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They viewed ayas as just a small fishing village now but back in marco polo time it was one of the main harbors that there was for trade and other stuff

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One challenge or struggle that they faced was that they could not have gotten in to Iran cause it was prohibited so they had to take the route that Marco polo dad and uncle had to take thru Bukhara

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The reason that they ran into this trouble and Marco polo didn't was probably because the Iranian government didn't exist yet and when the 2 Americans went the Iranian government  did exist

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they were supposed to have a visa for every city although they had already been stopped by the federal security system  by crossing a bridge into Afghanistan but then they were able to after waiting about 3 weeks and paying a 100 dollar bribe

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The 2 polo brothers started to notice the difference of the old soviet union  and the part of Afghanistan by the lack of roads and resources that they had to  get themselves across Afghanistan . Plus they had got the help of the of an Afghan warlord which he had given them 25 bodyguards

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Some of the similarities that they experienced were the sheep horns that guided people thru out the snowy trails just as how it had been described by marco polo

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This is the place where they got to refuel and restock their caravan and also the start of camel back crossing across the Taklamakan  desert  for 6 weeks they did this till they finally arrived in dunHuang