That is why many of the places you can visit in Soc Trang and throughout southern Vietnam have Khmer names. The name "Soc Trang" too comes from the Khmer language.
Vietnamese people actually came to this region after Khmer people were already here. However, after many years of fighting between the two groups, the Vietnamese today have more power than many Khmer people. That is why the most common language spoken at school and work in Soc Trang is Vietnamese. If you talk to Khmer people who live here and if you spend time with their families or visit their homes, you will see and hear people use Khmer.
Different forms of Chinese and the Cham language are spoken in Soc Trang too. This makes Soc Trang a really interesting place because all of these cultures and languages exist together here.
The most common currency used in Vietnam is the Vietnamese đồng. Although people in Vietnam used both coin and paper money in the past, today, only paper money is used. There are different kinds of paper bills in Vietnam: there are small bills (500, 1000, 2000, 5000) and large bills (10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, 200,000, and 500,000). On the front of every Vietnamese bill, there is a picture of the face of Hồ Chí Minh, a very important figure in Vietnam. On the back of bill, there is a picture of a famous place in the country.
At most places I've been to in Soc Trang, you buy a bottle of water for about 10,000 đồng (which is the equivalent of about forty cents). However, there are some places where you can buy a bottle of water for cheaper.
