My highlights

Best moments :
- plunging alone into the Friday night hubbub of a Calcutta neighbourhood on arrival in India.
- going through the 'onsen' hot spring ritual with a backdrop of Mt Fuji.

And in general :
- travelling not in splendid comfortable isolation in tourist bus or private car but managing on public transport, finding out and comparing times and choices (often no mean task !) and above all observing and chatting to fellow passengers

- visiting sights not in a group of foreigners with a guide but surrounded by crowds of local people discovering the culture of their country and what it meant for them personally (Mt Rushmore, Mt Fuji, Xian, a Darjeeling temple, the Red Fort, the Taj Mahal....). Excited or emotional couples or whole families coming from afar, sometimes in their best clothes, appropriating the place, and always, always posing for photos from all angles.

- finding ourselves quite by chance in unexpected towns and villages which opened some real windows for us

- staying, not in impersonal interchangable hotels but discovering wonderful youth hostels (Montreal, Shanghai...) and family pensions (Darjeeling, Udaipur)

Most beautiful sights (in random order) :
- dozens of small kites fluttering and looping high above Agra evening rooftops
- the intricate flower inlays in the marble of the Taj Mahal tomb
- sunrise and sunset over the Himalayas at Darjeeling
- manicured Japanese gardens
- the war cemetery at Kanchanaburi (River Kwae) with a lone poppy
- a deserted visit to the tiny island palace of Jagmandir on Udaipur's glassy lake
- barefoot cricket on a dusty scrap of land

... but above all the incredible resilience of the human spirit.

A big thank you to
- family who contributed to our 40th anniversary trip,
- friends in the US and Thailand who opened their houses and set us on the right track
- those who followed our progress, who welcomed us back in Tarbes with heartwarming food and friendship
- and especially to Bernard who overcame my initial objections, and who planned the whole thing so perfectly !

When's the next trip ? !