NEIGHBOURHOOD
Shwegu town is a narrow riverside strip
extending around 3 miles along the Ay-
eyarwady’s rubbish strewn southern bank.
Around 400yd west of the central jetty is an
area of relatively old town including several
wooden houses along the riverfront road. A