We just returned yesterday from our 1st very exciting and wonderful trip to Myanmar. We arranged everything on the spot there and had no problems what so ever.
However I want to warn you of a gang that is specialised ripping off tourist around Sule-Pagoda in Yangon. I can say that as it happended to several travellers that we met during our trip...including us ;-(
You can easily recognize them as one of them has a ';blind-eye';, all off them are very dark-skinned, Indian-Burmese guys. They take you to a ';Shop'; opposit to Mahabandoola Garden in order to give you the feeling of security. Than they give you a massive amount of 500,- Kyatt-notes (all very old and dirty) and let you count. Once you are ready they try to distract you with some strange arguments about your Dollar-bills or something and while you don%26#39;t pay attention one of them takes money from your piles that you just counted. So, please make sure that you count the money and put it directly into your backpack or elsewhere.
It has happened exactly the same way to at least 2 more people I met. You can avoid that buy changing in your hotel which will give you a less favourable exchange rate but in the end you have more of it... ;-)
It was the typical ';lesson'; that one maybe has to learn when not attentive enough and I must say that it was the only negative experience that we made money- and other wise during the whole trip.
Besides, exchange rates in all the typical places (Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan, Heho, Ngapali Beach) have been almost the same around 1200 Kyatt for 1 USD.
So, not need to change all your money in Yangon.
Enjoy this great country Myanmar. Cheers, Christian
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