Myanmar Katha October 13, 2012

     Our day started in Katha with Kathy helping a crew member serve food to the monks by placing a hard boiled egg on top of each bowl of rice which the ship provided.
     After breakfast we boarded local buses for an extremely BUMPY ride over pot-holed dirt lanes, past colonial houses next to thatched roof shanties, rice fields and dense vegetation until we reached the dirt path which led to the Myanma Timber Enterprise with 15 working elephants.
     I climbed onto the motorcycle behind one of the mahoots and held onto him as we veered along the winding trail.  In the camp, Kathy fed the large elephants bananas while I gave a tamarind to one of the calves.  Then, it was into the river where the mahoots scrubbed their charges with soapwood.
     Back in Katha we got into horse carts for a city tour which included the 1934 home of George Orwell when he wrote “Burmese Days.”