The Almighty Dirham

The first thing many of you ask me about is money, so let's talk about money. The National Currency of UAE is the Dirham. It is actually regulated against the dollar and has not changed in value verses the dollar in years. It takes 3.675 Dirhams to equal $1 US Dollar. So the trick is to do quick math in your head to equate values. Lunch typically costs 25 Dirhams (sounds like a lot, but it really is about $9 dollars. You can have food delivered to your office or apartment, and a guy on a bike delivers it for a service charge of 5 Dirhams, yes a little over a dollar. So if I don't want to go out in the 115 degree temperature for lunch, I can have KFC, McDonalds, Hardees, Burger King, Pizza Hut or a number of local restaurant's deliver for a 5 Dirham service charge. The tipping is minimal, with 10% being considered generous. Several times at lunch my companions have left no tip, as they will say that service was nothing extraordinary. I am doing my best to be a generous American, and help with our image with one server at a time lol.

The handling of money is also quite different than what we are accustomed to. To rent an apartment for a year, you negotiate on the total dollars for the year. My apartment (signing contract this morning) is going to run $65,000 Dirhams. It is considered to be a huge bargain. The real Estate market here has depreciated by 2/3 rds in the last 3 years. You have to pay a deposit and the first 6 months in advance. The building I am in downtown, is about 2 years old, and 1 bedroom apartments initially rented for $200,000 Dirhams. My timing as far as housing could not be any better.

Money does spend differently. I cashed a relocation bonus at the bank, and they gave me $1,000 Dirham bills, $500, $200, $100, $50, $20, $10 and $5 Dirham bills. They use silver coins for $1 Dirham, and cents are called "Fills". I can grab a taxi to the mall and with a tip it costs me $10 Dirhams - yes $3.68 US Dollars. On the other hand, blue jeans cost over $900 Dirhams, so I need to wait for the "Winter wardrobe sale".

Well it is Saturday, and I need to get some things accomplished before work tomorrow. Please excuse the grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, and please let me know how you are doing. Anything you are curious about send me a note, or post it here, I will cover some basics, then endeavor to spin yarns about my adventure in Dubai....

Much Love,

John