Cherchen and Bin Chi Leen (Ice Cream)

The next day we woke up, I went to visit my pals at the internet cafe and when the guys woke up we walked around town. We could only get tickets to Khotan for the next day, so we had another day in Cherchen. After checking out a little market where Omar and Andy bought some cool hats, we went to the ice cream place that had broken our hearts the day before. Once there we waited for a while and then ate some watered down tasting soft serve ice cream.We really amused the store owner with our enthusiasm for ice cream. After eating a few, we head over to the local museum which was housed in the former home of a local man who..um..doesn't live any more. The lady there was kinda nuts, but we saw some traditional tools, got a feel for the layout of a traditional home and saw some beautiful carpets in what remained of the household. From there we wandered around some more, asked the music store guy if there were any local musicians we could hang out with, met one who wanted to charge us lots of money to put on a show, and did not seem to understand the concept of just wanting to share music with fellow musicians, so we took off and ate at a nice restaurant.As we ate, a crowd of kids gathered and watched us. When we stepped out, we went to a general store where the lady there spoke english. We bought some ice cream as many children watched us. We sat down eating ice cream amid giggling children who had been playing outside the restaurant. The general store lady invited us to sit on some stools with her and we talked for a while about our travels. She was really kind and brought us some sliced cantaloupes.After a while, the little street tough from the previous day walked up and smacked Mike on the back. He joined us for a bit and spoke his strange street language then left. I was hoping we'd see him again. We walked around some more, then went back and slept.