Dong

The monetary exchange confused me at first but I find that after a while I have gotten the hang of it. If I memorize that 50,000 dong (pronounced dohm) is approximately $6, I can get around town with little difficulty.

One US dollar is equivalent to 16,000 dong - pictured here. The easiest way to figure out how much something costs is to use a calculator - and multiply any US dollar amount by the number 16,000; that is close enough to the daily exchange rate, and they way most every vendor does it. My supper one day came to 135,000 - so how much do you think I spent? (divide that number by 16,000). A tour I took of the city cost me over a million dong! exactly 1,120,000 - what a shock that was, since I wasn't yet comfortable with the conversion. How much was my tour?

All the money has a picture of Ho Chi Minh, the beloved (and now deceased) leader of the country, who really was a pretty amazing person. Most citizens refer to him as "Uncle Ho," giving him an honored place in their memory as a revered ancestor.

50,000 dong is $3, an acceptable amount for a tip - or for a day's worth of Internet at the computer shack.