Walking the Money Tightrope

With a sprawling population of 2.6 million people, Tashkent is the fourth largest city in the former Soviet Union. Rebuilt as a modern city after the crippling 1966 earthquake that levelled much of the physical foundation and left 300,000 homeless, wide, clean boulevards crisscross emerald parks, enormous fountains serving as backdrops for the newly married. The ethnic mix is fascinating. Mostly comprised of Uzbeks (Sunni Muslims, although about 10% actually practice) and ethnic Russians there are also sizeable populations of Tatars, Kazakhs, Persians and Koreans. Though generally friendly now, the Uzbeks and Russians do not typically intermarry, constrained by religous typing and overtones from harsh conflicts.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, bringing with it Uzbekistan's tumultuous independence just 15 years ago this weekend, the large scowling bust of Karl Marx in the main square was replaced by a suitably patriotic statue of neorevisionist hero Amir Timur on horseback. The history buff will remember him as Tamerlane, the very same tyrant who conquered Central Asia and Persia through campaigns of terror, building huge structures of human skulls of the slain to intimidate his enemies. A little further west is Mustaqillik maydoni, also known as Independence Square, which used to sport the USSR's largest Lenin statue. In its place, a larger-than-necessary towering brass globe with garish map of Uzbekistan in neon glow.

Threading the money needle here has been exhausting and ridiculous. At the current exchange rate, 1 dollar equals about 1200 Uzbek som, but the highest printed note is the somewhat rare 1000 som, with the 500 som note being the standard ote. Therefore changing $100 (the only bill acceptable) gives you an enormous stack of money (an Australian gentleman let me snap this photo) and carrying it around safely and discretely becomes impossible. It's the American equivalent of carrying $200 in only dollar bills! The ATM problem is just as bad, as they can be found only in the big hotels and are unsurprisingly nearly always cashless. I have only two credit cards, MasterCard and American Express, neither accepted anywhere. Only Visa. I walked around all day with the equivalent of 17 dollars, taking dirt-cheap taxis from one hotel to the next, only to find empty bankomats. After three hours and one liter of body sweat, I was able to find an apparition between a foot of plexiglas at the Sheraton who could use a terminal to access my SESLOC debit card. The stupid $300 daily limit may squeeze me since I almost certainly have to buy an airline ticket to Kiev by cash and it won't be that cheap. Plus I am trying to squeeze in a trip to Samarkand, one of the world's oldest cities 300 miles away, so the balancing act will be tricky indeed.

Who knew that traveling in Central Asia would be such a problem in logic?