As individuals, we have trouble distinguishing between anecdotes: "My neighbor took zinc for her cold and she said it really helped, " and data: Most colds last four days, so you could smoke yak-dung cigarettes on day three and feel better on day four.

CNN: Herbal remedies need real scrutiny

On the trail, yak trains amble down from higher villages, and porters sprint past with seemingly impossible weights hanging from their heads.

BBC: Nepal��s other Everest

When the Nepali authorities refused to let the canoe into Everest National Park without a permit, Pugh was forced to hide it under tarpaulin and smuggle it in on the back of a yak.

BBC: Long-distance swimming in Nepal��s glacial mountain lakes

Two yaks looked on with expressions that probably pass, in the yak world, for unabashed admiration.

BBC: Following the Silk Road to the end of China

My small group of journalists were flown from Brussels to Poland and then around the country on one of the smaller planes in the Polish government VIP fleet, a Soviet-built Yak 40.

ECONOMIST: European politics