Eating out in Mandalay

Posted onAuthorMandy and Glen Rees6 Comments

Mandy: 15th October 2014

Mann’s ‘restaurant’ I use the term loosely

We found a Chinese ‘bar’ called ‘Mann’ which sold beer so we went in. It had a communal lighter hanging on a dirty piece of string from the high ceiling with a grubby hand written card in ‘Chinese’ writing with ‘Thank you’ underneath in English and when they opened our beer at the table it was with a piece of wood with a nail in it!!! And this was the only tourist-friendly type place we found! The staff were very friendly and a women working there had a baby strapped to her with a piece of cloth. I asked how old the baby was and she told us four months old. I tried to explain about Eloise back home being about the same age and showed her a photo. I then asked if I could take one of her baby…

Burmese beer £1, all of thes spring rolls for one (believe it or not!) £1, a huge flat screen tv above the dodgy electric wires, and lovely people. What more could we have asked for a short walk away from the hotel (smile)

On our first visit to Mann’s we thought we were given brand new cutlery, still in its plastic wrapping. On our second visit we stayed until closing time and saw an old guy (presumably the grandfather of what seemed to be a family run business) come out at the end of the night with a tray of cutlery. He sat there slowly wiping and buffing each one of the forks and spoons. Occasionally picking bits of food off! He shone the tops first then held the spoon or fork end tightly whilst he shone the handles!! Mmmmm making them grubby again! He lined them on the table in neat rows and then wrapped then in plastic and sealed them with what looked like a cigarette!! So not brand new cutlery then! (Chuckle) we just used the chop sticks after that!
This old man was looking in, enviously, from behind the bars and Glen said “he’s only got another two years to do!” (Chuckle)

On the last night we also found a little plastic chair cafe serving basic Nepalese food. We ordered and just as our Roti and Curry arrived the electric went out in Mandalay (again!) so they brought us candles. So romantic and all for £2! We then walked back with our head torch to the sound of generators being turned on….. Perfect 🙂

Oh and we bumped in to Thomas in ‘Manns’ on one of our visits there. He was the guy sat in the front seat of the mini van from the airport and I assumed he was a friend of the driver. But no he is a tourist, from India (a Christian he tells us not a Hindu – hence the name Thomas) Karen and Sue he put me in the mind of that guy who we used to serve at Tree Tops Cafe when we worked there are a teenager. He was a very interesting guy about 30 and wobbled his head the way our regular customer used to! I won’t put his name here but I hope you realise who I am talking about!! (Wink)

6 Replies to “Eating out in Mandalay”

    1. Funny you should say that Angie. We made reference to Dahar often during this trip. Also Egypt….usually to say we will never think of Egypt as dirty after seeing parts of Asia and India lol! Although we have to say we loved Asia and we love Egypt x

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  2. I too would love that mountain of spring rolls! We had a Chinese lay week and ordered them – two tiny things turned up to share! Courtney you need to show me how to make them please!!

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  4. So very jealous of the mountain of spring rolls! Mine and Laura’s favourite!! Yum. We too encountered the lighter on a string in bars/restaurants hehe xx

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    1. Just added another photo of cutlery to this blog! And a paragraph to go with it. Did you come across this at all Courtney? They can be obsessed with certain things but totally sloppy with others. Like the obsession in Bali to keep the floor clean but not the tables!!! Lol!

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