I was travelling with a slave girl, whom I would have another child with, and slave I turned into a friend. We had just gotten of a boat after sailing the black sea, when we heard that the Golden Horde was only a few days ahead of us. We pushed our wagons and horses as hard as we could to catch up. The caravan of the Golden Horde was like that of a moving city, numerous cattle, livestock, tents, people, wagons. It was incredible they could move such a vast mass. Within a few days I met the great Khan, and he must have taken a liking to me because I was invited to eat dinner with the Khan. The Mongols seemed to use Mare's milk in everything, even fermenting it and drinking it. They also drank alcoholic beverages which they did not consider wrong but as a devout Muslim I would not partake in such things.
The Khan's wife was discovered to be pregnant and was going to be sent back to Constantinople, where she was from. I asked if I could go along because I loved going to new places and meeting new people, the Khan agreed to let me go!
As we got closer to the city of Constantinople, the princess began to start eating pork and drinking wine, proving her marriage to the Khan as a pure political arrangement. The city of Constantinople was sad and its currency was worth almost nothing and the landlords worked the poor mercilessly.
(Yale.edu)