You could request to pay in dong, but it merely meant that the widely respected exchange rate of the day would be applied and you would use the local currency without favor or disfavor falling on either party. I remember that before we left the U.S., I had read that what I believed to be an inordinate amount of the American workforce consists of sales people. When we arrived in Vietnam, I was even more surprised to see how many people were engaged in selling something, anything from stores or on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Maybe it's the youth of the population that makes it seem so dynamic. Vietnam's population is extremely young.
People work very hard in Vietnam to eke out a living selling anything.
There were more than two dozen shops just selling shoes in one square block of Hanoi. These scenes can be found in much of East Asia, but in Vietnam it is more dynamic, more intense. Even front wall-less living rooms often open out into the streets in this hot and humid country where privacy seems only to be had at a premium expense. We asked our hotel clerk in Hanoi about all of the farmer women who show up in droves in the city every morning when everyone else is waking up. He said they take the bus or train and that they come from very far out in the province.