indian rupees - you are screwed

the week AFTER i booked my ticket from Tanzania to India the crazy government in India did something shocking.  they demonitized [withdrew from circulation] the two largest bank notes.  they provided a window of a few weeks for citizens to turn in old notes but weren't able to provide new notes.  this failed effort to combat corruption came with a few catastrophic results.  basically it was a disruption of a cash based economy.  hours long lines for new notes.  hours long lines to turn in the maximum number of old notes.  atm were not prefitted to accommodate the new larger notes so any withdrawal became a guessing game - requiring you to find an atm with cash and then make multiple requests for different amounts.  

India is a cash based society and that's not going to change anytime soon.  so the locals are used to finding workarounds for stupid things the government does.  the taxi drivers were a great source of information here.  they knew which atms had cash and in what denominations you could get cash.  they knew which shops would take old notes, where to use credit cards, etc.

the problem for travelers is that a coconut or a rickshaw ride might cost 10 rupees and all you had in your wallet was 500 or 1000 rupee notes and a street vendor couldn't make change.  

India was still in the throes of this failed transition while i was there and it was a minor inconvenience for me but a very tangible income hit for the locals.

money in Myanmar

perhaps one of the stranger things in Myanmar is the paper money  

back in 1972 there were bank notes for 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 kyats [yeah it looks like you could say cats but the right way to say it is 'chat' but i thought they were saying 'jot' so that's how i say it]. in 1985, the 25-, 50-, and 100-kyat notes were demonetized [that means worthless] without warning, though the public was allowed to exchange limited amounts of the old notes for new notes.  the same year 75-kyat notes were introduced, the odd denomination chosen because of dictator Ne Win's predilection for numerology and was followed by the introduction of 15- and 35- kyat notes.

35 kyat front

two years later, the government demonetized the 25-, 35-, and 75-kyat notes without warning or compensation, rendering some 75% of the country's currency worthless. seriously? this is an all cash economy. it's 2015 and i can't use a credit card except a few locations and less than 5% of the country has bank accounts.  can you imagine if all your paper money suddenly became worthless?  then on September 22, 1987, banknotes for 45 and 90 kyat were introduced, both of which incorporated Ne Win's favorite number, nine. WTF?

american dollars have always been in demand here.  but only some american dollars.

i've never had a good explanation of why other than 'the governement insists' as to the acceptance or refusal of dollars but they insist dollar must be pristine. all of the below american dollars, which i brought with me from the states, were rejected.  any stain, crease, fold in the corner or GOD FORBID a pen mark is reason to reject dollars.  it's pretty common to see foreigners [not just americans] screaming at a vendor in the market or some other tourist site about their american dollars being refused.

i've never seen such pristine american dollars as i see here.  seems like they must get them directly from the Federal Reserve.  they are such fresh notes that you'd never get them in the US.  i speak from experience. knowing the dollars are an issue  before i left the US i went to six banks before i found a cache of fresh $1 bills.  try it next time you are standing in front a teller.  if your bank can give you fresh $1 bills, i'll bank there.

what you can expect in return are these.  disgustingly dirty, dingy, crumpled kyat notes.