Man-Skirts, the YMCA, and the Currency Black Market

PHOTO ALBUM - Yangon

The real reason -  along with spotty internet connections - that we were not able to post to our blog in Myanmar is because Blogspot is blocked by the government.  Blogging – and any other form of non-censored “journalism”  -  is one of those freedoms that the Myanmar people do not currently have.  Internet – though with painfully slow connections – is readily available in the country.  Since internet usage is actually monitored, we hope that some government lacky with a cigar was thoroughly bored while reading our emails we sent while we were here! 

The Myanmar government is a military junta that put itself in power in 1990 after the last free elections overwhelmingly would have put Aung San Suu Kyi – the leader of what is called the National League of Democracy and later Nobel Peace Prize winner.  Myanmar was in the international news last November 2010 when it released Suu Kyi from a long-term house arrest, and held the first elections since 1990 – but it is widely thought that the elections were rigged and not held to international standards.  So the military junta is still in power, though they now claim to be elected. 

There is an ethical dilemma on whether or not anyone should travel here because of international trade sanctions and that this government profits off of some of the proceeds from tourism.  In fact, because of blatant human rights violations in building infrastructure for tourism in the 1990’s, the government opposition leaders actually asked tourists not to come.  They recently reversed their stance and are encouraging small-scale responsible tourism (i.e. spend our money where it matters most).  Ironically, this lack of tourism in the past few decades has created a country with people who are craving contact with the outside world.  We felt we could travel in Myanmar responsibly and we have never felt more welcome in our travels.   

Because of this crazy government that has been in power we experienced some quirky challenges in our travels here – including zero ATM’s and the black market of changing currencies.   

That’s right – zero ATM’s.  Meaning that we had to carry cash for one-month’s living expenses.  To complicate the matter,guesthouses must be licensed to take foreigners and they are only allowed to accept and deal with US dollars for room fees.   Also any government fees such as entrance fees to a park that are only imposed on foreigners are paid in US dollars. However, for everything else – food, entertainment, bus fares, a bottle of water – the local currency (kyat) is used.  This means that we have to manage and pay with two different currencies in our travels in Myanmar.

But wait, there’s more:  the US dollars we use need to be perfect.  No marks, no tears, minted post 1996 – with big heads, and the serial numbers cannot start with ‘CB.’  Also, $100 bills get a much better exchange rate than $50’s, $20’s, etc.  The smaller the bill, the worse the exchange.  Since we had been in Thailand for two months, we of course did not have enough US cash to fund a month in Myanmar.  So we went through the painstaking process of pulling Thai Baht out of the ATM’s there.  This was complicated by the fact that I lost my ATM card back in December so we only had Elise’s ATM card with a daily limit.  That meant pulling out cash over four different  days.  Then - feeling like we’re up to something involving money laundering - we finally went to a bank in Bangkok and exchanged Thai Baht for a neat, thick stack of clean, crisp, unmarked US dollars. 

Next there the matter of the exchange rate in Myanmar.   The official government exchange rate is K6.55 (kyat) to $1.  This is funny when you convert what it would cost to buy one draft beer in Yangon if we accepted this rate:  one beer at K600 would cost us $91.60!!  So the only option for travelers who are not filthy rich, and who do not want to put extra money into the general’s pockets, is to take our business to the street – where the real exchange rate is traded on the black market.  This is technically illegal, but everyone does it and keeping it from happening  is clearly not enforced.  We knew from www.irrawaddy.org that the current “real” exchange rate in Yangon should be around K832 per $1.  This means my draft beer now would cost me $0.72 – I like this math much better!

Since this currency trading process is illegal, there are no money-exchange counters around the city advertising competitive rates so you must go shop for the best rate from the people on the street.  One might imagine this is a good way to get scammed – and you would be right!  I was looking forward to the illegal activities of which we were going have to partake in upon arriving to Myanmar.

We took an AirAsia flight to Yangon on February 2.  Though Myanmar shares a border with Thailand, we were required to fly into Yangon in order to travel over several areas of the country.    You can cross at several Thai/Myanmar border towns for a short trip, but you are then restricted to travel overland from there.  Our plane was about an hour late and after getting through immigration, we found out that the guesthouse which we thought we had made a reservation with, did not have it, and was full.  No problem), we just shared a taxi with Marina, a French traveler, who was planning on staying at the YMCA.  In case you’re wondering, the taxi drivers take US dollars so you don’t have to change money at the airport for the terrible exchange rate – very convenient.  We arrived at the YMCA well after dark.  Yangon is not well lit, and though we have since found out it is very safe, we were not going to shop around guesthouses that night.  The YMCA had basic, but relatively clean rooms and breakfast included.  The only problem was we had to use the shared bathrooms (filthy) and Elise woke up in the morning with bug bites all over her legs from a bed clearly filled with bed bugs.  We packed up and found another guesthouse immediately after breakfast.  At least we were “helping the needy” for one night as the sign at the YMCA advertized.    

After changing guesthouses, our next task was getting the local currency so we could buy lunch.  Our guesthouse would change for K800/$1 and we had already walked by people on the street quoting us K900/$1.  The guidebooks clearly warn to avoid changing in certain areas and those that quote a higher rate than the known average – so the K900/$1 was likely “too good to be true.”  Nevertheless, if there was a way we could get it, we were going to!  The strategy would be to shop around a little then find an honest money-changer by changing a small amount first then going back the next day to change a lot more.  A hotel – recommended by Lonely Planet – was changing at K820/$1, and then we found Jimmy (rather he found us) at the Bogyoke Aung San Market who would change at K840/$1.  A little nervous about this first exchange, we followed Jimmy to a jewelry shop somewhere in the innards of the market.  Jimmy was very nice and let us count and be in possession of the money before even showing him US dollars.  So we actually very easily found our honest money-changer.    

The next day, however, I could not help myself and decided to test the K900/$1 rate we kept getting quoted on the street.  We actually tried this near the Sule Paya where the guidebook clearly says to not change money due to scams.  I wanted to know what the scams were and had devised what I thought was a simple but fool-proof plan of attack:  count all the money and don’t pay until paid.  This would require both Elise and I each playing a clear role.  Elise’s job was simply to hold and pay close attention to the kyat once counted.  I would count the kyat and only then hand over the single unmarked, crisp, post-1996, no ‘CB’ serial code $100 bill when we had the right amount of kyat in our possession. 

We found our money changer and were immediately ushered to the side of the road (Editor’s Note:  In actuality, we were walking down the street and I was taking in the surroundings, when suddenly I see Brian walking off with a money changer, and I realize I was going to be coming along for the ride).  The first red-flag was that immediately three more money-changers showed up and there was a group around us now.  They were working as a team – four on two.  I asked to count the kyat and made sure that the money-changers understood that I would not show or give them any dollars until we counted.  We had noticed that the changers on the street had the kyat banded together in an unorthodox way – small groups banded together into a big gangster wad – and next it would be clear why.  We were not immediately allowed to count in our possession.  Instead were shown that each small group supposedly had ten K1000 bills in it.  I guess we were supposed to take his word that nine small stacks is actually ninety K1000 bills.   I insisted that we un-band and count but was met with some resistance.  After threatening to walk, we were given part of the stack of money to start counting (I think it is a safe assumption that meant that the original stack did not have the right amount in it from the beginning).  I counted forty-five K1000 kyat notes, handed them to Elise, and waited for the other half of what we were owed.  At this time, there was a lot of commotion and attempted distractions.  Multiple money-changers wanted to “hold” the counted stack for Elise – why burden Elise with that!  I told them clearly that if we were going to pay, Elise was going to hold the money.  We then actually managed to get 90,000 kyat in Elise’s possession.  I had been skeptical that I would even get this far with all the red-flags flying around, but decided that we might actually pull this one off and get the K900/$1.  Nervously, I made sure Elise was ok and held on tight to that wad of cash while I pulled out my $100 bill.  There continued to be a lot of commotion like trying to distract Elise by asking her questions – but she stayed focused on the pile of kyat.  I gave my $100 bill and figured we were home free.  We thanked them and started to walk off, but the money-changers would not let us go.  I’m not sure what was happening but it seemed that my $100 bill was not going to be acceptable.  I think they were trying to get me to fish another one out “for comparison.”  We had also heard of a scam where they don’t like the first $100, ask for another, then both aren’t good and they return both – but one has been replaced with slight-of-hand to a $1.  I was not going to get another bill out at risk of it mysteriously changing to a smaller value bill or someone bolting with it.  After they went on about this for a few minutes, I realized that this business transaction was not going to come to a mutually agreeable close.  I quickly grabbed my $100 bill back before it could disappear, Elise gave the kyat back, and we walked off.  But it was still apparently not yet over.  In one last attempt, the money changers appeared to change their mind:  our $100 bill was suddenly ok.  We were chased down and handed back the stack of kyat. As soon as we started counting it again (as if we trusted them to not remove some bills from the stack!), they said “no deal”, grabbed the kyat back, and walked away.  We were now convinced that our K840/$1 exchange rate was going to be just fine.  So we went back to Honest Jimmy to change the rest of our money at once with no hassles – happy that our illegal currency transactions were over for the time-being.  I am not going to lie:  I enjoyed the whole experience, including trying to negotiate with and out-smart the money scammers.  Elise played her role to perfection, but wondered out loud to me afterwards why we needed to subject ourselves to such un-needed stress .  She then added, “You are your father’s child.”  I am not sure if that was meant to be a compliment.

We spend two days in Yangon.  When not taking care of logistical items or exploring the Burmese food and tea shops, we toured the city.  The highlight was visiting the Shwedagon Paya and watching the sunset and the whole place be lit up at night.  This 2500 year old Paya is made of 53 metric tons of real gold (supposedly more than the Bank of England) and has 5000 diamonds (2000 karats worth) on the top – including a single 73 karat diamond as the highest point.  The pictures speak for themselves.  It was interesting getting stopped by local people or Chinese tourists often to have their picture taken with us.  Elise and I finally realized that it was not us they wanted their picture taken with.  Rather is was Marina, the French traveler we shared a taxi with, who happens to be 6’-3”and likely the tallest female they have ever seen.  Another highlight of Yangon was happy-hour at the Sky Bistro at the top of the Sakura Tower and seeing the sunset from there. 

And as for the man-skirts…the traditional fashion wear for Myanmar men is to wear a longyi.   A longyi is simple a tube of fabric that is tied with a simple knot around the waste.   It resembles something between a long skirt and a towel tied around the waist and is worn even with modern style dress shirts or simply a t-shirt tucked in.  Men are wearing them all over the country – business men, farmers, doesn’t matter who...  Super-simple and very comfortable.  I purchased one immediately.

With only four weeks allowed in Myanmar, we could not linger long in Yangon and moved on to Bagan…