Took new bills to SE Asia

A month before the trip that my wife, Pnina, and I took to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in January-February ’13, I contacted my local bank and asked them to start saving me new, never-used bills in denominations of $5, $10 and $20. I’d read in ITN about the problems travelers had with even slightly marked or folded bills being rejected (June ’12, pg. 44).

I found that it took some time to get bills that had never been used. Apparently, new bills aren’t provided to banks regularly or may be available at some branches but not at others. 

Bank staff said that in my area they can experience a run on new bills ahead of Chinese New Year, which is usually in late January or early February, as cash is a traditional New Year’s gift. Actually, the holiday probably worked to my advantage, as local banks had stocked some new currency in preparation for it.

The three countries we visited all required visas to be purchased on arrival at the entry point, and all three required payment in US dollars. For us, this was at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; at the airport in Luang Prabang, Laos, and, in Cambodia, at the border station for boats on the Mekong River (at the border with Chau Doc, Vietnam).

US currency was accepted in many stores in Vietnam. With the new bills, we never had a problem in Southeast Asia. At times, I was given US currency in change that was obviously not new.

MIKE ROTHENBERG

San Jose, CA