Travel to Mongolia

The Travels of Marco Polo

Format: Paperback
Author: Marco Polo
ReleaseDate: 30 September, 1958
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Rating:

We are all Marco Polos now
The Mongols distrusted the native Chinese and hired foreigners such as the young man as minor officials. In the late 13th century, three Venetian merchants, two brothers and the son of one of them, visited China, which was then ruled by the Mongols. The Venetian merchant-turned-official traveled extensively through North and South China, South-East Asia and India. After he returned to Venice, he took part in a war between Venice and Genoa, was taken prisoner, and in prison met a professional writer who wrote a book based on his memoirs and embellished it with the stock devices of late medieval romances. Among various Asiatic curiosities Messer Polo describes asbestos, coal, tigers, musk deer, sago and coconuts. He tells the story of the Buddha, describes the Mongol postal system (I was surprised that yamb, which is obviously the root of the Russian word yamshchik, a postal courier, is a Mongol word), Chinese paper money and the life of Indian yogis. For him, the Shinto "idols" of Japan are offensive for a Christian to read about, but the virginity test administered to prospective daughters-in-law in South China isn't. Marco Polo is no Jonathan Spence; he is not trying to get the reader inside the heads of people belonging to an alien culture; he is a merchant, and cares much more about the crops that grow in a certain kingdom or a region, and the crafts its inhabitants practice. Anyway, it is an enjoyable read if you liked Herodotus or the Russian Primary Chronicle. When I read it on the bus, the white man in the seat to the left of me was reading a textbook of Mandarin, and the white man to the right was practicing his Kanji - we are all Marco Polos now.

Rediscover the wonder
But, whether your interest is in travel literature, ancient history, military history, or anthropology, this book will excite and inspire you. There is so little a reviewer could say about a classic that has not already been said. The writing is conversational, witty, and addicting. Though the author repeats some stories, each telling seems to bring out nuances and connections that would have been missed otherwise and each telling takes you deeper into the Asian frontiers and its people. A fascinating traveller's story that never grows old. Must have for any serious student of history especially with regard to the Asian steppes and the empire of the great Khan. Rediscover the wonder of the travels for yourself, not second-hand but from the traveller himself.

Fascinating
I followed his routes on my atlas and discovered that he did not always follow a west to east route, but rather zigzagged north to south to east as his interests changed. As a geography and history buff, I was fascinated by Marco Polo's journal of his travels. In India he narrates his fascination with the role of monkeys in society, the strange vestments and customs of the people there, so alien to anything he had ever seen or experienced. Then he spends years and years in the Orient, befriending the Chinese emperor, learns to speak Chinese to the point where he practically forgets his native Italian, even becomes governor of a Chinese state. From adolescence intoto adulthood, Marco travels with his father and uncle during 30 years, discovering the marvels of a world unknown to the west, by ship, elephant or camel, or on foot over some of the world's highest mountains, against all odds but driven forth by endless curiousity and optimism. .

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