Bigfoot takes Southeast Asian vacation

While Bigfoot normally seems to hang out in Ron's neck of the woods, he's apparently decided that the rain was finally too much to tolerate and has moved to Malaysia. We may not be able to track down bin Laden or D.B. Cooper, but the Malaysian government is damned well going to get this guy!

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A southern Malaysian state will appoint a team of scientists and experts to hunt for a "Bigfoot" beast after the reported sighting of three giant human-like creatures, officials said Thursday.

Johor Chief Minister Abdul Ghani Othman said the state will form an official Bigfoot-tracking team in a serious bid to find evidence of such a beast following the reported sightings late last year in the Endau Rompin National Park forest.

Malaysian media have been gripped by Bigfoot fever since November 2005, when fish farm workers reported seeing three giant human-like hairy beasts at the edge of the Endau Rompin reserve. They also claimed to have seen a gigantic footprint which they photographed.

Normally I find the idea that there's a species of six to eight foot tall hominids wandering around the planet which we have never managed to find somewhat preposterous. But then again, it was only last year that we finally found a giant squid, and they can be up to fifty feet long. Who knows?

If there does turn out to be a pack of bigfoots (bigfeet?) in Malaysia, who's to say they aren't wandering around the remote parts of the Pacific Northwest or Texas? I wouldn't characterize myself as one of the "true believers" on this legend, and I certainly don't spend my holidays out in tree stands trying to hunt one down, but it's just one of those things that I'd like to think might be true. Keeps some of the mystery in the world, you know?