The Elusive Bankomat

It has come to be a familiar event for me, after many pratfalls through Eastern Europe, Russia and now Central Asia. A freshly unshoed foot mummified in sweaty, matted sock, making a duct tape sound as it is carefully peeled off, with bits of skin attached. Of the six blisters now on my soles, only one was bleeding, but two others needed lanced. Badly. The sidewalks here are torturous and in awful condition -- uneven, cracked, dusty and pocked. Street lighting is generally nonexistent so, upon the onset of dawn, the ground ahead becomes as black as the hand in front of your face. A daytime inventory of the numerous uncovered manholes is probably mandatory here if one wishes to live to the next year. All this in an effort to procure colored slips of paper printed with funny looking Kyrgyz statesmen.

Although I had read that Bishkek was overwhelmingly a cash economy, I foolishly neglected to research the actual availability of ATMs in this city of 1.1 million. I guess it shouldn't really be a surprise that there are only four ATMs in the city and I, after covering a 4-mile radius on foot, found all of them. Too bad they were all out of service, meaning they had run out of money. My normal operating mode of not carrying much cash on my person, instead hitting the bankomats on a need-to basis, has finally run aground. I arrived on Monday with about 800 Russian rubles (about 32 dollars), exchanging it immediately into 1250 Kyrgyz som. Unfortunately I'm down to 250 som and my only currency right now is my dumbass grin. I've been charging my daily meals of vegetable puree and Siberskaya Korona to my room so I'm not starving, but I am somewhat concerned about not being able to purchase transport into Uzbekistan, the next stop in Rod's stumble-a-thon through Central Asia. Things could be worse, though.

Last night I had dinner and drinks with a fellow guest at the Silk Road Lodge, a journalist from Dallas who is in seriously dire straits. She had been filming a documentary down south in Osh, Kyrgystan's second city and the epicenter of government oppression and Kyrgyz-Uzbek ethnic violence. Apparently her project had been deemed too sensitive for public consumption because she was taken into custody and her passport confiscated, effectively imprisoning her indefinitely since mid-July. On top of that she developed a kidney infection after going three days without adequate water. Fortunately, the embassy got her medical care and set her up with accomodations. She has been threatened with a 3-year sentence for spying and the embassy does not seem to be able to adequately deal with the situation. Her story may break in the media, however, and John McCain called her parents yesterday. So there may be movement afoot. This country is critically dependent on tourism and keeping a blonde American girl a political prisoner would go a long way towards sabotaging their carefully conceived marketing strategies.

Today: Must find a working ATM and a way to Uzbekistan. Things are not bad here, it is friendly here, and I'm enjoying myself despite the sad state my feet are in.

UPDATE: ATM found and withdrew $200 in Kyrgyz som. This is four times the monthly salary of a well-paid job here so I'm kinda nervous, -- already people have been staring at the large wad of bills in my pocket. Like Belarus, this currency has no coinage, it is all paper. Additionally, I bought an airline ticket for Tashkent, but it's not leaving until Saturday morning. So I get to celebrate Independence Day with the Kyrgyz, who will be celebrating 15 years of autonomy from the Soviet Union. I believe the traditional gift for that anniversary is crystal. Somehow I don't think I'll be seeing much of that although broken glass comes in spades.