Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Dirhams

The standard unit of currency in Morocco is the Dirham. It's not on any currency markets (as far as I know), and is controlled by the Moroccan government, ie: they set the exchange rate, you can't remove Dirhams from the country, etc. The exchange rate isn't bad at all, we're talking a little under 9 Dirhams to a dollar. It's pretty easy to get a meal for a buck or two - most round loaves of bread - although not huge, are only around 1.20 Dirhams. I just bought breakfast this morning for 8 Dirhams, which included a cafe au lait and a fresh croissaint. Lunch was closer to twenty, since I had a Moroccan-style Cheese Burger (read: small quantity of mystery meat, more veggies) with a small salad and fries, plus a bottle of Coke.
There are a large amount of western-style goods, from Gilette Mach 3 Razors to Pringles, and they're appropriately more expensive, pretty much on par with western prices, which seem astronomical here. This even extends to the lone McDonald's I've seen in Rabat, which is actually somewhat of a luxury dining establishment, given that McDonald's is about the same price - if not slightly more - here. It's pretty damn odd refer to McDonald's as any sort of upscale dining establishment, but here it fits the bill.

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