Kathmandu, Nepal

Chaos.  Utter and absolute chaos.  The roads are a hoedown of vectors and speeds and potholes, every moped, taxi-let, and bike vying for the same 3 feet of space.  Do they drive on the left side or on the right side of the road in this city?  Yes.  Yes, they do.  And since there are no sidewalks, the pedestrians are all pinballing through that affray as well.  I have, astonishingly, seen no collisions of any kind so far.  I have also tried, and failed, to take a photo of the traffic/pedestrian ballet, so you'll just have to imagine the most outrageous and disorderly interplay of bodies flesh and steel, and then triple it.

Here are some pix from Swayambunath Mahachaitya, commonly called the Monkey Temple.  It's a complex of primarily Buddhist holy sites on a small hill on the west side of the city.  There's one large stupa (holy reliquary), and a whole lot of small satellite shrines and temples, including Hindu shrines that have been accumulated over the centuries--for it is the way of Hindu shrines to pop up wherever there's a frisson of the sacred. The holy complex dates from the 5th century CE. 

Its nickname derives from the resident troupe of holy monkeys, cared for lovingly by the temple staff. Legend has it that the monkeys grew from the beard-lice of the boddhisatva Manjushri, so:  ick? but also, beauty comes from all over.  I think that's the lesson. 

(If you do not already have a red dot--the tikka--on your forehead, you pretty much cannot stop it: someone will come up to you and give you tikka.  And then ask for a little money.)