Back in Bangkok for just one more night, we had just enough time to do the classiest thing you can do in the city: get fitted for a tailor-made suit, and the least classy thing you can do in the city: see a ping pong show. And like that it was over. Eleven months, three continents, a few bob, one pair of sneakers and a ticket home. >>>Sound of trumpets blasting<<< The time has come! Here are the first ever Vern & Andrea Travel Awards, awar...

Vern: A two-hour ferry brought us to backpacker mecca, Ko Pha-Ngan with it's internationally renowned parties, beaches and beach shacks. A German girl, we'd met in the ferry queue, had recommended a fishing port called Chaloklum on the island's north coast as a charming blend of beach and village life, so we caught a taxi straight there. A few small buildings, mostly convenience stores and restaurants, huddled on a strip of seeled road around the pier, but our dr...

Vern: Ko Tao is one of the smallest islands in the Gulf of Thailand, but it punches well above it's weight in terms of visitor numbers. Experienced scuba divers come to dive some of the twenty odd sites in the island's halo, and newbies come as it is the cheapest place in the world to do the PADI Open Water dive course. The noisy bustling tourist infrastructure awaits you as you climb off the ferry at Mae Haad and walk down the pier into the pit of touts. Keen t...

Andrea: Bangkok seemed a natural choice for a birthday celebration--it's famous for calm, quiet evenings with friends. And maybe some debauchery. So we left Hanoi to arrive in Bangkok the Friday night before my birthday. I had warned my friend, John, who lives in Bangkok, that we wanted a proper night out to celebrate my birthday that night. The long line at Customs eventually filtered out and we hurriedly rushed to the sky train to get to John's place so we co...

Vern: The bus stations in South East Asia never seem to be conveniently located, so with each arrival in a new town comes a frustrating stand-off between us and a tuk-tuk (or sawngthaew or minibus) driver who is attempting to charge the same amount we paid for a three hour bus strip, for a 10 minute ride into the centre of town. The solution we've learnt is to climb on a vehicle full of locals and only pay what they pay, but it isn't always easy to get a spot: wh...