I think the weirdest thing about Cambodia was the country’s use of US dollars. It’s not just that you could use them there, but it was really the preferred way to pay. Everything, from convenience-store snacks to mall clothes to park entrance fees was written in US dollars.
And it wasn’t just for the tourists, either…even in the not-for-tourist places (like the salon I got my hair done at…$20 for a perm and hair cut), all the prices were posted in dollars. I think the only place that didn’t request dollars was the open-air food market I went to. They told me the price in riel but didn’t care if I paid in riel or dollars.
As someone who never carried cash while in the US (why bother when you can pay by everything with your debit card?), my time in Cambodia was probably the most dollars I’d had on me in over a few years. Crazy!
But the best part of it all was that because everything is marked in US dollars, the exchange rate is pretty much nil, which is good news when our dollar ain’t doin’ so hot.
