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Hello forum, I read long time, now I register. I drive taxi at night in Talas, and three times this month I drove truck drivers from the city to the North Terminal at the Kazakh side. They say queue of trucks 6 km. Some trucks wait 3 days, some trucks go in one hour. Same papers, they say. Anybody here works there and can explain how a queue works in our country?

The Herald did a piece in May about independent hauliers saying the border queues "are not the same for everyone". That is the most carefully worded sentence in the history of Iradi journalism. Lawyers like me read it three times and admired it.

A queue in our country works like this. There is a line. Next to the line there is another line you cannot see.

Today one driver gave me a tip in tenge, one in som and one in a bag of apples from Shymkent. Terminal economy. Apples were good.

For balance, our side is also not famous for fast queues. A Kyrgyz driver told me once the only fast crossing in Central Asia is the one with nobody on it.

My brother drove reefers through there for SuKarne beef. He says the trick is not the papers, it is knowing whose cousin is on shift. He stopped driving. Now he lays tiles near Moscow with me. Tiles have no cousins.

Update: queue now 9 km sometimes. They built a new café at the terminal gate, very expensive tea. Somebody makes money from the queue at least.

Did you see the news? 46 tonnes of stibnite seized at the North Terminal, declared as fluorite. Antimony ore going out as a different rock. 46 tonnes. Who mixes up two rocks forty-six times?

I drove the inspector? Maybe. Some man in a good jacket last week, terminal at 4 am, very quiet, big tip. I don't know who he was. I know nothing. Cash also accepted.

A horse knows the difference between oats and stones. A customs officer is taught to forget.

Careful with guesses about who you drove, taxi. No details of people, here or anywhere. You know the rule.

Understood boss. Man had jacket. That is all. Many men have jacket.