After a sleepless few hours in the middle of the night listening to an orchestra of neighbourhood dogs barking, I finally got up at 930h and had breakfast in the local cafe. The English-speaking hotel worker offered (for a small fee :) ) to take me Otrar and Aristanbab, two great archaeological sites located about 70km from Turkistan. 
We jumped into his sporty red car and zipped out across the semi-desert to the oasis that spawned the historic village. 
Otrar, the remains of which are located on an unassuming acre-sized mound, was one of the central towns on the Silk Road. Sacked by Genghis Khan (for the polite murder of his emissaries) and then again by a 17th Century rival Khanate, all that remains has been infilled by dust. Recent collaboration with UNESCO has unearthed a bit of the old city and hopefully in 20-30 years more of the old town site will be unveiled. Quite impressive for a 800-year-old town! Aristanbab, built by Timur the Lame (Timurlane) in honor of the man who brought Islam to the region, is also quite impressive; however, being restored in 1910, it does not give off quite the aura as the destroyed Otrar town site.
We jumped into his sporty red car and zipped out across the semi-desert to the oasis that spawned the historic village. 
Otrar, the remains of which are located on an unassuming acre-sized mound, was one of the central towns on the Silk Road. Sacked by Genghis Khan (for the polite murder of his emissaries) and then again by a 17th Century rival Khanate, all that remains has been infilled by dust. Recent collaboration with UNESCO has unearthed a bit of the old city and hopefully in 20-30 years more of the old town site will be unveiled. Quite impressive for a 800-year-old town! Aristanbab, built by Timur the Lame (Timurlane) in honor of the man who brought Islam to the region, is also quite impressive; however, being restored in 1910, it does not give off quite the aura as the destroyed Otrar town site.
We headed back to town and I stopped off at a local cafe for a bite to eat. Sadly, I ordered the tomato salad, which, though delicious, decided to attack my digestive system with a powerful roundhouse kick that sent me to bathroom for the majority of the evening and early morning hours. My first digestive upset in three months, so I can't complain too much... but I could do without the donkey kicking in my gut...
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