Do you like Tie?

Travel plans are getting their shuffle on - we paid for the plane tix las week (and are STILL yet to hear from the agent about how he's about to help us plan accomodation et al) and I filled out my passport form and photo on Friday (after an impromptu trip out to Births, Deaths and Marriages (thanks Mick!)).

Ugh - passport photo's.

Now, I KNEW it wasn't going to be good - I've heard they're always the worst, so I (thought I was) totally prepared for the ugmo image I'd be getting. Unfortch, it seems I wasn't prepared enough, as it looks a lot like this:

Although with more forehead shine, and less "I'm famous and smug" and more "I'm being held against my will".

We will be flying out of Sydney to Bangkok on the 17th of April for 10 days and will return from Tokyo on the 7th of May.

And although I am super (awesome) excited about travelling and have been gorging myself on the Lonely Planet guides, I am starting to get nervous about Thailand- for two different groups of reasons.

Logically, there are still travel warnings from smart travel as follows:

• We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution because of the high threat of terrorist attack. We continue to receive reports that terrorists may be planning attacks against a range of targets, including places frequented by foreigners. Reports indicate possible bombing attacks at crowded places such as department stores, and sky-train and subway stations in Bangkok on Friday 23 February 2007.

• On 30 January 2007, two small explosions occurred at the Rama Gardens Hotel and the Daily News, both in Bangkok. A series of bombs exploded in various locations in Bangkok on 31 December 2006, killing three and injuring over 30 others, including six foreigners. Further attacks cannot be ruled out.

• There is uncertainty over the political situation following a military takeover of the Government on 19 September 2006. Martial law remains in place in parts of the country.

And so on. We don't speak the language and I have trouble interpreting thick accents such that I often pretend I know what's going on and leave confused. I don't know how well it can be guaranteed that I won't be unintentionally ingesting animals left, right and centre. I don't want to go on a day trip to find it's a fake and end up losing all my money and belongings and be left in the forest somewhere. I don't want to have someone break into our hotel room (if it in fact exists and we haven't paid someone for a non existend room). I don't want to be on a boat trip and have it catch fire. I don't want food poisening. I've been advised to steer of the tap/local water as it's packed full'o'germs, steer clear of fruit and veg as it's washed in the local water, and that The Hun should steer clear of the meat and it's hot over there and everything goes rancid quickly. And so on.

Emotionally, well - where to start. My stoopid ex was Thai. He would always speak in Thai to his family and never tell me what was going on (this frustrated me to no end). He cheated on me in a nightclub with a girl that I believe to be Thai. He bought me a ticket to Thailand to meet his family for my 21st but we broke up before then and so I never went, but there were many months where I was in emotional distress and was torn between wanting to go and never wanting to see him again. Before we broke up he was texting a lot with a girl who was the sister of his (Thai) friend from school. He then replaced me with this new Thai girlfriend. She went to Thailand on the holiday that was meant to be my 21st gift. Her name is also a Thai word for a type of food (which is both hilarious and annoying). The Hun has also started playing tennis with a Thai girl from his work once a week, so you can only IMAGINE how my green eyed monster is being sedated...

So, it's taken a bit of a coming around for me to stop boycotting the entire country and want to travel there.... yet there's still the more normal emotional reasons for being nervous - I'm taller, bigger, louder, paler, wider and bustier than the majority of the population...

Here's hoping for a hassle free trip ;o)