As I moved deeper into Egypt, I became a Buddhist and joined a Buddhist group, which included Asian people, which presumably (I'm deducing), had come in through the Silk Road trade routes. I have to digress on how my appearance changed over the years. As a slave I was bald headed 1 except for a strand, about two centimeters thick, on the back of my head, the strand ranging to well below my wasteline. This is how female slaves looked. When I joined Zara I let my hair grow long and curly. As a slave I was chubby and pale as I never got out. As a Buddhist I looked lean and fit, due to yoga and martial arts and very bronzed. I wore a Asian style tunic with pants, had long wavy black hair, thick eyeliner Egyptian style, and l looked intense, haunted and defiant. At some point I, the female leader of the group and two Asian Buddhist monks joined a trade caravan going east. I had managed to stay under the radar until about half way our trip, but then the men of the caravan started to notice me. My two male companions were worried about my safety and when the caravan set up camp outside of a Buddhist monastery the two men suggested that I'd stay there to continue my Buddhist studies. The monastery and climate were cold and the landscape barren, so I refused, leading to the two men calling me a fine weather Buddhist. I did arrive in East Asia (possibly today's Thailand) safely and there I joined a small Buddhist temple.