My readings haven't always been high in October they were 55 and before that they were 44 so just been creeping up
Dippydolly - I think it's far too early for any real concern about your trip later in the year. It would be far better, for now to try to identify what's actually going on, with a view to improving things, where possible.
If your HbA1cs have been creeping up a bit, can you identify anything that has changes over that period which might have impacted you?
This far (I was diagnosed in October 2013, so probably about the same time as you?) I've been very fortunate to manage to keep things pretty stable, but I did have a period of stress, where I was going through a period of medical investigation and surgery when my HbA1c increased from 31 to 33, and when that period passed it pleasingly reverted back to 31. For me, the only thing that had changed was I was low-level stressed for a long time. I wasn't losing sleep over things, because I was having a load of investigations, but just the underlying uncertainty seemed to make a difference.
For some folks, they find that over time their diet changes a bit, with a few more treats, or extra snacks or just eating more, and this can lead to a bit of HbA1c change too.
I'm not suggesting you're doing any of these things, but just encouraging to try to identify anything you might be able to address on a day-to-day basis.
Regarding your query on ALA, there have been a few threads on this in recent times. If you search on ALA or R-ALA you may find a few threads come back.