A number of guests were leaving the ship on Sunday morning, being ferried ashore at different times, depending upon their onward travel arrangements. As I made my way to the restaurant for breakfast around seven o'clock, I said "good-bye" to one group.
'Road to Mandalay' at Bagan and final leaving.
My own pleasant sojourn on 'Road to Mandalay' was coming to an end and I was to travel back to Yangon, where I'd been invited to spend the last two nights of my trip at the 'Belmond Governor's Residence'. An American guest who was remaining on the ship as she sailed north back to Mandalay had expressed interest in visiting Bagan Medical Clinic. It had been arranged that the guide Pyae Pyae would take him ashore around 8.00 a.m. for a brief tour and I decided to go ashore with them. Doctor Hla Tun had gone ashore much earlier in order to finish his 'list' before the ship sailed a little after nine.
Bagan Medical Clinic opens each week, apart from a break around the New Year. But, for around 8 months in each year, Doctor Hla Tun's duties as Belmond's Chief Medical Officer mean that he is aboard 'Road to Mandalay'. So the Clinic's opening on Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday are tied to the sailing schedule of the ship, which normally arrives at Bagan around 9.00 a.m. every Friday and remains at anchor until Sunday morning. On this trip, when the guests went ashore on Friday at 9.30 a.m., Doctor Hla Tun went straight to the clinic, staying until about 11.00 p.m. On Saturday, he went ashore with guests at 8.30 a.m., again working at the clinic until 11.00 p.m. Finally, he made an early start on Sunday at around 6.00 a.m. in order to 'clear' his list before returning to the ship around 9.00 a.m. This punishing and voluntary schedule is then carried out each week.
What about the 'closed' season embracing the hottest part of the year when 'Road to Mandalay' does not sail? Doctor Hla Tun manages charitable initiatives elsewhere - most notably around Yangon and the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Project in Mon State. During this period, each week, the Doctor makes his way to Bagan to carry out consultations on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Occasionally, the Clinic is opened for additional days. My last visit to Myanmar in May 2017 was during the 'closed' season when I accompanied the Doctor to Mon State and then on to the Bagan Clinic. That trip is described in a series of posts here.
Before going ashore with Pyae Pyae and the guest, I'd said my final "good-byes" to the ship's hotel staff and my luggage went ashore too. The Clinic was unusually quiet as almost all the patients had been dealt with. A few patients were still readying themselves for their journey back to their home and Clinic staff were tidying-up after a hectic few days. Pyae Pyae, the guest and I went from building to building whilst I explained a little of the history of the Clinic. We spoke briefly to Doctor Hla Tun who was preparing to finish then walked back to the Belmond landing stage where Pyae Pyae and the guest boarded the motor boat waiting to return to the ship. At ten past nine, Doctor Hla Tun came running down the steps and jumped aboard the motor boat.
Bagan Medical Clinic Sunday: Doctor Hla Tun running to catch the last motor boat back to the ship.
Within moments, the motor boat was roaring away from the bank to deliver its three passengers back to 'Road to Mandalay' and I was left on the shore waving to my friends.
Bagan Medical Clinic Sunday: Dr. Hla Tun, the Guest and Pyae Pyae returning to 'Road to Mandalay'.
Before leaving myself, I had a quiet walk around the Clinic, thinking about the changes I'd seen since the first, small clinic building was opened in 2011. You can find all my posts charting these changes in a series of posts here. It had been arranged that the Monastery Car would take me to Nyaung Oo Airport for my flight to Yangon so, having said farewell to the remarkable staff and the Abbott of the Monastery who, with Doctor Hla Tun, is responsible for the Clinic, I was whisked to the airport.
Bagan Medical Clinic Sunday: The Abbott
As we made our way past the temples of the Bagan Plain, we kept passing groups of young people, in orange tee-shirts and blue hard-hats. It's apparently an initiative by volunteers to improve the appearance of the area, presumably to aid tourism. Bravo!
Volunteers litter-picking and grass-cutting around the temples of Bagan.
We'd made good time on the way to Nyaung Oo Airport so I had a fair wait for my flight but, for once, I was relaxed about the enforced inactivity.
Nyaung Oo Airport.
Regular readers may remember that in Tasmania earlier in 2017, I'd been surprised to discover God's Car Parking Space (that's described in the post here). I was similarly nonplussed when, waiting to board the aircraft at Nyaung Oo, a man walked across the tarmac in a lemon high visibility jacket marked 'AIR KBZ G O D'. After a short reflection, I decided he was probably the Ground Operations Director.
Nyaung Oo Airport.
We touched-down in Yangon just before 12.30 p.m. and parked in a line with similar KBZ aircraft, from where a transfer bus took us to the Domestic Terminal.
AIR KBZ aircraft lined up at Yangon.
There is now an impressive baggage hall with multiple luggage carousels. Unfortunately, it now seems to take much longer for bags to arrive than in the 'old days' when they'd dump bags just inside the terminal building and let the passengers tussle to extract the right bag. Once re-united with my case, I quickly found the smartly turned out driver with the smartly turned out car who was waiting to take me to my hotel. By two o'clock, I was in my airy, comfortable room at the Belmond Governor's Residence. The combination of the availability of fast internet and my exhaustion from the activities of the previous few days meant that I didn't leave the hotel on Sunday but concentrated on uploading pictures, writing to the blog and catching up on e-mails.
Belmond Governor's Residence, Yangon: Sunday 15-Oct-2017
Related posts on this website
This is one of a series of posts describing my 12th visit to Myanmar. The post Starting out is the first post in the series.
Clicking on the 'Next report' link displays the post describing the next events. In this way, you may read about the trip in sequence.
Next report
Alternately, clicking on the 'All my Burma-2017(2) reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Burma-2017(2) reports.
My photograph albums
Where necessary, clicking on an image above will display an 'uncropped' view or, alternately, pictures may be selected, viewed or downloaded, in various sizes, from the albums listed:-
'Road to Mandalay': October 2017.
Bagan Medical Clinic, Sunday.
Bagan - Yangon by road and air.
The Governor's Residence Hotel, Yangon.
