Taxicab Drivers in Yerevan Prefer Armenian Dram

When we arrived, instead of paying the cab driver the 700 dram he asked for, I whipped out ten old Soviet rubles and handed the bill to him. At first, he seemed to think I was serious. Through the window, I saw two police officers standing in front of a tour bus as he said “no good” and looked back at me and then handed me the bill. I acted puzzled before giving him 1,000 dram. Once he knew he was going to get paid, he started laughing and then waived the police over. Although an interaction with police in a foreign country may be scary to many, the mood was way too lighthearted to incite fear. Although the dialogue between the officers and the cab driver was indecipherable, one of the policemen who looked as if he hadn’t missed too many days at the gym waived for me to show him something. Assuming he wasn’t asking for my passport, I showed him the ten rubles. Both officers had a 30-second laugh before handing back the money. I remember wishing that I could speak to them, but Yerevan is not used to getting many tourists. In fact, Yerevan is within a day’s drive from both Turkey and Azerbaijan, but neither border is open.