We had an earlyish flight to Thandwe, the airport that serves Ngapali Beach. As is often the case with Burmese airline schedules, ours was irrational: we flew back east to Heho and only then westward to Thandwe, passing directly over Bagan!
We had an early inkling that our hotel might be a bit different from those before: we piled into two separate Toyota vans but these were still too small, so Kathie, Pravan, and Rory squeezed themselves into the back of the jitney carrying our luggage. After all the problems loading, we found that it would have been easier to walk: the hotel is about 1/4 miles from the airport.
The hotel site is quite lovely, directly on the beach, and it had many very good features: a great pool, large, comfortable rooms with amazing bathrooms (bathtubs as big as sarcophagi, separate shower and toilet spaces, and all open to the air through a series of slats), and pretty damn good food.
Once we were at the hotel, Tun Tun took off for a well-deserved day and a half of relaxation; this caused a bit of anxiety among the Time Travelers, who couldn’t imagine navigating without Uncle Tun Tun! The afternoon was spent with swimming, long walks on the beach, and no few siestas. We gathered again for a long, intermittently uproarious dinner and called it a day.