The Streets Of Kashgar

After the mosque, we took a quick stroll down a street filled with vendors and craftsmen. This was a scene that would repeat itself many times during our time in Kashgar.

The spice merchants always sucker me in. Their spreads are beautiful, and the fragrances are exotic and alluring. Every time I pass one, I drink the scent in and ogle the wares, crushing peppers in my hand and taking pinches of everything I can reach. We ended up spending nearly $100 on a mountain of tea and spices on our last day, and my clothes reeked of sichuan peppercorn for the rest of the trip.

It was clover season, so huge burlap bags of clover were for sale on every block. Among other uses, dumplings stuffed with clover are very popular for those few weeks when clover is available. We were lucky enough to try some of those dumplings at dinner.

They sell some pretty weird hats, costume-party-only hats. They also sell some pretty awesome hats, and I'm kicking myself for not buying any. Burn.

Here is a shop selling traditional musical instruments. I was surprised by how many musical instruments I saw for sale -- they were everywhere. The Uyghur people do love to dance, but they do the majority of dancing and singing in their homes, due to the restrictions placed on Muslim women. Our guide told us a proverb describing Uyghur boys: "As soon as they walk, they dance and as soon as they talk, they sing."

I told our guide I would have disappointed my Uyghur parents.

Here is another typical Kashgar street scene. It's just two dudes, casually sawing. No big deal.

Here's a bizarre taste of home -- bagels! They aren't called bagels and, as you can see from Ellen's reation, they're way too dense to compete in the American bagel market

Still, given the state of bagels in DC, they might make some headway here. They're available on nearly every street.

After walking down this small street, we hopped in a cab and headed to the site of an Islamic scholar's tomb.