There are bills to pay

The local currency is known as dong.  Today’s exchange rate is 23,320 dong to 1 U.S. dollar.  There are no coins in Vietnam.  All forms of official currency are paper.  The smallest bill I’ve seen is 200 dong (0.0086 cents) not even worth a penny.  They won’t take them on the bus.  They will accept 500 notes, but not 200 notes.  The largest bill I’ve seen is 500,000 dong (about $21.50).  An easy conversion (as described by a Math teacher), take off four zeros and divide by two. 

Thus, our monthly rent of 15,300,000 dong would be (take off 4 zeros, divide by 2) $765.  Hmmm, too high.  Rent is closer to $650.   Note to self: formula doesn’t work as well with higher numbers.

So what do monthly expenses look like?   Rent, electricity, water, gas, internet, drinking water, management fee, phone.  August wasn’t a good example because it included part of July charges on most bills.  Now, as the end of the month approaches, most things are on a cycle I can interpret.

The management fee for the apartment is 1,158,300 dong (about $50).  I don’t know exactly what this covers, but I do know maintenance came this week to fix a broken window, the locks on the sliding doors, and drill holes to hang all our photos.  This appears to be part of the service.  We do have a security guard at the front door to the complex.  Someone cleans the marble hallways daily.  There is a garbage collection point on each floor, that never appears to be overflowing.  The empty boxes from last week’s shipment were flattened, left outside the apartment door and disappeared.  We have 4 working elevators.  The use of the pool is free.  I am alright paying $50 for all that.

Water in the apartment – remember, only the bathroom has hot water.  The monthly bill for that appears to be 82,915 dong.  That is $3.50.  I guess I don’t need to try to shorten my showers to save money.  I wonder what that one bath I took will cost me.

Gas – the two burners are the only items in the house that use gas.  It seemed like a real feat in Ankara when the gas canister did not have to be replaced the entire time I lived there.  Thus, I wasn’t at all surprised when a replacement gas canister was needed in the first month here.  Karma.  Unable to figure out exactly what number to call, I took a photo of the canister and went to the security guard at the front desk.  He called the gas company and a new canister was delivered (and hooked up) in less than an hour.  It appears to be about 20 liters of gas (about 5 gallons) and cost 397,000 dong ($17.00).  It could last 6 months or more, perhaps a year.  It all depends on how much cooking is done.

Internet – I’m still trying to figure this one out.  All I know is a guy rings the bell, says, “Internet.”  I pay him money, he gives me a receipt.  We have internet.  This is 302,000 dong ($13.00).  Hmmm – I wonder if that includes some kind of cable fee that isn't being used.

Phone – we both have cell phones.  One of us only turns HIS on when he wants to make a call.  The other one went with a 3G package in order to have internet use when away from the apartment and without wifi.  In places like, uh, the bus (love that bus app).  This is another bill I’m trying to figure out.  There was the initial charge for a SIM card.  I can’t remember that one – maybe 100,000 dong.  I reached the end of my first month of usage and went to put more money on my account.  This was quite an adventure.  I know I can buy the codes at the local convenience store, but I evidently was saying the wrong thing.  They wouldn’t sell me anything, despite the 200,000 dong in my hand.  A colleague who lives in the building came to help me.  I got a piece of paper with a series of numbers on it.  She knew which ones to enter … and I had another month of coverage.  As I recall, it is about 80,000 dong for the 3G plan (that I don’t come close to using).  That is less then $3.50.  Every person in Vietnam has at least 1.2 cell phones, so there is pretty good coverage.  My theory is they didn’t get the phone infrastructure up before cell phones took over.

Drinking water – I am trying to increase my water intake to avoid the inevitable swelling in this heat and humidity, so an 18-liter bottle is emptied about every 4-5 days.  Thus, every 10 days, water needs to be resupplied.  One phone call, one hour later, two bottles of water delivered to the door, 95,000 dong ($4).  Drink more water.  In addition to straight drinking water, it is also used for ice cubes and making tea – but not boiling eggs or rice.

Yes, I have been saving the big one for the end.  Electricity.  You know what uses electricity?  The air conditioner.  So far, it is a rare occasion to be in the apartment without the air conditioning running.  Those gorgeous cooling afternoon monsoons don’t really bring the temperature down THAT much.  At least, not on the 7^th floor.  The first full month of electricity was 1,805,042 dong ($ 77.00).  Hey, at least it wasn’t over 2,000,000.  Perhaps as “winter” sets in, it will cool off, and I won’t want air conditioning all the time.  One can always hope.  I admit, I do prefer sleeping with a light blanket than waking up dripping in sweat, feeling like I’m in a sauna (don’t laugh, it happened once last week when I went to bed and forgot to turn on the AC).

So, all in all, a relatively cheap cost of living.  It is also well within our housing allowance.

 

Health care costs?  That’s a different blog post.