Polish Consul in Mongolia walks 160 kilometers after surviving fire

Pravda ^ | 14:44 2004-06-07

[Grzegorz 246]

The Polish Consul in Mongolia, having escaped a fire, walked for 3 days over 160 kilometers in Mongolia's steppe. The press-attache for Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Boguslav Maevsky, informed journalists that the consul and his driver were found Friday evening in the area of Sumber. They are healthy and feel fine. The Polish consulate, Mongolian army and police, as well as rescue crews working in the region for the American oil company SOCO all took part in the search efforts.

On Friday, Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had informed the media of the loss of Polish consulate representatives in Ulaanbaatar who had left on Wednesday for a service trip in the Dornod province. Later, their burned-out vehicle was found in the steppe.

[Cultural Jihad]

This story doesn't make sense. If it takes a 3-day walk over a hundred miles to get help, there can't be that much of a crying need for diplomatic services there in the steppes.

[Cultural Jihad]

On second reading, the fire was in his vehicle, not his home! Nevermind.

[Grzegorz 246]

I don't know if it is true at all. I haven't heard about it in Polish media. It is from Russian newspaper.
But Mongolia is real big and real empty country.

[Bigg Red]

I'm glad he's safe, but I have 2 questions:
What caused the fire in his car?
Why wouldn't a high level diplomat have with him at all times some means of contacting authorities? (I guess my ignorance is showing. I realize there probably are not any cell towers there, but wouldn't there be some means of communication available?)

[Grzegorz 246]

I don't know. I fought that someone shot to them.
Don't forget that it is about Polish diplomat in Mongolia and it is from Russian newspaper so mistake is possible.

[Grzegorz 246]

I don't know. First I fought that it is a joke.

[ryanjb2]

When are the Mongolians going to stop screwing the Poles?

[PeterPrinciple]

I've been to Mongolia and one of the things the enviro wackos would have hated were all the old tires along the road (there are only one or two main roads). I asked my interpreter about them and he said the tires served an important role. If your car broke down, drain gas from your car and light one of the tires on fire as a smoke signal and hopefully a herder might notice you.

Guess this guy didn't learn the local custom. I liked the mongolian people!!!

[Valin]

The Polish Consul in Mongolia, having escaped a fire, walked for 3 days over 160 kilometers in Mongolia's steppe.

That's not a walk. Now THIS is a walk!

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
by Authors: Slavomir Rawicz
Released: 01 December, 1997
ISBN: 1558216847
Paperback

http://www.historyofmilitary.com/The_Long_Walk_The_True_Story_of_a_Trek_to_Freedom_1558216847.html

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Incredible Journey; Entertaining Reading

"The Long Walk" by Slavomir Rawicz, Audio Version, Blackstone Audio Books, Ashland, Oregon, 1990. Read by Bernard Mayes. Eight 1-½ hour cassettes.
This is a remarkable story of suffering, endurance, perseverance and loyalty. Slavomir Rawicz was a cavalry officer in the Polish Army when Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia divided Poland. Arrested by the Soviets in 1939, Rawicz was put on "trial" for espionage against the Soviet Union, mainly on the grounds that Rawicz spoke Russian. Why else would a Pole learn Russian ... obviously to spy! Convicted, he is sent to a labor camp in Siberia. Usually, this is enough for good story. The Polish cavalry officer, however, after enduring the hardships of walking, in a raging blizzard, from the railhead to the labor camp, decides to escape.

With a little help from the wife of the Camp Commander, Rawicz escapes with six other prisoners, along with a makeshift knife and an ax head without a handle. They walk out of Siberia in the "warm" part of the year, meet a displaced Polish woman (almost a young girl) and include her in their plans.

Their plans include walking along the side of the biggest lake in the world, crossing the Gobi dessert without a vessel to carry water, climbing through the Himalayas (without oxygen at heights where it was needed) and finally coming out in British India. The lone American (identified only as Mr. Smith) then uses his command of English to explain their great trek to the British Army. It is almost impossible to believe all the hardships they must endure. They survive the Gobi by eating large black snakes, and the butchering and cooking is described too graphically. They meet various native individuals, and are greeted courteously and sometimes charmingly, despite the lack, sometimes, of a language in common.

The young girl dies in the Gobi. The Pole, who sang Christmas carols on Christmas Eve, falls to his death in the mountains. All the escapees lose much weight and they all grow beards and much hair, so that, when they are being medically treated in India, they are surprised to see what each other looks like. After hospitalization, Slavomir Rawicz arranges to be transferred to a Polish outfit fighting in Africa. The entire account is presented in a matter-of-fact fashion; the reader, Bernard Mayes echoes this by using uses a matter-of-fact , almost British accent, when he read the long book. The eight cassettes helped me as I sat in traffic on Interstate 495, the ring road around Boston.

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The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom > Customer Review #2:

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An amazing story

It is hard to imagine the hardships that Rawicz went through during WWII. He was a Polish soldier, newly married, and, along with a mysterious American, was captured and confined in a prison in Moscow. They were then sent by rail to a location south of Lake Baikal and forced to march hundreds of miles north where they had to build their own prison camp. He and others, including the American, escaped in the dead of winter so that the snow would cover their tracks. Always fearful of being captured by the Russians, they often walked at night. They marched south for about a year, crossing the Gobi desert and the Himalayan mountains (one chapter gives a quite credible account of seeing a pair of Abdominable snowmen). After reaching India and recovering in a hospital, the survivors went their separate ways. (Look at a map - they marched from northern Lake Baikal to India!!) The amount of suffering described is unimaginable. The book ends there. However, I was so intrigued that I wrote the publisher (in early 1995) and received a nice letter from Rawicz, now living in Nottinghamshire, England! Unfortunately, none of the survivors of the long walk ever reunited again. The mysterious American has remained just that (Rawicz theorizes that he may have been an intelligence officer and thus maintained secrecy - he went by the name Mr. Smith). This book was orignally written in the early 1950s.

[theFIRMbss]

>I liked the mongolian people!!!

This book has many really beautiful paintings of Mongolia and Mongolian people. The author's Chinese, and loves the land, too . . .

[joesnuffy]

Abdominable snowmen snowwoman

[Grzegorz 246]

I heard about it.

[Grzegorz 246]

I heard about it.

[monday]

"(I guess my ignorance is showing. I realize there probably are not any cell towers there, but wouldn't there be some means of communication available?) "

Satellite phone might have worked, but Poland isn't a rich country and probably can't afford Satellite Phones and service for each of it's consulates all over the world. It is very expensive, $2 to $8 per min. I am guessing that it wouldn't take too many high bills for Polish consulates all over the world to lose their sat phones.

As far as cell phone service, I would imagine that the Sahara desert has better service than Mongolia. Doubtful that there is any service at all outside of Ulaanbaatar.

[monday]

"The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom "

I have read this book. It is excellent, quite a story. Unfortunately it has never been verified despite attempts. Whether true or not, it makes for a fascinating tale.

[theFIRMbss]

>Poland isn't a rich country

Poland's GDP
(if factored per capita)
out-paces Russia!

Country       GDP       GDP/per capita

Poland   339.6 billion   8,800
Russia     1.2 trillion   8,300

[Bigg Red]

Okay. Thanks for the info.

[monday]

lol..hardly makes it a rich country....no offense if you are from Poland....satellite phones are expensive. Lots of personal calls on satellite phones would make any country think twice about paying for them.

[theFIRMbss]

>...no offense if you are from Poland...

"Oh, oh moja droga jacie kocham Means that I love you so Moja droga jacie kocham More than you'll ever know Kocham ciebie calem serce Love you with all my heart Return to me and always be My melody of love..."