Dear Claire and Ian,
And to think that I only missed you by 2 days in France! Hope you are enjoying that home cooking and vin rouge - we certainly did last week and had a great time with your Mum and Dad. It was also exciting seeing the yellow "Poste" van arrriving each morning in Sully with your curious parcels from India, and which Pickle took to curling up upon. Treasure all your experiences from the past year - good or bad, they are still experiences to learn from. Hope you get some response from the Policia in Peru after all this time! I am now back in HK for the summer term. Have a good time chilling out, getting your head around future plans, and practising that digeridoo! Hopefully see you over the summer. Lots of Love. Sue xx

Welcome home! Hi to all the family too. Put us on the list to see when you do the UK rounds. This is our first week back at work after 4 weeks away, so I'm glad it's Friday..... The rest of our holiday went really well, we have hundreds of photos to sort out - we will have to compare notes. Enjoy the luxury of home! Love C

Bonjour!
After pain au chocolat, proper coffee, hugs from mum and dad and poor old very old azzy the dog. a hot bath, our old comfy clothes, unpacking all the boxes we sent which all arrived safe and sound including the digeridoo which Ian is currently playing like a professional (ok I'm being nice), and the smell of chicken casserole cooking and the knowledge that a good bottle of vin rouge will follow........we end our adventure very happy, a stone lighter, much more tanned and excited to plan our future. wherever and whatever that will be.
Thankyou all for keeping up with our adventure and keeping us reminded that although home was a place we felt we really needed to leave for a while to see the world its a place we are really happy to have come back to.
Its raining....no its drizzling and right now thats great!
Take Care everyone and slowly but surely see you all soon, and for those of you that we met on the trip thankyou for making our time all the more special and we will keep in touch.
Claire & ian
Back in france...full circle.
xxxxx

So... happy to have you back in civilisation. Max and Jenny have collected you this morning in Paris, lucky them! Lots of TLC needed for the weary travellers, and plenty of croissants, french cheeses, chocolate and hearty cooking washed down with a glass or two of french red. Sounds good to me. luv mom and dad, see you soon

Hello there you two,
We've sent you an e-mail, but after seeing your pictures of the desert we couldn't resist sending you another one! Claire, your camel looks really sweet, but is it dead? Is this how you got over your long standing phobia of camels? Maybe if you did the same with the local men you'd get over your short standing, but intense phobia of them as well?! Just a thought!
Hope you feel better soon, and let us know what you are up to- if timing permits we can all cheer each other up in Mumbai!
Love Emma and Chris

Hello Everyone
I'm afraid this isnt one of those jolly messages you've been accustomed to, well mainly the opposite.
We've really not enjoyed our time here, actually thats a huge understatement. This place has some amazing things to see but if we're honest the people are the most unpleasant and ungenuine we've ever met (between us thats most). Every day is a battle and we spend half our time screaming at people and being yelled at and being treated with what can only be described as contempt. We have kept going to see and experience as much as possible but the last two days were the final straw, we arrived at 5am after no sleep at a station for our train up into the mountains and it had been cancelled, no-one from the station would talk to us apart from the shoe cleaners who were nipping and pinching my arms, we then paid loads of backhanders to be told we could go the next day, and guess what 30mins before, no train, and after trying to ask what was going on being shouted at no-refund, look my friend your problem by really agressive people, as this has happened more than a hanful of times, I finally snapped, Ian was told to control his 'wife' as I told them that all indian men are lying 'astards and I wanted to leave the country. I also have a bad stomach infection and my crohns is really bad and I really need to see a doctor but refuse to see one here.
Its a pity to end on a bad note but after 11 months we have done so much and enjoyed all the rest of our trip it seems rediculous to stay for 3 weeks when we dont want to be here, it can only get worse. We reckon starting to reminisce about the start will enable us to have slightly more rose tinted glasses when we get to the india bit.
Anyway we've got to go and find a way to Mumbai asap.
Take care everyone
Claire & ian
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We survived the camel encounter!
Just got back from the camel safari, I (claire) am no longer a camel phobe but actually had a soft spot for my camel. We had a fun time, slept under the stars in the dunes, and are now sore and have bad guts....they do wash the dishes with sand in the desert.
Photos and journal are all up to date, enjoy
we're off to try and eat as our train to the mountains is tonight, 2 days long so it'll be a while till you hear from us.
hope you had a great birthday mum, send our love to sue and her dad and everyone and az.
sarah and tina hope you are both blooming and healthy.
hope the little ones are happy and well
take care

Claire & ian
xx

30 isn't THAT bad little brother! Glad to hear you had a good couple of days after the ups and downs of the last few weeks. Holi sounds amazing (not the groping part). We're having a chilled out Easter and Cara is now resting after the excitement of having the grandparents to stay/spoil her. Mind you I'm a mean mom and won't let her have chocolate - more for me! Tina x

Happy Birthday to Ian and Happy Holi to everyone, thanks for all the messages.
Ians not had a midlife crisis, and we're fine if not a little green (in my (claires) case).
We've updated our journal and posted pictures so enjoy, very colourful now.
WestbyMum expect a phonecall for your birthday, maybe tonight as we might not be able to on wednesday xx
off to jaisalmer and camel madness tomorrow night
Take Care everyone
Claire & Ian
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 U
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 U
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR IAN
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 U 2!

Westbymumandad and AZ

Have a great birthday Ian. I can remember than chubby blond baby your mum and dad wrote about. Roger took me around to his sisters to see his new baby nephew!! Glad to hear your celebrating in style. We keep following your travels. Me, I'm very much an arm chair traveller, love to see other people's pictures etc. but never been further than France!

Ian - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! (I'm sure that you'll open your website just to get new messages on your birthday TODAY). We are in London for the Easter weekend and will celebrate your birthday with home made cake and lashings of wine and nice food. Any excuse. and yes, I've let Jenny and Max know that I have photos of the chubby blond baby that you were 30 yrs ago (even one in the dreaded tank top that you hated)
Have a lovely day, mom xxx