December 15th 2015
Look at the pictures of Hotel 8 in Mandalay on Booking.com today and you will find a fine building with a welcoming reception and clean, modern and somewhat luxurious rooms. Like so many businesses in Mandalay the hotel is Chinese-owned; 8 being the lucky Chinese number that brings rapid wealth.* The staff, however, are very much Burmese and are warm, welcoming and friendly. The price per night in 2015 was a high 25$ but I felt that after staying in a dorm room in Bagan, I needed to treat myself to some solitude and luxury. I had booked a 2-night stay in a “superior double room” and encouraged my Catalan women friends to do the same. They were also impressed with the hotel rooms’ quality and comfort; fancy towel art, flower petals and all. We had a good night’s sleep and the following morning at breakfast I bumped into Alex, the English/Thai member of the quiz Dream Team in Bagan. (see “The Night Train to Bagan”) He was staying in the next room to mine! Hotel 8 was starting to feel like home! Breakfast was edible but not memorable, which could be said of all my breakfasts in Burma However it was sufficient to set us up for our bike hire (3$ a day!) and cycle tour of Mandalay. After two nights and two wonderful days exploring Mandalay together, the Catalans left and I took the local bus to Pyin Oo Lwin, two hours north of Mandalay, where I celebrated my 58th birthday and walked across the Gohteik viaduct (see “My £1.10 Birthday”) On the 15th of December I decided to return to Mandalay on the once-a-day “down” train and booked another two nights at Hotel 8. This time my room was on the 5th floor and across from the dining area but as there was a lift, I didn’t mind being on the top floor.
On the first night I fell asleep peacefully after having dinner in a local restaurant. However at 3am I was woken by a strange sensation on my mouth. An enormous brown cockroach was crawling slowly around my lips. I turned on the light in shock and disgust and saw the revolting creature making its way across my bed. I felt so sickened by it that I phoned the reception and told them to come and kill it and take it away. The man who came said it had flown in through the window! That was a joke! I was on the 5th floor! No, I knew full well it had come from the dining area. I was so full of revulsion I couldn’t even go back to bed, never mind sleep and so I packed my things and went down to the reception. It was about 4am and dark. I told the night reception staff in my best polite but firm manner that I couldn’t stay a minute longer in the hotel and that I was leaving without paying! The reception staff were horrified and in their best and sweetest way encouraged me to pay for one night, saying they would cancel the second night and issue a full refund. But I stood my ground, I was adamant that I would not pay. It took many minutes of arguing back and forth before I said I would report them to Booking.com and write a terrible review. I asked to speak to the manager, saying I had no bad feelings towards the staff and that they were not to blame. Amazingly they managed to put the manager on the phone! In the middle of the night! I stated my case. I would not waver. Again I threatened a bad review, all the while firm but polite. The manager gave in after a long fight. I had won and my money was refunded.
Out into the darkness I went and once again, as dawn broke, found the local bus that took me back to room 10 of the Orchid Hotel in Pyin Oo Lwin. Another room with a story but luckily not one of amorous cockroaches!
I have never spent a night in Mandalay since. In the years that followed I have had to deal with cockroaches in my room in Thailand, Mexico, Cambodia, Burma and elsewhere but not one of them has had the audacity to explore my lips and face in the middle of the night.
Back in Chiang Mai I had to put up with joking friends and their kissing cockroach comments but the fact is the revolting sensation of that creature crawling on my lips lasted a long time.
All you travelling snorers beware! That amorous cockroach may just end up in your throat! Better to have them fried or roasted at the market.
*Eight’ (八) in Chinese is pronounced ba and sounds similar to fa (发, traditional character: 發) as in facai (发财), meaning ‘well-off’ or ‘becoming rich in a short time’.
I really did take a photo of the amorous cockroach and here it is:
Hotel 8, Mandalay:
The breakfast area
Breakfast was simple and tasteless but filled us up for our cycle ride around Mandalay
Beautiful towel art in every room
A warm welcome by the Burmese staff
The Burmese-staffed reception is extremely friendly
thewhistlinggypsy 