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| Yangon General Hospital |
Yangon has seen different people come and go. The British were here from the 1800s to 1948. They built this beautiful, grand building. Wherever the British went, they built majestic structures like this. Though the empire is no more, the buildings remain.
Why I went there is a long story.
My wonderful mother, in all her maternal concern for me, was appalled at how ugly my acne had become. She insisted we go see a dermatologist right away. I wasn’t too keen on seeing one at Yangon. What if they make it worse? I know that was pretty arrogant of me! I was all for letting it be. It is after all, only acne. But my mother wouldn’t hear of it. Seeing a dermatologist was the first thing we did in Yangon.
We asked the receptionist at our hotel if she knew any dermatologists.She probably didn’t understand fully what we were trying to say, but she did get the gist of it I suppose. She suggested a clinic called Eliza skin clinic. When we got there, we found out that the clinic was for cosmetic surgery. Now, seeing a dermatologist is one thing. Cosmetic surgery? No way!
On exiting the place, I noticed a run down little shop across the road that looked like a government run clinic. I suggested we go and see if we could find a doctor inside. My mum was skeptical, especially seeing how dirty it looked. It was dilapidated, dusty, and everything was broken and outdated. No one inside could speak English, but with a lot of pointing at my face and pimples we were able to convey what we wanted.
We were taken inside by a cheerful lady who introduced me to the doctor. The doctor spoke broken English, but I managed to communicate my needs. He gave me a referral to the dermatologist at Yangon General Hospital and instructed the attendant to take us there. Surprisingly, he did not charge us for the referral. But we did donate a big bag of hand sanitizers, surgical masks, wet wipes, and tissues to them. They were absolutely thrilled to receive the items!
I took this picture when we were walking to the hospital. It is beautiful and stately outside, but utterly filthy and broken down inside. The infrastructure was outdated, there were rats scurrying about, and people spitting betel juice everywhere. It was horrifying to see a hospital in such terrible condition.
The lovely dermatologists there spent almost an hour telling me about my skin and the dos & don’ts of skin care. I was prescribed two skin creams (which by the way, have worked wonderfully). Again the consultation was free!
So that is my story of how I ended up visiting a hospital in Yangon. It was an interesting insight into the country- a face of Myanmar that the average tourist does not see. I got to see the utter poverty and lack of infrastructure that the average Myanmar citizen faces. It was heartbreaking and a good reminder of my own privilege, coming from a developed country.
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