A Quick Lesson in the Economics of Vietnam
Dave Says:
Now, pay attention – there are 15,700 dongs to the dollar. Water costs about 10,000 dongs, beer about 15,000, tea 10,000 but a bottle of the not so finest but drinkable Vietnamese wine is priced at $10. Currency here jumps between dong and dollar partly because you can’t physically fit 1,000,000 dong on price list or label very easily and partly because the only people likely to afford 1,000,000 VND are those who think in USD anyway. You can also pay in dollars but they don’t like that very much so one is left to convert dollars to dong in ones head and then fork over millions at a time. There is also a problem getting small change. 100,000 VND ($6.36) is almost impossible to spend because nobody will give you, or has change for, such a large amount. Credit cards are accepted in some places but this is a cash based system with ATMs commonplace, which is very frustrating when the ATM spits out 100,000 dong bills and nobody will take them or your credit card.
There is no escaping the fact these are poor people and so whenever there’s a chance to exploit (and I use a small ‘e’) they do. You have your tour guide and then a ‘local’ guide, bus drivers, boat drivers and crew and everyone needs a tip. Tipping however is not like the US. These people earn next to nothing so even tipping them a dollar is huge. The average tour guide makes about $100 a month and they are relatively well paid but do work seven days a week, every week.
Then you need to check your bill and count your change carefully. Mistakes of 3000 dong in their favor are quite common. It’s important to keep this in perspective though – 3000 dong is about 20 cents so nobody is getting ‘ripped off’ but then its also important to let them know that you know you’ve been overcharged or underchanged. It is not OK to do this to tourists, in fact, it’s not OK to do this to anyone. It’s also not OK for tourists to shout and scream about the 20 cents. So there’s delicate balancing act of getting the 20 cents one thinks they deserve and giving a little to people who live a quite bare existance.
January 16th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
that’s right – don’t let em get over on ya, dave. you deserve just as much dong for your dollar as the next yay-hoo.
while walking around over there, did you get the urge to just shout “Charlie don’t surf!”?
January 16th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
How is it language-wise for you guys so far in the places you’ve been? Did you brush up with phrase books and the like?
I’ll ask again when you’ve been to fifty more countries.
January 16th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Language is easy.. point, smile and bow (then count your change)
January 17th, 2007 at 12:46 am
You are a billiondongaire, then? I’m dying for pictures! Give us some quick details on some of the basics. Are your packs heavy? Finding a comfortable place to sleep? How’s the weather? Stomachs behaving or feeling a bit googly? Kisses to you and Sarah!
January 17th, 2007 at 5:02 am
When the ATM gives you a receipt it tells you how much money you have in your account. That’s the last time I’ll see that balance so high. Packs are heavy – we had to send some stuff home so now they’re not so heavy. No googlies yet – rest assured we’ll let you know when they are.
January 17th, 2007 at 9:09 am
I’m going to avoid the whole play on words (i.e. the dong thing) because I am the mom and I guess I’m supposed to set some kind of moral standard or be a good example or something. Why I should start now, I’m not sure, but since people outside the family are reading this, I’m going to give it a go. (you said dong… heh) (ok well that didn’t last long)
After watching you guys empty out your packs at my house 45 minutes before leaving for the airport, in an effort to dump some stuff and lighten the weight of the backpacks — and coming up with very little you could spare — I can’t help wondering what you ended up sending on to England!
Hugs to you both….
January 17th, 2007 at 9:24 am
P.S. maybe I need my own censorship God. It occurs to me that people who don’t know me might not know how to take my previous comment. Please assure everyone I’m not really that juvenile or stupid that I think “you said dong” is funny… the idea that I would think that it’s funny, is supposed to be a joke.
aaaah…. why bother. I can’t come on here with a disclaimer after every silly thing I say in the coming year or your comment count will double. Love me, don’t love me, whatever!
Glad I cleared that up.
January 18th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Holy cow guys, the pictures are fabulous! You’re really not in Kansas anymore, are you? It’s great to see your big smiles.
Love you!
January 19th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Hi guys. Things here are going great. Not sure if you heard about all the snow and craziness, but things are better now. It sounds like you are having an adventure. It sounds rad. Have fun.
January 24th, 2007 at 3:14 am
I remember how pleased I was when I started to get good at haggling in Thailand. I was the haggle-meister, never paying more than half the ticket price for anything. Then I realised that my monster haggles totalled about 50c a time and all the fun went out of it. Especially when 50c to those guys could feed the family. Still, you can’t let them take the piss.