Show us yer wad

One of the things we've normalised living in Cambodia, but seems strange to a first time visitor is the monetary system. Daily life here never calls for a card of any sort - our credit cards & debit cards are at the back of a drawer somewhere. In fact, apart from posh hotels and high end stores, you couldn't use a card in Phnom Penh if you tried. Only one thing cuts it here - cold, hard cash. In fact, my wallet is so empty that i'm thinking of taking to carrying around a roll of notes like an East-End Gangster. The only complication in an otherwise very simple system is that there are 2 currencies in circulation here - US dollars and Cambodian Riels - and both are notes only (no coins). Cambodia opted to dollarize it's economy back in the early 1990's, presumably for the perceived stability of the currency. $1 USD is currently worth around 4200 riels. You can pay for things with either Dollars or Riels but in practise we usually pay in dollars, get large change in Dollars and small change in Riels. This works pretty well as it's always good to have a supply of Riels for sub $1 items such as food, drinks and moto's. Having said that, the 100 Riel notes can get pretty annoying, worth about 2 cents and not good for much at all !