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,...
대한민국

대한민국

You might have to take a sprained ankle serious. Especially if you are travellers walking close to forest and far from cities with a huge backpack with a tent, sleeping bag, camping equipment and some food in it, you have to be more careful while walking. “Consult a doctor for serious injuries”. When your ankle is sprained, if you are in a beach only accessible by boat or trekking, you might have to wait till the next day under full moon on a beach where turtles lay their eggs. Then finding a “public hospital” in a country where you are a stranger, getting lost among signs in an unknown language, finding a wheelchair, queuing… We don’t have an x-ray because of its price and the queue. Anyway, probably it is not broken; it will get better soon… We go to Kuala Lumpur the following day to wait for our plane to South Korea. We just rest in the house of our friend Adida. She is in England at that time. Of course, we couldn’t foresee the injury before buying the tickets… We will spend two days in a huge city, Seoul, with an injured foot… Then we will take our plane to Russia… Should we go back to Turkey? Wait, wait, we will deal with it somehow. Adida’s friend takes us to the airport. We are lucky that we have friends in foreign countries and not alone. In Seoul, we stay with our friend Yongmin, far from the complexity of the city. This is a return visit. We hosted him in Istanbul, 2 years ago. We see concrete blocks...
Thailand (Bangkok and the North)

Thailand (Bangkok and the North)

We leave Nepal, where we came on foot, by walking again; in the beginning of May. There are two days for our India visa to expire and we take the train from Raxaul to Kolkata to catch our flight to Bangkok. We spent only one day in Kolkata in full thanks to Pankaj who hosted us via Couchsurfing. We meet Ganga River here again, after Varanasi, before she is washed to the sea. This city, the capital of West Bengal, is the cleanest and the most modern city in India we have ever seen.  The city, where the British took their first step in India, is full of English architecture. One day is clearly not enough to explore. We land to Bangkok on 5th of May. Now we are in a totally different culture, in Southeast Asia. The officer in the airport checks our passports, stamps and gives them back. That’s all. We step into Thailand for 30 days without visa, for free. We watch outside through the window while going to the center by subway. Very tidy, very clean, exceedingly modern. Thai people are also very good looking. Beggars’ clothes are cleaner than ours. Everybody looks like they are living in prosperity. People are smiling, transportation is easy… It is also easy to hitch-hike on interprovincial roads. Most of the vehicles in traffic are pick-ups that make it great to travel with the wing in hot weather. Drivers are respectful for bikers, and in Bangkok, there are even bicycle roads. We go to Banglamphu first, the touristic center of Bangkok, to find a place to stay. After finding...