Katha (Myanmar)

Katha is an Irrawaddy River cruise port in Burma (Myanmar). Passengers who stop here visit the large market in the village, which is within walking distance from the cruise ship mooring site. At the market are sold fresh fish, meats, flowers, spices, pottery, dishes. Residents shop twice per day so they always use fresh food ingredients for their meals. Tourists can find beautiful handcrafted souvenirs at good prices.

Visiting Katha often includes travel to the nearby elephant camp, approx 30-min drive from the town. Elephants retired from teak logging, baby elephants and their mothers live there, along with the handlers who spend all their lives with the animals.

In the 1920s (during Burma's British colonial rule), in Katha lived the English novelist and journalist  George Orwell (1903-1950), best known for his fictional / anti-utopian novel "1984".