Ode to the Piastre by venitha

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"Do you have a little dong?" Andrea asks me as she returns from the Temple of Literature's restroom, where there is apparently a little charge.

"Yeah, but maybe you want to ask the guys."

*****

"Can you pay for this?" Jim asks as we climb into an Old Quarter cyclo. "I've got no dong."
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Outside a Hanoi ATM, Brian surveys the boss: "How much dong you gonna need tonight, baby?"

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Jim puts some serious thought into it when I ask for his Vietnamese food impression. "I appreciate the challenge food. Dog meat and weasel coffee? Very creative. And that 15-dong soup Brian had? Whoa."
For the record, no way am I eating dog meat, we all loved the weasel coffee, and Brian thoroughly enjoyed his 15-dong soup.

*****

Andrea is extraordinarily kind when the third atrocious singer finishes her third atrocious song. "They need an editor."

Jim is not so kind. "They need Chuck Barris and a gong."

Gong, dong, close enough. And truly, if I manage to save anyone's dong from exposure to Hanoi's Central Circus, it's well worth the thematic departure. Seriously, stick to the water puppets.
*****
venitha