The three stooges. That's what we feel like trying to calculate dong into dollars, or dollars to dong. Or, despite the difference in color and size, making sure what we pull out is 50,000 not 500,000 dong. Something about all those zeros! By the time you get five or six zeros after the primary number, they all sort of blend. Five,is it? This might work.
Yesterday, the three of us went to a local bank. Well, sort of local. Australia New Zealand Bank. But all things are relative here. And these relatives were definitely "negotiable!" We couldn't change money at the bank because we didn't have an account there, so went to the ATM. I made it through all the various steps to cash 4 million (!!! Yes, we are all millionaires in Viet Nam.) until I saw the fee would be 40,000. I immediately cancelled the transaction, thinking they were charging a usurious 10%! Ah, decimal points.
Then there are the "dinner on your own" negotiations around the bill. How much to tip? What is the actual cost of a beer? You mean, Perrier is twice the price of beer? And making change? Forget it!
We'll probably get it down about the time we have to start thinking in dollars again. $50,000? Why, that's a bargain!
We are cousins who graduated from Smith College in the 1960s, in the midst of the Vietnam War. We live in different parts of Massachusetts now and are delighted to be traveling together to Vietnam. Our understanding of Vietnam's history and culture has grown by leaps and bounds as we prepared for our trip through reading. We hope family and friends will join us, virtually, as we take our trip!
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