Overheard is our series of snippets/conversations that we have with other travelers and/or locals along the way.
A savvy traveler staying at our guesthouse in Mandalay realized that they were cooking the books. How? The Rich Queen only writes down a percentage of how much each traveler actually pays them and reports that number to the government. So while we paid $25/night, they wrote down $5, which means they only pay money off of the $5.
Whether it's stupid or smart is hard to tell. Any auditor would know that $5 is way too little for a traveler to pay so the only thing we could think of is that perhaps they're also paying someone in the audit office to look the other way. That, or they'll likely soon end up in jail.
In the meantime, their kid has a giant water gun while most kids had dirt and sticks...
More Mandalay
Check out our Mandalay photo tour and plan a budget trip with our Mandalay backpacking tips.
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