Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
is your only option. It's a 10-minute motorbike ride (K1000) from the jetty. There are
teahouses and simple restaurants clustered near the jetty.
Getting There & Away
IWT ferries leave Monday, Wednesday and Friday for Katha ($5). Foreigners are tech-
nically barred from the fast boats that leave daily between 11am and noon (K7000), but
you may be allowed on here. An afternoon bus to Mandalay via Katha leaves at 2pm but
won't take foreigners.
Getting Around
From a logging jetty 300m west of An Daw Paya, an open longboat ferries passengers
across to Shwe Baw Kyune (K500/4000 per person/boat, four minutes). A much more
convenient option is to charter your own boat directly from Shwegu's central jetty, taking
around 15 minutes each way. A K10,000 return charter should include several hours'
wait while you explore the island.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Katha
074 / POPULATION C12,000
Literature lovers and boat bums will enjoy this small but lively Ayeyarwady port town,
the setting for George Orwell's
Burmese Days
. It makes a pleasant break from the IWT
ferry, and there's a rail link to Mandalay if you're fed up with the river altogether. The
guesthouses and various boat ticket sales booths are close together along three short cent-
ral blocks of Strand Rd, the attractive curving riverside road.
Sights
In 1926 and 1927, Katha was home to British colonial police officer Eric Blair, better
known by his pen name George Orwell. Much of
Burmese Days
is based on Orwell's
time here and several buildings that feature in the book are still standing. None, though,
are marked as such or are commercial tourist attractions (although hints from the local
government suggest that may change in the near future), so ask politely before trying to
barge in. The half-timbered former
British Club
, now used as an association office (and
much re-built since Orwell's time), is tucked away 100m behind the 1924
Tennis Club
on a street appropriately called Klablan (Club St). A block north, the 1928
DC's House
