Will Scam for Food in Burma

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Filed under: Learning, Food and Drink, Asia, Burma (Myanmar), Budget Travel, Nightlife

It was my first night in Yangon, the southeast Asian metropolis formerly known as Rangoon, and I was standing in a dank, dark back street arguing with a 16-year-old boy over his fee for oral sex. Well, sort of. He had propositioned me. And while I wasn't interested, I was appalled when he told me how much he'd do it for. So I began lecturing him that he should charge more. Not that I know the going international rate for such things. I swear. It just seemed low for doing such an intimate thing to a complete stranger. Why I didn't talk him out of the nightly practice completely is beyond me. Then again, my mind at that moment was in full-on negotiating mode.

It all began when I had arrived in Myanmar two hours earlier. As I was checking in to my hotel, I was told the price of the room and pulled out my wad of $20 bills (there are no ATMs in Myanmar, so one must arrive with a bulk of cash). I put three bills down on the counter and the team at reception began scrutinizing the notes like avid baseball card collectors inspecting a Honus Wagner card. They discussed among each other, spitting out a slew of Burmese and then shaking their heads from side to side. The oldest member of the money-scrutinizing triumvirate stepped forward and informed me my money was no good. "See this," he said, pointing to the tiniest of creases in the crisp $20 bill. "No good." I protested, saying that anywhere else in the world these were perfectly valid twenty dollar bills. "You don't understand," he said. "This is Myanmar."

I have to confess: I heard the warnings that they only exchange perfectly crisp, blemish-free American dollars here and it wasn't until the day I was leaving--having already withdrawn $500 in cash from my bank the day before--that I realized I should take it all back to the bank and get brand new bills. The rub, though, was that by the time I got around to it, the banks were closed. I had no choice but to get on my flight that night, hoping that the guidebooks and friends who had been here were grossly exaggerating.

They weren't.

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Will Scam for Food in Burma originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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