Vietnam, So Long and Thanks for all the Dong

Here we are leaving the country and I have completely neglected to discuss the Vietnam currency until now.  The every eloquent sounding Dong.  The jokes never got old either.  "My pocket is  bulging with dong!", "Kelly was low on dong, so I gave her some last night", "Just one dollar will get you 20,000 Dong!" and the adaptable, "I just traded that old lady some dong for this necklace [or insert any other inappropriate noun here]".  Give the Dong Game a whirl at home and see what you can come up with! 

Ho Chi Minh City was the finale of the Vietnam tour.  Like Hanoi, it's another big ass city but with astonishing statistic that it has even more vehicles. Many people still refer to Ho Chi Minh City by it's maiden name, Saigon, though the change was official in 1975.  It's like trying to get everyone on board to call PacBell Park by it's newest name (who's the current corporate sponsor?).  Many of the maps I've seen still label it "Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)", just in case.  This may be a reflection on the IQ of your average traveler.  

I'd summarize my Vietnam adventure as surprisingly awesome.  I had very little expectations, probably due to my very little research.  Everywhere I went the people were delightful, the food was delicious and the beaches were beyond gorgeous.  The one void in the awesomeness that is Vietnam was the lack of FaceBook.  Gasp!  The horror!  We had to endure this injustice for almost three weeks.  To my shock, and I'm sure most of your's, my brain did not implode from the lack of a stalking outlet and we even found out about Whitney Houston's overdose with out the help of the mass postings on FaceBook.  Contrary to popular belief, it was actually possible to function without the hourly emotional updates posted by my ex co-worker's after changing her relationship status to "single" or without knowing how many sit-ups your cousin did at the gym yesterday.  All possible, just not preferable.  I was probably (definitely) inappropriately excited about getting to check my FaceBook page when I got into Cambodia this week.  Only to be instantly disappointed to find out that absolutely nothing had happened in the past three weeks.  I would have at least hoped someone had got a puppy in that time period, subsequently posting 579 new pictures in their new album My Puppy is Cuter Than Your Puppy.  Did that dissuade me from checking it a second time that day (just in case somebody got that new puppy within the last two hours)?  FB, such a strange drug.  

You can all breathe easier now knowing we're in the FaceBook accessible country that is Cambodia.  In another stroke of fortune, Cambodia also uses good ol' American US Dollars as their primary currency.  It's a total trip to see those familiar greenbacks after all this time.  It's even stranger that I don't have to struggle through the arduous mental math of calculating the conversion on every single transaction.  It gets confusing when the entrance fee to the art museum is less than the entrance fee to use the public restroom.  The nostalgia of seeing our native currency is unexpected, I even find myself liking the distinct smell of those dirty little notes.  Ah, home!