Tour De Cashpoint⁣

Cash in Uzbekistan can be tricky to get hold of. When you cross the border you’re best exchanging American dollars on the black market; in cafes across the border you’ll find women with wads of Uzbekistan som waiting for tourists who need money. The exchange rate isn’t too bad at all and sets you up until you can get to a larger place like Nukus to withdraw.⁣

Finding a cashpoint has its challenges for tourists, not all cashpoints will take foreign cards – those that do take foreign cards might take visa, but not MasterCard and visa versa.⁣

The notes in Uzbekistan are huge with £1 equalling 10,000 som. This means cashpoints get emptied quickly. Locals and tourists will need to make several withdrawals in order to get what they need. We withdrew 4million som in Nukus. ⁣

We struggled in Samarkand – our own fault for getting into the midst of the tourist area before making a cash withdraw. We had to cycle around 5 cashpoints before we found one suitable.⁣

Just before we left for tour de cashpoint I’d been on Twitter. I’d seen a tweet about British cyclist, @joshreids. His father tweeted that he was in Samarkand and he was making his way home from Shanghai. ⁣

Moments after we left our hotel I spotted Josh! Must’ve been the weirdest exchange ever for him because I think the first question I said to him was “what’s your dads name?” 🤣 must’ve felt bizarre, but I was excited by the coincidence.⁣

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