While I’m waiting for stuff to download here at an internet café in Kathmandu, I thought I’d take a moment to tell you about goats.

Goats are not only one of the preferred meats of Indians and the Nepalese, they are strange and extremely entertaining creatures. Yesterday I watched as a couple of kid goats — who are surprisingly cute at that age — bucked and flopped and played atop the brick walls around the monastery.

Kid goats playing at Triten Norbutsé monastery in Kathmandu.

Back at Menri I once stopped just below the temple to blow my nose. When I looked up there was a goat there. I had not seen or heard him approach. He and his cronies, who were close behind, were positively obsessed with this strange thing called “blowing one’s nose.” When I stopped blowing and looked up, they halted their approach. When I resumed, they crept closer. Kind of like that creepy kids’ game in The Orphanage. See below for the goats.

And then, of course, there’s one of my favorite bits of goat multimedia, The Fainting Goats.