Another fabulous travel highlight, this time from Charlotte Smith:

The Dog’s Dinner.  
 
While travelling from England to Spain with our dog, Billy, we stopped in the French town of Blois, and went in search of much needed refreshments.
 
Happily, the French welcome dogs in restaurants, and the waiter didn’t bat an eyelid when I dredged up some Franglais and ordered ‘un petit burger’ for Billy.
 
On the bill, I noticed ‘steak  hache de cheval’, which at eight euros cost more than my salad.
 
We left the restaurant muttering a silent prayer for the poor horse that had become our dog’s dinner.
 
At least he enjoyed every mouthful.
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As the closing date approaches we are getting a steady flow of entries - thanks to all of you for your support and interest.

Here is our latest travel highlight entitled Los Sapos by Jill Dobbe:

Jose led us into the jungle toward the ancient birthing site of Los Sapos (The Toads). Mayan women once traveled here to give birth atop large boulders that resembled toads. In rapid fire Spanish he briefed us on the history then waved me over.

Jose motioned for me to climb on a rock. He then pushed me onto my back and grabbed my legs forcing them apart. With my limbs spread eagle he gestured wildly between my thighs, as if about to catch a real baby from my vagina.

​“OKAY, I get the idea!” I shrieked and jumped from the rock.

Thank you so much to Rukia Publishing for featuring these extracts from Fred's Diary 1981 second edition. This one brings back so many memories - please read it on Sarah Jane's blog :)

www.rukiapublishing.com/sarah-janes-blog

You can also read it here, but please check out Rukia's site as well.

Worrying time in Thailand

Each of us had mixed feelings about what the day holds. We were let out of our cell at 8:15 a.m. and had some visitors. Ead came for the first time and didn't look too happy for us. Graham, Aja and Marie, John and Michael were all there as well.
 
Exchanged some small talk but as nothing was certain everyone was nervous. About 9 a.m. we got all our things together for imminent removal but did not leave until nearly 10 a.m.
 
They handcuffed us together with three Thai guys and we were escorted outside, where we managed to get some quick hugs from Marie and Aja along with good luck handshakes from the guys.
 
The sunlight was dazzling after six days in the cells. They put us into a wired-up open truck which transported us to another cell near the court, where they herded us together and checked that we were all there.
 
Half an hour later we were taken to the courthouse and all sat down on benches. Within two minutes the judge came in and called out our names. We had to stand up and acknowledge that we were there. 
 
After signing a form we were all herded back into the truck and driven to the prison where we arrived at 11:30 a.m.  Stan had been taken off somewhere else so Andy and I went to the prison alone. A Canadian guy, Jim helped us. 
 
We had all our possessions searched and our money taken from us, although they let me keep the lucky Irish £1 note Bobby had given me. The British consulate was at the prison so I was able to see him for a short while. I gave him all the details with specific instructions that he shouldn't inform my parents.

Our latest travel highlight entry is from Kelly Reising, who was voted the overall winner in our Travel Story competition:

The week my dad passed away, I was staying where my parents lived. The hotel had outdoor pools. There was even a lazy river through the aqua park! A lovely setting along Lake Conroe even in a horrible time, with dad ending his year long battle against cancer. My now husband flew in after I had been there a week. After the airport we decided to take a dip in the closed lazy river. In our clothing. Luckily at midnight, no one at the hotel seemed to notice we were blowing off our sadness by having a little swimming fun.  

It's a great pleasure to feature this latest travel highlight from Val Vassay. You may remember her fantastic travel story Up the Jungle. Enjoy her entry:

My husband, baby son and I were on a BA flight from Bahrain to Bangkok: our first trip to the Far East. Lunch had just been served when suddenly food and drinks were flying everywhere. No, not turbulence: a tall, red-headed guy and two Asian guys were fighting like mad up and down the aisle. The stewards managed to get them to sit down then the Captain came out of the cockpit and told them they’d be tied into their seats if they didn’t behave. At the time I wasn’t scared. Now, after 9/11, I’d be terrified.

Our new book Travel Stories and Highlights is now available for pre-order and will be released on December 1st 2015.

Follow this link to pre-order your copy: getBook.at/TravelStories

You can still be included in this new book by entering your travel highlight (50-100 words) in our competition, which doesn't close until Sunday November 15th. Check out details on the Competition page.
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With only a few days to go, we're still getting some excellent Travel Highlights entries.

I'm honoured to feature this one: Almost a Memorable Peak from Graham Higson:

I’d been commissioned to write about a ramble up a famous peak: three naked men, one naked woman. And me.

 Rex was being super cool, carrying his shorts on his shoulder; standard issue in case you met the public. In soaring heat, we reached the top and collapsed on the bench. Then a lone woman approached. All the nakeds hurriedly donned shorts, and Linda her velco-fastening skirt, top and wide-brimmed hat.
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 But Rex had lost his shorts! And the woman was almost upon us ... At the last moment Linda planted her hat over his middle region and all was saved.

It is a real privilege to be able feature this latest travel highlight from John Findley:

Our trip almost over, an announcement made that all seats to be placed upright. My seat would not budge a look of annoyance now on the face of our hostess. She pushed the button again, the man behind pushed. The backrest made a crunching noise, and moved forward, I was pushed into the seat in front. With acid tones instead of her normal voice our hostess announced that she would have to move me, “and me,” announced my wife, we gathered up our hand luggage, we headed up to first-class the only seats available and found our rightful place. 

Some very exciting news about an upcoming new book release.

If you've been following this blog you will know that back in February this year I started to serialise my diary on a daily basis and this ran until July. This was part of an edit which led to the publication of a second edition of Fred’s Diary 1981 in October.
 
In parallel I ran a Travel Story competition for entries of 500-1000 words and was overwhelmed with the response. The quality and genuine diversity of the entries got me thinking about publishing them and this new book is the end result. It is due for release on December 1st 2015.
 
In all there are 30 travel stories from 20 different authors/writers.
 
After publication of the second edition I also ran a shorter Travel Highlights competition for entries of 50-100 words. These are also inspirational in a very different way. They are included at the end of this book and I hope you will really enjoy them as well.

The Travel Highlights competition is still running until Sunday November 15th, so if you want to get your entry included in the book check out details on the Competition page.

It is a real honour to feature this travel highlight entry from Sarah Jane Butfield:

Stepping off the aeroplane my face, cool from the flight was bathed in the warm breeze from the Indian ocean as the aeroplane fuel fumes confused my senses. A shuttle bus awaited us for transit to the sea planes. The intense noise of the sea planes engines made conversation impossible. No words were needed. Looking through the tiny windows the islands resembled stepping stones in a turquoise pool, the beaches forming halos around them. Landing in Kuredu, I was swept off my feet by a Maldivian man and like a movie scene he carefully placed me down in paradise.
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