After a reset and relax day yesterday, it was time to finally get out and explore the old town of Bukhara.

You’d think my adventures today would be all about exploring the old town and it’s ancient buildings but most of my story today revolves around my poor little bank cards that refuse to work.

My Tangerine Debit Card

I’ve used this debit card exclusively just for when I travel and I’ve never had an issue.

Even as recently as a few days ago, I was able to withdraw money from an ATM here in Uzbekistan.

However, when I tried to make another withdrawal yesterday, my card was angrily popped out with a big red “transaction refused” message on the screen.

I wasn’t too worried at first since some foreign bank machines just don’t like our cards but, when I got rejected at a few more bank machines, I knew my card was locked for whatever reason.

So, one of my missions today was to get a local sim card so I could make a call back overseas, verify that everything was fine and dandy, and get my card unlocked.

I bought a sim card only to find out that it only allowed local Uzbekistan phone calls.

Well, shit.

The girl just kept telling me to do internet calling.

Back at the hostel I fired up the Skype app on my phone only to find out that it had been taken over by Microsoft Teams.

Luckily I still had $1.82 credit from whenever I last used it and there was an option for Skype keypad dialing.

And, wouldn’t you know it – I was able to contact Tangerine bank in Canada.

After being on hold for 15 minutes I watched as my balance went down 4 cents every minute.

I finally getting ahold of someone I explained everything and started to answer security questions to confirm that it was me.

And then, my call dropped in the middle of the conversation.

Yup, I ran out of credits.

And to make matters worse since Skype no longer really exists, I had no way of buying additional credits.

Time to find a new solution.

Eventually I found the website startacall.com and after reluctantly paying 5USD for some credits I was able to call the bank back.

So, I went through the 15 hold again and then the security questions again.

This time he asked me about recent transactions so I flipped over to my banking app on my phone and starting listing off recent payments.

No response.

Hello?   Hello???

Apparently my phone call dropped when I switched app windows so, yeah, this was becoming comedy gold.

A third call back and a third time on hold and a third operator and I was finally able to go through the entire process.

However, because it was suspected fraud, I had to be transferred to the fraud department which, of course, wouldn’t be open for another hour and a half.

Comedy gold!

Eventually I did call the fraud department and he let me know that the card was automatically locked because Uzbekistan is a hotspot for fraud.

He said he’d unlock it for the next 2 hours and then talk to his bosses about getting it permanently unlocked.

So, with a sparkle in my eye, I found the closest ATM and, wouldn’t you know it – it worked!

I was 1.5 million dollars richer!

Oh, sorry, 1.5 million Uzbek soms richer!

That’s about $160 Canadian.

I still had more money in my account so I went for a second withdrawal only to find that the card had been automatically locked again.

Oh well, at least I got some money.

I’ll try again when I get out of Uzbekistan in a few days and hope everything is back to normal.

My TD Visa Card

Wow, you’re still reading?

Well, let me tell you about my visa card then.

It stopped working yesterday as well.

When I went into my online account I now noticed that there were two credit cards with different numbers in my credit card section.

Both had the same balance and activity and it was obvious to me that TD bank had issued me a new card with a new number for some reason.

My card didn’t expire for another 2 years so I was perplexed why they would do this while I was in the middle of a trip.

I used my remaining online phone credits to call them and apparently my card was used at a “compromised” location right at the beginning of my trip.

Because of that, TD Bank took upon themselves to issue me a new card 10 days ago and it wasn’t until the last day or so that they decided to cancel my previous card because they figured I’d have received my new card by now.

Oh, that new card sitting in my mailbox at home?

That one?

Yeah, so anyway, it was just by pure coincidence that both cards stopped working at the exact same time.

I messaged Ken who is watching my cats this week to check my mail and pass along the new card information so I could at least attach it to my Google pay on my phone.

He checked my mailbox and, wouldn’t you know it, there’s no card in there yet.

No worries though.

All is good.

I have some cash now.   I still have US dollars I can exchange and I, luckily, am traveling with a travel buddy this trip.

It was really just my OCD that needed to know what happened and to find solutions.

And, with that, my ATM hunting and banking debacle stories come to an end.

Exploring the city

Okay, back to being a travel blog!

So, all that banking stuff took place in the afternoon but we actually did stuff that didn’t involve phone calls and banks today.

After a good night’s sleep, we were out the door at 8:30 this morning.

There are walking tours at 9:00 and 9:30 so I quickly signed up for the 9:30 tour and we headed down to the meeting point in the center of the old town.

We arrived to a horde of people in different groups.

Holy crap!   This was ground zero for tourists.

Nope, just nope.

Quick change of plans.

Let’s get breakfast.

We came upon a spot in what I imagine is the Turkish quarter of town since they were serving the classic Turkish breakfast of Shakshouka.

Ah, that brought back memories of my trip to Istanbul a few years ago.

With food in our bellies it was time to see what this old town was all about.

Sure, we didn’t have a walking tour guide to explain to us what we were looking at but that didn’t matter.

We just went from structure to structure and admired the design and history of what was before us.

Dozens of souvenir stands later we arrived at the highlight of the town – the Ark of Bukhara.

Ark of Bukhara

This 5th century structure was originally built as a fortress and military structure.

Over time it also became a royal court and, now, it’s just a big tourist attraction.

For 75000som ($9) you can play the game of “dodge the tour groups” to explore the different buildings inside the structure.

There were alot of little museums in different rooms and, of course, souvenir stands everywhere.

And a nice view of the old town below.

We were there for about 45 minutes and by then we were both pretty sweaty and exhausted.

This heat and lack of shade here is no joke.

Dinner and a show

We spent the rest of the early afternoon at the hostel where I spent most of my time on the phone making those aforementioned calls to banks.

At 3:30 though we were back out the door to grab an extremely early dinner.

Hey, we eat when we eat and our stomachs were saying “feed us”.

Naturally the restaurant we walked into was completely empty cause who the hell eats dinner at this ridiculous hour?

Dinner tonight was a pistachio crusted lamb loin with a tkemali plum sauce and a side of roasted potatoes.

Scrumptious!

After dinner we figured we might as well catch the Uzbek folklore show taking place nearby.

We had noticed a sign about it yesterday and found out there were shows at 5pm and 7pm.

As it was just before 5pm we figured, what the hell, let’s go experience some Uzbek culture.

The outdoor courtyard is surrounded by big round tables and, while the inner tables by the stage were empty, we were sat at an outer table.

A few minutes later it became apparent why those tables were empty.

Tour bus after tour bus packed with old grey haired people packed into the place.

The show lasted an hour and showcased an 8 man musical arrangement playing throughout dance and fashion shows.

Was it worth the 120,000som ($14)?

Well, maybe?

I mean, the show just screams “tourist trap” and given that all the tour groups ended up there certainly confirmed that.

But, the show was exactly as advertised – a show of music, dance, and fashion.

After the show we headed back to the hostel where we played cards for awhile before turning in for an early night.

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll board a high speed train out of Bukhara to another Uzbek city Samarkand as we head into the final week of travel adventures here in the Five Stans.

A high speed train in the middle of Uzbekistan?

Yes, please!