junior's SA life: What exchange rate u want?

I visited Zimbabwe this week. This was my first time there, and I was really quite excited to go there to see for myself the situation over there. Without describing too much about the harsh living conditions there, let me tell you about a funny episode that I had there regarding the currency exchange rate...

I was having a meal at a local Indian restuarant one afternoon, and the price of the dishes were all in local Zimbabwean dollar currency. I had not had the opportunity to change money yet (btw, the official exchange rate is USD1 = Zim 250), and hence asked the restaurant owner whether he accepted US dollars. He said that it was fine.... next, he asked me what is the exchange rate that I wanted to accept! I found it quite hilarious as despite official figures, the reality was that this official rate was not even remotely close to what was the actual value of the Zim dollar. In reality, the rate that everyone in Zimbabwe is operating with today is USD1=Zim 120,000. I had a similar experience when I was at the hotel as well.

Anyway, one lesson to learn from this is when in Zimbabwe... make sure that you have hard currency and never use your credit card (cause banks would use the official exchange rate).

So, anyhow, not to bore you with my experiences there... here are some pictures taken in the streets of Harare and at the airport, as well as the restaurant that I went..