A question of money in Myanmar

The currency used in Myanmar is the Kyat, pronounced tchiatte. They have 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 et 1000 bills. The Canadian dollar is worth about 1000 kyats. The bills that will then encountered the most are bills of 100 and more. It shows when you look at the bills. I still got to take a picture of the worst bill yet although I missed my chance a few times already. The worst I have seen so far were 200 bills with big holes, scotch tape at few places and a texture that arise your imagination. The bills become very thick with dirt, sweat and what else? We have difficulty to tell what’s the number on them! As I was explaining in a previous blog, the international banks left the country in the early 2000 years. We do not have access to our bank account in any way. There is also no companies like Western Union to transfer money but there is now a private shipping company, DHL, that have an office in Yangon.  In more prestigious hotels, Visa is accepted to get cash advance but you must pay between 10 and 25% service charge. However, somebody was telling me that these hotels do not offer this service anymore if your are not sleeping there. They stopped the service right after the bombs in Yangon at this year Water Festival. Your only choice is to arrive in the country with money in your pocket, enough money for the duration of your trip. I had  2500$ from Quebec delivered to me in Kathmandu by a lovely person that was coming in for a trek. When I arrived in , I quickly realized that I had less money than I thought!  You need US dollars. Some places will accept Euros but it is rare and the rate will be bad. They mentioned in the guide that the money should be fairly new if you want to use it in this country.  It is difficult for them to exchange American money in banks so restaurants et hotels spend a lot of time checking your bills before accepting them. What I would consider clean for money bills has nothing to do with what they consider clean. The bills need to be new!! They will refuse bills that were folded in two at one point, there is a line left in the centre! The people that will accept them, if the line is minor, will give a lower exchange rate for it.  The bills that have a stamp on them, from banks usually are not accepted. It does happen often enough. I had never taken the time to look at my bills much before!  If there is anything hand written on them, forget it. If the serial number starts with CB, it will be refused some places or you will get a lower exchange rate. After all that, I had about 1500$ That I could use in  Myanmar!! The exchange counters are useless in this country and the people behind the counter might even tell you to go elsewhere. They are link to the government first of all and their exchange rate is the lowest of all, they take more than they give. The guide talks about an exchange rate of 450 kyats for 1$ but I haven’t checked on that.  Of course, there is the black market. This black market is well known and the government is aware of it, it almost seems legal. Since I am a good girl, hearing about black market scared me a bit. What I imagined was close to what you see in gangster movies so I was a little stressed out for the first exchange.  The few things to know before hand is that the exchange rate is much better in Yangon and is also better if you exchange 100$ bills. They usually exchange that money in banks or use it to buy merchandise coming from China. It is actually pretty easy. Some hotels will exchange your dollars with an exchange rate of about 930-950 kyats to 1$. The guidebook proposed a popular place to exchange money which is the market place. We set out to get there and we looked for a stall advertising money exchange. A guy walked up to us and asked us if we nneded to exchange money. Yeah, we do! That’s easy enough. He takes us to a stall in a busy area of the market and the guy is sitting with stacks of money in front of him. No alarm button or protecting window or counter…I decide to exchange 500$ and look at how much I will be spending for the first few days. I take the time to count the money and the guy encourage us to do so.  Once the money is accounted for, we give our money and he examine it for few minutes. That’s when I understood that I could not use all the money I had with me. The exchange rate we got was of  990 kyats to 1$. We spent the first few days south of Myanmar and stopped in Yangon on our way back. I had a good idea of my spending and decided I would need to exchange an extra 600$ before going to explore the rest of Myanmar. This time though, I ran into problems. We get to the market to realize that it was closed. Crap! Where do we go? We decide to try one of the hotel. Even if their exchange rate is lower, it’s better than the rate that will be given in other cities. Again, a guy walks up to us on the street and after few minutes of general conversation, he asked us if we wanted to exchange money.  Yeah! We ended up this time right in front of the train station in a ministore that sold bus tickets. We get an exchange rate of  1020 kyats to 1$. Wow! Better than the first time, good negotiation skills. We waited 30 minutes in the back of an empty store. They needed to get the money from somewhere else, The waiting is long and I bacame a bit nervous. It is hot and my belly is cramping. When they bring the money, I counted it and placed it in piles of 100$ but there is no elastic bands arounf the piles, the bills are loose.  Rob is with me exchanging money too. The guys are talking, asking questions, bla, bla, bla… At some point, I turned mu head back to my money and saw one of the guy putting my piles one on top of the other. I got mad since it is a lot of money and he is not supposed to touch it. They want us to leave so they try to pressure us I guess.  This atmosphere is one of stress. I would like to recount the money to be sure and have my piles so that it is easy to know how much money I have left afterwards. I told myself that I was paranoid and we spent already so much time in a stuffy room. So I put the money in my bag without recounting before getting to my hotel. That is when I realized that I was missing 200$. I felt so stupid to have believe in their honesty and not my sixth sense. I replayed the scene in my head and could see how it could have had happened. Grrrrr! The problem is that there are so many bills that 200$ worth less was not that easy to miss just looking at it for somebody that is inexperienced. I’ve learned my lessons that’s for sure! Bring rubber bands next time! I am now in the West of the country where the travelling is the most expensive and I have to count my money and plan very well to be sure that I would have enough. It adds some stress to the trip that I did not need. There were some souvenirs that I would have liked to get but it would be for next time!