246
NORTHERN MYANMAR
MYITKYINA & THE UPPER AYEYARWADY
ing is relatively thorough. The owners speak
a little English.Annawah Guest House GUESTHOUSE $
(%25146; Strand Rd; per person K5000) Annawah
is more off -puttingly chaotic than the Ayar-
wady: its downstairs rooms are dark, upstairs
ones include some truly minuscule cupboard-
like bed-spaces and the ragged stairway
bodes ill. However, a couple of upper, front-
facing rooms are OK for a night or two. The
pot-bellied owner speaks no English but is a
distinctive character and bears a few passing
similarities to Orwell’s antihero U Po Kyin.Sein Restaurant CHINESE $$
(veg/meat/fi sh dishes K1200/2000/4000; h8am-
8pm; E) This older two-room shophouse has
a degree of character in its older half and
serves consistently good Chinese fare. It’s
just off the night-market street, three streets
inland from the Ayarwady Guest House.Shwe Sisa BEER STATION $
(Strand Rd; draught beer K600; h9am-10pm) Brew
with a view. Perched over the riverside a block
southwest of the guesthouses, Shwe Sisa also
barbecues fresh tasty ‘Slavia’ fi sh, said to have
invaded the Ayeyarwady River having been
originally introduced from Yugoslavia.8 Getting There & Away
Boat IWT FERRY^
Tickets are only available around an hour
before departure, bought from the IWT offi ce
(%25057; Strand Rd) opposite the main jetty.
Mandalay Departs around 5pm Monday,
Wednesday and Friday (deck/cabin class
$7/42). Takes around 40 hours in the dry sea-
son (two nights aboard), much less when water
is high and the boat can sail by night.
Bhamo Departs Monday, Thursday and Satur-
day, timings unpredictable ($4). FAST BOAT
Mandalay Departs every second day at 5am,
arrives around 6.30pm (K36,000).
Bhamo Departs daily at 8am (K15,000); arrives
in Shwegu at 1.30pm and Bhamo around 4pm. Train
The nearest train station on the Mandalay–Myit-
kyina mainline is at Naba, 16 miles west of Katha.
There is a daily Katha–Naba connecting train
(1¼ hours) leaving Katha at 1pm and Naba at
9am. Local buses (K1000) also connect the two
towns timed to meet arriving trains. A chartered
Katha–Naba taxi costs around K30,000.Trains from Naba (according to the station-
master in Katha):
Northbound Departures 11.30pm and 3.30am
(plus 7.30am local) to Hopin and Myitkyina.
Southbound Departures 6pm and 10.30pm
(plus 2.30pm local) to Shwebo and Mandalay.Katha to Kyaukmyaung
IWT ferries tend to sail the section south
of Katha in the dark, but the area has some
of the Ayeyarwady’s more appealing land-
scapes with several pagoda-topped hills and
thatched villages. The fi rst stop is Ti Kyaing
(pronounced ‘t’chine’; Htigyaing,) where a
double row of riverfront thatched wooden
stilt houses leads north from the jetty, a mon-
astery hill rises directly above and there’s a
large reclining Buddha on the next hill
northeast.
Further south the landscape becomes
more monotonous towards Tagaung, which
gave its name to a whole era of Burmese his-
tory, but has not much to show for it.Ky a u k my a u n g
%075 / POP C10,000
ekY;k'e ̈m;='"
The last major IWT stop before Mandalay
is Kyaukmyaung, famous for its distinctive
glazed pottery. That is produced in the de-
lightful Ngwe Nyein district, a 20-minute
stroll south along the Ayeyarwady river-
side from central Kyaukmyaung’s attractive
triple-stupa, Nondo Zedi. Traffi c en route is
mainly a procession of ox carts carrying fag-
gots or rice husks for pot-fi ring.
Beyond Letyway Kyaunggyi monastery
you’ll see almost every open space fi lled
with large amphorae waiting to be shipped
on river barges. Homes, some of them old
wooden aff airs with distinctive portal-arch-
es, double as storefronts selling vases, jugs
and mustard pots (from K200). Although
some are vivid green (notably big owl-fi gure
vases) archetypal Kyaukmyaung designs are
usually glazed a rich glossy brown that’s
casually daubed swirls of beige-yellow, the
latter apparently taking its colour from old
batteries.
The pottery district stretches nearly a
mile further south, to and beyond the brutal
gash of the new Ayeyarwady bridge site. En
route are a few crumbling old stupas while
a block or two inland, several ‘factories’ are
housed in bamboo thatched barns. These