New Tales of the Gobi Desert
HKUGA College, Lau Siu Fung, Fiction: Group 3
W
riter of The Year”, “World’s Most Famous Fictional Writer”… Those are all in the
past. The life of a writer like that was tough and complicated. Things were too
annoying; there were so many things to worry about. But now? It’s as simple as it
could ever be. I have even forgotten the date, is it 2014? It doesn’t matter; I have a
simple and happy life now.
“I will be back very soon. I’m going to explore the Gobi Desert in Southern Mongolia. I’ll
bring a satellite phone with me, so don’t worry,” these were my last words to my brother. After
that I set off on my journey. At first I thought the trip would be easy. However, I was wrong. I
arrived at the Gobi Desert a few days later and hired a local to be my tour guide. Then I started
my exploration for the inspiration for my new book.
The temperature was horrible in the Gobi Desert; it was 33º in the daytime and -4º at night
time. The big difference in temperature made me dizzy and sick. I kept vomiting over the first 2
days. Luckily my tour guide, Ben, was very kind and offered many useful tips to overcome all the
sicknesses. Ben also told me about all his experiences of the Gobi Desert. He started, “About two
years ago in 2009, I came here to the Gobi Desert. I was trying to cross the Gobi Desert with my
best friend, Wallace, a retired soldier. We had a great start, walking ten kilometers a day. But all
of a sudden, the weather changed extremely. It went from a peaceful day with just a fire-shooting
sun, into a windy sand storm that blocked all the light from us. The sky became dark within a
second, with the strongest winds we’d ever met. The grains of sand struck us like blades, shooting
at us crazily like a locust’s army with the speed of bullets. We immediately kneeled down, as
close to the ground as possible. We also leaned against each other to lessen our total surface area
exposed to the whistling air. We struggled for about fifteen minutes.” Ben took a short break and
then continued telling his story.
“And when the storm ended, our clothes were all torn with many holes in them. Our hands
and bodies were bleeding, in many spots, because of the razor-sharp sand. Both of us had serious
cuts all over our bodies. When the sun was shining back on us, sweat came out of our pores
and stung our wounds. It felt like burning. Also; it felt like thousands and thousands of needles
pressing into our skin. My face turned pale as it was really hard to bear the pain. It was tough to
decide to leave the desert. But that was the only option we had, we couldn’t keep going. We had
to get back to the city and search for doctors to heal ourselves first.” This was one of the most
memorable stories of his that he had told me.
Ben’s story was interesting. It was now my turn to tell a story. I told Ben my occupation and
my hope of having a simple and happy life. He agreed with me and supported me. Eventually,
we’d been chatting for days and crossed the middle of the desert. One night, it wasn’t as cold as
before, it was just the freezing breeze passing by us every time that really froze me. This extreme
weather had failed to make me give in. The next morning we kept exploring and finding new
topics to discuss. Although I suffered from the pain of dehydration, I was still strong in my mind
to finish the journey. The trip was peaceful until...
We were chatting as usual with our camels next to us. I saw a black shadow coming from
the far end. It became more and more windy. Darkness was heading our way and was going to
“
