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The lesson Francis and Denis might have learned was that not everyone has a perfect life and that innocent people die everyday. So American should live our lives to the fullest and never say your have it horrible before you look at life for others around the world

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I would love to go to Mongolia because the people there seem very welcoming and kind

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Venice

When Francis and Dennis traveled there they were thankful they didn’t have to think about anything

Their parents and family were there to see them

Lots of people were taking pictures

Francis and Dennis made it their goal to bring back the same things Marco Polo did

They got to look at Marco Polo’s will

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Took about 6-9 days to get birth for the ship on land

It is a great sin to travel by ship because people who travel that way are considered pirates

Dennis had his fortune read and it said that he will die at 75, he will have a supporting wife, and strong children

Francis called his mother for the first time in months and found out his father died. They dedicated the entire trip to him

The culture here is extremely similar to what it was when Marco Polo visited

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Iran

Dennis and Francis made a desperate plea to the Iranian Embassy to let them through

Finally, Francis and Dennis were allowed in and they were basically the first Americans there since 1979

Francis and Dennis found out if they talked to people they might be killed

The square that was full of people were shouting “Death to America” and burning the flag

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Sumatra

There used to be cannibalism in Sumatra

Males and females are covered in tattoos and the more they had the more good looking they were

The natives were hesitant to give Francis a tattoo but gave one to him in the end

Francis and Denis enjoyed roughing it but they did miss the simple life every now and again

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Tibet

Francis said it was like traveling to OZ (Wizard of OZ)

Coral and shells are expensive and only idols and some women wear them

After they did a radio broadcast P&O shipping company brought them to their next stop and all the way to India

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I couldn't get notes for this place

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Beijing

The people there called them “Big nose” and “Foreign Devil”

Francis got sick of being their

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Dongguan

The food there felt exquisite compared to what they had been eating after weeks in the desert

When Francis took a shower there was about ⅛ of an in. at the bottom of the tub

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Mongolia

Marco Polo wrote more about Mongolian life than Chinese life

They were very welcoming to Dennis and Francis

Mongolians killed the sheep the same way Polo said they did in his book

They have 22 different types of milk products

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Zhangye

The people there were having a real tough time living and when Francis and Denis arrived the people were questioning who they were, where they came from and the people despised them and threw insults

Francis and Denis hated it there because of how they were being treated by the natives

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Kashgar

Silk road oasis

Some people are fighting for independence

People lived off of the market in many different ways

After Francis had his head shaved he received one of the warmest coats

Taklimakan Desert

Means you go in and you don’t come out

It took them to get camels

The natives wrote names on their doors to basically keep track of who was in the household

Dennis and Francis stood up to military guys in China

They went through a restricted area where the Chinese did nuclear testing

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Wakhan Corridor

A forgotten passage to China and seldom traveled

One slip could mean death

It is very cold and even with heavy blankets someone was still frozen

It’s a land time forgot and it’s about a 12 day trip

Marco Polo made this exact same trip more than likely the same way Francis and Denis are

It starts at about 9,000 ft above sea level and then rises to about 25,000 ft; the mountains are called the roof of the world

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Balkh

The city was as Marco Polo described it

Before they left they checked in with the state department and everywhere they went was very dangerous

Denis wondered whether or not to turn back

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Afghanistan

They ate every part of a lamb that was edible

They received a letter from a warlord that happened to be the leader, Commander Attah

25 bodyguards went with Denis and Francis to protect them’

They learned the difference between the gunshots (a celebration or a fight)

Little children had guns

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Persia/Uzbekistan

They spent 2 weeks on a train

No other foreigners were there

The people were very excited when they saw Denis and Francis and asked where they were from

The people required a different visa for every city Denis and Francis visited

They couldn’t go through the border guards

They forged the visa for crossing the Friendship bridge to Afghanistan

All they had to do was pay a fine

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Iran

Denis and Francis explained to the Iranian ambassador that their trip was non-political and the ambassador told them that their visas would be in Turkey

They spent 6 weeks for visas before the embassy told them no

Denis and Frances thought it would’ve been the end of the project

They changed their path and they would figure out later how to get into Iran

Marco Polo never had this problem because he never needed a visa

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Turkey

When they docked it reminded them of New York harbor

They visited hotels where travelers could spend the night safely with their pack animals

This is where the tradition of getting into the local newspaper started and it opened up doors to new opportunities

They didn’t spend any money there because of the welcomeness of the people

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Jerusalem

Denis and Francis collected some of the same oil Polo had on Easter Sunday

This Holy land created a vivid imagination of what the trip was going to be like