Mandalay

Captured by the British from the last of Burma's kings, Mandalay conjures images of a bygone Southeast Asia at its most elegant and genteel. Made famous in a host of films, popular songs and books by Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell, Frank Sinatra and more recently even Robbie Williams, Mandalay has become a household name, even if most people don’t actually know where it is. Arriving in Mandalay tends quickly to dispel such thoughts, however, as visitors are faced with a grid of congested streets dominated by the walls and moat of the huge military base that surrounds the old royal palace.

Despite this, it would be a shame to rush through too quickly without giving the place a chance to grow on you. There’s Shwei-in-bin Monastery, a regal teak structure that is a rare example of traditional Burmese design; the once-mighty Inwa, now a sleepy backwater scattered with stupas that you can visit by horse and cart; the iconic Mandalay Palace, a reconstructed, restored complex that was once home to a line of Burmese kings; and the surreally elaborate Kuthodaw Pagoda, a white marble structure dating from the 1800s. One of the cultural and spiritual centers of the nation, Mandalay can also be enjoyed as the start or end point of a cruise on board The Road to Mandalay.