We’ve had some really amazing entries for this month’s My World First competition. There have been tales of camel kissing, AK47s, communist countries, ice hotels, the Amazon, a kiss from Olly Murs, stolen underwear and a fling with a diving instructor. And that’s just the start! The best news is that there’s still time to enter and give yourself the chance of winning a Kindle.

As you might have guessed, the theme for our travel writing competition is world firsts. Get it? We want to hear about your first-time travel experiences. It could be anything you like. And judging by the entries we’ve already had, it probably will be! If it’s a first in your world then it’s one of your world firsts. Tell us about it. This blog post explains the rules and reveals just how easy it is to enter.

The winner of this month’s competition will receive a Kindle – or the equivalent value in Waterstone’s vouchers if they prefer. Viveca Koh won a Kindle in a previous World First competition and sent us this amazing photograph of her and her new toy at the ECVB powerstation in Belgium.

You can take a look at more of Viveca’s photography using these links:

Viveca Koh Photography

Viveca Koh Blog

Follow the hashtag #myworldfirst on Twitter. This month’s competition ends at 23:59 on 30th November.

Written by Tristan Rothwell

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Zoë Dawes – aka The Quirky Traveller – is a travel writer.  She was recently voted Britain’s Best Travel Blogger and her website www.thequirkytraveller.com was voted in the Top 10 Inspiring Travel Websites 2010. We asked Zoë to give us a few ideas for brilliant places to visit. We never guessed that it would be good old Blighty that would take the top spot. But there it is. And Zoë really does know what she’s talking about.

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For many of us, going on holiday is one of those rare times when you can settle into a deckchair and get stuck into a really good book. It’s a glorious indulgence isn’t it? Once you know that everything, including the travel insurance, is in order you can begin to relax.

I love reading and adore books so I’ve spent many trips hauling piles of novels around with me. On one trip, to India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Bali I endured a couple of months with three volumes of Indian epic ‘A Suitable Boy’ in my rucksack. They must have weighed over a kilo but I just couldn’t bear to be parted from them. What a fool I was. But then again, they hadn’t invented e-readers yet!

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July 4th 2011

Busy day today? Too stretched to catch up on the best in travel news and writing? Manic Monday making it impossible to manage those blog feeds? Don’t panic. The World First Weekly Wander is our very own weekly breakdown of the best travel based web content. It’s compiled by our very own Tristan Rothwell ( @WFTristan for all you tweeters). So sit back and let him do all the work.

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How’s your summer been so far? A little lacklustre, if ours is anything to go by. It’s not uncommon is it? So how about planning an autumn break to somewhere hot and sunny? How does Southern California sound? It has always been a popular mid-haul destination for good reason: sunshine year round, consistently warm temperatures and some of the most renowned tourist attractions in the world. Southern California rarely disappoints.
Yet despite its popularity, California has a few surprises left for the intrepid tourist. There are still a few exciting destinations that have managed to remain just under the radar. The aerial tramway at Mount San Jacinto is one of them. Cai Waggett, a regular visitor to the Golden State, spills the beans…

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It’s heartbreaking watching the news today. As we stare open mouthed at our televisions it’s hard to imagine the magnitude of what has happened in Japan and what is about to happen in the rest of the Pacific. Tidal wave alerts are in force in Russia, Hawaii, The Philippines, Indonesia, Alaska, Central America and even South America. The Tsunami that resulted from the largest earthquake to hit the country since records began over a hundred years ago has already hit the north east coast of Japan. Its magnitude has been put at 8.8 on the Richter scale with some reports putting the wave height of the tsunami at 10 metres. To give it some scale the earthquake that hit Christchurch last month was 6.3.

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Now I’m no economist but even I know that the exchange rate means everything when it comes to booking your holiday. It can mean the difference between eating out and eking out the pennies. And that can make or break your holiday, especially during these (and I quote) ‘tricky economic times’.

So whilst you might be able to get great deals on your travel insurance and super-cheap flights, it may not be a true reflection of the cost of your holiday.  Some of those great holiday deals might look great you when you’re tapping away on the laptop absentmindedly in front of the telly, but don’t forget to think about how much it’s all going to cost when you get there. At the time of writing the GBP (£) was at its lowest against the Euro for almost a year, which means that if I nipped out to the Post Office today I’d get about £140 less for every £1000 worth of Euros I bought this time two years ago. That adds up to more than just a few cervezas.

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Be a traveller, not a tourist. It’s an expression that gets banded about a lot these days, by me if no-one else. But what does it actually mean? If you read travel literature, not just Bill Bryson (good though he is) but Paul Theroux (Louis’ father), Jonathan Raban or Bruce Chatwin, you’re probably a traveller. If you’re more interested in what’s going on the beach or go on the tour to the local Roman ruins but don’t understand (or care) much about them, you’re a tourist. Travellers go to places to discover, relax and learn. Tourists go to places to tick them off a list of places they can say they’ve been to. (more…)

In recent months Thailand has been embroiled in political turmoil opposing the red-shirted supporters of former Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra and government forces backed by the military. The six-party coalition is under pressure from its supporters in the upper classes and from royalists to crack down on the mainly poor red shirts.

Thailand has a constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej who has been on the throne since June 1946, making him the world’s longest reigning king. The government is freely-elected with a Prime Minister at its head. However, the military has had a tendency to intervene from time to time when it doesn’t like the government or it does something it doesn’t to upset it. The last time was in 2006 to remove the previously mentioned Taksin Shinawatra. Perhaps they didn’t like him buying Manchester City? (more…)