There's the Robbie Williams song Road to Mandalay, there's the Kipling poem which got turned into a Sinatra song "Mandalay," there's the casino Mandalay Bay. Wtf?

Easy to rhyme, perhaps?

I handle May Sandal Day on Vandal Way in Mandalay.

As for Theresa May, Mandalay

I don't think it is necessarily more popular than other names of places which are foreign and obscure, such as Katmandu or Timbuktu. Also, easier to rhyme than (say) Stoke-on-Trent, and slightly more exotic..

There is the Kipling Poem - and most of the rest flows from that. Kipling was incredibly important - trying not to sound too pompous - in the maintenance of the zietgeist of British Imperial/Colonial rule and a major apologist for Empire in general; even though, maybe perhaps because, he was late in its period. His works were canonical and reference to something in Kipling's oeuvre guaranteed recognition and understanding (even if this was only of the Ersatz/Kipling version).

Art Vandalay likes to go to Mandalay. On his way, though the skies are gray. Don't block his way, 'cause he'll make you pay.

Incidentally, the Sinatra song is dynamite, though this is not my favorite version

 

 

Art Vandalay likes to go to Mandalay. On his way, though the skies are gray. Don't block his way, 'cause he'll make you pay.

 

golf clap

Also, easier to rhyme than (say) Stoke-on-Trent, and slightly more exotic..

 

A bloke gone bent,

from Stoke-on-Trent,

once spoke on Lent

and woke swansent.

A bloke gone bent,

from Stoke-on-Trent,

once spoke on Lent

and woke swansent.

...Got the message

That swan sent