Locked Up Abroad

August 4, 2009, Bokhara (but not posted until out of Uzbekistan)

 

You all told me it would happen. See the picture. (It is not me--just some other poor dummy locked up in a dungeon by the Emir years ago.) Judy says that a few American tourists got locked up in Iran recently. Since I had been in the mountains, I had not posted for a while. Judy does not know my exact itinerary (I don't either), and she wondered whether I might have been locked up abroad. So far, despite the above pictorial evidence, I have not. And I do not intend to be. But I have to constantly have to think about it.

 

....Every time we go across a police checkpoint (there were maybe half a dozen checkpoints in the five hour bus ride yesterday, for instance), the driver gets out, and talks to the police while we sit in the bus or taxi. Then the driver jumps back in and off we go. Took me a few days to realize that every time before the driver gets out, he puts three or four bills in his wallet/papers. I doubt they are there when he gets back and drives off.

 

....I was warned by somebody familiar with Uzbekistan that the police often pull yopu off into a side room to do a search for drugs, bombs, and such. They make you put all your stuff on the table, and you leave the room. When you come back, yhou are cleared to go. However, you do not have as much money in the wallet as you used to have. They do not take it all, just a few bills of your foreign currency.

 

....I needed to change money today. I went to the official exchange window--The rate was 1500 to the dollar. I said no thanks, and walked away. As I walked away, a rich woman caught up to me. (I knew she was rich because she had all her teeth, and they were all gold!)  She offered to change money at 1550. I said no, and we started to negotiate. We wound up at 1790. I changed $100. (A side note--the largest bill here is 1000--about 55 cents. And she only had so many of those, so she gave me a bunch of 500's--altogether some two or three inches thick of paper!!!). Three minutes later, in a rather remote part of the "Ark" (fort) where I was all alone, I saw a policeman approaching and saying he wanted to talk to me. (I'm assuming that is what he was saying.) "Oh darn," I thought, or words to that effect, "maybe I should have gone with the official rate of exchange at the government window." Turns out, he just wanted to escort me to a really remote, undeveloped part of the fort where I could get a good picture of the old city. "Panoramski!" And I said "Skolka?" and he said "Nie." And I said "No money?" He said "No Money." He unlocked the gate that led to the remote area, where he and I would be alone just after I changed $100 into local currency. I turned away and walked back to where I could find some other western tourists to hang around.

 

.....A lady at breakfast this morning said if I had an Armenian Visa in my passport, I would be denied entry into Azerbaijan.

 

.....Another person warned me to be sure to keep the entry stamps and paperwork. Not having them could be considered something illegal, and I could be fined $1000 for visa irregularities.

 

What more is there to worry about? Am I doing this right? Is this a forbidden area? What is that group of young boys doing just beyond the wall in the dark? There's always something to think about. As a Swiss lady said this morning--"You just cannot turn off your brain."

 

(PS....when I paid to visit the Zinda (dungeon and torture chamber) today, I did not pay the extra 1500 for the permit to take pictures......but I snuck this shot anyway cause this guy looked so forlorn sitting there in the dirt.I did not get caught. At least they have not come for me yet.)

 

NOTE ON POSTING--I am posting from Moscow after leaving Uzbekistan at 4:50 this morning (August 8). True to form, I was searched (actually frisked) twice, went through two metal detectors/luggage x-ray machines, had ten minutes of hassle because I could not produce the registration paperwork from two days of a hotel stop in Bokharra (He finally gave up and let me go, but looked ominous.), and had to empty my backpack in a separate room with one policeman/guard in attendance. I was not, however, asked to leave the room, and I was missing no money.