Map by Yoftahe Kahsay

Timbuktu, Mali

kahsayy271 — 2024-10-12 01:20:58 UTC

As I prepare for my upcoming journey, I thought that I would keep tabs of my trip in my book I made from China. I am leaving for a one year trip that will go from my hometown, Timbuktu, then stop at Delhi, then finally arrive in Beijing, then returning home. My book is rapidly running out of space to write in, so I need to go to China to get some more paper. After talking with Chinese merchants around my city, which none of had paper left surprisingly, they said that Chinese citizens were in need of textiles, and were giving good deals for just that. So my plan goes as follows: I bring gold from my home to trade in Delhi. I will get textiles from Delhi, then go to China to trade the textiles for paper, which I'll use to expand my book. I should get back to preparing. I'll update this once I arrive in Delhi.

Delhi, India

kahsayy271 — 2024-10-12 01:44:44 UTC

3 months of long and hard travel, and I'm in Delhi! The city has grown past anything I could've ever imagined since I've last been here. The Indian culture is stronger than ever, and the architecture that I've seen make me think that I'm dreaming and I'll wake up back in Timbuktu. Everything here makes me feel like I'm on another continent. But that's besides the point. I'm here for textiles. I did manage to get a really good rate of 200 gold coins for 50 textiles of various patterns, but I knew I could get the price down. I ended up negotiating for 100 coins for 40 textiles. I had 400 coins to spend here, so I bought 160 textiles with that. the guy trading them was kind enough to throw in another 40 because of how many I traded for! I used the remaining 300 coins that I brought for food and water, and went back to my cot I was staying in for the time. I leave tomorrow for Beijing, which will be another 3 months due to the plateau in the way of the path. I will make my final entry there.

Beijing, China

kahsayy271 — 2024-10-12 01:56:41 UTC

Another eventful 3 months of travel, and I'm finally in Beijing! While traveling here, we got ambushed by some rouge Mongol soldiers, but we managed to find them off. We sadly lost 30 textiles, but we still had 170 to work with. Once we arrived in Beijing, we took a few days to rest up from the events of our previous travel. Once I was fully rested, I found some locals that had the paper that I just traveled all of Afro-Eurasia to get. We sat down with a trader to negotiate. After negotiations and a couple pints of tea which they made from native herbs and drank everyday, we decided on 10 textiles for 300 sheets of paper. because of this, I was able to get 5100 sheets of paper! The trader put it all in God proof casing, just in case God decides to strive me down for whatever I might have done in the past. I leave and sundown, as its way to hot to leave in the morning. Me and my group that took this trip with me to get good for themselves will make the 6 month journey back to Timbuktu, then this chapter of our live will be over and I can make my book bigger!