I must be getting old. The journey from England seemed to have taken its toll and I spent most of Thursday just lying on my bed. It's hot in Yangon at this time of year - the internet said 37 degrees Celsius (that's 99 degrees Farenheit). I've always tried to acclimatise to local conditions and persevered with the fan in my room for some hours before giving in and resorting to the air conditioning set to a moderate 25 degrees Celsius. It was early evening before I emerged, rather befuddled. Because of the heat, the number of Western tourists dwindles at this time of year. So why am I here now?
My host, Doctor Hla Tun, is Ship's Doctor on the luxurious Belmond 'Road to Mandalay' river cruise ship.
'Road to Mandalay' moored at Bagan during my very first trip to Myanmar in 2008. The vessel in the background is the rather less luxurious 'Government Ferry'.
When the ship is operating, his on-ship duties confine his charitable work to the Mandalay-Bagan area and the Bagan Medical Clinic. But, during the 'low tourist season', the ship stops operating allowing the Doctor to attend to charitable initiatives in other parts of Myanmar. For some years, the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) project in Mon State has been supported by the Doctor and, by travelling to Myanmar now, I'm able to see for myself what donations make possible.
Of course, having slept most of the day inevitably sleep eluded me for much of the night, particularly since I'd developed an itchy heat rash. I'm afraid I was largely inactive on Friday, too, gathering my strength for our trip south by overnight coach Friday evening.
During the day, the Doctor was arranging to parcel the items which would travel on the coach with us for distribution to children in Mon State. With distributions planned to over a thousand children at various locations around Mon State, it's a major logistical exercise to ensure that the required items are available.
Related posts on this website
This is one of a series of posts describing my 13th visit to Myanmar. The post Travelling again 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-2018 reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Burma-2018 reports
My pictures
You can find all the pictures taken on this trip at Burma 2018.
