Broke and Stranded in Mandalay

Yesterday was one of those travel days ...

We woke up early in Bangkok yesterday in order to get to the airport and make our way to Burma - a country now known as Myanmar.  We were on our way to Mandalay (the original one, not the one in Las Vegas), the second largest city in Myanmar after Rangoon. 

However, it was a rough start, when a huge downpour hit right as we were getting ready to leave and there was lightning and thunder, which knocked out the power and we lost electricity.  This was rather inconvenient because Fiona was in the shower at the time and the room went dark and the water stopped.  This was also a problem because we our accommodations were on the 16th floor - not good. 

We caught a bit of luck when the power came back on just as we steeled ourselves to walk down 16 flights of stairs.   So we made it to the airport on time for the two hour plane trip to Mandalay.

Arrived in Mandalay

Everything went fine through customs and passport control.  We had our bags with us as we (including Lewis and Ruby) are all four traveling with just carry-on bags.   Then things began to get interesting.  

We were all set up to take a taxi for the 25 km ride to the city center.  The airport, like a lot of airports for some reason, is way out of town.  Only we didn't have any local currency, called kyats, so we naturally made our way to an ATM machine like we have done all over the planet. 

Only ... our card didn't work.  Okay, no worries, there are other ATM's around the airport, but ... none of 'em worked with our card.  Hmmm, there are other travelers here like Europeans, and the machine will give them money, but not us.  So we exchanged some leftover Thai bahts into kyats and got a taxi.  

We checked into our hotel and paid in advance (they make you) and the card worked in their Point of Sale credit card machine.  But when we went out to get more cash, our cards didn't work anywhere.  

This went on for some time, and it seemed like we hit every cash machine in town.  Then we started going to banks and ... no luck.  We didn't have much cash on us - and we're going to be in Burma/Myanmar for a week.  Most businesses don't take credit or debit cards here at all, so cash is a necessity. 

We were eventually told that our bank will not allow transactions in Burma/ Myanmar.  Apparently their computer security is not terribly secure, so our bank will not do business here, along with several credit card companies.  We were locked out.  This became more alarming when we realized - we couldn't pay for anything without cash. 

And we have travel plans, like activities, sight seeing, taxis, and taking a train later in the week and ... buying food?  We were perplexed.  This kind of thing is uncommon for us, we are seasoned travelers after all!  But we were faced with a dilemma of no cash and no way to get any.  

Believe me, we tried everything, cash advance, you name it.  We even considered a far fetched plan to find a sympathetic American and ... ask them ... for money?  We would promise to pay them back of course.  We had a few dollars, a few Thai baht, and very few Burmese kyat, no where near enough for four people for a week.  

So desperation is the mother of creativity, and we hatched a plan to contact our daughter in Oregon and have her send money via Western Union to us in Mandalay.  Kind of weird, like when we send money to Africa for our Andando Foundation.  Getting money from point A to point B can be extremely challenging in "developing" countries (they don't call them Third World anymore). 

Beka was able to hustle around and connect the dots and actually "wire" the money via Western Union, kind of like a money gram.  This is a real long shot regarding a place like Myanmar.  We took bets on the likelihood of this actually working out, and decided at best it was 50-50.

And of course we're dealing with a 14 1/2 hour time difference (yes, Myanmar has one of those goofy hour hour time zones).  So when we woke up this morning we had the details, by email, texting, and Whatsapp of the transaction and we had to find a location who could help complete the deal. 

Lewis and I set out against all odds to get some cash.  An interesting fact about Burma/Myanmar is that their money is kind of - how should I put this - worthless.  It takes 1,281 kyat to make one dollar.  
So you have these huge bundles of money to make like a hundred bucks.  In fact, when we were going from bank to bank to try to get some money, we saw a bunch of employees counting huge piles of money everywhere, like in the picture below.  They put it in huge bags to move it around.  The largest bill is worth four dollars.  

If you walk out of a bank here in Myanmar with a bag, people are going to know it's a bunch of money.  So I figured if we did get some money, then I should have Lewis with me.  I told him that he could be the decoy and if people attacked us, he could fight them off.  In other words, they could beat him up and I would run like hell. 

So to make a long story short, things actually worked and got some cash.  Kind of a convoluted process, but it worked.  Everything in "developing" countries takes way more time and is way more complicated than it should be.  We had to wait forever and everyone in the place was watching us because we are foreigners.  

Therefore we are no longer broke and stranded in Myanmar.  We actually had a good day touring and here are some pictures. 

Some of these pictures are taken from a hill top in Mandalay.  It was pretty spectacular at the top.  The climate here is hot but not quite as humid as Bangkok.  It was 97 degrees today, and pretty steamy.  You sweat a lot, something we're not used to in Oregon.