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Mongolia, anyone?

That's a good idea - any documentary makers out there?

A friend of mine produces docs. I'll ask him if there could be potential TV interest which could lead to funding.
 
Thanks, that's a very intriguing idea. I'll start doing a bit of research on suitable publishers to approach.
 
It would be like one of those 19th century adventure novels...will I have to grow a handle-bar moustache?
 
It wouldn't be compulsory, but you'd feel a bit left out if you didn't. I'd also recommend you start smoking a pipe (tobacco only, please).
 
We will also be presenting our findings, upon conclusion of the expedition, to an assembled gathering of representatives of the press and the stuffed shirts of the scientific community at the Natural History Museum.

During our presentation, a Neanderthal will break free of its enclosure, running amock through the crowd. Ladies will swoon and faint and policemen will blow whistles.
 
One step ahead of you, old boy; been smoking a pipe for years.
 
Whoa! top plan!

but dammit, why 2004? I'm meant to be going to Africa then:hmm:
 
So when is this expedition meant to be going ahead??

June July August are your only real option of going.. Simply because u would freeze at all other times, temps in Mongolia at present in southern regions are still around -10C on a warm day... Flights.. Why on earth do you want to fly Aeroflot?? Any decent airline can get you to Beijing safely enough and then its an hours flight to ULN with MIAT... Easy Peasy... And you'll pay about 700 notes all in if you book up to 10 months in advance... Forget July unless you want to pay extra because its the time of the Naadam festival and all the tourists head over there... So all the prices go up...

As for the "military" side of things... Please... Most people in Mongolia dont have a phone outside of the capital let alone a nice shiny stock of AK-47's... And for transport you can pay a shedload of money to hire jeeps.. Any thing from around 50USD per day and that doesnt include your fuel costs...

Camels are better, but again - not cheap... Especially if you want to go for a couple of months and if youre going to rely on backpacks are you honestly going to be able to carry the amount of supplies you require for anything more than a few weeks??? And thats just the clothes you'll need to survive for that long...

Hate to throw a downer in there but i wouldnt build your hopes up of sponsorship/funding... Most companies allied with this kind of thing get inundated, and unless you've got a Sir at the start of your name or have the right background and contacts i wouldnt hold your breath... The days of newspaper sponsorship in this day and age are next to extinct, no pun intended...

It aint gonna be cheap...
 
Damn, my wife just told me to forget all about Mongolia or be terminated. Marriage is not fun.
 
:)
Yep having an understanding other half always does kinda help!
 
I'm sure you can get flights for much less than 1000 quid, a bunch of climbers from sheffield went to mongolia a while back, I read an article about there trip in a climbing mag, I think their flight cost were about 4-5 hundred . If I recall corectly they fist flew to moscow then to UB in mongolia
 
Can I just say these people don't have phones, don't have guns, but they charge $50 a day for jeeps plus fuel (nearly as much in camels) and charge extortionate prices just to get into their country- i'd like to see an investigation into this.
 
Inverurie Jones said:
Umm...could we make that August? Of course, it depends on how long it'll last...

If we go by Aeroflot, I demand a parachute.
Click to expand...
Judging by your user name, I'd think an inflatable raft would be sufficient. (<----Temple of Doom reference)

Inhabitant --
If Fortean bbs newbies are allowed on your quest, PLEASE consider me. Like several others here, I have nothing to tie me down coupled with a desire to do something with my life. I have an ordinary job....8am-5pm, sitting in a cubicle, attempting to surf the internet without getting caught, and I positively loathe it. I've actually been considering going to China to join the temples with the Shao Lin Monks (yes, I am serious). Its as though I am on a personal quest for something spiritual and meaningful (redundant, I know)....all to find some purpose in life.

There has to be more to life than sitting in this cubicle worrying about my 401K. I really have nothing to offer other than an intense interest in all things weird and a BS in public relations and advertising. I could whip out those press releases pretty quick.

I know most of you are European....I am an American from Texas, but I have flight connections that could get me across the pond with relative ease and expense.
 
Climate is factor #1

Inhabitant, I think it's a great idea. The territory is huge, there are sure to be scores of prehistoric people watching soccer on satellite inside their caves. But here's something you should seriously consider -- the local climate. I would do a REAL good research on local climate in specific areas you have in mind. Mongolia is basically Southern Siberia, and while the winters are terrible, and summers are scorching hot. Perhaps August-September would be the best time-frame, in my view. I'm Russian so I happen to know a bit about the climate out there. Be sure to prepare your logistics carefully (you'll need at least one Jeep or LandRover to conquer local roads - or their absence).

By the way, I read many exciting reports of Yeti-type, wool-covered giants with red glowing eyes living in Chukotka and frightening locals -- that's a really good place if you guys like creating extra challenges in your lives! And only a frog's leap from Alaska.
P.S. And please don't throw mud at Aeroflot guys -- several of my clients flew to Russia with Aeroflot and were pleasantly surprised!
;)
 
Re: Climate is factor #1

Gloria said:
By the way, I read many exciting reports of Yeti-type, wool-covered giants with red glowing eyes living in Chukotka and frightening locals -- that's a really good place if you guys like creating extra challenges in your lives!
;)
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See??? Monsters! If you lot won't let me have a gun, can I at least take a big stick?
 
Re: Climate is factor #1

Gloria said:
P.S. And please don't throw mud at Aeroflot guys -- several of my clients flew to Russia with Aeroflot and were pleasantly surprised!
;)
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That and you might knock bits off the 'plane...
 
Inhabitant

Sorry, I haven't read the entire thread, but I get the idea.
Therefore forgive me if I'm repeating the bleeding obvious.

If this expedition goes ahead (I'd love to come along, but I suspect the initial investment required would be beyond my means), take at least one DV camcorder and get a documentary out of it. It's possible to get very good rates on editing / post-production on non profit making projects, and we all know there's a market, even if it's only 'straight to video'.
 
Inhabitant;

Any updates on planning progress? Still interested.
 
Well, I hope these guys are being serious about all this. They could get a book out of it too. Just think, our very own FT Board celebs!

And I'm not taking the mick, I think it would be great if it did go ahead.

Carole
 
are you serious??????????????

Has anyone here heard of or read the story on Zana? Supposedly she was a “wild” woman -possibly an alma - who was captured in Russia in the mid 1800s. The possibility that Neanderthals may still be living is a very interesting idea. The ramifications immense. The predominant view in mainstream science today says that Neanderthals are/wear not related to modern humans. However I have found more than one story on the net that alleges almas and humans have interbreed and produced viable offspring. If a living alma/Neanderthal was to be found, it would clear up a great deal of mystery in both fourteen circles and the mainstream fields of science. Humanity would never again be quit the same.


As far as an expedition , you should really know what you are getting into before you leave the house. Does anyone on your trip have previous expedition experience? Are there any trained zoologist, anthropologists, or anyone who has any formal training in any scientific field? To the best of my knowledge Mongolia is owned and operated by the Chinese. I seriously dought that you would be able to get an “expedition” into that country without some sort of “scientific credentials“. What kind of “proof” do you expect to bring back? Science needs a body to recognize a new animal of any kind, let alone one who has supposedly been extinct for 30 million years. How would you attain a body? If neandertules are “people’ than killing one just to prove its there would be wrong! I don’t think your going to convince one to return home with you either. And if you did acquire a body, how would you get it out of the country without it being confiscated or yourselves imprisoned? Photographs and video are much to easy to fake and wont be taken seriously by anyone outside of crypto circles. We don’t need another “Paterson film”. I do think that you idea is worth wile. If you can see it through it would be a great thing.:yeay: :yeay: :yeay:
 
Has anyone here heard of or read the story on Zana? Supposedly she was a wild woman - possibly an alma - who was captured in Russia in the mid 1800s. The possibility that Neanderthals may still be living is a very interesting idea.

I read an interview in the Russian media with a son of a "wild woman" who has his own children. His father, a Georgian or Ossetian peasant, captured that female creature (I wouldn't call her a woman) and cohabited with her for many years, I seem to remember. She couldn't talk and was underdeveloped mentally till her death. But their son who lives in a tiny mountain village in the Caucasus, is (if I recall correctly) a tractor mechanic or something like that, and an apparently normal man, except for slightly ape-like features (occuring even in some Europeans, as some people may know) and extremely hairy chest (the latter is quite common, too, if not predominant, in men from the Middle East and Armenia to Greece and Italy).

Huge wild men, as I wrote earlier, are reportedly seen in the Pamir mountains (Tajikistan) - a land of high altitude and glaciers, and parts of Siberia and extreme North of Russia. One fascinating story happened in Pamir in the early 20's when the Red Army was clearing mountains from local Islamic gangs. One of bandits was trapped in a mountain pass by Red Guards and tried to hide inside a cave, when a roaring hairy giant blocked his way. The bandit pulled out a gun and shot the almas in the chest. Then the Russian soldiers burst into the cave and killed the bandit. Then they saw the injured giant, a female, by the way, who lay bleeding on the floor. A Russian doctor was nearby. He tried saving the giant but the gunshot was too serious, and she died. The doctor made some measurements and left a good description of the beast. The Red Guards couldn't take the body with them as they had to move on, so they left it in the cave. This and other stories were collected by the famous Prof. Porshnev who dedicated his life to this subject. Many expeditions took place since the 60s when the interest in unusual phenomena in Russia started to grow, but nothing except collecting more stories of locals and sometimes molds of huge footprints. I'm sure those who are interested can find more on this in the Russian Internet zone (many pages are in English).
 
Requested links

Makayavodou,

I've done a search for you in the Russian Internet zone and dug up these 4 links.

http://www.strannik.de/travel/snowman.htm
http://www.alamas.ru/
http://www.arfo.nn.ru/Page13/f06.htm
http://www.aib.ru/~loki/zoolog/sluch/sl_023.htm

The first 2 are in English, but although the others are in Russian they confirm the story I posted yesterday. Turns out, it's a widely-published case. Originally it was printed in the Technology for the Youth magazine, Vol. 11, 1969 -- a great source of tales of the unexplained in the 60s - 80s, as I remember.

My recollection of that old article was generally correct, but these links give a few more details. The author, M.S.Topilsky, was the Russian commander who was following the bandits with his soldiers through the mountains of Tajikistan in July 1925. The soldiers spotted a family of hairy man-like creatures through binoculars some time before the fight in the cave. There were 3 of them: a male, a female, and a baby, all walking down a mountain path. The last link provides a very detailed description of the dead male (so I was wrong about the gender). Briefly, he was almost completely covered in thick brown-black hair, except for his face, palms (with very rough, callous skin), knees and soles of his feet. The most hair was on his thighs, the least on the buttocks, which led the doctor to the conclusion that those creatures sat like humans. He had dark skin on his face, dark eyes, very large, even teeth, a flattened nose, protruding cheekbones, and extremely developed superciliary arches. His ears appeared more pointy at the top than human. His chest was incredibly powerful and muscular. He was 165-170 cm tall. The article also mentions that there are different names for these creatures in Central Asia: almas, alamas, adami yavoi (wild men), etc.

A word of advice, makayavodou: if you want to access the Russian Internet to search for Yeti/almas stories, try the top search engine http://www.yandex.ru. Just type a key word in English, and you could get results.
 
Reading this thread reminded me of something-My mother knew someone who travelled across Russia on the Trans Siberian Express,sometime in the mid 80s I think,he said they went through a heavily forested part where every time the train stopped strange wild looking people dressed in animal skins would come out of the forest and try to barter things with the passengers,apparently they didn't look like Russians,but I don't remember any other details.
 
Marion said:
Reading this thread reminded me of something-My mother knew someone who travelled across Russia on the Trans Siberian Express,sometime in the mid 80s I think,he said they went through a heavily forested part where every time the train stopped strange wild looking people dressed in animal skins would come out of the forest and try to barter things with the passengers,apparently they didn't look like Russians,but I don't remember any other details.
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This is intriguing. Is it possible for you to find out more information from your mother's friend?
 
I've been out of the country for a few weeks with no computer access - glad to see this thread's still active.

Re: Zana - I've heard somewhere that Alan Whicker met two of her descendents in one of his TV programmes in the 70s - ring any bells with anyone?

Re: Marion's story about the Trans-Siberian Express - Myra Shackley's book "Wildmen. Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal Enigma" (essential reading for anyone interested in the subject) mentions two types of reported Siberian wildmen - the first being of the classic bigfoot type, the second being human but dressing in animal skins and using stone age technology. I don't have the book at hand at the moment, but I'll try and get the exact reference the anyone's interested.
 
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