Day 0- The Night Before...

If somebody had told me several months ago that volcano insurance would be a viable travel expenditure, I would have shrugged it off as a ridiculous precaution. Now, however, I am kicking myself; I am a week late into my travel plans because an irate Icelandic Vesuvius has blown up a bit. Quite how much nobody really knew, so the airspace was closed. For a bloody week.

The past six days have been quite a rollercoaster, and more than a few times when the flight ban looked set to continue for months, me and Will toyed with the idea of jacking it all in and going inter railing. But the Eurostar was booked solid, and we didn't much fancy Europe, so we thought we would probably just sit and wait it out. Which meant lots of sleepless nights, and days of me wandering the house looking pallid and distant refreshing the NATS website and clutching the phone, desperate to get through to Emirates. It took four attempts at booking and rebooking flights, but tomorrow our adventure begins.

However, the extra week hasn't been all bad. The weather in England is deliciously warm and sunny, and the flight ban has presented me with a few more days of English comforts (flushing toilets anyone?), and some precious time spent with my boyfriend (ahh, how sickening I hear you say). But I finally feel ready to go, my bags are packed, a new camera has been bought, and the hoo haa with the airlines is over thanks to a few test rides, some crackpot scientists and some extremely aggresive tactics by British Airways. But I won't go into that now; like me you are probably sick to death of headlines about the volcanic ash plume.

This blog, although it will act primarily as a self indulgence, is also manner for my loved ones to keep track of where I am, and I suppose it will serve as a diary of sorts. I hopefully be able to give a first hand account of what life is like in Thailand at the moment, and also help show you my journey from Thailand, throught Malaysia and Indonesia, and into Vietnam and Laos.

Just please, don't ask me to bring back any red t-shirts as souvenirs...