Currency Exchange

I am trying to find out the currency exchange rate between Kyats and the Australian dollar.

When i key this in to online converters it tells me that 1000 kyat = $242, so i tried it with USD and it tells me that 1 USD is worth 6.24 kyat and 1000 Kyats are worth 155 USD.

This would make it probably the most expensive country in the world to visit.

I tried several online converters with the same result.

I read on this forum that 1 USD is worth 1000 Kyat approx. Can anyone simplify all this for me.

Thanks

Gander.

Currency Exchange

Hi Gander

Don%26#39;t bring your Aussie dollars here, the exchange rate will be awful %26amp; you%26#39;ll have trouble even changing them. Change your AUD in to USD. Bring nice crisp notes with no marks on, otherwise you%26#39;ll have problems changing them also. When you bring $100 bills with you make sure there are no CB letters in the serial number, you won%26#39;t be able to change them at all on the black market although some of the big hotels here will change them

Basically, the rate that you get quoted on the currency converter is the official goverment rate which nobody uses %26amp; is totally irrelevant to anything here. All cash transactions here are either done on the black market where you%26#39;ll get the best rate or at hotels, where the rate is always less due to them taking their cut.

At present the Burmese Kyat is quite strong so you%26#39;ll be getting less for your USD. It%26#39;s roughly floating around the 950-1000k to one USD but this changes daily. Go to www.irrawaddy.org %26amp; scroll to the bottom of the page, that will tell you the current daily black market exchange rate.

I hope this simplifies things a little for you.

Good luck

Currency Exchange

6.24 kyat to a dollar is no use at all. Everyone mention that ';Black Market'; but it is actually become almost offical rate . You have no problem at all to change USD currency with around 1000 kyats at any of your hotel or in some other place. The government did not admit that the exchange rate is around 1000 kyats but they also use that rate.

For currency converters, I don%26#39;t know why they do not change and still using 6.24 kyats.

Thanks for that folks it makes things a lot clearer.

I will base costs on 1000 Kyat to 1 USD and then use the exchange rate to convert to Australian dollars only to see if it is value for money or not.

The AUD to USD is not looking good at the moment, i just hope it will get a bit better as we are not going until later this year.

Thanks again.

Gander.

Hi Gander,

Bring fresh US dollar bills. They don%26#39;t accept anything else but that. I had some US dollar bill that were just a bit dirty and they (esp at the government places such as archeology admission office)did not accept them.

Also avoid bills with CB serial numbers. For some reason, they think those are fake bills.

On other hand, their bills especially the smaller denominations were in horrible safe.

Rate fluctuate wildly. However, the best rate in in Rangoon. Keep that in mind if you want the most out of your money. Also, 1000 kyat bill comes in two variety; the smaller and larger sizes. Most people prefer the smaller size.

Hi, we just returned from Myanmar this week and had no problem changing USD and even EUR. For our dollars we were getting between 950-1150 kyats to a dollars, for the euros a bit better exchange rate. The higher amount of dollars you exchange at a time the better the rate. It is REALLY important that the bills are new, crisp and have nothing written on them or badly folded. They are very picky with the notes. You will get quite bad kyat notes back but they always accept them so this is no problem. Many hotels changed for us but also in some markets you will find someone that will change your dollars, here you can bargain about the exchange rate. Just be really careful when counting up your kyats though since some can try to fool you by doing a trick with folded notes. Have a great trip and let me now if you need any tips! Kind regards Emelie