Tracing the Fabled Silk Road through Central Asia

“You’re going where?!” the familiar question asked by friends and family about out planned nineteen-day trip to Central Asia. “The Stans. The Silk Road countries. You know, the land of Genghis Khan and Marco Polo,” we responded, followed by an attempt to paint a colorful image of this remote, fabled region largely unvisited by Westerners. Central Asia’s vast territory, larger than the 48…