Getting Loaded In Uzbekistan

I'm rich!

I've noticed that many seem surprised If I mention that I went to Uzbekistan. To many of the geopolitical ignorant, its just one of those various random "stans" way out there which is hardly acknowledged by Western media. 

For the most part, Central Asia was pretty passive during dismantlement of the Soviet Union and held weaker national identities. Some of the post-independent nations still harness a continuity of authoritarianism. 

Uzbekistan for example has a low Freedom House score of 9/100.

Islam Karimov, guilty of human rights atrocities and President of pre-and-post-Soviet Uzbekistan remained in power until 2016. 

Uzbekistan is corrupt and still not very free but under the new leadership it's a little bit better. 

but I went there in 2015..  

I was running out of money and needed more so that I could sustain my adventurous all-travel no-work lifestyle. 

Luckily I carried something particularly of value; information.

Since I had served in the US military and was entrusted with a security clearance, I still harbored  plenty of sensitive information in my head along with bitter memories of my former superiors.... 

 Morality is subjective anyway, so I betrayed my country.  

and became a member of Uzbek elite. 

I realized that exploitative capitalism is the real enemy all along and vowed to passionately propagate the communist dream to the world.

Here's the palace I live at now:

Ok, I was actually making that stuff up. (I know you're surprised)

The reason for all the cash is that US dollars can get you a lot of Uzbek currency.. especially if sold on the black market. 

I'm not making that up. 

At the time I was there, the official rate was 2,500 SOM to 1 USD. On the black market it was around 3,500- 3,800 som to 1USD. (it fluctuates)

I know that sounds corrupt. But even Lonely Planet mentioned it and pretty much all tourists in the country did it. The importance of bringing in US dollars was notorious backpacker knowledge.

However, since the political change of administration I mentioned earlier, it seems the system has now changed. 

According to Lonely Planet; "Since currency reforms in 2017 the government exchange rate now reflects the market rate and so there's no need to seek out the black market, which has largely evaporated."

I'm grateful for the interesting experience of seeking out the black market tho, so I can feel like a bad ass. 

These clothes made me feel bad ass too :)

Uzbekistan wasn't the easiest country to get into. I applied from Bangkok and needed to wait 10 business days (weekends don't count) and the visa costed about $200. Non-Americans tended to have it way cheaper.

Also, I didn't happen to meet any other Americans in the country. However, I noticed that lots of Japanese travelers were there, which makes sense since they don't require a visa to visit. 

Fortunately, bypassing the official exchange rate by taking advantage of the black market helped make up for the visa fee.