By Rachael Boon

On his first day trekking across the Gobi Desert, Mr Kwek Chok Ming, 54, was happily snapping pictures of the awesome landscape.

'There was a lot of excitement because the unknown was not known yet. There were rivers, hills and many parts with soft sand,' he says.

But on the second day, he was too exhausted and battered from the tough trek to take further notice of his surroundings. 'After walking through different types of terrain, I developed blisters on my feet, and walking on what they called Gobi pebbles, which kept sinking into the ground, making the trek even more difficult,' he says.

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