gobi desert
Dear Diary,
It’s been about one week since we left Chang’an. Time passes by fast when you’re traveling, and it’s been weeks since I left my family and my home in Hangzhou. I continuously see new beauties. I talked with my friends, and we decided to join one of the caravans and follow the merchants route, riding through the Gobi Desert, then rest in Dunhuang for a day, and go on. Here’s my second map, the map of the merchants route, it’s also called "The Silk Road”.
It’s been about one week since we left Chang’an. Time passes by fast when you’re traveling, and it’s been weeks since I left my family and my home in Hangzhou. I continuously see new beauties. I talked with my friends, and we decided to join one of the caravans and follow the merchants route, riding through the Gobi Desert, then rest in Dunhuang for a day, and go on. Here’s my second map, the map of the merchants route, it’s also called "The Silk Road”.
I sat on a camel’s hump today, an animal I had never seen before. It looks like the king of the desert. It has two rows of thick eyelashes that protect its eyes from dust, and it has thick lips which let it forage for thorny plants that grow in the desert. Also, it has a thick skin which let it sit on the burning sand. I had a mask over my face, so the dust didn’t get inside my mouth or eyes. Everyone was resting after the food, and I decided to make Gobi Desert’s painting. It was the easiest one I had made lately and I added my camel to it.
Merchants rode their camels beside me everyday, carrying rhubarb, herbal medicine and silk cloth, which is their most-prized item. In the Gobi Desert we ate what we could catch. We often ate small rabbits for dinner, which we seasoned with soy sauce, and salted with fine salt from the mountains, with spices thrown in and I found that cactus juice made a nice sort of desert.
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The sun is disappearing, and the sky slowly goes from blue to dark blue, and it’ll soon be black with little dots of stars. I hope I don’t freeze, though I have one set of thick clothes, I’m prepared for any kind of weather, you can’t know what’ll you face next.
As I lie here, I hear whistling, blowing and whispering sounds, the dust of the desert wandering around me. Is it wind or something else? I shiver, because of the cold, I guess. Now I remember one memory from my childhood again.
As I lie here, I hear whistling, blowing and whispering sounds, the dust of the desert wandering around me. Is it wind or something else? I shiver, because of the cold, I guess. Now I remember one memory from my childhood again.
It was the beginning of hot weather, and my mom gave me a present. It was a cloth, that had the five most poisonous animals on it, toad, snake, centipede, scorpion and spider; with the most powerful animal, the tiger, carrying them. My mother said “This’ll protect you from any disease, harmful insects and poisons. And this is the strongest defense against all evils.”
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My father had once showed me the stripes of the tiger on a painting, and they looked like the word “king”. Also, the word tiger also means prosperity. And I remember standing tall in front of the mirror, wearing the cloth, looking at my reflection proudly. After that, I never feared anything at night, or at anytime or anywhere anymore. |
Now, I should go to sleep for a new day. I’ll listen all these sounds as a lullaby. I’m sure I’ll get used to them. But first, here is the third poem:
THIRD QUESTTravel almost to Mongolia.
Meet the Gobi desert at its river Follow the only river until it divides into two. The third object is hidden in the river, off the bank in the center of the two streams, underwater. The river had run dry then. You will have to dig deep, as I buried it deep so it could not wash away. My warning for this is: Don’t underestimate the deserts dangers And don’t judge anything by size. The object is in a steel box with a lock on it. Your next journey will be finding what opens it. Read this next sentence only by the first letter of each word “there heated elephant octopus pole pole octopus sitting idle tale elk” Here is a riddle to make it harder Check what is not flowing |