Snapshot: Border Crossing Armenia-Georgia

Earlier this morning some observations that in themselves can almost serve as indicators:

• Number of trucks waiting on Armenian customs, headed towards Georgia: 51
• Number of interlocutors who had any idea what the reason for the actual problem was: 0
• Number of types of uniforms worn by officials on the Armenian side: 5 (probably more)
• Number of officials, or people acting as officials, wearing no recognisable uniform on the Armenian side: 6 (likely more)

If you want to get a first class fake $20 bill, pay your $30 Armenian visa with a $50 banknote. I have now twice seen the friendly Armenian official returning a fake 20$ bill as change for the 50$ he received. Visually, the bill is almost perfect. The only significant difference is in its feel. (Recently, it was claimed that large-scale production of counterfeit currency can be traced to South Ossetia)