I’ve just got back from a week of utter bliss in tropical Bali, Indonesia in honour of our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Just us,
with no other family or friends for seven entire days.
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| This is the life! Waiting for lunch to be served at the resort restaurant |
We reckoned that a quarter of a century of happy
marriage deserved to be celebrated with a special vacation. And we couldn’t
remember when we’d last gone away on a trip like this!
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| Our vacation was to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary |
People asked were we having a second honeymoon in the
place where we had our first honeymoon. Actually, no. Our first honeymoon was
three nights in a humble beach cottage that was kindly loaned to us by a friend
of a friend. It was memorable for many reasons, not least of which we took our
cat with us!
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| Tropical fruit juices were the order of the day |
To tell the truth, the choice of the Bali destination
was more mine than hubby’s. He’s rather more active than I am and didn’t know
how he’d deal with just relaxing, reading (and in my case writing!), spa treatments,
swimming, and eating wonderful food we didn’t have to cook (or clear up
afterward). One thing was for sure—he refused to go shopping!
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| Indonesian sate with peanut sauce and red rice--the rice was something new to me and scrumptious! |
Just a day into the break and he was thanking me
wholeheartedly for booking the small, villa resort in Seminyak (on the west
coast of the island of Bali) and giving us both a chance to wind down, relax
and just talk to each other without everyday demands getting in the way.
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| The sunsets on the beach at Seminyak were spectacular |
It was one of those vacations that I couldn’t fault—I
loved every minute of it. The weather was perfect, the resort divine (The Elysian) and the Balinese people as
charming and hospitable as we remembered from our first visit to Bali fourteen
years ago.
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| A writer's work is never done--how inspiring to write under the shade of a frangipani tree! |
Will Bali feature as a location in a future book? As
it is such a romantic destination, I can certainly say “yes” to that!
What about you? Do you have a favorite vacation
destination? Do you like a vacation packed with activities or one where you
laze around? Did you have a memorable honeymoon—or second honeymoon? Please make a comment, I’d
love to hear about it, and you can go in the draw for a free copy of my Harlequin
Romance The Summer They
Never Forgot to give away—either a mass market
paperback or via an Amazon gift voucher for an e-book.
Please include your email address in your comment if you want to be
included in the draw (and let me know if you prefer print or e-book.)
Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction. The Summer They
Never Forgot is Kandy’s first release from Harlequin Romance in the US, the UK and
Australia. Watch out for her Harlequin Romance The Tycoon and
the Wedding Planner to
be published in July 14.
