A fabulous weekend in KL with James and Sujeong Horton!

In mid-September my husband Trav and I flew from Vancouver Canada (via Montreal, Houston, and Tokyo) to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A total flight time of twenty-five hours and a leap in time of eight hours.

As we can never sleep on planes, you can imagine how exhausted and jetlagged we both were when we finally reached our hotel in KL! However, we did manage to get a good few hours sleep, before we had to dash back to the airport to meet up with our son James and his lovely wife Sujeong, who were flying in from South Korea to meet up with us in KL for the weekend.

Our son James and his lovely wife Sujeong, who flew from South Korea to KL to meet up with us for the weekend.

We hadn’t seen James and Sujeong since February of this year, when we were in South Korea for our grandson Aaron’s first birthday celebrations. Aaron wasn’t with them this time though, as this was a strictly grown-up affair, to help James and Sujeong celebrate their wedding anniversary.

We took the KLIA express train from the airport and a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at the Intercontinental, which is right in the centre of the city (KLCC) and just steps away from the stunning Petronas Twin Towers. Coming into the city at night, the world famous towers are lit up in white lights and they look truly magnificent!

At the hotel, James and Sujeong checked into their room, where we had arranged for a anniversary cake. The hotel staff did us proud by decorating their bed with red rose petals. Then it was cocktails and food and a wonderful opportunity to sit down together and chat and to catch up with each other’s busy lives.

Happy Anniversary to James and Sujeong!

The following day after a hearty breakfast, we headed out to go up to the top of the Petronas Twin Towers – the number one attraction in KL – and we also had tickets to walk across the skybridge that connects the towers at levels forty-one and forty-two. The views of the city from the top and from the bridge are breathtaking.

Looking up from the street at the Petronas Twin Towers

After lunch we hit the malls for some serious shopping and we had a ball.

Then it was back to our hotel for complimentary afternoon cocktails and tapas. After which, we enjoyed the luxury of our club rooms, until it was time to go out to dinner. We chose a Japanese restaurant for James and Sujeong’s anniversary dinner and it was a wonderful evening.

Happy Wedding Anniversary James and Sujeong

We had a fabulous weekend together, it went by too fast of course, but we made beautiful memories and we had a lot of fun. I hope it will not be too long before we can see James and Sujeong and our grandson Aaron and the rest of our South Korean family again.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our special weekend and seeing all my indulgent photos (some of which were taken by Sujeong). I enjoy using this blog as a travelogue, and my hope is that for many years to come, it will inspire those of you who follow our world travels to visit the many places I have enthused about. I also hope this blog will serve my family and myself as a detailed and personal travel memoir for the distant future, when maybe Trav and I are old and forgetful, or indeed no longer here.

Where next? James and Sujeong flew back home to South Korea and Trav and I left Malaysia early the next morning to fly to Bali.

This was our first ever trip into Indonesia and we were very excited.

First stop Bali for a few days, then we took a boat over to the three beautiful and tiny tropical islands off Lombok called The Gili’s, where the beaches are soft white sand and no motorised transport is allowed, and where most people get about using a boat or a pony and trap taxi/tuk-tuk or by just walking.

This photo taken by me on Gili Meno - the smaller of the three paradise Gili Islands

So join me here on the blog next time, when I will be sharing with you my truly amazing experiences in Bali and the Gili Islands, Indonesia.

Love, Janice

The End... well almost!

I’m excited to tell you that just a few days ago, after finally settling down somewhere long enough to get some work done, I have at long last finished writing my next romantic adventure novel entitled ‘Island in the Sun’.

I’ve now sent it off to my lovely editor for its first round of edits.

If you are not familiar with the publishing process and are wondering what this means exactly, my editor will read through the manuscript at this stage and then get back to me with a full assessment on whether, in her opinion, the story works, if the plot hangs together, and if the characters feel three dimensional and real to her.

She might suggest I rewrite particular scenes and she will look out for plot holes and gaffs and bloopers and the over-use of particular words and for continuity in the storyline. Then, I’ll either take on board what she has said, or not. I’m not obliged to accept her suggestions, but as she has been my editor for many years, I usually find she is absolutely spot on in her observations!

After I’ve read her assessment several times and mulled over her suggestions for improvement, I will work on the novel again.

The final stage of editing is when the the manuscript is checked over line by line to look out for errors and to correct layout and grammar and spelling.

My editor is very good at what she does and, once she has worked her magic, the manuscript will come winging its way back to me looking and reading like a proper novel.

Then and only then is it ready to be seen by you – the reader!

While I’m waiting for the assessment edit I’ll be keeping very busy indeed writing ‘the synopsis’ and ‘the blurb’ for Island In The Sun, which I know I will find very difficult to do.

The synopsis is used as a marketing tool to explain what happens in the book using just one or two pages of writing, while the blurb is the essence of the book in just one or two paragraphs, and is often seen on the back cover of the physical book and used as the book description for Amazon etc. So the words have to be chosen carefully!

I also have a travel feature to write for LLm (Loveahappyending Lifestyle Magazine) as part of my regular ‘Janice Horton’s – Dream, Explore, Discover… Travel’ which will be published on 11^th December 2016.

This time, I will be writing about Kuala Lumpur, (known otherwise as KL and the gateway to South East Asia). KL is a city that I’m now fortunate to know very well indeed, having been there several times throughout 2016.

I also intend to catch up to date with my lack of blog posts here regarding my travel itinerary. My last travel post was about our amazing trip to Vancouver Canada (which you can read about HERE).

So, my next blog post, will be about how we flew away from Canada (via Houston Texas and Tokyo Japan) to arrive (after twenty five hours in the air) at Kuala Lumpur, where we met up with our middle son James and his lovely wife Sujeong.

A quick stop over in Tokyo before we board our fight for KL

James and Sujeong and our grandson Aaron live in South Korea. We were meeting up with them in KL to help them celebrate their second wedding anniversary. Although, our beautiful grandson wasn’t with them on this occasion, as this was a grown up affair and what a wonderful and fun few days we had, sightseeing and shopping and eating and drinking – and so I warn you now that there will be lots of photos in my next post!

Helping James and Sujeong to celebrate their wedding anniversary in style.

Until next time,

Love, Janice xx

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Beautiful British Columbia…

After our incredibly busy summer spent on the Caribbean island of Utila, the smallest of the Bay Islands, Honduras, where I was working on my next novel 'Island in the Sun' while my husband Trav gained his PADI Staff Instructor certification and did his IYT Boat Captain course, as well as teaching scuba diving to students with the Operation Wallacea project, it was so wonderful to be able to take some time out at the end of it all to visit my family in Canada.

My mum’s brother Ed and his wife Dawn and my cousins and their families live in British Columbia. We’ve seen Ed and Dawn several times over the years when they have visited my mum in England and they have stayed with us when we were living in Scotland. Each time we have seen them they have always extended an invitation to come and stay with them in Canada and so at long last we were able to accept their kind offer!

We are off to visit family in Vancouver BC!

We arrived in Vancouver on the 28th of August and Ed and Dawn met us at the airport. By happy coincidence, the day we arrived was also my cousin Elise’s eldest daughter’s 7^th birthday, so we were able to attend the party in Abbotsford straight from the airport and meet many family members whom we hadn’t met before including my little second cousins Brises and Jean. Afterwards, Ed and Dawn drove us back to their lovely home in the town of Hope. Yes, they really can say that they 'live in Hope!'

Birthday girl Brises with her fabulous birthday cake

Jean and Brises

Hope is a quirky small town surrounded by mountains and lakes. It is famous for its breath-taking scenery, its chainsaw carvings, and also for being the small town setting in the Sylvester Stallone movie ‘Rambo’.

Ed and Dawn can really say they 'live in Hope!'

With Ed and Dawn in the town of Hope BC

Me with a bear - one of Hope's many chainsaw carvings!

On Hope high street - a setting for the movie 'Rambo'

For our first day, the weather was sweltering - this part of Canada had been having a heatwave – and so we went down to the nearby Kawkawa Lake (http://www.kawkawalake.net) to go canoeing. It was the first time I’d tried canoeing and I absolutely loved it. It felt so amazing to be gliding so peacefully across this beautiful lake in such a fabulous landscape with Mount Hope soaring above us into the clear blue sky. It was one of those special ‘pinch me’ moments in life.

Canoodling on  KawKawa Lake

On the way home we stopped off at Tim Horton's coffee shop (we wondered if he was a relative?) and also at a corn field to buy a bag of corn to go with our BBQ that evening – the cooking to be done by Trav and Ed – while Dawn and I enjoyed the hot tub!

Trav wonders if Tim Horton is a lost relative...

British Columbia is a place to indulge in outdoor activities and although the heatwave didn’t last very long into our trip, we managed to enjoy lots of outdoor hikes and trails, including the local historic Othello train tunnels that over one hundred years ago were cut into the granite mountain for ill-fated Kettle Valley Railway. (https://www.vancouvertrails.com/blog/othello-tunnels/). While we were there we watched from the bridges to see mature salmon trying to leap up waterfalls in the violently rushing river below. It was incredible!

We looked out for bears around Lynn Canyon Park and walked across it’s exciting suspension bridge (http://lynncanyon.ca). We explored The Great Blue Heron Reserve at Chilliwack (http://chilliwackblueheron.com) and mountain hikes in the wild and fabulous Manning Park (https://manningpark.com) where summer shorts could still be worn – albeit it was a bit chilly around the knees at the top of the mountain!

On other days, we visited the town of Harrison Hot Springs where we had fish and chips. We also indulged in visiting the local Dead Frog Brewery (http://www.deadfrog.ca) to sample their strange fruity craft beers with bizarre names like the classically named 'Big Stump' and the ‘Weeping Reaper’ - a lager flavoured with blood orange or 'The Nutty Uncle' which is a beer flavoured with peanut butter!

Sampling craft beer at the Dead Frog Brewery!

We also visited one of the many wineries in the area to try the local wines, which at the Backyard Winery (http://www.backyardvineyards.ca) were served with a platter of delicious cheeses. Mmmm cheese and wine – two of my very favourite things in life!

In the vineyard 

All of these amazing experiences were punctuated with lovely evenings at home with Ed and Dawn, enjoying tasty BBQ food or Ed’s delicious Pad Thai, looking through old family photo albums and appreciating Ed and Dawn’s passion and talent for art by admiring their many paintings. Dawn plays the piano beautifully and entertained us by playing jazz and songs we could sing along to. It was all so wonderful and such fun!

My Uncle Ed and Aunt Dawn

A highlight with which we concluded our trip (although there must be of course a million other wonderful experiences to choose from in Canada) we drove north of Vancouver to go to Whistler (https://www.whistler.com) - home of Whistler Mountain – famous for its ski resort, for being the venue of the 2010 Winter Olympics and for having the Peak to Peak Gondola – the highest and longest gondola ride of its kind in the world!
(https://www.whistler.com/activities/peak-to-peak-gondola).

In September, pre-season, the only snow around is on the top of the mountain – which of course is also where the best view is - so I had to conquer my fear of heights to take two gondolas to reach the ski resort area up on Whistler Mountain and from there an open chair lift to the very top. It was breath-takingly beautiful but also incredibly scary to sit in a chair with your legs dangling and only a bar between you and the rocky and icy glaciers below!

I finally found a bear!

What an amazing time we had! Thank you so much to my lovely Uncle Ed and Aunt Dawn for being such fabulous fun, for being so hospitable, for taking the time to show us around their beautiful country and for so generously sharing their lovely home. Thank you also to my cousin Elise and her husband Doug and their girls Brises and Jean for welcoming us to their home and to Brises’ birthday party. It was a great opportunity for us to meet Doug’s family also. Thank you to Dawn’s sister Melanie and family for sharing their home with us in Vancouver when we were on route to Whistler. It was wonderful, while at Melanie’s house that we also got to meet lovely Helen, mum to the family, and also Dawn and Melanie’s sister Katherine. We are sorry that on this trip we never got to meet Stephen, the brother of the family, or my cousin Chris and his wife Trina and family as they live much further north in a town called Terrace, BC. Next time perhaps?

Trav and I on Cypress Mountain Road overlooking Vancouver

Trav and I flew from Vancouver back to Houston and from there we flew, like birds on migration, onto warmer climes in Asia, where Trav and I are planning new adventures. My next post will be about our wonderful weekend in Kuala Lumpur, meeting up with our middle son James and his lovely Korean wife Sujeong, as they celebrate their second wedding anniversary. After which, Trav and I flew on to Bali (our very first trek into Indonesia) and to the tropical paradise of the Gili Islands, three tiny islands off the island of Lombock, which are easy to get to by boat from Bali.

Until next time… do feel free to leave me a message/comment as I promise to reply as soon as I get an internet connection. If you are interesting in seeing more of my travel posts do please explore previous posts and also feel free to check out any of my e-magazine travel features by clicking on the picture icons/links on the sidebar. If you are interested in any of my books, then by clicking the 'preview' tabs you can read a sample of the book for free without going to the buy page on Amazon.

Love Janice xx