So we still haven't found any success in our efforts to track down Panday. The telephone system in Kathmandu continues to confuse us and the professor has yet to send us an email at the address we left with his colleague. Maybe one of these days we will be able to speak with him, if the way he writes is any indication of his personality he should be a colorful character and an interesting person to interview.

We had dinner tonight with a man named Kami Sherpa, owner of a trekking organization based in Kathmandu who was born in the Solo Khumbu region and has been trekking and climbing since the 70s. He repeated much of what we've already been able to piece together about the Yeti--mainly that the older generations are the real source of Yeti lore and that the legend is beginning to fade. He also recounted a couple of standard sherpa Yeti tales for us, including the rule for escaping from the Yeti: if the Yeti is male, run uphill as his long hair will prevent him from being able to see well, if the Yeti is female run downhill as her gigantic breasts will prevent her from being able to run fast. Apparently it is common knowledge that male Yetis have long hair and females sizeable breasts, even though the range of other Yeti characteristics varies widely...

Tomorrow is going to be our last morning of attempting to track down Panday, after which we may have to give up and hope he emails us eventually. Wish us luck.

Tribhuvan

Now that we're back in Kathmandu we've been trying to hunt down some Yeti scholars and books. We spent half of yesterday trying to find Professor Ram Kumar Panday, author of Yeti Mystery, Nepal's most popular Yeti book. He teaches at Tribhuvan University, Nepal's oldest and largest university. After hours of being directed from one side of the enormous campus to the other, in the remarkably hot Kathmandu sun, we found the Dean of Humanities, who we hoped could direct us to Panday. We found him outside of his office, reading a newspaper, because for some reason his students had locked him out. As it turns out, the professor taught Geography, and not Anthropology as we'd assumed, and had also retired the week before. He was supposed to come in for some make up work, but didn't. But we got his cell number, and if the network ever works, maybe we'll track him down.

Jeepka

And we're back again, this time from a weeklong journey to the pilgrimage site of Muktinath. It's in the middle of the Annapurna trekking circuit, and is the most beautiful place we've been so far, as well as much cooler than sweaty Kathmandu. The views of the Himalayas were amazing, that is when the clouds cleared. Despite staying at a place called the "Hotel Yeti," we couldn't find many Yeti stories, so we asked people what their general knowledge and opinion of Mr. Yeti was. The verdict: nearly everyone believes "a little bit." No one outright disbelieves.

We spent three days trekking from the city of Beni, got to Muktinath, and headed back down the mountain roads on a series of jeeps. Needless to say, we're exhausted.

Oh, and Dan's boots and wallet were stolen:(

Zuga! Zuga! Zuga!

Zuga means leech in Neali (the keyboard I'm on won't let me tye a certain letter that starts the word arty and review so kee that in mind for the rest of this). We found many leeches -- they mostly ignored Jenny and our guide Nima, but I got hit by the leech Navy SEALS who snuck through my hiking socks to feed on my foot-blood.

Anyway, we're back from our first trek to the Rolwaling Valley, which looked like a cross between Vietnam and the Shenandoahs in Virginia. We took a bus to a city called Charikot and then walked three days to Simigaon, stoing every coule hours for chia (milk tea) and/or dal bhat, THE Neali meal of rice, lentil sou, otatos and vegetables that they eat massive quantities of in minutes flat. Everylace and body makes a different dal bhat.

By the time we got there, with weird skin conditions that come from sweating uncontrollably for days straight and not showering, the town was emty - everyone was further down the mountain, working in the fields. During the monsoon (not actually as much rain as one would exect), the farmers work long days with no breaks. By the time they returned, around 7, they were too tired to talk about the yeti. We managed to get some information out of the Nealis staying at the lodge we were at, though they didnt have any first hand stories, just general information and myths. One man claimed to be the yeti himself!

Our lan for now is to find a Yeti scholar/sociologist by the name of Ram Kumar anday who is at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. We're also lanning our next excursion/trek, ossibly to Khumbu (Everest region).

And We're Off For Real...

This will undoubtedly be our last post for at least a week as we head off for our trek to Simigoan tomorrow, unless there is someone with a laptop and a wicked wifi connection they're willing to share in some teahouse along the way...

Today officially marked the beginning of the monsoon season. It began downpouring when Dan and I were having lunch in the ancient town of Bhaktapur. Shout out to NikWax for keeping me dry. I support that product wholeheartedly.

Before it began to rain we got the chance to see not only Bhaktapur, but also an area of town called Pashupati, which is where Nepalis hold their funerals and cremate the dead. It was strange to be standing next to other tourists watching the pyres burn, even photographing them. I couldn't help but feel a little bit disrespectful just standing there. I wonder what the locals think about it, perhaps I'll ask.

I better wrap up and sign off before the notorious internet here fails on me. Sorry for the lack of video we promised--blogging and emailing has been challenging enough and every time we've tried to upload from our RCA Small Wonder we've failed miserably. We still plan on taking lots of footage, though, so look for a retrospective after we get back.

So long for now, maybe our next post will include a photo of the yeti. Oh wait, we probably won't be able to upload it. No wonder no photos of the beast exist...