Ding-Dong!

First thing to do in a foreigh country: familiarize yourself with their money. It is almost always a different size and color than what you are used to, and this preventative measure can avoid the embarrasing moment when you try to pay for a bottle of water with the largest demonination available.

In Vietnam, US dollars are widely accepted and will get you about 16,000 Vietnamese dong. Most vendors can make change in either currency but local ATMs onlt distribute dong. Before we got far from our hotel in Hanoi, Laura decided to make a withdrawl and was presented with on-screen options ranging from 1,000 to 2,000,000 dong. "How much dong should I get?" she asked. Distracted by local scenery, we left her to figure it out for herself. When she caught up to us, triumphantly fisting a colorful array of paper notes, she announed she had 20,000 dong. We did the math, three different times and said, "Great. Now you can buy yourself a soda." What kind of ATM lets you withdrawl $1.25? As experience dictates our second try is usually a charm so she headed back to make a bigger impact on her davings and treated us to our first round of mineral water.

It's always a good idea to carry local currency so, without the convenience of debit cards, Keeks and Mac went in search of a money exchange. When two Vietnamese women approached us on the street with a rate that sounded too good to be true, we said "Sure. How much for $100?" Never mind that it was probably illegal, as long as it was fair- it took just sconds of leafing through the stacks of notes to discover a lot was missing. With the help of and already jaded Dutch ex-pat, we got our money back and were pointed in the direction of a proper exchange.