Poem for Mongolia (Illustrated)

Poem for Mongolia (Illustrated)

(Click to extend photos)   Carrying out backpacks, showing our thumbs We wait near a road; no trees and no cars After getting on a car of a Kazakh family We reach Olgii, Mongolia’s western city       We don’t know Mongolian, no one speaks English But in Bayan Olgii, we communicate in Turkish We found a river and pitched up our tent There is nothing to do, but 3 days we spent     After taking shower in the bathhouse of Olgii, Towards Tolbo Lake, started to hitchhike lately The lake is clean, cool and nice There are only horses, gulls and us     No one passing by, we start feeling dull Mongolian Rally cars are completely full We reached Khovd city in the late evenin’ There we camped with a Chilean and a Finn     Pastures everywhere, freely feeding animals The sheep, goats, camels, cows and horses No fence, no tree, no farms; nothing What would Alan Savory think?     Under the sun, all day just hitchhiking We get Asian eyes because of the shining Roads are bumpy, no asphalt at all Please take us; we have tobacco to roll     We camp anywhere, everywhere is good Rivers are clean, but meat is the only food In Mongolia it’s hard to be vegetarian Can’t imagine being a vegan     Our best friends become truck drivers We like to join them for long distances баярлалаа is a word we learned primarily It means thank you, if you can say it correctly     There are stones on the road, on and on...
Siberia

Siberia

Before we started travelling, we researched about South Asian countries a lot; but we didn’t think that someday we will go to Russia. We hastily write how to read Cyril letters on a paper; we can read almost everything even we can’t understand what it is. Irina, with whom we met on the plane, takes place in our story as a young Russian woman graduated from a university in Shanghai, visiting her family in summer holiday. As a fluent English speaker, she gives important tips to us about Lake Baikal during the flight. By chance, we learn that her house is close to the house of the couple who will host us via Couchsurfing. When the plane lands on the airport of the city dominated by Brezhnev blocks, we leave her to wait for a wheelchair as we got used to in South Korea. After everybody gets off, at the end of our long waiting we understand that staff of the airport has a totally different idea! Without using even the stairs of the plane, we get on a truck from the emergency exit and get off on the other side of the road which would take less than a minute by walking. It wasn’t necessary, really, but we can not explain it to the staff. When we get off, waiting for a wheelchair, we find ourselves queuing with crutches in a building looks like a train station of a small city. “What is all about?” We ask for help from a passenger to carry the bags and pass the passport check. According to the paper given to us,...