Men and mıllıons

[abka]

I had a great fırst day ın Istanbul despıte some raın thıs mornıng. There are so many men here, you do see women on the street ın Western dress wıth theır head uncovered but there are so many more men, just crowds of them, ıt ıs really wıerd. There are lots of everythıng here buıldıngs, people, shops, noıse, grıme, fısh, cats, water, mosques, stands sellıng meat and beautıful pomegranetes. (Screw spellıng)
Despıte not lıkıng seafood I dıd have some calımarı and shrımp for lunch. The calımarı was great and the shrımp was gross (because ıt tasted lıke shrımp the shrımp-lıkıng people at the table saıd that ıt was great, very fresh).
There playıng the Ghostbusters song at thıs ınternet cafe/pool hall, kınd of odd. We are the only women here.
We also met wıth a unıversıty professor and learned all about Turkısh ınflatıon (the bankıng system collapsed twıce partly due to the opıum trade and war agaınst the Kurds). A sımple questıon about bılls became economıcs 101, whıch was useful although requıred too much braın power for the evenıng. The money here ıs ın mıllıons. One dollar ıs about 1,600,000.00 Turkısh lıra. All the zeros are confusıng, we are always gıvıng people eıther 10% too much or too lıttle.

ok group ıs leavıng ınternet cafe, thanks for all the comments, wıll report whenever I happen to be at a computer next

Comments

[mrsjadephoenix.livejournal.com]

One dollar ıs about 1,600,000.00 Turkısh lıra

Yeouch! In Cambodia in 1999, it was about 30000 riel to one dollar, but the currency was so unstable that many vendors had given up on the riel and were just using American dollars. Ironically, we exchanged a bunch of our money into Cambodian currency only to find that they didn't want it and only wanted us to give them dolalrs. It definitely felt weird to be walking around with 10,000 bank notes that were only worth about 33 cents.

Now it looks like the riel has become a lot more valuable: 3800 riel to a dollar. I really hope that means that the country is getting better. They have so many issues.

[grumph.livejournal.com]

Dude---

I really really really hope you still have some of those 10,000 riel bills floating around that nobody would take. Cause if so, you've made yourself a hefty chunck of change.

Wow!

[mrsjadephoenix.livejournal.com]

That's so true! I didn't even realize that. Well, I unfortunately don't think I have any of the riel left, but my parents might. We didn't exchange a whole lot, but still, that's a pretty darn good return on our "investment."

[coffman.livejournal.com]

I think maybe you're falling pray to what Amelia was talking about - too many zeroes so it's easy to leave one off or add an extra one. Cambodia's exchange rate when you were there was probably more like 3000-something rather than 30,000 something. Here are some averages I ran:

US DOLLAR (USD) VS. CAMBODIAN RIEL (KHR), 1996-PRESENT
$1 US =


An interesting quote from the American Embassy in Cambodia (http://usembassy.state.gov/cambodia/):

Maintaining a stable exchange rate is a priority of Cambodia's current IMF program. Cambodia's economy is heavily dollarized, with the U.S. dollar accounting for an estimated 70 percent of the nation's total liquidity (M2), equivalent to 15 percent of GDP in 2000. As of November 2001, foreign currency deposits represented some 95 percent of the total deposits in Cambodia's commercial banks, excluding provincial branches of the central bank, and remain the main engine behind broad money growth.

I think that maybe everyone wanting to take your US dollars rather than your Riel has more to do with how "dollarized" (to steal the term from the passage above) the economy is in general and less to do with reaction to wildly fluctuating exchange rates. The currency exchange rate in Cambodia has actually held pretty steady in the past decade, all things (like the Asian Financial Crisis) considered. But with the economy and the banks so reliant on foreign currency, it's no wonder that merchants would rather grab a super-stable and liquid foreign currency like the US Dollar rather than their own currency, just as a matter of principle. ;-)

[coffman.livejournal.com]

I think maybe you're falling pray

Er, I meant, "prey." Accursed keyboard, I blame you! Yet another misspelled word that the spellchecker has no chance at catching...