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...