Jewelry shops and black-market money changers have overflowed with customers in recent weeks, desperate to unload their Vietnamese dong for greenbacks or gold nuggets as the fast-growing Southeast Asian nation is buffeted by double-digit inflation and the near collapse of one of its largest state-owned companies.
But despite all the country's progress, high school teacher Ninh, 33, says she's sticking with something that never loses its luster.
"You can see that the dong is losing its value. Everyday, you go to the market and everything is getting more expensive," she said while exchanging 7.2 million dong ($360) for about 7.5 grams of gold at a bustling gold shop in Hanoi. "It's a safer place for my savings."
