Welcome

Dear readers,

Last summer, you read, in some sixty installments, of our journey from the divided regions of Kashmir to the newly annexed states of the European Union in the Letter from Stan:

Following a bureaucratic marathon vis-a-vis the visa fee, Mike was jam-packed from Jammu and Andy and I arrived in Pakistan and went in search of the bus to the apricots in Hunza only to rush from peak to get an appendectomy, with the selfless assistance of Yaqoob and Gilgit's Medina Guesthouse. With things not going to plan, Andy and I took a detour to the UK, while the charms of a fashion exporter in Delhi named Bimal got Mike out of India and united with Lowri in Kyrgyzstan. With me Aerofloated back out we headed for the Tajik border and into the Oblast from the past to arrive in Murghab at midnight. Taking a ridge too far we yurted it up before returning to the road where delays gave us cause to blame Canadia and our eventual ride took us, via a wedding with sherry, chips and a monobrow bride, to the house of Dr Khorog whose estate also hosted a sneak peak and a prophet. From here we toured the Wakhan, Baby!, and made for re-union with Andy in Monday's town, Dushanbe, and onward on the golden road to Samarqand over crossing of contrasts by train through Russia to Moscow, police cell, St. Petersburg and the battle of the beards, Tallinn and STANstead.

This summer, read on as we head south of the border to deliver the extended postcard that is the Mexican Lexicon.