Vietnam Dong

This afternoon  I was at the bank and I was astounded by the amount of cash going around.  Bricks and bricks of cash were being passed back and forth from tellers and customers.  Can you imagine living in a cash society where checks and credit cards don't exist?  Debit cards were introduced a couple years ago and people do tend to do direct deposit more frequently but really most things are done in cash still: rent, purchasing a house, hospital bills, buying a motorbike, etc!  So when you see a poor frail looking granny with her cone hat on, don't assume her little plastic bag just contains a fish from the market.  She could have three bricks of 500,000 Dong in there.  Plus she could probably karate chop your leg off!

The largest bill now is the 500,000 pictured above.  It's worth about $28.  The money'''s called Dong but pronounced Dome.

And if you have a gambling problem I don't suggest you go to the bank I went to today.  They just have stacks of money laying all around on the tables and floor, vault doors lay wide open and security seems a little lazy but then maybe the security is so discrete I couldn't detect it.