Money, Power, and Connections in Southeast Asia

(If this looks familiar to some of you, this was originally a separate page, but I converted into a post.)

The title sounds like a paper from my political science days, but this is about:

1. What should I do about money when I travel to Southeast Asia?
2. Can I plug in my electrical stuff without it frying?
3. How can I connect with people on the outside (email/internet/phone)

Here's what I encountered in February, 2012

Money

You could conceivably do the trip without getting any local currency, as US dollars seemed to be accepted everywhere.  However, I like to use local currency because it's nicer to look at, and I can collect a few low-denomination notes as souvenirs.   If you do want local currency, with the exception of Myanmar, ATMs are all over the place in cities/towns that are frequented by tourists.  One sad fact I discovered on previous trips was that my bank (Wells Fargo/Wachovia) charges $5.00 for each withdrawal from a foreign ATM, in addition to any charges from the local bank.  So, before I left, I did some research and found out that one of the local credit unions (Coastal Federal Credit Union) charged only $1.00 per transaction, so I opened a checking account there and got an ATM card from them.  The CFCU card worked everywhere I tried it.   Based on my experience, getting an ATM with low fees and using ATMs (where possible) is the way to go. 

Even though I did make use of ATMs frequently, I took a few hundred US dollars, including a lot of $1 and $5 bills.  They were useful for tips and exchanging money in places where there were no ATMs (Myanmar).
In Yangon, my guide gladly changed my dollars into Myanmar Kyats, and there were money-changers and banks available if needed.  If you do take larger denomination American money, make sure that the bills are new or nearly new--they will not take the old style (green) bills anywhere in Southeast Asia.

The only place where I couldn't get or use local currency  was in Cambodia--even the ATMs there dispense only US dollars.  In Siem Reap, all prices (even in grocery stores) are listed in dollars.  The only way you could get Cambodian currency was as change that was less than a dollar.

One other interesting fact--in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, I never saw any coins--it appears that all money is in paper currency.  (Or in the case of Vietnam, plastic--when is the US going to go to plastic bills that don't tear?)

Credit cards were of some, but limited use--mostly in hotels, major restaurants, and when I had to pick up some extra underwear (see my suitcase adventure) in department stores.  If you do travel internationally with any frequency, you should carry a card with no foreign-exchange fee--Capital One is one of the few banks that offer these.   

Power

The only electrical equipments I had were charging adapters for my iPad and iPhone, and a charger for my camera battery.  All of them ran at either 110 or 220 volts, so I didn't need anything to convert power.  (Most of the world outside of North America uses 220 volts, which will fry your electronics if they aren't built for it).  Interestingly enough, although I brought a couple of plug adapters, I never needed them.  Every outlet I encountered took both US (flat) and European (round) plugs.  My experience was limited mostly to moderately nice hotels, airports, and restaurants in large cities and tourist towns.  YMMV.

Connections

I'll address this country by country:

• Thailand--no problems accessing wi-fi or web sites from my hotel.  The process for getting free wi-fi at the Bangkok airport is a little kludgey--you have to find an information booth and get a userid and password.  Even then, I had some problems getting a connection.
   
• Myanmar--this was a surprise.  I had been reading horror stories about non-existent wi-fi, and the inability to get to non-Myanmar web sites even if you could get a connection.  My experience was limited to the Traders Hotel and the Yangon Airport, but in both cases, there was free wi-fi, and no restriction on what I could access.  Again, YMMV.
• Laos--Free wi-fi at my hotel (Ancient Luang Prabang) hotel, and in several restaurants/bars.  I don't think there was wi-fi at the airport.  No restriction on the sites I could access.
• Vietnam--Free wi-fi at all airports and hotels, and many restaurants.  Strangely enough, access to Facebook was restricted, but no problem with any other sites.  If you know what a VPN is and you have access to one, you can get around the Facebook block.
• Cambodia--Free wi-fi at many hotels and restaurants, and the airport.  No restrictions on what I could access.  Strangely enough, my hotel actually charged for wi-fi (about $2 an hour).  This was in Siem Reap, which is a big tourist area, so I can't comment on the wi-fi situation in other parts of the country.

As you probably know, do not use your cellular data plan when outside the US--if you do so, you will have to delay your retirement for a year to make up the cost.

Phoning home

Since I abandoned my wife at home, I was obligated to call her every day :-)   There were potentially 3 ways to do this:

• Get local SIM cards for my phone in each country.  This would have required me to "jailbreak" my iPhone, and the hassle of getting a new card in each country wasn't worth it since I was in most countries for only 2-3 days.
• Making calls using the local carrier.  The good news is that with the exception of Myanmar, I was consistently getting 4 bars from the local carrier.  (I got better reception on a boat in the Mekong Delta than I get in my house).  Apparently Myanmar does not use the GSM system, as I never got a cell signal at all there.  Unfortunately, using a local carrier costs about $5.00 per minute. 
• Use Skype (or a similar service) with a wi-fi connection, or with a PC in an internet cafe that has headphones you can use.  This is the best approach if you can do it.  I loaded about $20 in my Skype account before I left, I called home every day (when I could), and had $15 left in the account when the trip ended. 

There were a couple of cases where I needed to call home, but didn't have access to wi-fi, and I bit the bullet and used the local carrier.   But Skype did the trick for me in most cases.

Next--on to Laos.