Lonely Planet community blog

We often get interesting and inspiring mail from our community. But we recently received one of the most cryptic messages we’ve ever seen.

It’s a letter with accompanying filmstrip that reads:

Please enjoy this strip of 35mm footage of what I believe to be NESSY at a YETI BBQ. Possibly dining on Mongolian Death Worm. Feel free to leak to the press.

We’d show you the contents of the film strip, but then we’d have to kill you…

Cryptozoology is an oft overlooked beast, but exploring it’s annals can be a great way to discover wild and wonderous parts of the world. For example, the Mongolian Death Worm (that may or may not feature in our filmstrip) hails from the Gobi Desert and continues to attract hunters. The iconic, illusive Yeti lures some to the mountainous, snowy climbs of Nepal. And it’s cousin, Bigfoot, has been know to haunt wayward (and possibly tipsy) travellers in Virginia. Then there’s the little known Mapinguari, nocturnal red-head of the Amazon jungle.

If you’re a fan of the mythic and monstrous you should also pay a visit to the International Cryptozoology Museum, which is about to open to the public in Maine.

What monsters have we missed out on? Do you have a local beastie?

(P.S. Happy Halloween!)

[Image: Mongolian Death Worm.... or not...]

Hide 5 comments

1. October 30, 2009 kaninatulam Report this comment

   Hi! I live in the Philippines. Here, we have as many kinds of monsters as we have islands.

   One of the more common ones is called the Tikbalang. This is a creature that has a man’s upper body and a horse’s head and legs.

   They are said to live in the rural ares, in trees or caves. Invisible to the naked eye, they follow people walking alone at night, mostly women. Though you could not see them, you’ll be hearing a pair of hooves trotting close by. The reason they do this is because they are attracted to humans and want to take them as their brides. The bad side is the person who gets followed around gets terribly ill, and eventually dies. To prevent this, you must look at the creature while it follows you. And to do that, when you hear the hooves sounds getting closer, light a match and turn around immediately. What comes next takes more courage for now you’ll be finding your self face to face to a demon-horse. At this point, you could either talk to it and ask it to leave you alone, or you could try running away. The latter would be the short-term solution.

2. October 30, 2009 melissarose01 Report this comment

   We have the Loch Ness monster. Unfortunately, both times I’ve visited Loch Ness I’ve scanned it very carefully but seen no trace of Nessie.

3. November 3, 2009 lagringakatherine Report this comment

   Where I grew up we had La LLorona, the weeping woman. Kids told stories of how she left her bloody hand prints on the shoulder of children she tried to push into the ditches (So stay away from those ditches, kids!). I grew up thinking that she was a lady from my area who died dramatically and spawned a legend. Later I heard the same stories all over the Spanish speaking world, the same themes of how she killed her children for her lover. I guess she is an international ghost, and not just a local legend.

4. November 3, 2009 paddyleblanc Report this comment

   We in Ireland have a terrible beast called Cowen. A huge, hideously ugly monster, he resides in a castle in the centre of Dublin and spreads fear, confusion, plague and pestilence over the last. He is more often referred to as ‘Taoiseach’ in Irish. Translated into English this is ‘Prime Minister’

5. November 4, 2009 nenadns Report this comment

   Ok I