Thai food - your link to Orient

Some of the best advice anyone could give an inexperienced traveller preparing to embark on a foreign trip would be for them to hone in on something familiar, and then begin their exploration from there.

Essentially that's the whole ethos behind the global hotel industry - give the customer air conditioning, allow him the option of watching Sky News, make sure he never, ever has to resort to frustrated, wordless hand-gestures while speaking to hotel staff - and he will most probably enjoy his stay.

In fact to the travelling public hotels are nothing short of sanctuaries - ameliorating links with the domestic rituals that remind us so warmly of the curious regularity of Britain. While I, personally, have never returned to my London abode post-breakfast to find someone snuck into my room and laid a chocolate and an orchid on my pillow, I nonetheless find the practice entirely conducive to my sense of wellbeing and comfort - as would anyone.

The problem with comfort, however, is that it's really rather morish. How often have you complained about the arrogance and laziness of British jetsetters who park themselves on Spanish sunbeds for two weeks straight without ever setting foot outside their hotel, only to do exactly the same thing yourself during your next treasured summer jaunt.

And - to a degree - why not? Vacations aren't designed for laborious trudging to and fro anymore than hammocks are designed for rush-hour. But there is a compromise to be reached, and I would argue - if you're going to Thailand anyhow - that the compromise lies in the cuisine.

While hotels are the jump-starters whence we launch our adventures, restaurants can be the first tentative steps into that world, with the sights and smells - and of course tastes - of a foreign country infusing with our excitement at being abroad and igniting our fundamental desire to be intrepid, to explore.

So if you're planning a trip to Thailand, or China, or France, or quite frankly anywhere that has a national cuisine richer and more invigorating than a burger and chips or a plate of shepherd's pie, then have your taste buds do their homework and take the culinary route into a foreign culture. You'd be hard pushed to find any reasonably-sized town in the UK that doesn't have a local Thai restaurant, so inexperienced travellers will have no problem taking that first, precarious step into the Orient before their plane has even left Heathrow.

And, of course, bringing your newly-enriched appetite on holiday with you will mean that every noodle bar, cafe and street-stall in Bangkok will be another - admittedly paradoxical - reminder of home. The only difference being that this time it will be a comfort zone that will spur on, rather than diminish, your desire to be adventurous.