Khiva - Bukhara road + som(e) notes | Uzbekistan - Lonely Planet Forum

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Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:32:57 +0000

Just returned from Uzbekistan there are some unanswered questions which some of you out there might help us with. The road from Khiva to Bukhara has a 120 km passage which is strange/awful - many ways to look at it. One post here says it's the result of a quarrel between Koreans and Germans. Does anyone know more exact what the main problem is - and if there is any chance the road will be finished as it was planned?

I also wonder if anyone knows why they keep 1000 som as the biggest bank note. It is very unpractical for everyone, but I imagine there is an idea why they keep it this way. Does anyone have a reasonable explanation?

Thanks for any input!

Arne

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Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:27:03 +0000

A local told me last year that every few years, like 5 years, they changed the nomination of the notes. So things might be better in a couple of years. The rate for the Uz Sum is not that stable and as it looses value you get the problem.

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Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:16:57 +0000

Re: Uzbek currency, I don't know if this is true or not but it's my educated guess having studying post-Soviet politics. By not printing larger denomination notes, the government is trying to ignore the fact that their currency has massively devalued over the past 18 years so printing new notes is like admitting failure. When the Sum was introduced in 1994 it was something like 25 or 30 to US$1, now it's nearly 2000 to US$1. The 1000 Sum note was first printed in 2001 or 2002. By 2003 this was already worth approximately US$1 though I remember they were quite rare and mostly you got 500s when you exchanged dollars.

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