February 03, 2003 Bangkok, Thailand
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For now I must bid farewell to you, dear reader, for four weeks, and to Thailand, but I have a feeling I'll be back. Tomorrow I fly to Burma, a country kept in the dark ages by its military government. "Welcome to Burma and Enjoy the Totalitarian Experience" is an excellent book which I recommend if you want to learn more. It will certainly enable me to travel with my eyes open.
Today's big goal was to buy a bunch of US Dollars. Turns out only one place on Khao San Road sells them, and of course there was a huge line. So wait a half an hour, then by the time I get to the counter they're all out. Come back in two hours. So two hours later I wait fourty five minutes, and all they have are hundreds. I bought four, but I'm thinking I'll need some smaller ones, at least to bribe the official to get out of buying FECs, and to pay for a taxi in to town. The next day I found a bank that had tens and fives, so I bought $200 worth. So now I have $1000: $400 in traveler's checks, which have been useless so far, and $600 in cash. I'll stow the cash in the secret pouch I wear under my clothes, and in a couple places in my pack. I feel like a drug dealer with all this money.
Perhaps you are wondering about a couple of things. All of your question can be answered with the following explanation. Burma has three official currencies. Kyat, Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs), and US dollars. The kyat is extremely overvalued, with an official exchange rate of1 USD = 6.2 kyat, and a rate on the free market of maybe 1 USD = 700 kyat. So everybody wants US dollars, especially the government. In a scheme to get dollars, the government requires all incoming tourists to buy $200 worth of FEC "monopoly money," at the rate of 1 USD = 1 FEC, which you can use on accommodation and transportation. But since your cash goes straight to the military, it's worth avoiding this if you can. By offering the official a "present" of $10, you can get out of this. So then I'll only have to worry about kyat for small purchases, and dollars for big purchases like accommodation and transportation.
So look for an update in four weeks. If you'd like to be notified when I get back, sign up for my mailing list on the main page.