Miracles Happen

An unpleasant discovery in Bagan was that food was much more expensive than we had expected. What tourists were charged was often three to four times more than what we were used to paying in Vietnam. So after the first day, we had a sinking feeling that we were going to be short on money for the trip.

One of the big challenges in traveling in Myanmar is money because the country seems totally lacking in any form of retail banking and there were no ATMs. Any money we needed we had to bring with us. And if we didn't have enough there was nothing we could do but eat less and not buy souvenirs or gifts. And now we had realized we had miscalculated how much money we needed to bring. So every purchase had to be carefully calculated: One beer instead of two. One main dish for dinner instead of two. And poor Gail....no bargaining and shopping at the local markets!

Adding to our anxiety, each bill of US currency had to be in near mint condition. If a crease or ANY kind of mark (i.e. smudge, wrinkle, fold, or ANYTHING)was on the bill, it would not be accepted by merchants or money changers. Although our bank worked with us to try to get the crispest bills we could, Phil still spent several hours ironing bills to try to make them appear more "perfect." But there was always the uncertainty whether our dollars would be accepted or not.

One of the ironies is that the bills of Myanmar currency, the kyat (pronounced chat), were often terribly dirty, wrinkled and torn. The image at the top of this blog is standard "issue" kyat. We even received one bill that was in such poor shape that it was in a clear plastic baggie but still regarded as valid currency.

As we sat in the Bagan airport preparing to leave for the next leg of our journey, we had mixed emotions. Many pleasant memories from our time in Bagan and a lot of anxiety about our limited money and what that would mean for the next eight days of our trip.

While we waited Phil noticed a woman who looked vaguely familiar. Eventually he said to Gail "Isn't that Sharon?" who we met and traveled with for a day three years ago in Luang Prabang, Laos. Gail wasn't sure, but being a woo (Wakonse term for those friends reading the blog!), she went up and asked her. It was, and we spent the next half hour catching up on life and travels. Sharon lives in Telluride, Colorado and travels with the "Doctor's Without Borders" group. Near the end of our conversation we were all agreeing that food was more expensive than expected. This led to our tight money situation. To our amazement, Sharon offered to loan us several hundred dollars! WOW....were were stunned and a bit relieved!

So with the extra funds happily in hand we flew to Mandalay in much better spirits.