Probable Non-Human DNA

Short Version:
We get all Zen on things, and pay for cuddles

Long Version:
Our first Buddhist stupa was, as it turned out, one of the biggest in the world: Boudhanath. As a spiritual nonentity and void, my favorite bit was when the small, heavily-wrapped child waddled as fast as its stumpy little legs would carry it through the midst of a large herd of pigeons. The room-sized prayer wheel was pretty cool too, especially when it was being cleaned by the dwarf.

It's kind of surprising that the Buddhist practice of automating prayer, through prayer flags (prayer written on cloth, hung from wire, blown by wind = prayer done) and prayer wheels (prayer written, carved, or stamped in metal on a cylinder, mounted vertically and spun on an axis by passing hands = prayer done) has not been adopted by god-botherers in Western nations - you'd think that lazy people who limit their religiosity to lip-service and proselytising would be prime candidates for a system that allows one to build one's prayer stats without ever taking one's eyes from one's 80-inch television.

The taxi journeys around Kathmandu took us down a number of brick-paved streets. These look quite cool, but don't provide the most even surface for your suspensionless bicycles, or your tiny Suzuki hatchback taxis. We also saw a mangy cat chewing some carpet.

Back in Thamel, we found a bakery. Hooray! And not only did it have delicious baked goods, it also had a crazy little old lady, with some probable non-human DNA, wrinkled face plastered against the window from the outside. She managed to convey to us her preferred nommage - a chocolate donut - and her prune-like face split into a HUGE toothless grin as she saw us preparing to buy it for her. Lovely Wife then had the presence of mind to haggle with her, and both parties seemed pretty darned happy with the eventual donut-for-cuddlephoto bargain.