An air-conditioner? A child’s Spider-Man costume? Chinese-made plastic flowers? A bag of dried fish or a bottle of French champagne? On a typical weekday morning scores of Indian shoppers are hunting for bargains just over the border in the Myanmar town of Namphalong. They can even pay in Indian rupees.
Dozens of porters, pushing handcarts or balancing cardboard boxes on their heads, walk steadily into Moreh on the Indian side of the frontier in the north-eastern state of Manipur, laden with mangos, onions and coconuts.
The retail trade on foot is vigorous enough, but it is all a long way from the Indian vision of turning Moreh into a modern commercial road and rail gateway to east Asia.