Myanmar - Nuts and Bolts

Myanmar experiences the typically Southeast Asian tropical monsoon climate, with hot, humid lowlands and cool highlands. The wet monsoon season is from June through September, the cool dry season from November to April.

The official language of Myanmar is Burmese; a number of ethnic languages are also spoken. Burmese is a completely indecipherable script for most casual visitors. English signs have been removed so bring a phrase book if you want to do anything more than eat or sleep. It is helpful to know that Burmese have one given name between one to three syllables, usually preceded with a form of address. In Burmese, use Oo (uncle) for adult males, Ko (elder brother) for males of the same age, Bo for leader, Ma (sister) for young girls, Daw (aunt) for older women, and Saya (master) for teachers or employers. Other ethnic groups use variations on this theme.

Buddhists comprise 85 percent of the population, while animists, Muslims, Christians and other indigenous religion followers comprise the rest. Sixty-eight percent of Myanmar's population is Burmese; however, there are five major ethnic groups (Shan, 11 percent; Karen, 7 percent; Kachin, 6 percent; Arakanese, 4 percent; and Chin, 2 percent). The Shan are found in the northeast. The Karen straddle northern Thailand and eastern Burma and pay little attention to the border between the two countries. The Mon populate the same fertile area as the Karen and are ethnically related to both the Khmers and the Burmese. The Burmese live primarily in the central plains along the Ayeyarwaddy River and were the builders of the great monuments at Bagan.

The literacy rate stands at 81 percent. The monetary unit is the kyat. The free market exchange rate at press time was nearly 300 kyat to the U.S. dollar, but should should settle down again to about 167 kyats to the dollar. The free market rate is now legal, replacing the ridiculously artificial rate of 6 kyats to the buck.

Big Brother

The military rulers of Myanmar keep a very close watch on their own people and particularly hnakaung shays, or long noses. That probably means you. Do not converse freely with strangers. It can be safely assumed that anyone who loiters near you or reappears often in your travels is a paid intelligence operative.

Telephone calls can be made from hotels and the Central Telegraph office in Yangon. International calls go through operators (watch what you say and who you call). There is no guarantee of a phone line being available or even usable. Telexes can be sent from major hotels as well as the telegraph office.

It costs six kyats to post an airmail letter, but don't count on it getting there anytime soon. Buy the stamps and mail your postcards or letters from Bangkok. MTT, 77-79 Sule Pagoda Road, is the main source for travel info in Yangon. There are also offices in Mandalay, Bagan and Taunggyi.

Voltage is 220/50 cycles when it works.

Note: February and March are bad times to visit due to the influx of gem buyers into Yangon for the annual auction.

Embassies/Consulates

American Embassy

581 Merchant Street

Box B

Yangon

Tel.: [95] (1) 282055/6 or 282059

Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the U.N.

10 East 77th Street

New York, NY 10021

Tel.: (212) 535-1311/0/1716

Fax: (212) 737-2421

Australian Embassy

88 Strand Rd.

Yangon

Tel.: [95] (1) 280711

Embassy of the Union of Myanmar (USA)

2300 S Street, NW

Washington, DC 20008

Tel.: (202) 332-9044-5

United Kingdom Embassy

80 Strand Rd.

Yangon

Tel.: [95] (1) 281700, 281702

Money Hassles

The currency of Myanmar is the kyat (pronounced "chat"), which is divided into 100 pyas. Notes are used in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 45, 50, 90, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000; make sure markings are in both Burmese and Arabic numerals. SLORC seems to have a sense of humor, after all; without warning, it has had a tendency of arbitrarily banning certain denominations, as it has done with the K100 note. Coins are available in denominations of 1 kyat and 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 pyas. Coins are difficult to decipher because they are marked only in Burmese numerals.

Insider Tip: No 50s, No 100s

You may find yourself in a situation where the change offered consists of either K50 or K100 notes marked "Union of Burma Bank." Do not accept them. They are no longer legal tender. Myanmar people possessing large amounts of these notes became impoverished after the government banned the circulation of them. The worthless notes have been known to be passed on to na•ve foreign tourists.

Unlimited amounts of foreign currency, whether in cash or traveler's checks, may be brought into the country. But remember that what is declared upon entry must be accounted for upon departure. There are plenty of taxi drivers and tourist guides eager to offer a "better than official rate" for your dollars, so proceed at your own risk (see "Derring-do and Burma's Bogus Buck System" below). Keep the currency conversion form with you at all times, and present it to the customs officials upon exit. Loss of this document can be very troublesome. It's likely you won't be asked for the document when you leave, as it's easy to bribe your way out of the mandatory changing of US$300 into Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs) in the first place-and the Customs officers know it. Unless your entire tour has been prepaid in U.S. dollars outside the country, your hotel may demand payment in foreign currency or by credit card. Keep the receipt as an extra precaution.

Unspent kyats cannot be reconverted to U.S. dollars at the time of your departure. If you are unfortunate enough to possess enough kyat near your departure time that makes reconversion necessary, hope that you have a friend in Yangon. You'll have to do it on the black market. But a word of caution: there are far fewer folks around who change kyat into dollars than who change dollars into kyat. Ask only those you trust where to find someone to make this transaction for you. If the friend is a good one you can expect to pay the black marketeer 1 kyat for each 160 kyats or FEC$1 you want to reconvert into U.S. dollars.

Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs)

Myanmar, quite simply, is the most tourist-unfriendly country in the world to exchange money. FECs come in the same denominations as U.S. dollars and when used as such, they possess an equal value. They can be used for payment anywhere U.S. dollars are accepted, such as hotels and upscale restaurants. They cannot legally be converted into U.S. dollars, however. So if you play by the rules, you'll have to spend at least US$300 during your stay in Myanmar-even if you're a businessman only in town for an afternoon meeting.

If you don't want to play by the rules, there are a couple of ways around this. Simply ask the exchange clerk if there is any possible way you can avoid having to change the $300 into FECs. More than likely he or she will respond that, for a gift, of course there is a way. In all likelihood, for a "gift" of US$10, the clerk will require you only to exchange US$100. This is really only marginally worth it if you're going to be in-country for only a few days (marginally because it saves you the headache of finding a black marketeer who will exchange dollars for your FECs; see below). If you're going to stay in Myanmar for the duration of your visa, this isn't a deal, as you'll spend the 300 bucks anyway.

Although the government says any amount of currency you exchange over US$300 can be redeemed in U.S. dollars, don't count on it. Most, if not all, banks that cash traveler's checks will only do it with FECs, even if you show evidence that you've already exchanged US$300 into FECs. You are again forced to deal with the prospect of leaving the country with useless currency. Cashing a traveler's check is a two-step process if you want dollars. First it must be cashed into FECs at a bank, then into dollars on the black market or an FEC exchange center, with each middleman taking his own chunk out of it. Expect to lose US$4 or more for each US$100 you want exchanged into U.S. dollars.

Derring-Do and Burma's Bogus Buck System

In the tradition of the country's propensity for generating uncannily appropriate acronyms for its various factions and functions-i.e., SLORC, KIA (Kachin Independence Army, or "Killed in Action") and FITs (Foreign Independent Travelers, who give the government plenty)-has been born FECs, or Foreign Exchange Certificates. (I'll leave the pronunciation of the acronym to the reader's imagination.)

For a negotiated "gift" of US$10 to the FEC exchange clerk at Yangon airport, you in all probability will be permitted to only exchange US$100 instead of the required US$300. At this point you and the bureaucrat exchanger will share a perceived covert camaraderie, as if you've both just stuck one to SLORC, a similar feeling shared by a couple of college kids who've just scrawled a "Free Suu Kyi!" slogan at the base of Shwedagon Pagoda and then ducked into a toilet. To further inflate your newly found sense of subversive self-importance is the fact that your new friend is wearing a SLORC uniform. How exciting!

Then the final reinforcement: the clerk leans and whispers to you that you can stick it further up SLORC's backside by exchanging your FECs on the black market at a rate of 150 kyats to the U.S. dollar. A deft smile crosses her lips, as if she's just given you the key to smuggling a trunkload of Jews out of 1939 Hamburg. My, the good fight feels good, despite the clerk handing you an official government receipt saying you exchanged only US$100, even signing it-the same receipt you are theoretically required to show Customs when you depart the country-proving that you exchanged US$300.

With the formula for revolution memorized, you accept the offer of your taxi driver (also, it turns out, a freedom-lover and coconspirator! And a real, live demonstrator, to boot!) to exchange your FECs into kyats on the black market at a rate of 150 kyats to the dollar. He seems overly in a hurry to perform this service for you, as if your FECs were stamped with an expiration date, like milk, and he senses a sour effluvium was emanating from your wallet. You take him up on the offer as he pulls down a dark alley and instructs you to wait in the car-there could be guys in Ray-Bans and Hawaiian shirts hanging around.

It isn't until you check into your hotel, after the driver has squealed his tires, that you discover from the receptionist that the black market rate is actually 167 kyats to the dollar, that the hotel will be quite happy to do that for you, or that you can visit a clearly marked FEC exchange office downtown on Thein Byu Road that will be equally delighted to perform the same service. And you'll find out that the black market rate is no longer the black market rate. It's the official rate.

So much for the revolution.

Internet Sites

http://www.freeburma.org

http://danenet.wicip.org/fbc

Two places to find information on Aung San Suu Kyi and contact other people interested in a democratic Burma (calling the country Myanmar is tres outre for these folks). There is also an electronic service called BurmaNet that will distribute information on the goings on inside Myanmar. You might want to let all your boycott tuna, save the whales and Body Shop pals join in what is the '90s most "in" protest. To be politically correct, you're not supposed to visit Myanmar so that your dollars don't fall into the evil hands of the generals. DP takes no sides but you might actually want to visit Myanmar and form your own opinion.

http://theodore-sturgeon.mit.edu:8001/peacejam/aung/news/newsindex.html