Mandalay actually has two airports, the former air field quite near the Centre of town, and a new airport quite a way to the south.
As another example of over engineered vanity projects of the junta, Mandalay airport has a runway over 4000 metres long. Unless they are planning to land the space shuttle here, that is way longer than is necessary to handle the fairly small number of turboprop and 737/A320 size aircraft they receive.
The terminal building is pretty new, but already falling apart. We get there quite early, and kill some time in one of the two cafes before you go through security. Prices were OK, but when we ask for the wifi password the waitress wanders off never to return, so we switch to the other cafe for a second drink.
We decide to wait until we go through security before changing our money, a fateful decision given there are no money changers once you go through, doomimg us to carrying round a large wad of Myanmar Kyats for the rest of our holiday. Nowhere in Thailand will buy Kyats, so make sure you change your money before you leave.
To make matters worse, the air conditioning in the terminal was not working, which is kind of a necessity in Mandalay. This didn’t seem to be a recent occurrence as some of the shops had invested in their own ac units.
Rating 1/5
Sounds better than Brunei airport!