Prologue
One day in the spring of 1271 Marco Polo left his hometown of Venice, setting out for the most remote of all countries: China. The first stage of the journey was by sea. The galley with Marco, his father and uncle plowed down the Adriatic Sea, then across the Mediterranean. In Turkey they started their arduous journey by land. They walked through deep valleys, dangerous mountain passes and scorching deserts, encountering wars, hunger and illness. Three years later they staggered into wonderful Xanadu, the summer residence and seat of the emperor of the world, the Mongol Kublai Khan.The rest is history. Marco stayed in China for 17 years. The result was the book entitled A Description of the World which has successfully circulated for 700 years.
This book, THE ROAD TO XANADU, is by no means an attempt to relate Marco Polo's experiences, but rather to tell of my journey in his footsteps. What led to this adventure was an illness that struck me many years ago. Friends and family shook their heads in resignation, but after a while I realized that there only existed one cure. The socalled "Polo Fever", an irresistible yearning for motion, fresh air, and knowledge could only be cured by logging out of Windows for a suitably long period of time. My mind was quickly made up. Today, however, I'm pretty much fever-free. May I soon suffer a relapse!
My journey in Marco Polo's footsteps started in April, 2000 and lasted nearly four months. To say it was unforgettable does not do it justice. The people, food, scenery, solitude, mountains of ice and snow, the desert storms, the desert lice, crimson red sunsets, the endless Mongolian steppes - and the promised land of Xanadu. These impressions are indelibly pressed into my mind, and I share some of these stored memories in my book THE ROAD TO XANADU. Perhaps you'll catch the fever, too!
Enjoy the trip! Get ready for Chapter One, A Strange Illness.
Torbjorn Faerovik
Translated by Anne Faerovik
Published by Cappelen forlag, Oslo, Norway, 2001. All rights reserved. No part of this chapter may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations.