Currency & tips

Riel or dollar?

 In Cambodia they use two different currencys. US dollar and the own currency called Riel.

One of the first tips i got when i first came to Cambodia was to allways try get rid of riel when i get it. No good money noone want, no safe currency etc.

After staying here for a long while i consider it beeing a bad advice....Why?

The atms mostly give 100s, 50s, 20s, 10,s and 5s in different combinations depending on bank. I recommend to use ABA atm as they dont give 50s or 20s but rather 100s and then everything else in 10s or 5s. It can be hard when you are stuck with only 20s and want to pay a mototaxi 1$ for the ride home, obviously.

Now when you are stuck with 10s and 5 dollar bills you can expect alot of hustle with vendors and drivers simply not having any change. Ofcourse they dont open the seat of the tuktuk where they keep their change until they know you wont give up.

Solution i allways go with myselfe. Keep the 10s and 5s to pay in stores and restaurant when you buy for more then just a couple of dollars.

Go to one of the markets and look for a counter with alot of bills taped up on the inside of the glass. Give one of your 100dollar bill to the lady and ask for riel. You should get at least 400.000 riel in 5.000-20.000riel bills.

Now your pockets is loaded with 1,25-2,50-5$ bills, but in riel. Will save you some hustle.

Even tho its a currceny not to invest in you will not have to worry when changing a 100$ bill at the time. And no longer will you get that look when you hand over a 100$ bill. Remember that the minimum wage is 140$ from 2016 to get some pespective on what you actually are handing over.

You can allways pay in riel (with some exceptions). Normally 4.000 riel = 1$ but stores chan have their own exchangerate. For example many minimarts take 4250 riel for a 1$ purchase.