Leaving from Denau, our plan was to follow the southern road edging the Turkmenistan border towards Bukhara and the Uzbek desert. However, we first needed to get money for our travels. If anyone has been to Uzbekistan, they know about ridiculous amount of cash they need to carry around. When inflation was rampant in the 90s, the Uzbek government officially didn\u2019t recognize the problem. This meant that the Uzbek Som was steadily losing value, but higher denomination notes were not in circulation \u2013 meaning that a simple item required bags of money. Recently, the government started printing 10,000 and 50,000 Som notes, but these are still equivalent to 1.20 and 6 USD, respectively. More common, though, are the 1,000 and 5,000 Som notes.<\/p>\n
Uzbekistan has tried for decades to fight inflation \u2013 and succeeded in making the financial and banking system a nightmare for normal people by limiting the possibilities of international transfers (both cash and electronic), while simultaneously closing eyes on a corrupt elite using foreign hard currencies (part of the cause of inflation). A vicious cycle that seemed to get better since the death of the previous despot (ahem, <\/em>president) and a new more liberal president since 2016.<\/p>\n When C\u00e9dric and I crossed into Uzbekistan, we traded the rest of our Tajik Somoni with Som (Uzbek ‘cym’ in Cyrillic, but a different Som from the the Kyrgyz Som the Tajik Somoni), which was a confusing ordeal. In Som, the value of our cash needed for a week ran into six or seven figures, but most of the bills were still only 1,000 Som. As we were trying to count our money from the exchanger, one guy gestured that it was useless and pointed to the sky. Allah is watching, he won\u2019t cheat you. Before we left Denau, C\u00e9dric went to the bank to find more cash for our trip because we heard that money for foreigners was difficult to come by\u2026<\/p>\n Uzbekistan remains nevertheless THE problematic country with currencies. Because international ATMs are rare in the country (inexistent in most towns, and you can be happy if a city has one functioning), we decided to pile up notes in Denau \u2013 to make sure we could last until at least Bukhara. We hoped to have about 300 to 400$ in local currency to be able to survive for the next few weeks and cover any surprise costs. That means getting about 3,3M UZS in notes (i.e. getting 70 notes if we are super lucky, and up to 33.000 notes if we aren\u2019t!). The hotel pointed us the direction of the famous ATM, a few hundred meters away. First surprise, the ATM only accepts Uzbek cards (which we obviously don\u2019t plan on getting), but some locals tell us that it\u2019s not a problem, it\u2019s all inside. Short look around, there are tens (possibly a hundred) women queuing to get into the bank! And it\u2019s only 8:45, the bank only opens at 9am. Slightly depressed about the idea to spend the morning desperately waiting for a pile of paper, I understand that all those ladies are waiting for their weekly paycheck (or their husband\u2019s, since they prefer to smoke and drink tea \u2013 bank stuff is not a task for men! More in another post about men in Central Asia\u2026), and that they basically waste half a day per week to get their cash. 9am, the bank opens \u2013 big rush, almost a riot to get into the bank, so they close the metal gates a few seconds after opening. The manager stares outside and spots the town\u2019s VIPs \u2013 he points at me and brings me right ahead of everyone in town. Mixed feelings between relief (we might be able to cycle today) and shame (a non-negligible percentage of Denau looking at you, passing in front of the line. No yelling, riots or tomato throwing, it seems normal that the Nomenklatura is privileged here). I was hoping that things would be pretty fast now as I am literally the first customer of the day (and three employees are at the counters), but first thing they tell me to sit down in the waiting room, before one guy brings me to a booth and asks what I want. Well, get some Uzbek cash \u2013 I am not yet ready to apply for a mortgage here! A few papers to fill, a bunch of questions, and he tells me to go back to the waiting room. 10 minutes later, another employee comes and same procedure, same documents, not the same booth though, but this time it looks like the person is going to need a special authorization from a supervisor. A little more waiting before another employees gets a credit-card terminal, and the transaction is accepted \u2013 I have never been that close to get some bills! But, the cash is in the safe room, so a manager only can get the money, the employees fills a bunch of documents to (I guess) give each other the authorization to get some cash. More waiting, even more waiting, and a manager arrives with 300$ in 3 notes of 100$! I don\u2019t care about USD, I want some Uzbek Som! So, back to the waiting room, because they don\u2019t have enough UZS (that\u2019s about 2,8M Som \u2013 again usually given in 1000 Som notes). Same procedure of documents to give each other the access to a manager able to open the safe, more waiting and the manager brings me to the underground of the bank where cash is stored in plastic bags and piles of notes accumulate around the cash-cave-dude. It\u2019s been over an hour of documents filling, authorizations and waiting \u2013 and they haven\u2019t served any other customer yet, so some ladies start banging on the windows out of desperation. After a few more signatures, I hit the jackpot and get my piles of money that I had to hide into \u2026 well try to imagine where to put hundreds of notes in cycling shorts without getting beaten off by all the rioting ladies in Denau!<\/p>\n