A couple of interesting things about money in Cambodia.  First, the use of US dollars and Cambodian Riel is completely mixed.  $1 is 4000 Riel.  Prices are mostly quoted in dollars, but sometimes in Riel.  At first they have pity on you and point out which bills you need to use if you get confused.  But you quickly learn how to do the math and feel totally comfortable paying and getting change in mixed currency.

A handful of Riel bills are below.  1000 is worth a quarter, 100 is 2.5¢, etc.  The biggest I’ve seen so far is 10,000.  One thing we all like is that we never have to carry coins or empty our jangling pockets at the end of the day!

The other interesting thing is that all US bills bigger than $5 need to be in TOTALLY pristine condition or most places won’t take them.  Even if there is just a small split along an edge, they literally bring it back to you and ask for another one without any rips.  For those of you in the U.S., if you look at the picture below, you probably think it’s worth $20…  For those of you in Siem Reap, you know it’s pretty much worthless unless you can sneak it in somewhere that they aren’t doing close inspection!  (OK, U.S. friends — I challenge you to take a look in your wallets and see how much value-less paper you’re carrying around :^)