lonely-planet-myanmar-burma-11-edition

244NORTHERN MYANMAR MYITKYINA & THE UPPER AYEYARWADYFAST BOATS In the rainy season most boats arefaster and there may be a direct seasonal fastboat to Mandalay departing at dawn.Katha Services (K15,000, around eight hours)via Shwegu (K7500, 2½ hours) depart 8.30amfrom the northern end of the central waterfront.Myitkyina Two-day trip starts with the 9.30amboat to Sinbo (p 242 , K7000, six hours), departingfrom the middle of the central waterfront.Bus & Pick-Up TrucksMyitkyina Bus leaves at 7am (K12,000, sixhours) from Bawdi St, around 400m southof Friendship Hotel. Book one evening ahead(hotels can help) and prepare five photocopiesof your visa and passport for checkpoints.Mandalay via Shwegu No foreigners.TrainA Katha–Bhamo railway is under construction.8Getting AroundLOCAL TRANSPORT Motorcycle/threewheelertaxis cost K1000/2000 to the airport,K2000/3000 to the IWT ferry dock.BICYCLE Rent from Breeze Coffee & Cold(Letwet Thondaya Rd; per day K2000;h8.30am-7pm), a small shop almost oppositeFriendship Hotel.PICK-UP TRUCKS Intervillage pick-ups (called‘Hilux’ after the vehicle brand) are an unusualmongrel where the rear section is a goods carriagewith seats fi xed high on the roof as thoughfor a safari. Dangerously top-heavy.Around BhamoPopular with Chinese visitors and local weekenders,Stone Village is a picnic spot wherea thatched-roof karaoke restaurant overlooksa mountain stream cascading between largeboulders. The scene is pretty enough but onlyreally worth the trip if you’re desperate for atime-filler. If so, do also take a look at someof the water-powered cottage industries inKyauk Sahan, the village where Stone Village’shalf-mile access track branches offthe newly cobbled China-bound road, 15miles east of Bhamo. The China-bound roadbranches off the Bhamo–Myitkyina road atMomauk where there are teahouses and(just east) some attractive rice-paddy scenes.Bhamo to KathaBetween Bhamo and Shwegu, the sceneryreaches a modest climax in the short SecondDefile where the Ayeyarwady passesthrough a wooded valley with a rocky cliffface at one section (often described misleadinglyas a gorge).SHWEGUer¯kU%074 / POP 15,000Every year around a dozen foreign travellersjump ship at historic Shwegu, a long ribbonof township, known for its elegantly unfussypottery and for the fabled Shwe Baw Kyunemonastery on mid-river Kyundaw (‘Royal’)Island. Few locals speak English.1SightsShwe Baw KyuneBUDDHIST MONASTERYAlthough at first glance this monastery looksostensibly 20th-century, historians say itwas built in the 13th century while monasticfables suggest that the place was foundedsome two millennia ago when an Indianprince turned up with seven holy bone fragmentsof the Buddha. These are now encasedwithin small buddha statuettes that have becomelumpily unrecognisable with centuriesof added gold leaf and form the monastery’spriceless main treasure (dattaw).However, for non-Buddhists, visiting themonastery is far more interesting for itsextraordinary array of over 7000 closelypacked stupas, ancient and modern, whichfill the eastern end of the island. Some arewhitewashed, others gilded and many moreare mere piles of antique bricks with justtraces of former stucco detail. Most appearto have been suffocated for years by foliage,Angkor Wat style. The bushes were recentlycut back to reveal the spectacle, but gettingto the outlying stupas is very uncomfortablebarefoot given all the stubble and thorns(carry your sandals).Hidden here and there are dozens of tinybuddha statues and the odd brick-and-stuccolion, The whole scene is made even morephotogenic by a series of pyathak (steppedtowers) that flank the monastery’s centralgolden tipped stupa. And the island setting,with its tree shaded village of wooden stilthouses, makes for a wonderfully peaceful environment.There’s a big local festival here inthe week leading up to full moon of Tabaung.Old ShweguNEIGHBOURHOODShwegu town is a narrow riverside stripextending around 3 miles along the Ayeyarwady’srubbish strewn southern bank.Around 400yd west of the central jetty is anarea of relatively old town including severalwooden houses along the riverfront road. A