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Published: November 27th 2008
So, Yangon! Arrived after short 1 hr flight from Bangkok. You never know what to expect when coming to country like this. Well it really felt no different. Airport was nice and we cruised through immigration no troubles. Oh for those thinking of going, you can get a VISA in Bangkok in 2 days from Embassy for 900 Baht. Anyways, grabbed a taxi, more like some guys car, and crappy car at that, and cruised into the downtown. Got a room on 5th floor of hotel so had great view down the street. Now it's money time!
OK, so currency in Myanmar is the Kyat (pronounced chat). If you google it you will not find out what it is worth. It basically does not exist on any currency exchanger you look up, and is toilet paper outside the country. The latest Lonely Planet (2005, seriously latest) said that 1 USD was worth about 950 kyat. Now this is controlled by government, and if you get kyat at airport you will only get about 450 kyat to the 1 USD. Now we are completely blind going into this. Our taxi driver tries to change money for us on black market. What
will be the rate? He tells us 1100!! Wow, this without bargaining, so it must be even better. After walking around town and talking with sketchy dudes trying to change money for up to 1400 kyat=1 USD for crappy bills. Eventually traded 1 USD for 1250 kyat. This is basically what it is worth now in Myanmar, and was about 1200 kyat everywhere else in country. Oh and these have to be crisp, unmarked USD or they will not take them. I should write for LP. Money wise, a pint of beer is 500 kyat!
It took our entire first day to organize money and get bus out of Yangon for next day. At sunset walked up to Shwe Dagon Pagoda, but was further than thought and sun had gone by time we got there. So we stopped by a beer station on way back into downtown. A beer station, well, is a restaurant licensed to sell draft beer. Oh and for 500 kyat ($0.40). Great beer as well.
The next morning we packed our bags and headed to bus station. Had a night bus out to Kalaw, 15 hrs, oh boy! Will see more of Yangon when
Yangon
Jonie and uswe return to leave country. Visa here is only 28 days and we only have 3 weeks before our flight into India. So onward we go.
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