The Yangon train station at night. Also? The scene of the robbery.
Myanmar is supposed to be incredibly safe. The guidebooks, seasoned travelers, and the internet are all the same in their reassurances of Yangon’s safety and urging to talk and connect with locals eager to chat with someone from the outside world. People who steal from or otherwise harm tourists are very harshly punished if caught, and allegedly locals have a strong fear of karmic consequences.
Overall, the voices behind travel in Myanmar felt right on the money with their safety assessment. I felt very safe walking around the city at all hours of the day, with or without company and I cherish warm memories of conversations with Myanmarians of different walks of life.
We got robbed because we got cocky, not because Myanmar (or Yangon, specifically) isn’t safe.
Part of traveling through Southeast Asia is identifying scams, bad deals, and folks generally trying to milk the tourist trade for all its worth with little regard for the tourists themselves. I’ve gotten really good at identifying scams before the spiel is pitched, and exiting the situation gracefully once it has. I actually think it’s kind of fun to find the line where an honest transaction becomes a flat-out scam.
This, my friends, is incredibly stupid.
It’s also how we ended up following a man to his “friends” to change our USD to Myanmar kyat on our first day in Yangon. I wanted to “see where it would go.”
Before you accuse me of being incredibly inept, I have to tell you that the standard advice for travelers to Myanmar is to change USD to kyat on the black market to avoid the Myanmar government’s incredibly overvalued rate for its own currency. One dollar goes for about 870 kyat in practice, but government exchange booths will give you 8. As such, it is 100 times better to buy your kyat from non-government sources. So when a local said his friends near the train station could help us, we followed, guard up in the event of a scam, but open to possible legitimacy.
Here is a panda eating a popsicle at the Chiang Mai Zoo to distract you from my idiocy. I named him Distraction Panda.
We opted to change $200 at the great rate of 890 kyat/dollar. After a small kerfuffle involving a red-flag scummy behavior involving the unsuitability of our bills’ serial number daring to start with a “KB” instead of a “CB,” we handed over an extra $2 after the guys had taken out several $100 bills from Andy’s wallet to compare. We rounded up the comparison bills carefully, again with an eye for any foul play, and accepted an enormous stack of 176,000 kyat in increments of 1000.
The money changers handed Andy the stack and told him to count in a high-pressure situation, and this part is where we now KNOW we messed up. He counted 25 of the bills and weighed the girth of that stack against the rest and estimated the change was correct. We should have counted all 176 bills one-by-one, but we wanted to exit the situation fast.
[Shut up. I know it was stupid.]
When we left, the guy who brought us there asked us for “something from our country,” so we gave him $1, just to put an end to things and get on with our day. Though Andy was a bit upset with himself about putting us in an uncomfortable situation, we had a huge stack of cash and soon forgot about the experience as we drowned ourselves in delicious bowls of Shan-style noodle soups.
We figured out we were short on cash on the third morning. After carefully calculating every cent we spent, found that we were missing about 80,000 kyat and one $100 bill. Then, after analyzing every single place we had gone, person we had talked to, and the exact position of our bags relative to our bodies at every moment spent in Yangon, it was clear the money changers were the culprit.
We’re smiling at Shwedagon Paya because we didn’t know we had been robbed.
Yangon is a huge city, but it seems small. I saw members of the money changer team daily, and all of them scurried off or hid behind an umbrella when they caught my gaze; this behavior cements their guilt, in my mind.
I’m relieved my first big, bad Scam Experience wasn’t scary; a mugging would have been completely unbearable. I’m also grateful that I had two days of blissful ignorance to enjoy all of Yangon’s offerings with an open mind.
Now, on to the practical part…
How to Change Money in Yangon Without Getting Scammed
1. Go to Bogyoke Aung San Market in Yangon between 9:30 and 4:00 pm, ignoring anyone who asks you along the way if you need to change money. You are on a mission.
2. Find one of the two money changers with an actual store front with counters and a published exchange rate on an LED board. They’re right near the front near the Bogyoke Aung San Street. Do not ask anyone for directions if you cannot find it. Just wander, wander, wander until you see the legitimate-looking “black market” money exchange stores.
3. Give them your perfect dollar bills–not euros, not pounds, not baht, but dollars. We got ours out of the SCB Foreign Currency ATM in the international terminal of the Bangkok airport with the unpronounceable name. You’ll also be asked for your passport.
4. Watch the clerk count your money in the electronic bill counter.
5. Receive your money and a receipt. KEEP THE RECEIPT. You will need it if you want to change kyat back to dollars.
6. Count the money again yourself, just to be sure, and put it away safely. Be sure to keep track of your spending as you go.
A Note About Airport Money Exchanges
I heard before leaving for Myanmar that the Yangon airport’s money exchange stalls are government-run and thus offer the entirely crappy exchange rate mentioned above. I do not think this is true anymore, as I exchanged kyat for dollars when we departed for the same rate offered by the storefronts in Bogyoke Aung San Market. I did have to show my receipt, however.
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17 Responses to Getting Robbed in Yangon, Myanmar: The Complete Story
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Hi! I'm Susan, and this is my travel journal. You can read more about me here.
Oh Susan! I know it was a robbery but this post did make me laugh. Possibly due to Distraction Panda. I think he worked and distracted me from the magnitude of what happened to you and Andy.
In all seriousness though (god, my comment just got a lot less fun), the tips you’ve provided at the end are great, and I hope those money changers do get the karmic shit fest that is heading their way.
Waegook Tom recently posted..Top 10 Eats in Southeast Asia
Distraction Panda is very good at his job!
Myanmar is changing so fast, it’s hard to get up-to-date information. I hope those tips will be correct for at least a few months!
Sucks that you got robbed, but I’m glad you were safe and shared your story for others who might be traveling to Myanmar(Burma)!
Also distraction panda is awesome.
What is this new cute little captcha? I might have to steal this one too…
Erica recently posted..Why I travel
Yeah, I felt compelled to just get the story out there, even though it’s probably one of least favorite posts in terms of the actual writing.
Just coming to terms that no one likes math!
Not a good think to happen but I guess getting robbed can be a good thing in a way. Of course you said about perspective and I suppose you learn a valuable lesson.
Dan recently posted..Laughing at London 2012 #2
Haha, I’ve definitely tried to see the good in it, but at this point, I’m pretty sure it’s just terrible to be robbed!
“Do not ask anyone for directions if you cannot find it. Just wander, wander, wander until you see the legitimate-looking “black market” money exchange stores.”
Oh this had me laughing so hard! Not your situation, but the nonsensical and yet true nature of that description! Wow. That really just sucks about about the robbery. They were really clever, actually. How did they get the other $100 bill? Well, you had to have a story like this to tell after all your adventures, right?
We have no idea! I was watching like a hawk for any foul play, but I couldn’t seem to find any! We were surrounded by like 5 fast-talking, really intense men, so I guess they just slipped one out at some point.
This is one of my worst fears when I’m travelling. I usually have a really tight budget and I account for every single decimal point I spend. Good thing you still had extra cash. And given what could have happened, I’m glad you’re safe.
“Just wander, wander, wander until you see the legitimate-looking “black market” money exchange stores Nice advise! The ‘wandering’ part is exactly what my friends and I did when we were looking for way to enter the Grand Palace. We didn’t want to get scammed and end up somewhere else.
Clarisse recently posted..Rain, Rain, Rain
Yeah, we had to change our itinerary, but overall we weren’t THAT affected by it, luckily. I can’t imagine having something like that happen when you still need to pay for airfare or several nights of lodging at the end of your trip…
Yes! You always must be on a mission to get into the Grand Palace unscathed! I (stupidly) think dodging the scams along the way is part of the fun!
When I was in Yangon, their favorite trick seemed to be to give you the correct amount of money and insist you count every bill. Then they would offer to put rubber bands around the stack and they would sneak a few bills out at that time. Basically, once they’ve given you the money to count, count it and do not hand it back for any reason. The simplest solution would be for the government to just accept the real value of their currency and not delusionally value it almost the same as the Chinese Yuan.
Daniel McBane recently posted..The Largest City You’ve Never Heard Of
That would be a simple solution, wouldn’t it? ;)
The thing that kills me about the whole situation is that I was watching every single movement like a hawk, waiting to see where the scam would come in, and I didn’t see it! Total scam sensory failure…
Love distraction panda. Hate that you got scammed. Thanks for sharing so hopefully other travelers don’t fall victim to it either!
(Also, your new sweet captcha is hilarious. It kind of makes me want to comment even more.)
Edna recently posted..Wenlock, or How I learned to stop laughing and love the mascot
Oh that sucks, I’m sorry that happened but glad it didn’t ruin your trip. We were there in February and you can now change your money at banks and the guesthouses for very close to the same rate as on the black market so its a lot more legit now. To be honest I was a little excited for the adventure of changing money on the black market but reading this it does seem a bit risky!
Trudy recently posted..Travel Cinemagraph Series: A Touch of Dutch in Delft
I’m sure Myanmar will continue to change at lightning speed for quite sometime! I am glad, however, that it’s becoming easier to change money. I don’t think the hassle benefitted anyone, but crooks!
Thank you for this!!! I’m heading to Burma in a couple weeks and will be sure to watch out for this scam. I too had only heard that Burma was incredibly safe and was going to head there maybe a bit unaware but this is a good reminder to always be on the lookout!
Wondering&Wandering recently posted..Traveller’s Tune
Apparently a lot has changed in the nine months since I’ve been there! I believe you can change money at the airport, adn there’s even a few ATMs that take foreign bank cards.