Vietnam Dong notes
All Vietnamese people is millionaires. It’s actually not a joke!
If you ever dreamed of being a millionaire but haven’t got the chance? Then Vietnam, this beautiful country in Southeast Asia should be in your must-go-destination list. The feeling of being a millionaire for a couple of days is so much fun and you will be amazed by how the money works in thousands. Where the 1,000 note in your currency can buy quite a lot then the 1,000 Dong can buy nothing, even for a load of bread. That is when the story begins
Welcome to Vietnam, the interesting land where every citizen is a millionaire!
In this post I will give you a brief history of the “Dong” and some tips to do it right.
Since Vietnam is a developing country, traveling here does not hurt your pocket like the other destinations. $1 US Dollar and you have street food choices, but you need to carry with you a 5 zeros money which is 20,000 dong. The bank note 1,000 Dong can only buy you a single cucumber in the wet market if the seller agree to sell in that small quantity. In the photo below I have in my hand ten banks notes. All in papers and they are all the small notes.
“Tiền lẻ” is called for small bank notes in Vietnam Dong
And in this photo, I have the bigger bank notes, all in polymer and the biggest one is 500,000 Dong. Five zeros and it’s equal to 200 US dollar.
“In 1946, the Viet Minh government – who later became the government of North Vietnam – introduced the dong to replace the French Indochinese piastre at the same value. In 1951, the rate was revalued at 100 to 1 and by 1958, it had been raised again to 1000 to 1. In South Vietnam, both piastres and dong banknotes were issued in 1953. When the city of Saigon fell on September22 1975, South Vietnam’s currency became the Liberation dong, worth 500 of the old South Vietnam dong.
Vietnam was reunified on May 3 1978 and the dong followed suit by merging into one currency. One new dong was equal to one Northern dong and 0.8 Southern Liberation dong – until it was revalued again on September 14 1985 due to inflation, with the new dong worth 10 of the old.”
– Wikipedia
I know how confusing it is for the first time you use the Dong. So here is the guide:
Dong is really confusing
20,000 Dong and 500,000 Dong looks very alike in the evening
It’s me, hell yeah! I’m a Vietnam Dong millionaire with only two notes
Hung Long Money Exchange
Ha Tam Jewelry Store
Ben Thanh Money Changer
ATM machines is everywhere on the streets and most of them work with Visa and Master Card. If you want to obtain cash in Vietnam, look for the street corners to find the ATMs. All have varying withdrawal limits for each transaction. It varies from bank to bank and can be from 2,000,000 Dong (approximately US $90) to 10,000,000 Dong (approximately US $440).
When finishing a meal, simply say those phrases:
“Em oi tinh tien”: sister, can I get the bill please?
Say a bit louder. As the street vendors or crowded restaurants might be a bit noisy, it’s the cultural norm when calling the waiter or waitress for the bill and it’s totally polite to behave like that as long as you are not in a luxury restaurants when the atmosphere is quite.
A street food corner when you can get 1 US dollar (20,000 Dong) per order
Saigon Kiss Tours’ girl riders with guests in Saigon Street Food Tour
Above is the guide for Vietnam currency, the Dong. I hope you find it helpful for your travel planning to Vietnam. Feel free to share your experience of using Vietnam Dong with us.
Photo & Content by Saigon Kiss Tours