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. At the college where I teach, for example, I can buy a bottle for 5,000 đồng.
Bottled water is an important resource in Soc Trang because most of the water that people use here for farming and in their houses and other places is not safe to drink.
Although maybe it doesn't really count as a meal, I think the best thing I ate this past week was a birthday cake that my friend's aunt made for my birthday. My friend is Khmer and her aunt knows that I have been trying to learn the Khmer language, so she and her husband wrote "Happy Birthday" in Khmer on the cake for me. She even put Skittles in the center of the cake. Yummy!
