Mark Green's Blog

At long last, there’s a sequel to my first self-published book, THE TRAVEL AUCTION.

Book two in the series, THE TRAVEL MATE, focuses on Madge and Bozzer, two characters from The Travel Auction. The story of how they met and their friendship with Jonathan and Angel will have serious consequences for all four characters in book three, The Travel Truth.

Here’s the second book’s blurb:-

Twenty-six year old Maddie has it all. A fiancé with a well-paid job, a comfortable home and several exotic holidays a year. But when Rupert drops a bombshell six weeks before their big day, Maddie realises that her lifestyle security comes with a heavy price tag. Taunted by Rupert on a Thailand holiday that she wouldn’t last a week living on a miniscule budget, Maddie rises to the challenge. On a hungover whim, she leaves him at Bangkok airport, swapping her suitcase full of designer clothes for a pair of boots, a backpack and a four week travel itinerary.

But Maddie hasn’t anticipated the rigors of life on the road, or the romantic alternatives on offer. She soon finds herself contending with the attentions of a charming, attractive humanitarian, and a crass, annoying Australian. As if these distractions aren’t enough of a complication, there’s the small matter of Rupert and a ruthless debt collector pursuing her around Cambodia, each intent on reclaiming something of enormous value …

I’ve also completely rewritten The Travel Auction, adding new material which has, I hope, enhanced the essence of the original story, developing it into a more professional version.

My plan is to relaunch the series in July by self-publishing the first two books, with books 3 & 4 following on in the autumn.

Advance reader copies will soon be available. Please email me if you’re interested in reading or reviewing either of the first two books.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog!

md_green@btinternet.com

At long last, there’s a sequel to my first self-published book, THE TRAVEL AUCTION.

Book
two in the series, THE TRAVEL MATE, focuses on Madge and Bozzer, two characters from The Travel Auction. The story of how
they met and their friendship with Jonathan and Angel will have serious
consequences for all four characters in book three, The Travel Truth.

Here’s the second book’s blurb:-

Twenty-six
year old Maddie has it all. A fiancé with a well-paid job, a comfortable home
and several exotic holidays a year. But when Rupert drops a bombshell six weeks
before their big day, Maddie realises that her lifestyle security comes with a
heavy price tag. Taunted by Rupert on a Thailand holiday that she wouldn’t last
a week living on a miniscule budget, Maddie rises to the challenge. On a
hungover whim, she leaves him at Bangkok airport, swapping her suitcase full of
designer clothes for a pair of boots, a backpack and a four week travel
itinerary.

But
Maddie hasn’t anticipated the rigors of life on the road, or the romantic
alternatives on offer. She soon finds herself contending with the attentions of
a charming, attractive humanitarian, and a crass, annoying Australian. As if
these distractions aren’t enough of a complication, there’s the small matter of
Rupert and a ruthless debt collector pursuing her around Cambodia, each intent
on reclaiming something of enormous value …

I’ve also completely rewritten The Travel Auction, adding new material which has, I hope, enhanced the essence of the original story, developing it into a more professional version.

My plan is to relaunch the series in July by self-publishing the first two books, with books 3 & 4 following on in the autumn.

Advance reader copies will soon be available. Please email me if you’re interested in reading or reviewing either of the first two books.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog!

md_green@btinternet.com

The photos above were taken in Kratche, Cambodia.

Some of the most spectacular sights are to be found away from the bigger temples at Ta Prohm where over several hundred years since being built, nature has gradually reclaimed her land by slowly destroying man’s stone structures - natures revenge perhaps? Giant tree routes engulf vast stone structures, weakening and tumbling the blockwork to the ground. Not even Lara Croft achieved that during the opening sequences to the movie Tomb Raider, shot here back in the nineties.

Each of our three days at Angkor bought very different experiences.

Day One: Lovely long cycle ride to the outer temples - very quiet on the road and hardly any other people around the temples which made for relaxed wandering around.

Day Two: A peaceful and majestic sunrise sat on the steps looking out over the vast bathing lake at Sras Srang and getting ‘picked up’ by an elderly guide at Ta Prohm and when prompted offering him 10,000R note for his tour services, hearing him politely ask for “one more please.”

Day Three: Angkor Wat and The Bayon, which lived up to their hype, but only just due to the hordes of people - bus load after bus load all armed with camera’s, lenses and often with scant regard for the respectful dress code when tramping around the temples.

Just need to make mention a couple of things about the town of Siem Reap, where the Angkor Wat temple complex is located. We were fortunate to see a billboard advertising the work of the legendary Dr. Beat Richter, who each weeks puts on a free Cello concert to highlight the Children’s Hospital charity he has fronted for several years. His passion for bringing free medical treatment to every child in Cambodia inspired us not just to make a financial donation, we made time the following day to go to his hospital and donate a pint of blood - essential to the treatment of Dengue fever.

The second observation about Siem Reap is the slightly uneasy night out we had on day two of our temple tour. After the historical splendor of Angkor and surrounding poverty of Cambodians (more prominent in our minds following DR Richter’s Cello concert) nothing prepared us for the neon indulgence of the ‘Costa del Sol’ tourist town centre of Siem Reap where rich westerners ate, drank and indulged and the only Cambodians in evidence were waiting staff. In harked back to the Colonial era and left us feeling uncomfortable and and slightly depressed at how little society has moved on, leaving us awkward at playing our part in the ‘show’…

Angkor Wat and supporting temples

It seems strange to be uploading the next installment of our Asia adventure so long after my last entry. It’s now six weeks on and we’re about to leave Laos and head back to Thailand. So many adventures, life ups and downs since we were at Angkor, Cambodia. I’ve tried to start this next blog entry several times and nearly gave up on the whole thing as so much time has now passed. Much of my internet time has been spent trying to upload some of our mini-videos to Facebook which has taken a lot of time and many a frustrating hour waiting on poor upload speeds and incompatible USB ports. I’ve finally realized that I need to join the 21st century and invest in some sort of smart phone or netbook - internet cafes are a dieing breed now and its all about Wi Fi in cafes and guest houses. Technology is a wonderful thing when you keep up with it… :)

Anyway, back to Angkor. I’m not sure I can do the vast complex of temples justice here, that will have to wait for the next book where I can let my characters immerse themselves in the experience. I should probably round off this section with a few more photos and observations then move on to the rest of our time in Cambodia. Here’s Nicky in action on our rented bikes - the only true way to see the temples and appreciate the scale of Angkor.

The thing about Angkor Wat (the big crowd pleaser temple) and the temple complex as a whole is that you need to build up to it by seeing the smaller outlying temples first, hence our first day away from the crowds at Preah Khan, some 24km from the entrance. Cycling there was a joy - virtually no Tuk Tuk’s or scooters on the road and when we arrived, peace and quiet - lovely!

I actually found Preah Khan more impressive walking around the perimeter because it gave more of a sense of scale and grandeur. Inside the walls the temple felt enclosed and oppressive, but I guess they weren’t built for habitation by humans, but as shrines to the Gods.