It’s a weird, weird place up there!

I went to Khasa last weekend. Khasa is a small trade-oriented town based on the area of Tibet that borders Nepal. It is a strange, weird place that can make you feel like you are trapped in some episode of the Twilight Zone. Where else can you find a place where water, beer and tea cost the same? You have the Tibetans, the Chinese and the Nepalese all living together in this place high up in the mountains. What the mixture gives rise to is not quite culture shock, but you honestly don’t know what to make of it.

Khasa is mainly popular to the Nepalese for two reasons: it is where you can get dirt-cheap (and I mean DIRT cheap!!) knock-offs of virtually everything that the global industry has managed to produce (I bought a Nokia N95 knockoff for less than a 100 dollars, and it came with touch-screen, Bluetooth, dual SIM, G3 capabilities — the works!). The second reason is that the streets are lined up with “over-the-counter” type shops where they really turn the red light on — if you know what I mean (sort of like a dirt-cheap knock-off of Amsterdam).

Anyway, I will let the pictures speak now. I’m not much of photographer; most of these were taken by my good friend Abishesh Joshi, along with some my other friends. Take my word on this though; it’s a weird, weird place up there!!