pinch me

Since I became a certified woman of the world these past couple of years, I became a member of a very handy website called Trip Advisor. I tend, as my sister (with whom I'm going back to Thailand next month) will now attest, to be a bit detail-obsessed, which causes me to slightly over-research things. No harm there really, it's just time-consuming!

My point is that I value other travellers' candid views, like those on TA, because then you know what to really expect. If the place doesn't look like the photos featured on its corporate/tourist bureau website, then I'd say frankly you're the one to blame for not doing your homework! A Flickr search is also handy for seeing what things are really like at your destination. And as an added bonus you get to giggle at some of the silly vacation poses of strangers.

Another fun feature on TA is the travel map you can build that shows all the places you've been. I feel very very privileged that mine counts 120 destinations. Which is a bit padded with small towns around my home region but is probably somewhat realistic since TA doesn't feature smaller towns in many foreign countries so several are missing from my map from countries like Colombia and the Philippines.




Seeing this map of mine today and trying to think about what exactly I should post about Thailand, led me to realize I've pretty near reached what I jotted as a post title. Travelling is no longer scary for me, no matter where I've been (of course I haven't been anywhere really risky).

Anyway, another day perhaps I'll say something about Thailand!