Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Sept 30/Oct 1, Saturday/Sunday

Flew Turkish Air into Tashkent, Uzbekistan, arriving at 1:30 AM.  Had to clear the visa dept; money exchange dept; filled in some forms TWICE, declaring how much money we were bringing into the country; then finally cleared customs by 3AM.  Thankfully the driver that our guide Mehmet had arranged was still there waiting. 

Oct 2, Monday, Tashkent

Needless to say, with our internal clock so out of whack with the 12 hour difference in time we slept most of the day. 

(A side note here on the money situation.  We were told not to exchange too much  US money into Uzbek Som (pronounced soom) until we could see how far it could go, so I changed $25 US and at 8000 som to the US dollar, got back 200,000 som.  No typing error here, folks.  Fortunately it was in large bills. i.e.: several 50,000, 10,000 and 5000 but found it daunting as we still didn’t know how far this would take us.   

Our hotel is a 5 Star and is more appropriate for business men on company budgets so we wanted to go to a more unique little place for dinner.  Found a little trendy Bistro up the street; Mike had ordered a burger and to his surprise a pair of black latex gloves came with his meal, which surprised both of us until we noticed others who had burgers were wearing them.  On they went and he quickly found out why because their burgers were so juicy that it was dripping all over his hands and plate.  No alcohol was served in the restaurant so both had tea.  Total bill came to 104,000 som or $13.00 US.  Another shake of our heads!  Such good food and for so little.  

Back at the hotel we changed another $50US but this time the girl only had small bills; i.e.: 1000 Som.  So our $50 gave us 400,000 Som!  Came in 4 wrapped bundles of 100,000 som each, or 4 inches high!  Now we understand why a ‘man purse’ became necessary.

Mosque at sunset

400,000 som

200,000 som or $25.00!