Silver Swan Hotel — Hotel in Mandalay District

On arrival we were shown a standard room and it was quite grim. A mosquito filled windowless box that smelt of cigarette smoke. We complained and were shown two other room types that were much nicer. For something like $10 more we upgraded to the largest room in the hotel, which was big, clean, light, comfortable and mosquito free. The road outside was noisy but it stops around 9pm and is silent until 7 or 8am. ||||As for location it's not too bad. There is nothing of interest in the immediate area but its just a short taxi ride away from a cluster of good restaurants on the south east side of the moat, or to Mahamuni Paya. ||||The staff were all very helpful, not all of them spoke good English but there was always someone on duty who did. On our final morning we had to leave the hotel before their breakfast service started, so they packed us something to take with us. ||||While there is decent free wifi in the hotel, their own email address was not working when we booked so you'll need to phone them or send them a fax if you want to make a booking. ||||I do recommend this as a good budget option but only if you take a superior or...

After our first night in Mandalay at a wreck of a place (chosen blind from an agent's directory back at Inlay Lake), we asked a driver for help and he took us here. For many travelers this is probably an Average property. But to us it looked "Very Good" for Burma. Comfortable room, everything worked including air con & wifi. Very friendly staff, who enjoyed helping us get the print-outs we needed. BIG Asian breakfast buffet upstairs with city view. Well located. ||||We took a short river trip up to a village with yet more temples and touts; sorry the name escapes me, but it was quite fun to be on the immense Irrawady, watching the fascinating river traffic.||||It's true Mandalay is mostly charmless. But Amitav Ghosh's wonderful book The Glass Palace begins here, and may help you appreciate...

On arrival we were told that only a superior room was available for $44. The room on the ground floor near reception had a superior view of the wall next door. Didn't get any sleep here because of noise from an air con unit vibrating outside the window against a loose piece of corrugated iron. It was clean, you are simply paying for extra space.||||A standard room was available to us the next night at$38 on the 5th floor (lift available). This was significantly better and we slept for the first time in Myanmar.||||The staff here were great especially the ladies on reception during daytime and were honest about some of the tours on offer. They prebooked our next hotel...