Janice Horton's Blog, page 20

Our fabulous weekend in Macau – the Las Vegas of Asia!

At the very start of September this year, we were looking forward to spending a couple of days in Macau – the Las Vegas of Asia!




It’s a place that has long been on my bucket list and I was keen to see for myself how its fun attractions and cosmopolitan hotels and casino resorts really compared to those we enjoyed in Las Vegas USA.




Macau has its own international airport although it is just an hour away on a fast ferry from Hong Kong. So, we planned to fly from Kuala Lumpur into Macau and spend two nights there and then three nights in Hong Kong to make the most of our time in these two iconic cities. But, right up to the last minute, we really didn’t know if our trip was going to happen at all because just a few days earlier a terrible and devastating category typhoon had hit Macau and Hong Kong.
I contacted our airline for an update and we were told our flight was unaffected and leaving as scheduled. I contacted the Parisian Hotel, where we had tickets for the final night of the Michael Jackson tribute show ‘Thriller’, and we were told the show was going ahead as planned too.

We were concerned and also sensitive to the loss of life and the destruction that Macau and its people had suffered, but it was made clear to us that the city was recovering quickly from the terrible storm, and that it was business as usual. We decided to go ahead but to keep away from the old historic town that had been worst hit by the typhoon. We certainly didn’t want to add to the burden and pressures of the recovery effort, and so decided to confine our stay to the Cotai area, and to The Strip.
The weather was not so good after the typhoon – it was wet and stormy - but that hardly mattered at all when almost all attractions are undercover and there are walkways between them. We stayed right on the Strip by all the big hotels that both Macau and Las Vegas are known for – like The Wynn, The Venetian, The Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, The St Regis, The Conrad, The Sheraton, The Holiday Inn, and others - and still in Macau - the famous Sands Hotel and Resorts.



It was sad, however, when we were able to venture outside, to see some of the evidence of damage and what was left of the palm trees in the area. They just looked like broken stumps.
We did manage to have a fun ride in the gondolas at The Wynn and we had a fabulous lunch there too at the famous buffet – which we had enjoyed in Vegas too - and can report that they are both equally as good!


We had a good walk around the resort hotels, and in the Venetian Hotel particularly, I wouldn’t have known that I wasn’t in the one in Vegas as it was exactly the same and as equally impressive with its canals and operatic singing gondola drivers and exclusive shops and fabulous skydome interior.



Perhaps the highlight of our trip was attending the Thriller Live Show at the Parisian Hotel. It was the final performance in Macau and this show had started in the West End in London and has travelled throughout the world.It was truly fabulous and everyone was up dancing!



After a truly amazing couple of days, we were really excited to be leaving Macao knowing that we had not only done it proud but we were going on to Hong Kong next by TurboJet High Speed Ferry.




Join me next time here on the blog when we explore Hong Kong – the iconic city and the colourful harbour with its famous skyline, the mouth-watering food and the history and the culture, our trip by tram up to Victoria Peak and our Star Ferry trip over to the island of Kowloon with its famed Temple Street Market.
Love, Janice xx

Getting our his and her travel-theme sleeve tattoos in KL!

The Tattoo Parlour Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur
On the last day of August this year, we were back in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia after a month in beautiful Vietnam (you can read about Vietnam in my previous post). We had just a few days to spare in KL before our next adventure – two nights in Macao (the Las Vegas of Asia) and three nights in Hong Kong - before we flew onto South Korea for a ten day visit to see our son and his wife Sujeong, and our grandson Aaron, and the rest of our lovely family in Korea.
In Kuala Lumpur, we checked into one of our favourite hotels outside the city, very close to the place Trav had researched and found to do the tattoos we have been talking about getting this year to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary.
We wanted to mark this anniversary by getting his and her half-sleeve travel tattoos in black and grey that would represent our love and our nomadic lifestyle.
I'd rather be getting tattooed!
We wanted a compass and a map as the main theme with individual touches such as our astrology signs of Scorpio and Pisces. We wanted palm trees to represent our love of tropical places and three little birds in flight to represent our three boys flying the nest. I wanted a quill pen to represent my writing and Trav wanted a diver to represent his passion for scuba diving.
These are our final approved designs. Mine on the left. Trav's on the right.
We consulted with the very talented young artists and tattooists at The Tattoo Parlor Malaysia at Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur. It took many hours of consultation and skill and patience for them to fine-tune our ideas and to get the tattoo designs just right for us. During this time, while tattoo artists Bruce and Oren Lee were busy designing, Cheryl the owner of the shop looked after us, bringing us coffee and food. The atmosphere in the shop was really friendly, fab, and fun.
Tattoo artist Bruce Lee positions the design template onto Trav's arm
Tattoo artist Oren positions the design template on my arm
With the design templates in place that tatttoing can begin!
Then the tattooing began and after over eight hours in the shop, including five long hours in the chair and under the needle, Trav and I finally had the tattoos we had wanted so much and which meant so much to us. We were more than thrilled with the results. I do have a few tattoos already but this was Trav’s first tattoo. I'm so proud of him and we both agreed that the pain was worth it!
The outline is being tattooed and I'm in a bit of a sweat!
The amazing results - photographed raw - after five hours under the needle!
Thank you to ace tattooists Bruce and Oren at The Tattoo Parlor Malaysia!
We love our his and her’s travel tattoos and we will wear them with pride.
Now that our tattoos have healed they look even better!
 Do you have a tattoo/s? What do you think of our new tattoos?
In my next post, I’ll be sharing our fantastic trip to Macao and Hong Kong and explaining to you how the trip very nearly didn’t take off!

Love, Janice xx

An amazing month in beautiful Vietnam…

The end of July through August is a tricky time of year in South East Asia – as many places are having their monsoon season. Having spent a month on Koh Chang in Thailand in the rainy season and then a few fun days in Singapore and Batam Island, which you can read about in previous posts, Trav and I were back in Kuala Lumpur and looking for somewhere to settle down for a month or more, where I could get down to some concentrated work on my current writing project and where he could get in some scuba diving.
We were also looking for somewhere that satisfied several other criteria too - hot sunshine, a nice beach, and most importantly, affordability. And, quite crucially, to satisfy our wanderlust, it also had to be somewhere we hadn’t ever been before.

So, rather than stick a pin in a map, we did our usual research. I’m aware that my posts and photos on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram just show us jetting off and exploring places - but I think you might be really surprised at how much time and effort we spend on planning our travels. Actually, we often don’t go to our first choice of destination. This could be because it would prove too damaging to our current budget or because of the possibility of violent weather (like somewhere being affected by a category tornado/hurricane) or simply because we have reluctantly decided to heed the advice of the UK government’s warning about a place being deemed too unsafe for travel just now. (The UK Gov's website is a good place to check on your travel plans HERE).
Anyhow, after doing our research, we decided on beautiful Vietnam.





Vietnam ticked all our boxes.  We hadn't ever been there before and August is at the end of their hot summer dry season. Our research told us to expect the weather to be good there for at least another month. The coastal regions are renowned for their stunning white sandy palm-fringed beaches and scuba diving and, because it was the end of the season, we expected the price of accommodation to be low.
Also, we had spotted that Air Asia had a bargain flight from Kuala Lumpur to Da Nang in Vietnam, which is very close to the coastal resort of Cua Dae Beach and the larger An ban Beach, and the beautiful ancient town of Hoi An, which is one of only seven UNESCO World Heritage sites in Vietnam.


The river running through the old town at Hoi An Vietnam
At this point - once I had completed my writing project - we thought our tentative plans might even lead us up the coast to Na Trang and onto Ho Chi Minh City too, as we have friends there whom we’d love to catch up with again. Then maybe to even flying on from HCMC to Siem Reap Cambodia, to take in the amazing sights at Ankor Wat as it has always been on my bucket list?
The first thing we had to do, however, to get into Vietnam, was to secure a tourist entry visa. We applied online, and as there wasn’t much difference in the price between a one month or three-month visa, and as we were still unsure of our onward plans, we went for the longer one. Then once the visa came through into our email we were able to go ahead and book our flight with Air Asia.
For our accommodation, I looked at Agoda and Booking.com. First, we stayed in a homestay right opposite Cua Dai Beach. It was clean and reasonably priced – a little bit pricier because of its beach location – but we were swayed by the sea, the sand, the seafood restaurants nearby, and so we booked for two weeks.



Our homestay on the beach at Cua Dia Vietnam An Ban Beach Hoi An Vietnam
During those first two weeks, Trav went diving and I sat on the bed writing. Really, for almost two weeks, I hardly left the room in daylight hours and because there was no desk I had no choice but to sit on the bed! When I did FINALLY finish my project (seriously concerned that I'd damaged my bum irreparably) I really wanted to spend my days lying in the sun and swimming in the sea, but by this time, we decided we needed to move into town, where the accommodation was a bit more affordable.


Trav enjoying the diving off Cham Island Vietnam
So we moved into Hoi An. Again we stayed in a family homestay – there are so many of them in Vietnam and they are run like small boutique hotels.
We had a nice room with a balcony overlooking a pool. Luxury in this incredible heat! I should mention that during this time, the weather was so HOT that it was almost unbearable at times. We have been to many hot and humid places in the world and we can usually cope with it - even when we don't have air conditioning - but my goodness I can’t think of anywhere hotter than Vietnam!

Consequentially, we spent our days not in town but back on the beach at either Cua Dai or An Bang (and that's when I took all the photos). In the early evenings, however, having gone back to our homestay in town for a lovely swim in the pool and a glass of beer, we often took a walk into Hoi An looking for either a restaurant or good street food.


With the fruit sellers in Hoi An Town Vietnam

Hoi An is at its best at sundown when hundreds of lanterns are lit and all the traditional old boats are on the river. Also in the evenings, the use of motorised transport is banned in the old town and so it is enjoyable to explore the pretty streets at this time, either on foot or in an old-fashioned cycle tuk tuk.
As well as the historic buildings in Hoi An, a must-see sight is the iconic old wooden covered Japanese Bridge dating back to the 16th century, built by the Japanese community.
The Old Japanese Bridge in Hoi An Vietnam
One of our favourite spots in the Old Town was the White Marble Bar – where you can sit in the open (no glass) windows (opposite a fan!) with a vodka lychee martini cocktail (oh wow – they were good!) and watch the world and the hundreds of beautifully dressed Chinese tourists wearing Vietnamese hats being transported around in those cycle tuk tuks.




Hoi An is also very famous for its tailors. You can get beautiful clothes made to measure very inexpensively here. It seems that every Vietnamese in the town is a dressmaker or seamstress – as was our landlady, Moon. I had a dress made by her during our stay (that's the fabric below right) and Trav had two linen shirts, a pair of smart city trousers, and his old denim shorts that were falling to bits perfectly replicated. We were delighted. You'll see the resulting outfits being worn in an upcoming blog post!
Moon, our landlady, was also an expert tailor and we had our new clothes made to measure
After spending a whole month in Vietnam in Cua Dai and Hoi An, quite spontaneously, we spotted an absolute bargain flight to Seoul in South Korea. 
We immediately called our son James and his wife Sujeong, to ask if they were up for having us come over to see them and our grandson Aaron and the Kang family of South Korean in-laws. Like many of our spontaneous trips – they are booked on the basis of a favourable price – and this flight, in ten days time, was from Hong Kong to Seoul return.
So we just had to plan to be in Hong Kong in time for our flight.
We had been to Hong Kong once before – but only as a transit stop between flights. I fell in love with Hong Kong when I had looked down at the city from our plane and saw it lit up like a Christmas tree as we flew in. So this was our big chance to spend a few days and nights there before flying onto Seoul. 

I’d also always wanted to tag a couple of nights in Macao onto a Hong Kong trip too. Macao, known as the Las Vegas of Asia, was just a one hour ferry from Hong Kong. I could see a fabulous adventure materialising before my eyes!
So we abandoned our plans to explore more of Vietnam and Cambodia (for another time) and we flew back to Kuala Lumpur for a few days - not exactly a direct route to Macao and Hong Kong - but it actually worked out cheaper as all the bargain flights were out of KL. Good job we don't mind flying!

So, at the end of August after spending a whole month in Vietnam, we were back in our Asian hub of Kuala Lumpur for a few days. We relaxed at our favourite hotel just outside the city and we booked flights, hotels, and looked up transport schedules for buses, ferries, and trains in Macao and Hong Kong and South Korea. See, I told you we did a lot of research and planning.
While we were back in KL at this time, through his own research, Trav happened to find the right tattoo artist to do our ‘his and hers half-sleeve travel tattoos’ that we had been talking about doing this year for our thirty-fourth wedding anniversary, and so we jumped at this fabulous window of opportunity.


These are our final fabulous designs for our tattoos.
You see mine (left) has a feather pen to represent my writing.
Trav's (right) has a diver to represent his passion for scuba diving.
Both tattoos have a compass and a map and palm trees and our astro signs.
Please do join me in my next post, where I’ll be excited to show you our fabulous new half-sleeve matching travel tattoos now permanently on our arms!
Love, Janice xx

Singapore Universal Studios and Batam Island

Towards the end of July, after chilling out on an island called Koh Chang in the eastern part of Thailand, we decided we needed a change of scenery and also a bit of fun. You can read about our month on Koh Chang in my previous post.
So we took an Air Asia flight from Pattaya to Kuala Lumpur with the intention of taking a flight over to Singapore the next day, where we could catch a ferry over to nearby Batam Island.

Air Asia is a budget airline and we fly with them often using Kuala Lumpur as our transit hub in South East Asia. We keep an eye on their flash sales and have managed to get some amazingly cheap deals. In fact, we often make decisions on where to fly next on the basis of their cheap and available flights.
But sometimes, as is often the case with budget airlines, they are occasionally subject to cancellation or delay. Unfortunately, our flight with Air Asia from Pattaya was delayed several hours and when we eventually got back to KL and our favourite Holiday Inn hotel, it was well past midnight and we were tired and hungry and a little grumpy because we’d missed our complimentary food and cocktails in the club lounge!
The next morning, when I checked-in online for our Singapore flight, I suddenly realised that the flight we had booked was mid-morning and not mid-afternoon. So after a crazy mad dash to the airport in an Uber Taxi - we managed to get to the gate just in the nick of time - only to be told the flight was delayed. Phew!
Batam, although part of Indonesia, is very easy to get to from Singapore via a subway ride from the airport and a ferry from the harbour. It is also an extremely affordable place to stay compared to the expense of Singapore and it also has a Holiday Inn Resort and Spa. And, as we had enough hotel loyalty points to stay there for free for a few days, we decided it was just the spot for some R&R before heading back to Singapore and finishing off our trip with some fun at Universal Studios.
The weather in Singapore was hot and humid and overcast when we arrived but we had a great view of the famous city skyline from the ferry as we headed over to sunny Batam.



Our hotel on Batam Island was lovely – with a fabulous pool – and I had what I now consider to be my best-ever spa experience there at the Tee Tree Spa with a full body aromatherapy massage and facial treatment. Bliss.



Back in Singapore, a few days later, feeling relaxed and rejuvenated, we checked into another Holiday Inn not too far away from Universal Studios.
We have been to Singapore once before – two years ago – when we took a pre-Christmas trip from KL for shopping and sightseeing. Back then, we took in all the famous sights like Marina Bay and Raffles Hotel and we went for a Singapore Sling cocktail at the Long Bar. This time, we made the theme park our focus of attention. Universal Studios Singapore is very like the one in Orlando Florida – a bit smaller perhaps – but lots of rides like ‘The Mummy’ are exactly the same and so much fun that we went on that one twice. We found the waiting times for the main attractions much shorter than those we encountered in Orlando – maybe an hour rather than three hours without the expense of an express pass.





We had a wonderful day out – although it was blisteringly hot all day.
We headed back to Kuala Lumpur for a few days to give us time to decide on our next move. While we were there Trav and I managed to get the his and hers half-sleeve tattoos that we have been talking getting to celebrate our thirty-fourth year of marriage this year. Trav had done some prior research and had found the right tattooist for the job in KL and so we made an appointment to discuss the artwork.

In my next post you can see the finished results!
Love, Janice xx

Rainy season on (เกาะช้าง) Elephant Island Thailand

After an amazing and exciting month in Malaysia during the whole of June this year - exploring caves in Kuala Lumpur, helping out at a turtle conservation in the Perhentian Islands, seeing Orangutans and Sunbears in the wild in Borneo, and riding through towns and jungle on the North Borneo Railway, all of which you can read more about by clicking back through my last few posts – Trav and I decided to head onto somewhere for the month of July where we could take things easy for a while and I could get down to some serious writing and Trav could do some serious diving – all while not having to pay too much for our travel or accommodation costs.
As an easy option and with the help of a bargain-priced flight with Air Asia, we looked at travelling back to Thailand for a few weeks. We know Thailand quite well by now – having travelled extensively throughout the country - although we had still yet to discover the eastern part of Thailand and Trat Province. On this side of the Gulf of Thailand there are a string of tropical islands that are known for snorkelling, diving, jungle hiking and waterfalls. The larger of these islands in the archipelago is known as Koh Chang or Elephant Island (เกาะช้าง).
These islands are also reportedly much quieter and less-touristy than other islands in Thailand – like Phuket or Koh Samui for example – so they sounded exactly like our kind of place. There was only one catch - in July it is rainy season in this part of Thailand.
In the off-season, especially on island resorts in Thailand, you have to be aware that not all hotels or restaurants or shops will be open. Some close up for the whole season but for those that remain open in off-season that also means lower prices for tourists. We managed to bag two whole weeks in a luxury resort on Koh Chang using Booking.com for a fraction of its high season price.
If you are flying into Thailand (with a UK passport - other passports holders may be offered different entry visa options) on arrival you will get a thirty-day entry visa. We intended to stay for the month and then perhaps look for an even cheaper hotel deal for the second half of our stay.
It couldn’t rain there all month, could it?



We flew from Kuala Lumpur to Pattaya in Thailand. Pattaya is a town with a seedy reputation for crime, prostitution, and drugs - so not our kind of place at all - but it was a necessary transiting point for us on our way down the coastline. 
In Pattaya, we booked a room for one night at the Holiday Inn – always our preferred hotel chain - as we benefit hugely from collecting points for stays with their customer reward programme called IHG.
On checking in at the Holiday Inn Pattaya Beach we were given a penthouse suite upgrade with a wraparound balcony and spectacular views of the beach as well as club access at the rooftop bar – meaning complimentary cocktails and canapes. Score!

The next morning, as you might imagine, it was difficult to leave our luxurious surroundings, but after breakfast, we had arranged for a taxi/minibus to take us on the seven-hour road trip down to Koh Chang.
Yes, really, seven hours – including a ferry crossing - and this is the only way we could see how to get there. The Google map shows a five and a half hour journey - but if you are heading to Koh Chang from Pattaya then be prepared for it to take you a little longer.


The journey was a little laborious but we had a very good driver, and on the ferry, we were delighted to meet a Buddhist monk in his orange robes. He was happy to speak with us and to practice his English. One of the things I love most about travelling is the wonderful people you get to meet along the way.




It was overcast and raining as we travelled but still incredibly warm and humid, and as we approached Koh Chang island, it looked beautiful in the mist. But we still had another hour or so to get to our destination – a resort on Klong Prao Beach – and our driver and car were still with us on the ferry.

On arrival, our hotel far exceeded our expectations – we had a lovely room in a palm-thatched deluxe bungalow with a covered private balcony overlooking the gardens and the pool. I decided that even if it did rain the whole time we were here, I really wouldn’t mind.




Of course it didn’t rain the whole time – only about half the time – but then I did have lots of writing to do. Trav didn’t mind the rain either because he planned on going diving and so he knew he would get wet anyway.
Sometimes, though, when we did venture out on showery days – to find a 7/11 shop for essential supplies of snacks and wine and beer - we ended up sheltering in a street side café or bar.
Not such a hardship - and it was hot rain after all!
On the days when the sun shone, it was really beautiful and we made the most of them. We sunbathed and swam in the hotel pool, or we took walks along long empty beaches, that I’m told get incredibly busy in high-season.







We also strolled along jungle tracks looking for elephants. There really are lots of elephants on Koh Chang, so we made sure to always take some apples with us so that we could feed them and stroke them and talk to them. Some are left wander freely in fields or some you meet just strolling along the road and being ridden by their mahout (elephant keeper). They are such lovely animals and this was the first time I’d ever been up close to an elephant.


There are several elephant trekking camps on Koh Chang where tourists can ride on the back of an elephant through the jungle. As I don’t agree with elephants being ridden, I didn’t go near them.
You can learn more about elephant camps on Koh Chang HERE.
One of the most wonderful things we did on a sunny day was a jungle trek by foot to the nearby Klong Plu Waterfalls. It was a testing walk uphill on slippery muddy steep tracks, but it was so worth it, as the waterfalls were magnificent – another bonus in rainy season - and we could swim in the water pools that were full of beautiful fish.








In the evenings, we were entertained with live music at our hotel bar. Sometimes we ate at our hotel and other times we went to other restaurants and bars. We also ate street food – some of the best we’ve ever had. Our favourite bar was called Sabai Bar on White Sand Beach where they had a fire dancer show on most nights (when it wasn’t raining obviously). Many of the nicer restaurants on Koh Chang will pick you up at your hotel for free in an open back truck/taxi and our favourite restaurant who offered this service is called Iyara, which is famous for its yummy seafood and river estuary location.





On one beautiful clear and starry night after having dinner at Iyara, Trav and I took a ride in a small boat along the riverbank to see fireflies. It was a magical moment to sit in the dark and the silence and to see all the trees and bushes on the riverbank twinkling with tiny white firefly lights.
Painting (public domain) Fireflies at Ochanomizu by Kobayashi Kiyochika. 1847-1915
After our two weeks at our beautiful resort, we would have loved to have stayed on but reluctantly we had to find another hotel on the island. The reason for this was an upcoming week-long Thai holiday, that we hadn’t previously known about, which would put our resort’s prices up to high-season levels.
We were lucky and found an inexpensive but very nice hotel further along the beach. This was a newly built resort and although it wasn’t fully open in the off-season as their bar and restaurant were closed, they rented out rooms, which were small modern villas built around a swimming pool that we could use. Hence the lower prices.
We decided this would do us fine. The resort was quiet and I was still working hard on structural edits for my next book. Over our month on Koh Chang, I’d planned to rewrite 30,000 words of the mid-section of the book and add another 20,000 words to the storyline bringing the novel to around 90,000 words. It was a grueling task that meant spending many hours at the laptop but at least I had a swimming pool available to swim away the knots from my shoulder muscles and plenty of Thai massage places to go to if I needed it - which I did on quite a few occasions!



By the end of July, we had had a wonderful time on Koh Chang but Trav was bored with me writing for so much of the day and the weather and rain on Koh Chang was getting steadily more persistent and that was causing bad visibility in the sea and so he wasn’t diving either. I heartily agreed that we both needed a change of scenery, so we decided to move on to somewhere where the weather might be improved, and where we could also have a bit of fun together.
So we headed back the same way we arrived in a taxi/mini-bus but this time we stayed in Pattaya a few nights so that we could make our new travel arrangements. While we were there we explored the town and saw that it was indeed a bit of an eye-opener!


But where to go next? We did our research carefully because while some regions and countries in South East Asia are in the middle of their rainy (monsoon) season in July and August, others were just finishing theirs and others were just coming into it. Spotting a bargain flight, we decided to head over to Singapore for a few days and then take a ferry boat over to Batam Island - which is part of Indonesia and stay at their Holiday Inn Resort - which we paid for entirely with our IHG loyalty points.
So in my next post, I'll be blogging about our amazing time in Singapore where we went to Universal Studios for a day and had a lot of fun - and also our lovely week spent at the Holiday Inn on Batam Island in Indonesia - before we headed back to our south-east Asian home hub of Kuala Lumpur to make the decision on where in the world we would travel to next!

Do pop back soon – and please consider signing up to my mailing list on the top right of this page. I only send out newsletters when I have news or offers or something exciting like a new book release to share with you and you will get a free download of my bestselling book ‘How To Party Online’. Thanks!
Love, Janice xx

Adventures in Borneo (2) Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre

We flew from Kota Kinabalu to Sandaken in the Sabah region of Borneo to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to see Orangutans in the wild at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre – the precious home of the last wild Orangutans of North Borneo.


The centre, in 43 square kilometres of virgin equatorial rainforest, was set up in 1964 by an English woman called Barbara Harrison and it was the first centre in the world to dedicate itself to the rehabilitation of orphaned (as a result of illegal logging and deforestation) Orangutans or those that have been displaced (due to being caught and illegally kept as pets). Today, as well as caring for young orphaned Orangutans, it looks after dozens of other wildlife species including Sunbears, Gibbons, Sumatran Rhinos, and Borneo Pygmy Elephants.



Walking through the jungle to the feeding stations, we managed to spot some pigmy elephants. The jungle was so dense that we walked along wooden gantry pathways to keep us above ground level and safe from snakes and other dangers. All around us the trees were so incredibly ancient and tall and it was a fabulous experience to see both young and older Orangutans swinging through the tree canopy above us towards the food station.



My photos really didn’t do our experience here justice but then being behind the camera wasn’t the point of being here, so for once, I didn’t take many snaps. I just stood in awe and wonder as these beautiful Orangutans sat and ate or swung on ropes or through the trees around me.


The word Orang-Utan means ‘Man of the Forest’.
Check out these short video clips of wild Orangutans at the feeding station





Sightings at the feeding station are not guaranteed but we were fortunate in seeing lots of Orangutans on that day.
On the website (which you can find following the link HERE) it states “The orangutans that come for this free feed are wild and therefore can be dangerous, so there are staff on hand to make sure interactions do not occur, for the safety of both visitor and orangutan. Because they are wild, it can never be guaranteed that many will come for the feed, if any at all (especially during the fruiting season). This is where some people leave disappointed, but the truth is if no orangutans come, then it is a positive thing - it means they are not reliant upon the feeding to survive.”



Afterwards, we went to visit the outdoor nursery to observe the juvenile orangutans on their final stage of rehabilitation before release.




The whole experience was amazing and (watching the DVD presentation in the Orangutan Appeal UK presentation and video) is highly emotional.




Five amazing things I learned about Orangutans
There are only two species of Orangutan in the word: the Borneo Orangutan and the Sumatran Orangutan.
The Orangutan is the only great ape outside Africa.
The Orangutan is strictly arboreal - it lives exclusively in the trees - making it the largest tree living mammal in the world.
96.4% of our DNA is identical to that of the Orangutan.
The Orangutan has the longest childhood dependence on the mother of any wild animal in the world.






The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre is owned and run by the Sabah Wildlife Department, from which it receives some funds.  Additional funding comes from the entrance fee charged to tourists. The charity Orangutan Appeal UK funds projects at the centre including the renovation of enclosures and equipment, as well as funding five members of the care team, including a veterinary nurse.
Our visit to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Northern Borneo is an experience I will cherish all my life.

In my next travel post we are heading back to Thailand - to an area and an island we haven't yet explored called Koh Chang - which means elephant island. It's rainy season there so the weather is bound to be a mixture of sunshine and showers - but in off season there are hotel resort bargains to be found and I need some down time from travelling as I have a book to write and revisions to work on. We'll fly from KL to Pattaya and then take a taxi and a boat over to Koh Chang.




See you next time here on the blog - in the meantime - please do consider signing up to my occasional newsletter for updates on the writing as well as offers and news of my next book. The link is at the top right of this page and all subscribers automatically get a download of my fun 'How To Party Online' ebook in Kindle and PDF formats completely FREE as a thank you!

Love from,
Janice 

Adventures in Borneo (1) Kota Kinabalu and The North Borneo Railway

There are two distinct sides to Malaysia. West (Peninsular) Malaysia and East (Borneo) Malaysia and they are separated by the South China Sea.

Trav and have explored most of the Malaysian peninsular including the islands of Penang and Langkawi on the west side and Perhentian Islands on the east but up until now we haven’t ever ventured across to Malaysian Borneo. That all changed when we flew from Kuala Lumpur to the town of Kota Kinabalu.


Kota Kinabalu or KK is known is the capital of the northern part of Borneo and is the gateway to the Kinabalu National Park. Many people come here to climb Mount Kota Kinabalu – but not us – we were here for a train ride!



Riding on the North Borneo Railway is like stepping back in time and travelling through towns and jungle in the heart of Borneo on one of the very few wood-fuelled engines left in the world today. Originally manufactured by the Vulcan Foundry in Newton-le-Willows Lancashire UK and part of a fleet that have plied the tracks through Borneo since the late 1800’s.
We had the most amazing day travelling on this fabulous old steam train re-living the by-gone era of old colonial times. We were given travel 'passports' and they were stamped at every town we went through. We had breakfast on the outbound journey and a traditional 'Tiffin Lunch' on the way back as we passed through town and tunnels and jungle and waved at cheering waving people as we chugged along. It felt so romantic and nostalgic - and steamy hot. The carriage windows were open for the whole time and it felt wonderful once we got up some speed to have a breeze coming into the train along with wafts of wood smoke from the engine. You can find out more about the historic North Borneo Railway on their website HERE.
All aboard the North Borneo Express!









Back in Kota Kinabalu, we spend the first few nights in a budget hotel in town, so we could enjoy the waterfront bars and restaurants.





But after a few days in KK, we wanted to get away from the busy crowds and after spotting an out-of-season offer on Booking.com we moved up the coast a little to stay for a few nights at a fabulous beach resort. It was great to mix up a bit of cheap and basic with a bit of bargain luxury!





After a few days at the beach, we were keen to be back on a plane and to fly a considerable distance across the country to Sandakan in the Sabah region of Borneo.




The reason for this trip was to see Orangutans in the wild at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre – the precious home of the last wild Orangutans of North Borneo. I was SO excited!



Meeting Orangutans in the wild in Borneo is the subject of my next travel blog post – so please pop back soon - until then I’ll leave you with this sweet photo!



Love, Janice xx

Fun in the sun – or playing a dangerous game?

Sunshine: It lifts our mood because it boosts serotonin. It provides us with vitamin D. It is essential for absorbing calcium, keeping our bones healthy, and for protecting against serious chronic diseases later in life such as osteoporosis. It gives us more energy and allows for an outdoor lifestyle.
I love to be bathed in sunshine and for the past four years, my husband Trav and I have been following the sun around the world, so that we can live in perpetual sunshine. I love the beach. I love swimming in the sea and the ocean. I love being on a boat. I love running around in shorts and a vest – and even better - a bikini. I love exposing my skin to the sun.
And guess what…. I never use sun screen.
I can hear you gasp. ‘No Sunscreen! Are you crazy?’
I don’t think I’m crazy because I’m careful to limit my time exposed to the sun and then I simply cover up. I tan easily and I never let myself burn - my skin is tanned from long slow exposure to the sun. I always have a hat, a cover up and a sarong.
That said - this year I noticed some strange new moles appear on my body. There were two on my back and two on the top on my leg. I decided that if they changed shape or colour or got much bigger, then I would do something about them - i.e. I would get them checked out. The only thing is, when you are constantly travelling from place to place, it’s difficult to know where to go to get checked out with any medical concerns.
But when I was in the Perhentian Islands at a turtle sanctuary (you can read about this amazing trip HERE) and I met a lovely lady called Sally from Kuala Lumpur while we were out on a boat trip together in our swimsuits, we somehow got chatting about moles. Not the wee rodents that might dig up your garden but the ones that appear on your skin. I showed Sally my new moles, and she suggested that I should get them checked out and that when we both got back to KL she would take me to see a skin specialist.
Thanks to Sally, I got an appointment with Dr Tan at the private Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur straight away. That really is his name - I didn't make it up.



I’d never been to a private hospital before – and this one looked pretty fancy – they even had valet parking at the entrance. I soon discovered that Dr Tan is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon as well as a skin specialist and, after a short wait in his reception area, I got to meet him. I found he was a friendly, delightful, and impressively qualified professional who had trained in London and Edinburgh. Dr Tan told me that the two moles on my back and one at the top of my leg were nothing at all to be concerned about – just normal moles – and that he could remove them straight away BUT that he was concerned about the other one at the top of my leg which would certainly need a biopsy.



Dr Tan asked me how long I was staying in Kuala Lumpur and I replied ‘just a few days’. But, when he looked me kindly in the eye and suggested that I stuck around for a week until he had the biopsy results, I started to feel a bit worried.
I wish I’d taken a photo of the suspicious mole to show you before it was removed for biopsy but I didn’t – but to describe it – it wasn’t a regular shape like the others as it had raggedy edges and was mottled in colour (light and dark brown) and neither was it raised above the skin like the others – this one was flat and under the skin.
So just a short while after consulting with Dr Tan in his surgery I found myself on his operating table with two nurses in attendance and Dr Tan providing local anaesthetics to each mole (that really stung!) and wielding his laser and then carefully cutting out the suspicious one for biopsy.
During the consultation, I also thought to mention the two unsightly rough brown spots that I had on either side of my face. This was purely a vanity thing - but as I was in the hands of a top plastic surgeon - I asked Dr Tan if he could burn them off too and he was happy to oblige!
Trav and I then extended our stay in KL and waited for the results of the biopsy while I healed.
You are probably thinking that seeing a top surgeon in a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur would cost a fortune – and I was rather afraid that it might.
I was initially hoping that my travel/health insurance policy might cover it. 
Imagine what such a bill would be in Europe or the USA or Canada for instance?
But, as my total bill for all the treatment here in Kuala Lumpur came to less than £400 GBP, I didn’t even have to bother putting it through my insurance. 
How amazing is that?
I do know that in the UK I could have seen a specialist for free under the NHS – but how long would it have taken for me to even get an appointment? And, if I did turn out to have skin cancer, surely a timely initial appointment would make a huge difference to a healthy outcome?
The biopsy results took just five days to land in my inbox and to my great relief, it was good news. The mole was not malignant skin cancer. It was a Seborrheic Keratosis - a type of harmless skin growth that bears a resemblance to skin cancer. I was very fortunate indeed.
So what now? A lesson learned?

Life is for living and I love living in sunshine...
Well, I’m now using sunscreen on my face and wearing a hat even more to shade my face and hopefully stop the brown patches reappearing on my now brown-patch-free face. I’m still happy not to use sunscreen on my body to be honest – my moles were not cancerous melanoma - so I’ll continue to get a bit of sun but to then cover up to prevent getting sunburned as I've always done.

Life is for living and I love living in the sun.
What about you? Do you too love sunbathing? Do you use sunscreen?
Love, Janice xx

Turtle sanctuary and reef experience in Perhentian Islands Malaysia...

Swimming with turtles at Rawa Islands off Perhentian. Photo credit: Owen Goulding
It’s almost the end of August and I’m back in Kuala Lumpur – our Asian hub/home – after spending a month in Vietnam. I’m so behind on my travel blogging because we’ve not only been travelling lots but I’ve been working really hard on revisions for my next book. I’ve got a bit of breathing space now - until my editor gets back to me - so I’m keen to get this blog up to date at last and tell you all about the fantastic adventures and places we have travelled to since my last travel blog which was on catching up with friends and family in the UK in April 2017. You can read all about our month back in the UK HERE.
At the beginning of May, we flew from London to return to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After a few days in KL we took a one hour flight to Kota Bharu over to the east coast and then a boat over to the Perhentian Islands. On Perhentian Besar, we stayed at Bubbles Turtle and Reef Experience which is a dive centre and a turtle conservation sanctuary. It was a fantastic experience and valuable research for my next book – especially watching all the newly hatched baby turtles running to the sea!

It's a one hour flight from KL to Kota Bharu - gateway to the Perhentian Islands
The moment I set eyes on the Bubbles Resort I was enchanted. The water in the bay was so clear and the white sand beach looked so natural and unspoiled because the resort buildings were behind the natural line of the trees and surrounding jungle. The first thing I saw in the trees surrounding the open air reception area was a black haired monkey with a long tail and big white eyes – it was the size of a small child. Apparently, these type of monkeys, unlike others I have encountered in Malaysia or Indonesia, are very shy and so for the rest of our stay it remained elusive. I also saw a lima for the first time ever. It was clinging to a tree above me eating leaves while its baby clung on and peeped down at me. The lima  looked to me like a cross between a fox and a bat – and it ‘flew’ from one branch to another in the tree using its loose body skin as wings. Amazing. I knew at once that this was my kind of place. Basic in accommodation but clean and friendly and with a real focus on the beach and the environment.
Arial view of Bubbles Resort on Perhentian Island Arriving by boat





Bubbles Resort is set up to give priority to the turtles who use its beach to lay eggs and guests are briefed on how to be ‘turtle friendly’ – no white lights on the beach from 7pm  at night – no walking down the beach past the dive centre on the resort perimeter after 8.30pm. And, after 8.30pm, the common areas of the resort are lit with red light which won’t bother the turtles. This is because man-made white light confuses them as they use the white light of the moon to navigate to the beach to lay their eggs. Nesting turtles are instinctively careful about where they lay their eggs. Some will come ashore and dig several pits before choosing the ‘perfect’ place to lay. Some, dissatisfied with the site, will abandon laying their eggs and try again another night.



Interestingly, a turtle can live to up to around 80 years old and doesn’t reach reproductive maturity until it is around 30 years old and it will come back to the beach it was born to lay its own eggs. It will come to the beach over the season three to five times to lay with a period of several days between lays. Then, as the process takes so much energy, the turtle will rest for a couple of years before going back to the same beach to lay for another season. She will lay over 100 eggs each time. Each one is the size of a pingpong ball. It is soft and it feels papery and quite weighty in the hand.
After finding a spot high up on the beach above the tide line, the turtle will begin to dig with her front flippers, thrashing about until she is in a deep pit. Once she feels she is below the natural line of sand she will lay her eggs in a chamber within the pit. Once she starts to lay she enters into a trance-like state and cannot stop laying until she has finished. She then spends a considerable time burying them until, quite exhausted, she drags her considerable weight across the beach and back into the sea.
At Bubbles, every beach hut has a sign on its door the shape of a turtle with ‘yes’ on one side and ‘no’ on the other. This is for guests to be able to indicate to the beach patrol staff at the sanctuary whether or not they want to be alerted to any turtles coming ashore under the light of the moon. Of course, I had mine set to ‘yes’!
My 'YES' to being alerted to any turtles coming ashore under the light of the moon!
Throughout the week, I was SO lucky to see to see a really huge female green turtle lay her eggs on the beach and to sit and wait quietly with her until she was ready to return to the sea in the early hours of the morning. A truly magical and memorable experience that I'll never ever forget. Also, I got to see not just one but TWO nests hatch at the sanctuary and to watch the 149 baby turtles I saw born run from the beach into the sea. Check out this cute video!






I learned so much about the work involved in running a turtle sanctuary on this tiny island off Malaysia. The staff and the volunteers patrol the beach every night to watch out for and deter egg poachers as turtle eggs are sold as a delicacy here in Malaysia. Sometimes staff will simply monitor and guard the nest and count the days of incubation until it is ready to hatch (around 60 days) or, if they think the nest might be at risk from vermin or from the incoming tides, they will painstakingly remove all the eggs and transfer them very carefully to their hatchery. It was in the hatchery that I saw the two nests hatch.
The turtle egg hatchery area
The empty nest from which the babies climbed out
Turtle sanctuary staff Holly and James very carefully transferring eggs to the hatchery
While I was busy at the turtle sanctuary, Trav was diving, and when I wasn’t monitoring turtles on the beach I was out snorkelling with turtles and with my new friend Sally together with our island guide Janet. We took a boat out to explore some small uninhabited islands with the most gorgeous beaches and clear warm waters and coral reefs teeming with fish and turtles. Some of the best snorkelling ever because I got to swim with turtles too!
Off snorkelling with turtles with my new friend Sally



Looking down through clear water at all the fish! Look at the fish in the water..!
The stunning Perhentian islands - warm clear waters and white sand beaches... My mermaid pose!
Deserted beaches in paradise...
While I was out snorkelling or at the turtle sanctuary, Trav was happy diving.
Trav at Bubbles Dive Centre
I absolutely loved every minute here on Perhentian Besar. We made lovely new friendships with the sanctuary staff and the dive centre staff – special thanks to Holly, James, and Jorges. I also made a new friendship with another guest, Sally, a lovely Canadian lady living in Kuala Lumpur, with whom I made arrangements to meet up with in KL the following week for a night out and a meal in the city.
In my next post, I’ll be back in KL – where we stayed a week longer than expected because, thanks to a chat with Sally about moles (the ones that grow on your skin not the little garden rodents) I ended up seeing a skin specialist at a hospital and then having minor surgery and a mole biopsy!All of that very soon here on the blog as I catch up with our travel and adventures over the past few months to date.
Until next time, please do consider signing up for my newsletter. I’ll only ever send you a newsletter when I have writerly news to share, a new book coming out, or special offers and competitions with themed prizes to tell you about. PLUS every new subscriber receives a free copy of my bestselling ebook 'How To Party Online' just for signing up using the form at the top right-hand side of this page.

Love, Janice xx

Reconnecting with family and friends in the UK

Sadly, in the last week of April 2017, after Trav and I had been living and working in Bucharest Romania for a month, we heard news from family in the UK that Trav’s dad had become gravely ill. It had been less than three months since the death of his mum.
Trav immediately returned to the UK to be with his dad during his last days.
Just a few days later, after his dad had passed away peacefully, Trav returned to Bucharest and together we packed our bags to leave Bucharest and travel back to the UK to be with family and to prepare for the funeral.
First, we flew into Scotland to meet with our son Iain who lives in Glasgow and our son Ben who lives in Edinburgh.
The silver lining in the dark cloud of our bereavement was that for the second time this year, and in a short space of just three months, we would get to spend more time with our sons, with my own mum, and our much-missed family in the UK.
Blue skies over Glasgow Our son Iain and his lovely girlfriend Alice
During our few days in Scotland, I also took the opportunity to attend a Romantic Novelist’s Association lunch in Edinburgh. It had been several years since I’d met up with my friends in the RNA Scottish Chapter. When I saw on our group Facebook page that a lunch meeting was being arranged for the morning I arrived back, I jumped at the chance to go along. I took the train from Glasgow and it was wonderful to see blues skies over Edinburgh and all my Scottish writer friends again face to face.
Edinburgh Castle in the sunshine
Blue skies over Princes Street EdinburghWith Rosemary Gemmell in Edinburgh
With Eileen Ramsay - chair of the Romantic Novelist's Association 
It was wonderful to catch up with my Scottish writer friends in Edinburgh
Also, while we were in Edinburgh, we got together with our son Ben and his lovely girlfriend Hayley and all her family.
Trav and I with Hayley and Ben at the bowling club
Hayley is a ladies champion bowls player and there was a match being played that day at the local bowling club. It was a fun day and a welcome chance to spend quality time with Ben and Hayley especially when in just a few day’s time – the day after his grandad’s funeral – they were looking forward to their three-week holiday in Orlando Florida.
Hayley in action
Hayley's mum Andrea and Graham
Fun at the bowling club with Ben and Hayley and her family
Trav and I travelled down to England by train and were once again so grateful to our best friend Dina, who had generously offered to share her home with us again while we were in the UK.
Hanging out with my best friend Dina
In the days before the funeral, we managed to have some fun times with Dina in our old home town of Widnes and we also got to spend a great day out in Liverpool - exploring all the tourist sites like the Albert Dock and the Caven Club.





The day of the funeral was an emotional one for all the Horton family. For Trav and his brothers, Rob and Stuart, to lose both parent’s in such a short time was heart-breaking. As it was for all eight grandchildren to lose their grandparents. Their legacy of course will live on in them all and also in their one great-grandchild, Aaron, who lives in South Korea and whom they sadly had never met.



A short time after the funeral, on a solemn grey and rainy day in May, Jimmy and Dot’s ashes were buried together in the same Runcorn cemetery where their parent’s had been laid to rest. A small and intimate service was held with just their three son’s and wives present. Trav, being the eldest of the brothers, said a few words over his parent’s grave while we all held hands and said our last goodbyes.



For mid-May, initially from Bucharest, I had booked flights to London in order to attend the Romantic Novelist’s Association Summer Party. This writer’s networking event is a great opportunity for writers to get together with publishers and agents and other writing professionals. As I had been out of the country off and on for almost four years, I also saw this event as a great opportunity, not only for me to meet up with my writer friends, but to put my finger back on the pulse of the writing industry and to see what had changed over the past few years.
I had hastily re-organised my travel arrangements and I was very excited to be accompanied to the event and staying with my lovely writer friend Linn B Halton, who lives outside London. Linn and I hadn’t seen each other face to face (if you don’t count Skype) since the Festival of Romance several years before so you can imagine how much we had to talk about!
Ready for the RNA Summer Party -with my lovely friend Linn B Halton
Linn and I travelled to London together by train, had a fabulous lunch in an Italian restaurant in Piccadilly, and then caught up with other Romantic Novelist’s for pre-party drinks. It was so great to see everyone again. Below are a few photos with my lovely writer chums!
With Linn having lunch in London
Pre-party cocktails with lovely writer friends
With Mandy Baggot
With Talli Roland who also writes as Leah Mercer
With lovely Liz Harris
Soon, Trav and I felt ready to move on again. As we don’t have a home of our own in the UK anymore and, as we still have wanderlust to travel, we were keen to take up our nomadic adventures again and there is nothing like losing people to remind us of the fragility of life and how quickly time passes.
Our flight from London to KL via Singapore
Trav and I want to travel the world together while we can, while we still have our health, and before we get too old to do so. Of course, we love and miss our family and friends, but we appreciate they have busy lives too and being close geographically to them is no guarantee we would see them often as we'd like anyway. So I'm so grateful to the times in which we live; when we can keep in touch with our loved ones whenever we like on the internet and, thanks to affordable air travel, no place and no one in the world is much more than 12 hours away from us.
A farewell meal with my family before leaving for SE Asia
So we left the UK to fly back to Asia. We took a flight back to Kuala Lumpur and, while in a taxi to our hotel in KL, we had some wonderful news from Orlando Florida, where our son Ben was on holiday with his girlfriend Hayley. He had proposed and Hayley had became his fiancée.
The newly engaged Ben and Hayley in Orlando Florida
We were thrilled and so excited to see their proposal on video and to see how happy they are together. Our driver must have wondered what was going on when he heard me squealing and tearful on the back seat of his taxi!
After a good night’s sleep in KL, the next morning, we headed straight for the Perhentian Islands off the east coast of peninsula Malaysia. We flew with Air Asia from KLIA2 to Kuta Bharu - a 45 min flight and then took a bus and a boat over the Perhentian Besar (the larger of these islands). It’s a place that has been on our radar for a couple of years now but we have never been in Malaysia during these island’s short season - between May and September – after which all boats stop going there and all accommodations close down.


What is special about the Perhentian Islands you may ask?
Well, for one they are incredibly beautiful - the beaches are white sand beaches and sad to be some of the best in the world - and the diving and snorkelling too is said to be amazing. But there is one other very special reason that we headed out to the Perhentians at this time and that is to do with my current Work In Progress. I needed to go to these islands for research purposes.


In my next book, I have a heroine who is establishing a turtle conservation sanctuary on an island– and so for a week I was going to be staying at a turtle conservation center to learn all about sea turtles and turtle hatcheries and baby turtles while Trav went diving.



If I was really lucky, I hoped that on Perhentian Island I would get to see baby turtles hatching and then help to release them to the sea. If I was really really lucky I would get to see a nesting turtle returning to the beach that she had been born on at least thirty years before, to lay her eggs under the light on the moon, before making her way back into the sea.
Please do join me here on the blog next time to find out more about the beautiful Perhentian Islands and to find out exactly how very lucky I was!
Love, Janice xx