Will be traveling to Burma next month and hope members can help me with questions about internet access:
1. were you asked to "register" your laptop as you went thru customs in Rangoon? Some message boards report that technology is sometimes confiscated -- did this happen to anyone in your group?
2. what did you pay for wi-fi access in the various hotels OR what are average costs in in internet cafes?
3. were you able to use your regular e-mail account - @msn, @yahoo, @hotmail,@gmail,etc?
and questions about money:
1. did people in the villages and crafts people (not hotels or restaurants in major cities) prefer being paid in USD or Kyat?
2. was it easy to obtain small-denomination kyat (100 kyat, 200 or 500 kyat) bills (worth less an $1 each) (some countries smaller denominations are difficult to come by)
Thank you for your help and advice!
Questions on Burma/Myanmar
Message Submitted by Adventuregirl on Sat, 12/22/2012 - 06:43
Myanmar Questions
We returned from Myanmar 3 weeks ago.
Everyone went through customs an no questions were asked about cellphones, Ipads or laptops, in fact we saw many people throughout the country using all. There is a big queue getting through immigration, they examine your passport and visa closely.
Since we didnt have Ipad or computer with us can't really say about wifi although many hotels did have access, not sure what the charges were but they would be minimal.
No one complained about accessing their email accounts.
Money questions:
USD or Kyat are used without difficulty. We exchanged $200 USD at the money changer in the Yangon airport as different cities have different exchane rates, Yangon was about 850 kyat to 1 USD, Mandalay was 1000 kyat to 1 usd and others were 700 to 1 usd.
If your going to use USD you have to make sure the bills are in pristine condition, they will not accept any wrinkled, slightly torn or nicked, or writing on USD bills.
Recommend you "ORDER" new bills through your bank and NOT go to your local bank as you will get "used" bills and it may be difficult to use those bills.
We changed the larger denomination Kyat for smaller ones at the hotels, didnt seem to be any problem.
At this time Myanmar is a CASH ONLY country, they do not have Credit Cards or ATMS available. This will change in the next few years.