We knew we've ventured into a different world and a different culture where all the vendors are men. They were exceedingly friendly. They've probably never seen orientals like us and have never known foreigners to take an interest in them. I took a picture of this guy, he smiled, I showed him his picture and his friends came to see it too and were envious. It was Sunday and this market was being set up. When I travel I like to see a riot of colors, a cackle of unknown languages, people dressed in different garb, have different means of transportation (there's a lot of donkey power here, I've never come this close to finding donkeys this endearing before). There'll be lots of donkeys all through future postings. This was metropolitan Casablanca, there isn't any donkeys here. Casablanca is a very modern city, the newer parts are clean and fancy, just like any other European city but who wants to see that. I came to see old Casablanca, I came to see old Morocco. The guy posed for his picture without demanding money. Most of the time we had to pay to take their pictures. We did so only when we think it was worth it. At the time of our visit, US$1 = 8.5 dirhams and 1 euro = 11 dirhams. The going rate of a tip is 10 dirhams, some demanded more but you can always wave them away and say,'no more'. We gave 20 dirhams, for some reason they seem to think that both parties should fork out something!
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