One of the strangest things about my trip to Burma years ago was the currency shenanigans one could go through to help pay for the visit.
Before flying to Rangoon, I stopped at the Duty Free store in the airport in Bangkok. I spent approximately $20 US Dollars on two cartons of 555 cigarettes and two bottles of Johnny Walker Red (Had to be red, no black!) whiskey. Two each of these items were the limit for duty free importation into Burma.
Once through customs at the Rangoon airport, I took a taxi to one of the government approved hotels in town. Before arriving at the hotel, the taxi driver gave me the equivalent of $55 US Dollars in the local currency for the four duty free items I had brought in. This was because the local currency was so over valued in relationship to the US Dollar. The government forces you to exchange at least $5 US Dollars at the airport. so I had the equivalent of $60 US Dollars to spend for my week in Burma. I was rich! Things were so cheap that I could eat at the best restaurants and take taxis every where. The northern city of Pagan was even cheaper.
The other place I experienced currency shenanigans was in Taiwan. I was teaching at a university and was paid monthly in cash(!) just like all of the other teachers. The government had ridiculously low restrictions on how much money could be sent out of the country. I was not making a lot of money, but I was saving a little each month.
In situations like this one turns to the Black Market, but the strangest thing was that the Black Market was the Catholic Church! You didn’t have to actually go to a church to exchange money. You had to go to their office in downtown Taipei where all their administration duties were handled. They occupied the whole building, but up on the third floor was Father G… (I know he’s still not there, but I don’t want to give out his name).
He told me to open up a US Dollar bank acct. across the strait in Hong Kong. I did and every month I would bring my Taiwan Dollars to him and he would wire the money to my acct… He offered a very good exchange rate and the money always arrived quickly into my acct…
Of course, I never asked any questions, but it sure was a weird place for the Black Market. One time I was in the waiting room and I overheard the guy ahead of me that he had a million Taiwan Dollars to exchange and the good Father told him that it wasn’t a problem
Anyone else have a story about currency shenanigans in foreign countries?