Janice Horton's Blog, page 23

BFF Reunion... trains, planes and tuk-tuks!

My husband and I were recently on the beautiful island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand for six weeks. He was there to attend a scuba diving training course and I planned to spend the time working on my next novel. But when my best forever friend Dina suggested coming out to Thailand from the UK for a couple of weeks to see us - I was beyond thrilled – the novel could wait!
Dina and I go way back. Our mothers were friends and neighbours and we were born in a town in northern England in houses right next door to each other. Growing up, Dina and I were inseparable, and her family always took me with them when they went away on their annual holiday to Devon or Cornwall. We went to different schools but during the school holidays, we would climb trees and ride horses and go camping - often just in the back garden. We went to brownies and youth club and discos and then, as teenagers, we both got mopeds before progressing on to motorbikes. We shared driving a battered old car and even shared the same job for a while too – doing shifts at a petrol station – and we both still agree that it was the most fun job we’ve ever had. What tales we have to tell from those times!
We even shared the same job for a while (top photos)
Dina and I went everywhere together for a long time and we were always up for an adventure. I’m happy to say that not much has changed in that department!
A couple of years ago, taking time out of our busy lives, we did something we had planned to do together for many years – the Edinburgh Festival. We spent a fabulous weekend staying in my son’s university flat in the centre of Edinburgh – Friday to Monday – having fun and seeing shows that included the famous Edinburgh Military Tattoo at the Castle. The Tattoo was always a favourite event of Dina’s late mum, Margaret, and so was a very special time for both of us. There are lots of photos of Dina and I together over the years and I’ve put some of them together here. Many of the earlier photos of us are real photos rather than digital ones and I don’t have them to hand. Well, I do have one (grins mischievously) but I know that she wouldn’t want me to post it here! So that’s how long we have been best friends – forever - and when Dina said she was coming out to Thailand I was super excited and I knew we were going to have a fabulous time together.
We have been best friends – forever!
On Koh Tao we once again caught up with each other’s busy lives
On Koh Tao, we had Thai massages (and groaned afterwards) and manicures and pedicures, we strolled together down the beach, we had cocktails and we had long lunches – while all the time chatting our heads off until eventually we were once again caught up with each other’s busy lives, families, and careers.
Then we got our heads together and decided to go on a little adventure.
Chiang Mai in northern Thailand is a city that has seen over seven hundred years of history – it has the most beautiful temples and Buddha statues and the kind of culture we longed to explore. So we left the island of Koh Tao by ferry for the island of Koh Samui where there is an airport and from there we flew straight to Chiang Mai. For the return journey however, we decided to add a little spice into the mix by taking the slow train back from Chiang Mai to Bangkok – a journey that would take over twelve hours through the Thai countryside - but would also allow for a little time in Bangkok before we flew back to Koh Samui and returned to Koh Tao for the last few days of Dina’s holiday.
Chiang Mai has the kind of culture we longed to explore
 A city with over seven hundred years of history
Trains, planes and tuk-tuks!
Back on Koh Tao, Dina rounded off her time in Thailand by doing something she had never tried before – scuba diving – and took a Discover Scuba Diving course. 
Forever the adventurer!
If, like me, are you lucky enough to have a Best Forever Friend and you could take a trip together anywhere in the world - where would you go and what would you like to do there? Do tell!
Love, Janice xx

2015 – An epic year of travel and adventure!

2015 was truly an epic year - we travelled to so many fantastic places all over the world. Happily, two of our trips, and a total of five months of the year were spent on our adopted island home of Utila in the Caribbean Sea. Also in 2015, we visited the USA, Central America, the Seychelles, South Korea, the Bahamas, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines – many of these places extensively and more than once!
Early in the year, in February, Trav and I become grandparents for the first time when our son James and his lovely Korean wife Sujeong had a beautiful baby boy. During our family trip to South Korea in the summer of 2015, not only did we get to meet our grandson but we saw our own three sons reunited again, two and a half years after James had left Scotland to teach English abroad. It was a very special and an emotional time. Trav and I are planning another trip to Korea in February 2016.
In April 2015, I also saw my career as a writer hit new heights when my 2015 release ‘Castaway in the Caribbean’ became a number one bestseller on Amazon. Then, just when I thought things couldn’t get any better for me professionally this year, the novel was announced on a shortlist for the prestigious Love Stories Awards in London in November. Unfortunately I was in Bangkok at the time - and I didn’t win - but it was such a thrill to have been in the final shortlist.
It has been a heady twelve months and so I thought I’d best review it now before I get too involved in 2016. I must warn you that this is an epic post because it reflects an epic journey – and so I’ll take it one month at a time – starting at the beginning.
January 2015:Last year, my husband Trav and I had spent Christmas and New Year in a rented house in South West Scotland, but as soon as January 2015 arrived we were on a mission to pack our suitcases. Having travelled extensively in 2014, we had decided to ‘go for it’ and to commit to travelling the world long-term, leaving at the end of February.
Scotland: views from our house down by the river
We had already downscaled considerably after selling our own house in January 2014, but in the rented house we still had all our furniture, appliances, kitchen pots and pans, and all those things you have to have on shelves and keep in cupboards and draws. I started going through all our things, preparing to sell them on Ebay and local websites.
Trav wound down his business, sold his van, his tools, and everything he had stored in his garage and workshop. I went through my wardrobe and donated bags of clothes and shoes and handbags to charity shops. One of the hardest things was to sort through my book collection. I had a beautiful library - shelves and shelves of fiction in paperback and hardback, dozens of gardening books and a comprehensive cookery book collection - amassed over many years. I donated books to the local library and also to second-hand bookshops. The only books I kept, which I packed very carefully into storage boxes, were my precious first editions and personally signed books by my very favourite authors. We planned to rent a small storage facility for our precious things - like my books and for family photo albums etc.
The general rule was that if an item wasn’t deeply sentimental or it going to give us the “I’m so happy I still have you” feeling when we saw it again in perhaps in ten years’ time - then it wasn’t taking up expensive space in storage.
One thing I did worry overwas our huge collection of digital photographs and the many years of family video that we had stored on CD discs. I wondered if CD would even exist in the future and if the format wasn’t accessible then and what would become of our precious digital memories? I decided that I would rent storage space for these too - and so for most of January and February 2015, while selling stuff and packing up, I spent many hours uploading these precious memories to digital cloud storage space that I could access from anywhere in the world via a computer and which I could also share online with family members who might like to see them.
Another thing that was hard to deal with was the thought of leaving our lovely West Highland Terrier, Polly. We weren’t actually abandoning her because our son, who dotes on her and takes her everywhere with him, was going to look after her. But I knew that I was going to miss her terribly. The thought of leaving her gave me a lot of heart-ache and I still have to fight the tears back when I think of her. She is getting old and I know I might never see her again.


Polly 
Setting off to explore the world has been both a dream and an ambition for my husband and I for a long time – one that we have nurtured and worked for all our lives. We knew that once our sons had left home the empty nest syndrome wasn’t going to be an issue for us – as we planned to fly the nest too.
Now that my husband Trav has retired from his own business – he has become a scuba diving instructor – his dream job. While I continue to write magazine features – I’m now writing travel features – as well as my romantic adventure novels. Travel is a great inspiration for my imagination!
The downside of our plan is that miss my family, my friends and my dog but I can soften the pain of physical separation by keeping in touch with those we love on messaging services, Skype, and using social media like Facebook for daily contact. Surprisingly I don’t miss any material things. I don’t miss having a car or owning a house – now I just think of all the costs associated with such things – not the purchase so much but the upkeep.
The upside of our plan is the total freedom I now feel. Life is exciting every day – sometimes to the point of exhaustion – but then a good night’s sleep is sure to follow. We spend a lot of time in airports, but I’ve never minded, as I love to read. Or, now that most airports have free Wi-Fi, to catch up on social media. We also make lots of lovely new friends everywhere we go, and thanks to Facebook we can easily keep in touch when we or they move on.
FebruaryDuring both January and February, I was working on the final edits of my latest romantic adventure novel ‘Castaway in the Caribbean’, which I had started writing during our time on Utila in the summer of 2014. I had a strict deadline to meet, as my editor was expecting to do the final copy edit at the end of February. I was also under pressure to finish on time because I had two PR companies organising promotional online tours for the new novel, which was to be first released on pre-order on Amazon worldwide in March as a Kindle ebook, before being released later in the summer as a paperback.
I was also still working as a senior editor with award winning emagazine LLm (www.loveahappyending.com) producing a monthly book review feature as well as regular travel features. As I planned to continue to work with the magazine during all my travels, I felt it was important not to miss any deadlines for this job either. The pressure was on!
One week before we left Scotland, on the 23rd February 2015, our best friends gave us a wonderful farewell party. It was a fun filled and emotional night, even though we all knew we would all see each other again at St Andrews in July. But we all knew it might be times far and few between that we would get see each other again like this over the next few years. They toasted to our travels and we extended our invitation to visit wherever we may be in the world. There were hearty promises made to come over to stay with us at our rented house in the Caribbean – and we do expect those promises to be kept!
Our farewell party was a fun filled and emotional night
Then on the 25thFebruary, on his due date, Aaron Thomas Horton came into the world in South Korea and we became grandparents. What a wonderful feeling! Photos and videos of our beautiful grandson were gratefully received and we looked forward to when we could cuddle Aaron in our arms later in the year.
Aaron Thomas Horton: on The 25th February 2015 we became grandparents
MarchOn the 1st March we left Scotland from Glasgow Airport to fly back to the Caribbean via New York with an overnight in Houston Texas. We also had a stopover on the larger of the Bay Islands, Roatan, where it felt amazing to be basking in tropical heat after the bitter winter chill of Scotland!
It’s my birthday during the first week of March and this year I would be celebrating it on Utila with our island friends. I had a party at the dive centre and Trav arranged for me to have a ‘princess piñata’ – a traditionally Spanish/Honduran party piece - which I beat with a stick until she gave up her burden of sweeties!
My birthday princess piñata – a traditionally Spanish/Honduran party piece! 
A few days after my birthday, my new novel Castaway in the Caribbeanwent up on Amazon for pre-order ahead of its publication date of the 26thMarch. It was excited to see it racing up the Amazon UK and US bestseller charts. On publication date it was sitting at #3 in the Amazon Kindle Adventure Travel Fiction Bestseller Chart in the UK!
Castaway in the Caribbean went up on Amazon for pre-order ahead of its publication date
During this time, we started making plans for April, when our eldest son Ben and his girlfriend would be coming over to Utila to stay with us for two weeks. One of the things we planned to do was rent a private island called Little Cay for a weekend while they are with us – yes, an actual tropical tiny island with palm trees and a house on it – because that’s the kind of thing you can do at very low cost out in the eastern side of the Caribbean!
Little Cay - a private Caribbean island for rent
AprilMy dream of achieving a number one bestseller with one of my books came true on the 4thApril 2015 when Castaway in the Caribbeanhit the #1 spot in the UK Amazon Kindle Chart for Adventure Travel Fiction. To say I was thrilled was an understatement. I believe I screamed and had to be calmed with a gin and tonic!

Castaway in the Caribbean hit the #1 spot in the UK Amazon Kindle Chart for Adventure Travel Fiction
I’m practicing yoga again on Utila, attending several classes a week. I’ve also discovered Ashtanga yoga and I’m practicing at introductory level and really loving it. We are very fortunate to have wonderful Emma and Autumn to teach yoga here and classes are always well attended. I’ve made many lovely new friends through Yoga Utila.
I'm on the mat at Yoga Utila
While I’m busy Trav is enjoying his diving with Ecomarine Dive shop, which is the oldest established dive shop on Utila. It has a lovely family atmosphere and it’s where real divers come to play. Their mantra is 'freedom rules!'


Ecomarine - Utila's longest established dive shop. Photo: Steve Dankewich
When Trav and I get a day off together we call it a Date Day and we take a boat over to Coral Beach and Neptunes’s Bar and Grill. Sometimes we’ll go over to Water Cay for a beach BBQ picnic and drinks. I tell you… life really doesn’t get much better than this.


Coral Beach Utila Ecomarines having fun at Water Cay
When our son Ben and his girlfriend arrived from Scotland, we chartered a small plane to meet them in Roatan. I don’t believe they’d ever been in a Cessna before and I think they might have been both thrilled and nervous when we told them it was their ride home!

Both thrilled and nervous with their ride home! Father and son prepare to go diving Ben and Trav diving in the Caribbean Sea
May
May is a fun time on the island – there are beach parties to attend. Temperatures on the island in May are incredibly hot and the only way of staying cool is to jump into the sea – and we did this as often as possible: picnics and BBQ’s on the beach followed by sitting in the shallows with a beer or a rum in hand.




I continued to enjoy yoga and practiced several times a week. I felt I was really improving until I did something stupid - a lesson learned in over-stretching - and tore a tendon in my knee. I was told this was a common sports injury but I could expect to take at least nine months to recover. Nine months on and it is still painful. Gentle stretching, walking and swimming helps but I do wonder if it will ever fully recover. So if you see me wearing a knee brace in some of the photos that follow – that’s why!
At the end of May it’s our wedding anniversary - this year is number 32. And as we had to do a ‘visa run’ anyway (our entry permit allows for 90 days) we decided to leave Utila for Miami for a few days and then, for extra fun, to head down to the Florida Keys. Getting to Miami involved taking a small plane to the neighbouring island of Roatan and then a flight to the Cayman Islands and onto Miami. We arrived in Miami on Memorial weekend – a major holiday in the USA – so the place was buzzing and blisteringly hot. We explored South Beach and the Art Deco area and walked the entire length of Ocean Drive.

South Beach Miami Florida Art Deco Area Miami Beach Trav on South Beach
After the weekend, we took a Greyhound Bus to Key Largo for a couple of days and then onto Key West (we had a great view from the bus’s front seats) as we travelled over the famous seven-mile bridge.


Go Greyhound!
The Florida Keys - Seven Mile Bridge
At Key West we celebrated our wedding anniversary in style on Ducal Street and had Margarita’s at the original Jimmy Buffet Margaretville. We visited the shipwreck museum and then the Hemingway House. To celebrate my new found love of yoga, I had two tattoos done at the Southernmost Tattoo shop. I continue to be delighted with them – one on each wrist – an Om in a heart and a lotus flower.

My new tattoos!
JuneHaving enjoyed Key West we decided to stay in the US a bit longer and so we flew to New Orleans – a place that has long been on my ‘bucket list’. We stayed in the French Quarter on Chartres Street – one street away from the famous Bourbon Street and a five minute walk from Jackson Square. What an amazing time we had – shopping in ‘Hex’ for spells and tarot cards – eating oysters for lunch – and going to jazz bars in the evenings. 


Oysters for lunch in New Orleans
We stayed in New Orleans for four days and then, as we knew we had a return flight booked back to the UK at the end of the month, we were tempted to continue our travels over the next four weeks and meet with our flight in Houston rather than head back to Roatan.
But were next? We thought about taking the Greyhound Bus up to Nashville and then onto Memphis – perhaps to do the ‘Bourbon Trail’ across Tennessee. But eventually, needing rest, we settled on somewhere to kick back and relax – somewhere with beaches and guaranteed sunshine. We settled on the Bahamas. 
We found accommodation in the Bahamas using Airbnb.com – which we hadn’t used before but which came highly recommended to us. We found a private traditional colonial style home very close to the famous Cable Beach on Nassau that had a small separate one bedroomed apartment, a bathroom, kitchen and screened porch sitting area. It was being rented out by a retired university professor named Stuart who was originally from the UK and it just happened to be vacant for the month.  We contacted Stuart and asked him if we could come the following day. He said he would pick us up at the airport. Bahamas here we come. During our stay, one of the highlight was spending a weekend at Atlantis and seeing Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett in concert!


At Atlantis Cable Beach Nassau Bahamas Our last day in the Bahamas
JulyThe first week in July we headed back to the UK. We planned to see our family and friends in Scotland and then hire a car and drive down to England for a few days to catch up with family there. Afterwards, we had a couple of weeks to spare before we attended a wedding in St Andrews Scotland.

So what to do with those two weeks? Our family and friends were caught up with so we decided to take a look at grabbing a bargain last minute flight to somewhere new to us that also happened to be high on our bucket list.

Luckily for us a flight to the Seychelles was up for immediate grabs with Emirate airlines – leaving the very next day. We decided to organise our first night’s accommodation in the Seychelles online and then go island-hopping Indian Ocean style. Our bags, of course, were already packed!


Praislin Seychelles 
Once back in Scotland, we had two days to prepare to be guests at a fabulous wedding in St Andrews. With only worn out beach clothes and flip-flops to our names – Trav and I went shopping on Princes Street Edinburgh – my favourite shopping street in the world! I immediately bagged a summer frock in Monsoon’s summer sale and a pair of lace ballet shoes from Accessorize together with a jaunty wee ‘fascinator’ on a headband. Trav went to a men’s wear department store and managed to hire a suit, shirt, waistcoat and shoes. We were all set to head north for a fabulous weekend in St Andrews.


July - we were guests at a wonderful wedding in St Andrews Scotland
AugustOn the Monday morning after the St Andrews wedding weekend we met with our two sons, Ben who lives in Edinburgh and Iain who lives in Glasgow and together we flew to Seoul, South Korea.
This was without doubt the most exciting trip of the year. Not only would our three sons be together again two and a half years after our son James had left Scotland to teach English abroad but we would be meeting our baby grandson for the first time. It was so fantastic a trip that we forgot about being tired or jet lagged from all our travelling – it was such an exciting and emotional journey.

Meeting our first grandson Aaron in South Korea Aaron in his Scotland kit! Horton's on tour! The Horton Kang family
Twenty four hours after landing back in Glasgow, Trav and I were flying back to the Caribbean. We stayed at an airport hotel overnight and set several alarms and booked a wake-up call to make sure that we woke in time for our early morning flight. We knew there would be time to relax once we got back to our adopted island home of Utila and our lives could slow down a little. Travelling is fun but it is also very exhausting!


Back to our island home of Utila...
September and OctoberWe were back on Utila for the next two months but Trav and I were already making plans for when we had to leave at the end of October, as not only was this when our 90 day visa expired, but it would also be rainy season. Rainy season in Utila runs from October until the end of February.

Leaving Utila again - but we'll be back...
We had decided to go on our most adventurous trip to date – to spend four months exploring South East Asia staying at island dive resorts.

Our plan was to first fly back to Scotland to see our family and friends. We then booked to fly to Bangkok from Edinburgh with a return four months later directly to Houston USA, so we knew it might be another year before we could feasibly return to the UK again.
While in the UK we also had to arrange for a multi-entry visa into Thailand and to top up on expired travel vaccines.
So as planned, at the very end of October, we arrived back in Scotland for a period of just 48 hours. Our youngest son met us at the airport and drove us straight to the Thai Consul in Glasgow for our multiple entry visas. We needed to have this visa pre-arranged because we planned to travel in and out of Thailand three times during our Grand Asian Trip. On the same day, we had our travel vaccines administered and we swapped our suitcases for backpacks at an outdoor store in Edinburgh.


For our Grand Asian Trip we swapped our suitcases for backpacks
NovemberOur Grand Asian Trip began when we arrived in Bangkok, where we spent the night, before flying onto Krabi. From Krabi we took a traditional long-tail boat to Railey Beach: inaccessible any other way, it is said to be one of the most picturesque places in Thailand. We stayed here two nights before moving further south, again by long-tail boat and later by speed-boat, to spend a whole month island-hopping down Thailand’s Andaman Sea, stopping off at tropical paradises along the way.


Beautiful Krabi
We stopped off at Koh Lantra, Koh Kradan, Ko Ngai, Koh Bulon, Koh Lipe and also took many trips out on dive boats to other smaller islands, like Koh Phi Phi – famous for being the setting of the Leonardo DeCaprio movie ‘The Beach’ - until we reached the island of Langkawi in Malaysia.


Travelling between islands in the Andaman Sea Thailand On Koh Kradan
We stayed on Langkawi, Malaysia, for a few days and really explored the island. We found everything so affordable here as it is a duty free island - so we enjoyed lots of fabulous Malaysian food and premium drinks and wines!


Langkawi Malaysia View from the top - Langkawi Cable Car
On route to our next destination of the Philippines, we flew to Kuala Lumpur and spent the night in the city. While in KL, as Kuala Lumpur is known, we were keen to see the famous landmarks - the Petronis twin-towers. We knew we didn’t have enough time in the city to get a ticket to go up inside and walk along the sky bridge that has featured in so many action movies  - so we wanted to make sure we saw the towers from the outside. At night they were all lit up and looked spectacular so we took a taxi to Traders Hotel, where on the top floor they have the ‘Sky Bar’ famous for its cocktails and the best view of the Petronis Towers in KL!

The Petronis Twin Towers as seen from Traders Hotel Having a cocktail at Traders Sky BarTrav and I agreed that so far we had made just one mistake in planning our trip – and that was not allowing ourselves more time in KL – so we vowed to return to explore the city properly sometime in the future.
Traveller tip: The Petronis Towers only allow a certain number of visitors per day to walk across the sky bridge so you have to get there as early as 7.30am to queue for a ticket for later that same day. Worth it though!

DecemberFrom KL Malaysia we flew onto the Philippines. We were excited to be spending a whole month exploring these tropical islands that had so far been only a dream. Our first destination was Malapascua – which up until that point we had only seen on a map. It was our furthest journey point in the northern Vasayas as we planned to head back south afterwards heading for Bohol, then onto the somewhat remote island of Siquijor, known as ‘fire island’ as from a distance at night it looks to be on fire, due to its millions of dancing fire-flies. Then we planned to end up in Dauin, in the area of Negros, where we would spend Christmas.


Malapascua Philippines Bohol Philippines Siquijor Philippines Trav diving off Gato Island Philippines On the dive boat - Philippines Goodbye Malapascua party - from Kokays Dive Shop
Two things that we hadn’t accounted for made our stay in the Philippines a little more difficult than we expected. Firstly, we had thought that getting around the islands would be as easy as it was in Thailand – we were wrong. A transport network between the islands doesn’t really exist, certainly not by boat or ferry anyway. So we travelled by boat and then long distances by road and then more boats. It took us over 15 hours to travel between each island. It was also much more expensive than we had envisaged. Although it was all worth it in the end of course.
The other thing was the weather – which had been perfect for most of our trip and for that I am so grateful – but once we arrived at our Christmas destination, the weather took a turn for the worst and a typhoon hit the northern islands where we had been at the start of our Philippine adventure.
Because of the typhoon, diving was cancelled, as were all boats and ferries and when we heard that the typhoon had circled and was coming back in again – this time to hit the area where we were - we decided to cut our trip short and leave.
We took a flight out and headed back to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. We were excited to be going back sooner than we thought! We checked into a lovely treat of a hotel right next to the Petronis Towers for the night and then we managed to booked in for Christmas too. With Trav's hotel loyalty card we secured an upgraded room and so we were looking forward to spending Christmas in style!
In the meantime, with three days to go before Christmas Eve, we decided to flit off to Singapore. It was only an hour flight away and we had never been there before. We planned to do some Christmas shopping there – as we only had beach clothes in our backpacks and we needed party clothes for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. While in Singapore we did some fabulous sightseeing too and had a Singapore Sling or two at the famous Raffles Hotel!


Singapore Slings at Raffles Hotel Singapore
Christmas in Kuala Lumpur was fantastic. We explored the city, went up in the Petronis Towers and walked along the famous Sky Bridge. We also had afternoon tea in the KL Tower – the one with a restaurant at the top that turns slowly to give you a 360 degree view of the city. I had my hair done at a classy city hairdressers and then had a manicure and a pedicure too. Bliss.


On the Sky Bridge - Petronis Towers Kuala Lumpur Looking down from the top of the towers
Then we celebrated a very grown up Christmas; our first ever without being with any of our kids or without me doing any of the cooking. We ate Christmas dinner in a restaurant – Asian Style – with champagne of course! It was all very magical. I felt like Cinderella afterwards, taking off my sparkly dress and shoes - which I gave away to hotel staff afterwards - as I couldn’t fit anything else in my backpack. It’s a real pain having to carry anything more than 15kg on your back and besides the airlines don’t let you check in more than 20kg.


Christmas in KL
New YearOn December the 26th, we said goodbye to Kuala Lumpur and flew to Bangkok and from Bangkok we flew to the island of Koh Samui on Thailand’s gulf side. We stayed there for just one night before taking the three hour ferry over to the island of Koh Tao, where we planned to celebrate the New Year and to settle down for a whole six whole weeks. Hence our need for a multi-entry visa plus a 90 day stay. Travel tip: do carefully research the up to date visa/entry requirements of the countries you plan to visit. Thailand made changes to theirs just weeks before we travelled!


Happy New Year from Koh Tao Thailand!
During our six weeks on Koh Tao, Trav will be diving while I am writing – I'm working on my next adventure romance novel due out in the summer of 2016. I will of course enjoy occasional days out of the dive boat so that I can snorkel on coral reefs and swim in the sea. Also during this time, my lovely friend Dina is coming out from the UK to spend almost three weeks holiday here on Koh Tao. She has booked a room right next door to ours and I can’t wait to see her again. I’m sure that after she gets here I’ll have another adventure to tell you about!
Rounding off our Grand Asian Adventure:We plan to round off our Grand Asian Adventure by visiting South Korea in mid-February – arriving just in time for our grandson’s first birthday party. I can’t tell you how excited we are about it. Aaron is almost walking now and he has grown so much. He is a happy wee boy and thanks to our son and daughter-in-law we see photos and clips of video of him every single day through Facebook messenger and Skype. These are just a few cuties ones!








Our return flight at the end of February will take us from Bangkok straight back to the USA and onto Roatan and then Utila.
Thanks for reading my blog and following what has been an epic year of travel and adventure and achievement. 2015 will be forever in my memory as the year we truly made our dreams come true.
While travelling, as I have said at the start of this post, we have really missed being with family and friends. I know social media is not quite the same as kissing and hugging and being there but I honestly don’t think I could have handled being separated from you all in the ‘old days’ before Facebook and the internet.
I’m now looking forward to seeing what the New Year will bring us all and so I will take this opportunity to once again wish you a very happy and healthy and prosperous 2016!

Love, Janice xx



My Travel Map 2015-2016To date we have visited 37 countries in the world - but this map shows how much of the world we have yet to explore!

Jan Brigden names a character in my next book!

BOOK NEWS: Congratulations to Jan Brigden! Jan was independently selected as the winner of my recent ‘Name a Character in My Next Book’ promotional giveaway. On being told the news Jan said that she was thrilled to have won.

Jan Brigden
“Thank you so much for such a lovely New Year's Eve surprise. On that note, I would love to choose Eve or Evie as the name (seems only fitting!) The book sounds as though it is shaping up to be another gem of a read!  I've loved keeping up with all your news, book-wise and travel-wise, and wish you and all your family a wonderful 2016.”

Thank you Jan – for your support and for entering my giveaway and for naming ‘Evie’! I'd also like to wish all my readers and those who follow my travel and writing news on this blog and on Facebook and Twitter a very Happy New Year !
Love, Janice xx

Name a character in my next book!

It’s now less than a week until the Love Stories Award winners are announced in London UK. I’m thrilled and excited to have been nominated with my novel ‘Castaway in the Caribbean’. I honestly don’t expect to win this esteemed award – although to do so would be a dream come true – as just seeing my name among lots of authors I admire so much is more than I ever hoped.
I would love to do something both meaningful and fun to thank my readers for making 2015 my most successful year as a professional writer – with Castaway in the Caribbean a number one bestseller on Amazon this summer. It’s now fifteen years since I started to write my first published novel and I am so glad I never gave up writing between now and then.


So what I’m proposing is a prize draw for one reader to choose a name for a significant character in my next book. It has to be a female name – as the character is the personal assistant to my main female protagonist (assistant to the heroine of the story!) I’m hoping this new book will be my summer 2016 release but it is still very much at first draft at the moment. Interested? 
The winner can pick a name of their own choosing as the name of a character in my next book. Do you want your name in my book or that of a good friend/sister/mum? The draw will be independently run by rafflecopter and will run until the end of the year.
You can enter from here on my website as many times as stipulated on the entry form until noon on the 31st December 2015 and I’ll make sure there is a draw entry point at the end of any posts I write until then. Good luck to you lovely friends and readers and thank you for all your support, which means so very very much to me. Love, Janice xx
Click the Rafflecopter link to enter

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UPDATE
Well, the excitement is over - and although I did not win an award with Castaway in the Caribbean at the Love Stories Awards it was an amazing honour to have been shortlisted this year. Thanks to everyone who posted photos of the event online and on twitter and to lovely Linn B Halton who texted me the latest news from London on the night when I had no internet connection on this tiny island and was going crazy for news. Huge congratulation to all the nominees and to the winners - many whom are my friends and all of whom are fabulously talented writers!
The winners of the 2015 Love Stories Awards were announced yesterday afternoon (18 November) at a gala party in central London. The winners are:
Best Romantic Read: Where Love Lies by Julie Cohen (Black Swan)
Best Historical Read: Amy Snow by Tracy Rees (Quercus)
Best Short Romance: Pippa’s Cornish Dream by Debbie Johnson (Harper Impulse)
Best Romantic Ebook: Game of Scones by Samantha Tonge (Carina)
Best Author Published Romance: No One Ever Has Sex in the Suburbs by Tracy Bloom
New Talent Award: Against All Odds by Bernadette O’Dwyer Runner up: Beyond the Big House by Louise Hall
Innovation in Romantic Fiction: Bookouture – for achieving big results as a small publisher
Editor of the Year: Manpreet Grewal (Little, Brown)
Literary Agent of the Year: Lizzy Kremer (David Higham Associates)
Blog of the Year: Rea’s Book Reviews
Hall of Fame: Jenny Colgan, author; Matt Bates, bookseller

Asian island hopping adventures #2 - What to pack..?

How much is too much? Usually, travelling by air in economy/coach, the amount of stuff you can pack is determined by your airline luggage allowance rather than your length of trip. 
Some airlines offer a generous 30kg plus hand luggage in economy while with others it’s a measly 20kg. When you are backpacking however, it’s a different story – it’s how much you are prepared to carry that is the deciding factor – and 20kg is too *blinking* heavy!
So what do we pack for our four-month back-packing trip to S.E. Asia?
For Trav it is easy: He packs - all his dive gear excluding lead weights and air-tank. 3 pair shorts. 3 short-sleeved shirts. 3 vests/t-shirts. 1 x long trousers and a long sleeved shirt. Undies. Swim shorts. A lightweight rain jacket. Toothbrush. Aftershave (Armani, of course). A torch.
Weight of backpack = 15kg.
For me:Well, I gave up high maintenance a while ago, but I do need stuff!
I pack: My full face snorkel mask. Two dresses – 1 knee length cotton day dress and 1 longer length shift dress for evening wear. 3 pair shorts. 2 shorts-style playsuits. 2 cropped linen trousers and 2 ‘nice’ tops. 3 x vest/t-shirts. 4 bikinis. 1 sarong. 2 yoga shorts. Undies - to include 6 bandeau style bra tops in assorted colours (Primark sports section £1 each) A lightweight rain jacket. An umbrella.
That is probably all I need for Asia – but we are travelling back through the USA and to Scotland, where we will stay for 48hrs and plan to do stuff including meeting up with our sons for a meal - and it is the end of October – and it will be cold!
I add:1 pair of jeans. A fleecy hoodie top. 2 x fleecy patterned leggings. My very favourite 100% cashmere v-neck sweater (an Edinburgh charity shop find). A scarf/shawl/pashmina.
Then….. of course there are the products I simply cannot live without:
My Kindle. Walkman. Noise reducing earphones. Small boombox/speaker. Notebook computer. Camera. GHD hair straighteners (yes, really, I have to have these in case I go somewhere and don’t want to look like a frizzy head!) All the cables for the above. Power battery back-up pack. Power-Surge adapter. Plug adapter. Actual paper notebook. Pen. Hair conditioners. Shampoo. Soap. Face cream. Body cream. Nail polish and remover. Scissors/nail-clippers/tweezers/nail-files. Hair removal cream. Sunlotion. Aftersun. Cottonwool. Makeup bag. Makeup remover (yes, sometimes – although hardly ever – I wear a bit of eyeliner and mascara and then I’ll certainly need something to remove it!) Coconut oil (works when everything else fails/runs out). Deodorant. Perfume (Chanel, of course). Anti-frizz hair products. Toothbrush. Toothpaste. Tooth polish. Tooth floss. Hairbrushes. Hair ties. Hair clips and accessories. Bug spray. Bug bite treatments. First-aid kit including painkillers and every kind of discomfort tablets, band-aid plasters, and anti-biotics (you never know!)
Weight of backpack: too heavy.
I need to downscale, I know, but I neeeeeed all that stuff! Wail!!!!
Trav’s response. ‘That’s fine. But you have to carry it…’
And that is from the man who cleverly bought me my first Kindle ereader as a direct response to my luggage being overweight on an Emirates flight. My allowance on that trip was a generous 30kg but my case weighed in at 36kg. I refused to dump anything, saying I needed everything I had packed for our two week holiday. As it was our wedding anniversary, Trav took pity on me and agreed to pay out the $240 in overweight charges. He wasn’t so impressed however, when we reached our destination, and I opened my case to reveal a dozen or so hardback books in among my stuff. Hence the gift of a Kindle – on which I now have stored over a thousand books! Yay!!


So come on lovely peeps, tell me, what do you pack for your trips away? Are you a lightweight or do you, like me, need your stuff?
All comments gratefully received and I promise to reply as soon as I have an internet connection.
Love, Janice xx

Asian island hopping adventures #1 - The logistics

Suitcases: Two years ago, when Trav and I decided to sell up everything we owned and travel the world, I threw out our flimsy supermarket bought suitcases in favour of investing in luggage that could withstand lots of adventurous travel over an extended period of time.
I did my research online and saw that one particular type of suitcase had come out top in a ‘suitcase survival’ survey in which ten types of suitcase were put through the kind of stresses associated with travel. In this particular trial the suitcases were even thrown off an aeroplane and crushed by a car to see if they might burst open!
I was also impressed that these roughy-toughy cases had two sections inside (ideal for keeping Trav’s dive gear separate from his clothes – although to be fair aside from a wetsuit he doesn’t actually have many clothes!) that they were easy to roll about on their four wheels and were secured with TSA approved locks. So  I bought Trav and I one each and for the past two years of our travels these cases have faithfully held and transported all our possessions – except for going AWOL a couple of times in the USA – and have performed brilliantly. I have particularly enjoyed decorating mine with stickers from all the places we have been!
Our roughy-toughy suitcases
While planning our Asian trip however, from the outset, I realised that our big hard-cased Delsey suitcases weren’t going to cut island hopping in Asia - where most of the travelling would be by boat – and by boat I don’t mean ferry.
Many of the small islands we wanted to visit in Asia are only accessible by traditional-style boats and passengers are expected to wade through thigh-high waves with their luggage before clambering on board. The same being true in reverse once you reached your destination.
Traditional long-tail boats are often used to island hop in Thailand
Most of the planning for our Asian adventure was done while we were still on the Caribbean island of Utila and although I had access to the internet I did not have any way of buying our new backpacks there. I also had the problem of what to do with our much-loved suitcases. The problem was solved when our lovely landlady on Utila offered to store our suitcases for us until we returned from our Asian trip. I was also able to buy two inexpensive, albeit rather fragile holdalls, to carry our stuff back to the UK where I had two backpacks, ordered online, awaiting our pick up.
A 'Black and Grey' backpack for Trav and a girly 'Wine-coloured' one for me!
Fully adjustable straps are important for backpack comfort and fit
The Highlander Ruckcase comes in different sizes and colours and has a detachable daypack. I found these perfect companions for our Asian Adventure
Backpacking: As with the suitcases, I did lots of research to find the right backpacks for us. When all your worldly goods are travelling with you, you need reliability and security. Trav’s dive gear doesn’t easily lend itself to the top loading style of pack so I needed ones that unzipped like a suitcase. With backpacks, I was told, you also need comfort and comfort comes from a good fit and good padding. With this in mind I soon found the right backpacks for us – they are called 'ruckcases' – and they are strong, side zip opening, fully adjustable, made in different sizes, have detachable daypacks, and are made by a company in Scotland called Highlanderwith a stockist very close to our hotel in Edinburgh. Yay!!

Ready to travel!
Waiting with backpacks our for our boat trip over to Krabi Thailand
In my next post I'll be choosing (agonising over!) what to pack for our four month trip to Asia!
Love, Janice xx

Leaving Utila - our island paradise in the Caribbean Sea

Having finally caught up with posts on this blog - and after three months of being here on our island paradise, Trav and I are preparing to leave once more!
Our bags are packed...
Our 90 day entry visa has almost expired and the rainy season has begun so we are flying back to Glasgow Scotland - for a period of just less than 48 hours in order to catch up with our family - and then we are taking a flight from Edinburgh to Bangkok Thailand.
We plan to follow the sunshine and do some island hopping down the Andaman Sea on the south-west coast of Thailand all the way down to Malaysia and from there we hope to fly on from Kuala Lumpur to the Philippines. This will be a four month trip and our most ambitious to date.
Here on the island of Utila it is still incredibly hot - around 30 deg C most days - but the rain and the increased humidity makes it hard to be outside as the damp weather brings out all the biting mosquitoes and sandflies - and if the electric supply goes off as it did this morning then not having the fans whirling overhead makes it hard to be inside too.
So we are flying away and plan to return to Utila directly from South East Asia at the end of February. When we get back here we will be given another 90 day entry visa. It is possible to get an extra month extension on the island - but most people who call Utila their adopted home leave to do a ‘visa run’ to the USA, Mexico, the nearby Cayman Islands, Guatemala or Belize and then come back in again to claim another 90 day entry. We'll plan to do a visa-run ourselves in 2016 as we hope to spend most of the summer season on the island, right through until mid-September when we hope to return to Scotland for a few weeks to catch up with family and friends.
This trip was our third visit to Utila and we have now spent a full nine months here on the island. This year we were here for the months of March, April and May and then we returned for August, September and October. Last year, in 2014, we spent three months on the island during July August and September. Utila now feels familiar and like home to us.
Utila - an aerial view
Back on Utila and on the dock at our beloved Gunter's Ecomarine Dive Shop
We have made lots of friends here from all over the world. Trav dives at a fabulous and fun PADI dive shop called Gunter’s Ecomarine in the Sandy Bay area. We absolutely love the laid-back, no-shoes, island-time lifestyle and we have at last, after trying out four different rental properties, found a ‘casa’ that perfectly suits us and that we can rent long term.
I have blogged extensively about the island of Utila and how much fun we have had here but you might wonder what it is – when Trav and I have travelled to so many other islands all over the world –what makes this small island so extra special?
On the website  Utila Guide.com  the island is described as ‘the Caribbean as it used to be’ and ‘Key West of 20 years ago’ and I feel this is a true description as it certainly feels retro and timeless here. But I’m sure that it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world will discover Utila or Utila will catch up with modern commercialism and it will change. There are already cruise ships visiting the neighbouring and larger bay island of Roatan.
Happy to be back on Utila celebrating with our island friends
Where is Utila? Utila is the smallest of the three Bay Islands situated in the Caribbean Sea just off the coast of Honduras in Central America. Utila is unique, quaint and unspoiled, some may call it basic, with no chain stores or fast food businesses. There are reportedly less than twenty cars on the island and people get around on foot (bare or flip-flopped) or on a scooter or golf cart.

The infrastructure on the island, electric and internet, is patchy at best and fresh water is a precious commodity. We buy our drinking water every other day in five gallon drums. Fruit and vegetables are brought to the island by boat from the mainland (Honduras) on a Tuesday and a Friday and shops sell out quickly so the advice is to buy a good-looking vegetable as soon as you see it or it will be gone in the blink of an eye. There are limited health care facilities on the island; there is a clinic and a pharmacy but anyone needing hospital is taken to the mainland by boat or plane. There is opportunistic crime here, just like anywhere else, so you have to be aware of it without letting it make you edgy. The one small bank on Utila is visibly guarded by armed police both inside and out but half of the time, just like the electric supply, the banking systems are down and you can’t use your plastic to withdraw money. Things happen. Things don’t happen. It’s all part of island life. One thing, of which I am sure, is that there is nowhere in the whole world quite like this beautiful crazy laid-back piece of paradise.
Laid back... no shoes...
It is said that once you have experienced life on Utila you may not ever want to leave. Sure, there are nuisances, like mosquitoes and sand flies and power outages, but none of that stuff can ever blight the bliss of truly living in the moment, of waking up to sunshine every day, of not having to wear many clothes or worry about fashion or hair styles. Erm… maybe that’s just me?! The scuba diving here is the best in the world (Trav says so!) and there are many dive centers on the island. But if you don’t dive then the snorkeling is fantastic because the water is warm and clear.
The snorkeling and diving is fantastic... as is my new full face snorkel mask!
There are lots of activities to get involved with on land too. Sun worshiping on the island and particularly on The Cays (tiny tropical islands just off the coast of Utila) and relaxing in a hammock with a good book are favourite pastimes of mine and so is yoga practice, which I discovered here for the first time last year. There are also social groups that welcome people to help with animal welfare, nature and wildlife conservation and beach clean-ups, etc.
On Utila, the days pass effortlessly into evening but do be warned (see the uTube videos I’ve suggested you might watch at the end of this post!) that Utila has a bit of a party reputation with the young diver/backpackers that come here and so Utila by night can be a noisy affair, as there are lots of bars selling very cheap alcohol and playing music. But it doesn’t have to be ‘party island’ - if you prefer to watch the sun going down from a quiet chair with sea-view and with a rum in your hand - you can certainly do that too!
Our last few days on the islandare about saying ‘bye for now’ to all the lovely people who make island life here so special – until we return for the new season in 2016.
I’ve picked out a few YouTube videos you might be interested in viewing as they show off this special island of Utila from the fun stuff to the amazing stuff.
Fun video on why 'I Love Utila'
Dancing happy peeps on 'Happy Utila!'
Tiny tropical islands off the coast of Utila 'Utila Cays'
Craziness in this now famous Marty and Ginsky video! 'Come To Utila'
Take a look at Revolutionary diving with Gunter's Ecomarine Dive Shop - 'Revolution'
Fabulous Whale Sharks of Utila video by Dave Thatcher - starring Trav!
Gunter's EcoMarine Facebook Page



Do pop back again soon and do please consider leaving a comment as I love to hear from you. Let me know if you watched the videos and what you thought of them? I promise to reply as soon as I get an internet connection. I'll leave you with our 'take off' and 'goodbye Utila' videos!




Love, Janice xx

Our most important trip of the year - to South Korea

During the last few days of July, Trav and I traveled from Glasgow Scotland with our 26 year old eldest son Ben and our 22 year old youngest son Iain to South Korea, to visit our middle son James (24) and his lovely wife Sujeong - and our 6 month old baby grandson Aaron - whom none of us had yet met!
We were also meeting Sujeong’s parents and her family for the first time and I was worried how we would communicate, as they don’t speak any English and we don’t speak any Korean. But I needn’t have worried as the immediate love and warmth between us needed no interpretation at all.
All together in South Korea
Thanks to a generous baggage allowance of 30kg each we were able to take some gifts with us to South Korea. Gifts for our new in-laws that included a good bottle of single malt whisky. I had the most wonderful time shopping for baby clothes for Aaron and buying him lots of Scottish children’s story books. Stories about Nessie and haggis and wee hairy scottie dogs that would connect him to his Scottish heritage. We also bought him a wee Scottish Rugby Kit!
This was set to be the most important trip of the year for us and for our three boys who hadn’t been together for over two years – since James left Scotland to teach English in this far away land. I knew from the outset that seeing our sons together again was going to be an emotion time – and you can multiply that by a zillion when we met our first grandson!

Aaron sporting his Scotland Rugby Kit!
We flew with Emirate Airlines from Glasgow to Dubai – which was a seven and a half hour flight. Once there we explored the impressive Emirates terminal for a couple of hours before we boarded the A380 ‘double decker’ flight to Incheon Airport Seoul in South Korea. The boys had fun checking out the Dubai terminal and I remembered how impressed I was with this airport the first time I ever saw it. I believe it has the largest shopping mall in any airport in the world.
After a total of twenty-three hours of travelling, we arrived at Incheon Airport, just outside Seoul, and after we had cleared customs and collected our luggage, we made our way down to the subway station, where we would take the super-fast KTX bullet train south (a journey of two and a half hours) to the city of Daegu, where James and his wife Sujeong would be waiting at the station to meet us with our grandson Aaron.
You can, I’m sure, appreciate the moment we arrived and we saw them and how special it was for Trav and I to stand back for a moment and to see our three wonderful sons being united after all this time apart.
Wee Aaron was sleeping when we first saw him and attached to his mummy in a baby harness. I kissed his soft head and accepted that I would have to wait until the next morning to cuddle him. It was very late at night and we were feeling very tired and jetlagged. We headed to our hotel to drop off our bags and then with James and Sujeong we went to eat at a nearby restaurant before we crashed out for the night. Trav and I had experienced a Korean barbeque restaurant before, but our two sons had not, and it was great to see how much they enjoyed eating the traditional food with the spicy fermented cabbage ‘kimchi’ and drinking the ‘Soju’ wine!
The next morning, James and Sujeong and baby Aaron met us at our hotel and escorted us via the subway to part of the city where they lived in their new apartment. (James had been in a different apartment the previous year when we had visited) After which we would visit the home of Sujeong’s family which was close by.
This was where we cuddled our grandson for the first time, and although I had feared that he might be wary of us as relative strangers and cry, he didn’t look distressed in any way and instead gave us lots of cuddles and smiles.
Trav and I have loved this boy from afar from the moment he was born but on this day we both immediately forged a special bond with our wee grandson and are totally besotted with him.

Meeting Aaron for the first time
I’ve put together just some of my favourite photos from the highlights of this week: images that represent how much fun we had and also how much it meant to us to spent time with our new Korean family. They really did all pull out all the stops to show us their wonderful country while keeping us fed and entertained the whole time. I am in awe of their organisational skills!


Hortons On Tour..!
Our daughter-in-law Sujeong and her mother and her sister, Subin, together with her sister’s boyfriend, Jin – who spoke excellent English and who kindly acted as our interpreter the whole week - had planned a full itinerary of cultural activities. Sujeong’s father unfortunately had to work during the day time, so didn’t join us on our trips, but we were delighted to be introduced to him that first morning and we spent several wonderful evenings in his company. Sujeong’s brother also couldn’t join us on our days out and so he is also missing from the majority of our photos - as he was on crutches after being injured in Kendo practice – a Korean martial art and national sport.
It was a fabulous whirlwind of a week, in which we experienced the most amazing hospitality and were introduced to the most amazing food and Korean way of life.


Yummy Korean food!
The weather in South Korea during the first week of August was blisteringly hot. We all suffered in the heat, especially in the city where there is little breeze and the concrete of the roads and pavements and buildings seem to hold onto the oppressive heat. So on the day we all took the Aspan cablecar into the mountains surrounding the city to see the most stunning and panoramic views of Daegu, it was great fun and also an incredible relief from the heat.
Taking the Aspan Cablecar to see views of the City of Daegu The view from the top..!
We took a trip to the Korean War Museum too and it was interesting and educational and rather horrifying to learn how the war had affected the people of Korea and it made me appreciate their need for security especially as the war with North Korea ended in an amnesty and not a peace treaty.


At the Korea War Museum
On another day, we took a KTX high speed bullet train to the second largest city in South Korea after Seoul, the city of Busan. It is a coastal town known for its beaches and traditional feel. The city is built on a steep hillside overlooking the sea and the busy port. We explored Gamcheon Cultural Village – a popular tourist ‘must see’ attraction that feels like you just stepped back in Korean time. The scenery and the colourful houses and small shops were wonderful and again we took lots of photos!
On the KTX super-fast train to Busan. Photo by Sujeong Horton Favourite moments from Busan... The thumbs up from Sujeong..!


More favourite moments...
One evening in Daegu city centre we saw the new Mission Impossible movie in 4D at the CGV Cinema – which was great fun – it really was like being in the movie with water, wind and moving seats. It's like a theme park ride in a movie cinema!
4D cinema - like a theme park ride!
On other days we navigated the subways and spent some time shopping in the ultra-modern malls and then in complete contrast we wandered round the traditional Korean markets, where the freshest fruits and vegetables and spices and fish were being sold. We ate some very strange but delicious street foods and then later in the evenings we tried different styles of restaurants; except for one very special evening when we were invited to Sujeong’s parent’s home and her mum cooked a traditional meal for us all.

Amazing food and sights and smells of the traditional Korean market
The night before we left, we asked all the family to meet us at a restaurant in town, which was to be our treat. The restaurant had a private side room with a long low table and with cushions on the floor as seating. They came with presents for us that they had thoughtfully made themselves and it was an enjoyable and fun but emotional time. We had all bonded so well in that short week that I could hardly imagine what it would feel like to be leaving the next morning.
A family get together the night before we left...
On leaving, our new family accompanied us to the train station to wave us off on our long journey back to Scotland. Trav and I make a firm promise to our son to return as soon as possible but there were still lots of tears shed on that subway platform in Daegu on our way back to Incheon Airport.


Our ride back to Scotland...
Just one week wasn’t enough to spend with our Korean family and we now miss them all dreadfully so our ‘soon as possible’ return will be for our grandson’s first birthday party in February 2016. Our flights are already booked. And as for our two Scotland based sons, we can only hope that they will want to return to South Korea as often as they can and that James and his family can one day visit Scotland, so that our three sons can be together again very soon.
In the meantime, we are all grateful for Facebook and for Skype and that we are blessed by living in an age when global travel is not only possible but achievable - thanks to commercial airlines and their now affordable air fares. Long may it continue!
Twenty four hours later, after Trav and I had transited through Dubai International Airport for the fourth time in less than a month (crazy but true - see my previous post on our island hopping adventures in the Seychelles) we arrived back in Glasgow - only to check into the adjacent airport hotel - as we were flying out again only in the opposite direction the very next morning.
So in my next post I’ll be blogging about our return to Utila. ‘Our’ Caribbean island home that it the smaller of the Bay Islands just off the coast of Honduras. We had spent March April and May of this year on the island and we were excited to be going back to the laid back life there and to catch up with our lovely island friends again.
Do pop back soon and do leave me a message if you’d like to in the comments box below. I’d love to hear from you and I promise to reply as soon as I get an internet connection.
Love, Janice xx

Two weeks spent island hopping in the Seychelles!

The tropical islands of the Seychelles have long been a dream destination of ours but one we always thought would be outside our travel budget.
But in the first week of July this year, when we were back in Scotland for the month, and after a week of catching up with our much-missed families, we saw a last minute bargain flying to the Seychelles from Glasgow with Emirate airlines.
We are subscribed to lots of different airline and travel agency lists and when we were emailed with Emirate’s ‘24 hour flash sale’ – it seemed that a trip to the Seychelles might actually be affordable to us if we acted quickly and made our travel plans independently.
It didn’t take us long to agree and press a few buttons!
The Seychelles are an archipelago in the Indian Ocean consisting of more than one hundred and fifteen islands that are made up of ancient granite and corals. Famous for its beaches and nature reserves, island hopping is an absolute must and we planned to visit all the main islands of Mahé, Praslin, La Digue, and Curieuse, during our 14 day trip.
My husband Trav was excited about the scuba diving – the Seychelles are said to be one the world’s top ten dive locations. I was excited about seeing some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I was also looking forward to seeing the famous ‘coco-de-mer’ nut - the largest coconut in the world that is only found on these islands. The largest tortoises in the world can also be found here: they have a lifespan of around one hundred and fifty years and the breeding group on the Seychelles remains the only chance to save the species from complete extinction. I was really looking forward to meeting some of these giant gentle creatures.
To say that I had huge expectations for this trip was an understatement!
We flew out of Glasgow and left the rain and grey skies behind us – heading for Dubai and a change of airplane before flying onto Mahe, the main island. A total flying time of around thirteen hours plus airport waiting time.
The view from our room at a Glasgow airport hotel on the morning we flew to the Seychelles!
But all the travelling was all totally worth it! We landed in Mahe around 6am and having used several internet travel sites like Expedia, Hotels.com and Booking.com, to find affordable hotels, we took a taxi to our hotel of choice.
We planned to be on Mahe for our first three nights before taking an inter-island ferry over to Praslin, the island that we would use as a base for a week of island hopping over to Le Digue and Curieuse. Then we planned to return to Mahe for our last few nights before flying back to Glasgow.
These are just some of my favourite photo memories of those amazing two weeks!
First day - exploring the beach on Mahe Island, Seychelles Island hopping is easy to do in the Seychelles using the inter-island ferry service
There are no cars on La Digue so we hired bicycles to explore the island
One of the world's most beautiful beaches... Anse Source D'Argent on La Digue Island, Seychelles Impressively large beach boulders on Pralin Island Hotel pool on Praslin
We visited a black pearl farm on the island of Praslin The coco-de-mer nut!
Island hopping over to La Digue Exploring Praslin on foot with Trav Trav on a Praslin beach Walking on the softest whitest sand in the world... Meeting a giant tortoise on Curieous Island

An amazing sunset from our hotel on Praslin
Once back in Glasgow, on the last weekend of July, we headed up to the university town of St Andrews to attend our good friends daughter’s wedding. St Andrews is also known as the 'home' of golf course, of course. We were thrilled to be invited to share in such a special day and also excited to be meeting up with friends and to be staying overnight in such fabulous surroundings.
Trav and I don’t actually carry ‘best clothes’ in our suitcases while we are travelling, so we had to first head to Princes Street, Edinburgh, where I bought a lovely summery dress from Monsoon (half price in the sale - yay!) and Trav hired a very nice suit from a menswear department.
On Princes Street, Edinburgh, shopping for our St Andrews wedding attire!
The weather on the Saturday, for the wedding, having started out a bit grey and rainy, brightened up beautifully as we came out of the chapel and the sun came out just as we all enjoyed having champagne and nibbles outside on the famous grass quadrangle. While a string quartet was playing, and the wedding party were having the official photographs taken, we got to chat with our lovely much-missed friends and take lots of photographs. It was a fabulous day. Congratulations to the bride and groom, Leanne and Danny!










The day after the wedding,we drove back to Edinburgh, handed over Trav’s hired suit and stayed overnight at our eldest son Ben’s apartment in Edinburgh. 
In the morning, we planned to be up early to travel to Glasgow with Ben where we would meet our youngest son Iain.
We were all traveling together to South Korea to visit our middle son James, his lovely wife Sujeong, and our baby grandson Aaron – whom none of us had yet met!
We were also meeting Sujeong’s family for the first time and I was worried how we would communicate, as they don’t speak any English and we don’t speak any Korean. But I needn’t have worried - as we had an interpreter for our words - but the immediate love and warmth between us all needed no interpretation at all. One week wasn’t enough with our Korean family and we now miss them all dreadfully.
With our lovely Korean family!
So my next blog post will be about of our time, our experiences, and our travels in South Korea. It was wonderful, exciting and emotional trip – and I did get lots of photographs!
Thanks for reading my blog and please pop back soon. If you don’t want to miss any future posts please do consider subscribing to my blog. The form is on the side bar. You can, should you wish to hear about any book or writing news, also sign up for my newsletter – I only ever send out one or two a year and so promise not to bombard you.
Please also consider leaving me a comment or a question if you have one in the comment box below and I promise to reply from wherever I am in the world and as soon as I get an internet connection!
Love, Janice xx

The Bahamas here we come!

In my last post, Trav and I had visited Miami over Memorial Weekend, traveled down to the Florida Keys by Greyhound Bus, celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary, and flown from Key West to New Orleans.
It had been something of an impromptu trip, to leave our Caribbean island home earlier than planned, and we still had almost four weeks to go before we met with our flight out of Houston Texas to Glasgow Scotland.
We now had a luxury of choice whether to go back to the Caribbean or to continue travelling in search of a new adventure. Either way, we knew we would still have to find somewhere to rent for almost a month.
Sitting in our hotel room in New Orleans, over a glass of wine for me and a glass of bourbon for Trav, we discussed what to do next. We explored the possibility of taking another Greyhound Bus and traveling up through Memphis and onto Nashville. Or doing the ‘Bourbon Trail’ in Louisiana – which was certainly high up on our bucket-to-do-list. But, actually, what we really needed at that time was somewhere to relax and kick back for a while. Somewhere with a nice climate, lovely beaches, with diving for Trav and where I could catch up with my writing commitments.
On the internet, I found a lovely looking beach cottage for a reasonable rent on Saunders Beach, Nassau, Bahamas, courtesy of Airbnb website. We had never been to the Bahamas before and it certainly ticket all the boxes on our current wish list. The accommodation was available for the three weeks plus that we needed it for and the airfare costs using United Airlines seemed very reasonable.
The cottage was being advertised by a guy called Stuart, a retired university professor, who had annexed off a porch area and the side of his traditional style clapper-board Bahamian home as a rental. The photographs looked very appealing and there were lots of reference reviews by others who had stayed there – all saying wonderful things about the cottage, the location, and about Stuart himself. So I sent an email to Stuart, apologising for the short notice, asking if we could come and stay the very next day. He agreed and the deal was done!
On arrival at Nassau airport,we soon realised that this time it was my turn to have a suitcase go missing. In my last post, I’d explained that Trav’s bag, with all his dive gear, had gone missing from our flight from Key West to New Orleans and had later been found in New York! I was assured that my bag, wherever it had gone without me, would be found within 24 hours. Of course, it was Sod’s Law that this was the one and only time that I had packed my carry-on bag in a rush, which turned out to contain lots of tops but no bottoms!
Our host, Stuart, greeted us as planned in arrivals and when we explained about my lost luggage, he insisted on speaking with the luggage official, whom it turned out was a friend of his. He also kindly said that it would be no trouble for him to drive me back to the airport as soon as we had the phone call that my luggage was there to collect. Then Stuart drove us to our new accommodation, giving us a wonderful guided tour along the way, pointing out where the ‘stars’ lived (lots, but the ones I remember were the BeeGees, the Rolling Stones, and UK rock group Iron Maiden). Then we stopping at a big supermarket so that we could stock up our newly acquired fridge with both the basics and the essentials.
Somewhere to hang our 'Trav and Janice's Hoose' sign for a while !
Stuart’s home was a traditional colonial style Bahamian house set back from Saunders Beach, Nassau. Nassau is the capital of The Bahamas and is located on the twenty-one mile long island of New Providence. Nassau’s main harbour is protected by Paradise Island. The harbour attracted settlers in the early days, particularly pirates and traders, these days it is mostly tourists and cruise ships.
Our home for almost a month - a traditional Bahamian beach house The open screened porch/sitting area and bedroom beyond
Saunders BeachAlong the coastal road were lots of restaurants and bars and handy stores in case we needed something quickly (like a bottle of wine) and didn’t want to go to the supermarket. In the other direction, towards the world famous Cable Beach, was some of the world’s top hotels, golf courses, and homes of the rich and famous. I felt we had chosen a great destination in which to spend the next few weeks!
Over the next few weeks, Trav and I explored the island by public buses called ‘jinties’. Only we preferred to call them the ‘rasta-buses’ as they were always blasting reggae music, driven by dreadlocked drivers and filled to capacity with larger than life local characters and bewildered tourist. You could also travel anywhere you wanted on them for one very low price. We often went into Nassau (just 20 mins away by bus) and to the Mall. On rainy days (there were a few when we first arrived) we went to the cinema.
From ‘our’ beach we could see cruise ships coming in each morning and we could also see Paradise Island, where there were some seriously impressive hotels. One of them, Atlantis, is the famous original hotel and water park. (Its newer twin resides in Dubai). Checking out Atlantis online, we realised that Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett were doing a one-night only ‘intimate’ concert there the very next weekend. Feeling excited, we booked into the hotel for the weekend and secured tickets for the concert. Our Bahamas adventure was looking even better!
The poster for the Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett concert at Atlantis!
We also found out that it was possible to buy day passes into some of the exclusive 5* All-Inclusive hotels on Cable Beach and on Paradise Island. The cost of the passes seemed entirely reasonable to us, when we considered that we could arrive in time for breakfast, have both lunch and dinner, use the beautiful pools and beach etc, and have full-on all-day access to the swim up bars and as much champagne or premium drinks that we could reasonable quaff. (And if you know Trav and I then you’ll know we can quaff rather a lot!) 
We decided, early on one incredibly hot morning, to try out the Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort. It was the nearest resort to us, just a five minute ride up the road in a rasta-bus. There we were welcomed, paid our dues, and immediately went in search of breakfast. And oh, how I had missed dining on the best smoked salmon and drinking bucks-fizz for breakfast. (Yeah, right!)
Bucks Fizz for breakfast at Sandals Bahamian Resort
We sunbathed. We swam. We got a little tipsy. At lunchtime, we took the complimentary boat over the Sandal’s private island (all included in the all-inclusive day ticket price) for an exquisite seafood lunch in a restaurant called 'Stewfish' - which was all washed down with a very good bottle of wine. Later in the afternoon, when we returned to the main beach and pool, we managed to make some lovely new friends at the swim up bar.







We enjoyed ourselves so much that Trav and I visited the Sandals Resort several times during our time in The Bahamas and, after being and welcomed back by the lovely reception staff after our first visit, we were offered a very nice discount on all our subsequent passes. Yay!
Top Tip: So, my top tip for if you fancy trying out an exclusive 5 Star resort but like us are managing on a 3 Star budget – why not think about renting an affordable place just outside and pay for daily access into the resort? Evening passes are also available in many resorts. In fact, why limit yourself to one resort when you could try several and also get the chance to island hop to some of the amazingly gorgeous outer islands (The Bahamas are a chain of around 700 islands) this is something we didn't do this time but do plan for another time.
I do believe that this economy driven tact, should you also be able to get some good-priced flights, could save you thousands of pounds/dollars - but, to be sure, do your own research before you travel - always check online or phone the resorts to find out what passes are available and when, to familiarise yourself with the rules of access, and at what cost.

Atlantis: We were really excited about the Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett concert. We packed a small bag each and set off by rasta-bus to Nassau town, where we then took a taxi over the big arched bridge to Paradise Island. The hotel was amazing and we wasted no time checking into our gorgeous room and then checking out the famous waterpark.


The park was huge: there were walkways and rope bridges connected swimming pools and man-made beaches, lagoons filled with eagle rays, hammerhead sharks and dolphins. There were water rides and slides that took you through see-though tunnels and a tank infested with sharks. It was all very well designed, but I must admit that I’m still not altogether comfortable with animals that belong in the open seas being kept in such confinement.

If you look into the shark tank you can see people in the flume!
Just one of the pools in the Atlantis water park
Trav and I spent five hours on a twin inflatable lounger on the ‘lazy river’ which was, in parts, not so lazy, as there were many off-shoots from the ‘river’ that took you into wild water, onto watery conveyors that lifted you up and then swept you down into tubes of darkness at scary speeds. It was all such fun!

Time to leave: When it came time to leave the Bahamas, to meet with our flight back to the UK, we had decided that we would forfeit the first booked leg of our journey (Roatan, an island in the Caribbean close to Honduras) to meet up with the second leg of our journey – Houston to Frankfurt – from where we would catch our third flight back to Glasgow. With just a few days to go, we contacted the booking agent we had used to make sure this was going to be okay. It wasn’t.
Apparently, if we had booked with the airline directly it would have been okay, but because we used a booking agent they would not change our itinerary. We were told we would have to make our first flight or the whole trip would be cancelled and we would be classed as a ‘no show’.
This seriously sucked because we already had a flight booked from Bahamas to Houston, where we planned to spend a couple of days, which we now had to abandon. We also now had to get on the internet quickly and book ourselves at short notice onto a flight out of Bahamas to Roatan. We managed it but had to buy Business Class tickets – leaving us suddenly and unexpectedly out of pocket by around $1000.
We also now had a couple of days extra to spend in Nassau, but Stuart’s beach house had been rented out during this time. Trav and I decided, albeit still stinging from the extra expenses, that if we were in for a penny then we may as well be in for a pound – so we checked ourselves into a very nice hotel for two nights. Not quite Sandals Royal Bahamian but not too shabby either!
Our last day in the Bahamas at Melia Nassau Resort
In my next post, we are back in Scotland and I’ll be sharing photos of a friend’s wedding that we attended in St. Andrews at the end of June.
Before the month’s end however- after hiring a car and visiting our lovely and much-missed family all around the UK - Trav and I realised that we still had two whole weeks between the St. Andrews wedding and our next big trip - flying with our other two sons to visit our son, his wife and our wee grandson and his lovely family, over in South Korea at the end of the month (the day after the St Andrews wedding actually).
What were we to do? We had no home anymore, having sold up everything we owned in favour of just two suitcases. We knew we had kind invitations from family or friends to come and stay anytime, but we had just seen and caught up with them all. Suddenly, like fate, we received an email notification from Emirate Airlines that they were having a ‘24 hour flash sale’ selling cut price seats on last-minute flights to far-flung destinations out of Glasgow.
To Trav and I, it seemed that some of our farther afield bucket-list destinations might be reasonably affordable if we booked the flight in the next few hours with Emirates and then organised our accommodation ourselves once we arrived. It didn’t take us long to agree and press a few buttons.

Two weeks island hopping in the Seychelles here we come!