We've only been in Yangon, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) for a day, but a lot of our conversations have focused on pristine money. Due to wildly fluctuating currency for the last few years, much of the economy has run on US dollars. But they have to be new and perfect. The kyat, Myanmar's currency, is widely used now, but many businesses still want dollars for bigger purchases (hotels, flight tickets, etc.) If your dollars are older than 2006, they are useless. If they are folded (even just in half), useless. If they are torn and have a "wheresgeorge.com" stamp on them, forget about it. This results in a strange and time consuming process of people from all different countries trying to procure pristine currency printed on the other side of the world... And then carrying them around very carefully.
Another thing this country has in common with the USA is they are another stubborn former British colony that now drives on the right side of the road. But they are surrounded by left side driving countries. So all the vehicles here have steering wheels on the right. This is convenient for all the street side food stalls (every sidewalk is crammed with food vendors)- the drivers can just lean out, pick up some chicken, and keep on going.
Tourists are a relatively new beast here, and they are a difficult species to train. Many of the tourist sites are Buddist temples, and it is tremendously hot. In the temples, knees are very offensive, but hot tourists tend to wear shorts. The current solution is making them rent traditional local garb-- but only in exchange for crispy dollar bills.
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