Crossing over... with Terence of Arabia

While I wait for my visa, I have to leave the country every 30 days. Before my other lady of leisure friends became gainfully employed, we used to be a posse of 3 that would take enough water, almonds and Natural Confectionery Company dinosaurs and do the drive to Oman which is only about an hour and a half away. One time, as part of a routine border check, we got pulled over by a military guy in a skin-colour Toyota Landcruiser with the biggest gun I have ever seen- in fact, the only gun I've ever seen was when we went clay pigeon shooting, and all those years of practice on Nintendo payed off. He asked for our passports at which time I think all the blood in my face sank to my feet (yes those fat feet with elevated toes). He looked at the passports then looked up to verify each picture, at which time he saw me coloured a pale shade of death, gave back the passports and ever so sweetly said "its ok madam! I'm so sorry! no problem! all ok! so sorry!...".

So my new lady of leisure friend needed to leave the country this week which coincided with my "crossing-over" dates - its great to be back in cycle with someone. Sri Lanka was her destination of choice and she had planned to go see the elephants. I was totally on board and ready for the adventure until I googled travel advice - which is so dangerous for a lass like me. How could I go to Sri Lanka? I haven't had my required shots and worse still the Australian government advises that you "reconsider your need to travel" to Sri Lanka because of the political unrest- its in a state of emergency. Just to check I wasn't being paranoid, I ran the idea past the most level headed and sensible people I know (you know who you are- most of you were at happy hour...there was even a kiwi too) to get their advice. It was 60% no, 40% yes which made me feel that if I'm mental so are 60% of my friends (within the sample size) or maybe it is the 40% that are mental. I also sought a second opinion on whether I could go there without getting the "jabs". Yes, I did seek medical advice...from my dad. Yes, he's been practising general medicine for 40 years, but you know what they say, 'don't trust a plumber in the family to fix your toilet'. Instead the advice that convinced me not to go came from my friend in London who is a vet, is writing her thesis on bats and who also enjoys musical classics such as Calamity Jane and Fiddler on the Roof.

So we decided- Jordan it is.