Last week we fanfared the May winner of our monthly travel writing competition. (You can catch up here if you missed it.)

As ever, the competition was extremely close and our runner up was Mandy Huggins from Cleckheaton. Mandy’s vivid account of Japanese karaoke was a lovely read. But we’d still rather stay away from the microphone ourselves. We’re not even sure our singing is legal in some countries.

Here’s Mandy’s entry. Take a look! (more…)

May was an extra special month in our travel writing competition.

It brought us the last entries we’re judging until My World First returns in the autumn, bigger, better and more brilliant.

• You can read about our big plans for the improved competition here

So what did our plucky entrants entertain us with this month?

Hayley Green from Bournemouth dubbed Spain’s Nerja an ‘Andalusian Brighton’ while tucking in to delicious Mediterranean cuisine, and Jaz Chopra swapped Weston-super-Mare for the unexpected hospitality of Costa Rica’s indigenous tribes during a volunteering trip.

That’s not all. Stacey Pryce from Wrexham conquered first time flight fears by playing scrabble, while Kelly Martin from Gloucester revealed how her life changed forever during a solo travelling trip round Australia. Oh, and our sympathies went out to Hazel Rigazio, whose lost suitcase forced her to spend much of her honeymoon wearing her husband’s Bart Simpson swimming shorts. Aye carumba.

But there could only be one winner. And that was a writer who questioned karmic justice during a visit to Pushkar in India. Congratulations to Bryan Poynton from East Molesey in Sussex.

You can read his Kindle-winning entry below and see what so impressed our judges!

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Daniel O’Donnell? When we took the decision to start a monthly travel writing competition at the end of last year, we had no idea we’d be reading about him as we sifted through future entries.

Then again, we didn’t anticipate a lot of things. Like how good some of the writing would be. Or how spectacularly diverse people’s travel adventures are. Once again, the most recent entries did not disappoint.

So while Corinne Faulkner from Northants was getting carried away with her Danny Boy, Amanda Goldston from Staffordshire brought us to the edge of our seats with her recollection of a perilous cliff-top tantrum as a toddler. Denise Jones from Southport made us long for a visit to Holywell Bay, Rochdale’s Jennifer Guertin regretted dressing up as a geisha and Rhian Beth Taylor from Wrexham got more than she bargained for when she swam with dolphins…and lost her bikini bottoms. Crikey.

But there could only be one winner. And that was Richard Lakin from Stafford, whose tale had our judges rooting for him and his pool-based escapades.

Here’s the Kindle-winning entry, in all its glory.

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March brought another exciting instalment of our monthly travel writing competition, My World First. Anna Mochnacka from Barcelona made us hope we never have to visit the Doctor in Laos. Barnaby Davies got more than he bargained for when he visited an Austrian salt mine. And Beverley Keenan from Blackpool reminded us of the frustrations of lost baggage.

That’s not all. In what will no doubt surprise plenty of male readers, 1,000 camels weren’t enough to lure Charmaine Brown’s husband into selling his other half during the Essex couple’s holiday in Morocco. Eleanor Bransden from Littlehampton added to her self-proclaimed ‘extensive’ repertoire of embarrassing gaffes while travelling in Greece. And we were as perplexed as Bryan Poynton from Surrey when we read about his Nepalese meal of apple pie…and chips

While Jonathan Wallen from Newport pushed his stamina to the limit 2,000 ft above sea level in Southern Peru, Kate Daniel found her paradise when she swapped Grimsby for the Maldives. And last month’s winner, Mandy Huggins, had a close encounter with a deadly snake in The Gambia.

We’d like to say a big, big thank you to everyone who entered. But there could only be one winner. The judges’ decisions are in. March’s winner was a writer who had a very memorable train journey through Russia. And that’s putting it lightly. Congratulations to Paul Bingley from Suffolk. Here’s his Kindle-winning entry…

You might want to cross your legs.

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February was the best month yet in our monthly travel writing competition. The standard of writing was fantastic, right across the board. Jean Ashbury had our hearts in our mouths with her tale of being caught up in a rumble between an elephant and a lion in Botswana, David Ross spooked us with his excellently written account of a trip to a Bolivian witches market and Barnaby Davies went wild when he saw a wolf feeding mere metres from his balcony in Brazil.

But there could only be one winner. And that was a writer who turned something mundane into something beautiful…

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Fancy getting your hands on a Kindle? Impress the judges in our easy-to-enter travel writing competition and you can. Better fetch the thesaurus…

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This month’s travel writing competition was another close one to call. But then again we didn’t expect anything else.  Since we launched My World First back in November we’ve been wowed by the writing you’ve sent us. There’s no shortage of material either, which touches every base from fiercely descriptive accounts of your favourite destinations to hilarious anecdotes of travelling troubles and holiday horrors.

Last month, Amy Waring tied our stomachs in knots with a turbulent account of her first flight (in a thunderstorm), before Louise Morrish battled seasickness with the rest of her family on their first visit to France. Meanwhile, David Ross was on top of the world when he cruised around the summit of Everest in a light aircraft, while Lauren Armstrong fell from the heavens in New Zealand on her first skydive.

Love was in the air too. Well, sort of. Jennifer Guertin offered a hilarious account of her Las Vegas wedding and Barnaby Davies got friendly – very friendly – with one of the local ladies during his first trip to Brazil. We were also given a hefty sprinkling of culture as Susan Johnson met an explosion of colour when she visited Beijing for the time during the Chinese New Year celebrations, while Mandy Huggins fell in love with the timeless city of Istanbul.

Thank you to everyone who entered. It’s testament to the standard of writing that the judges had no unanimous favourite. But the votes have been counted and we have a winner! And bagging herself a Kindle this month is Julia Hammond from Rayleigh in Essex. You can read Julia’s entry below. We’ll publish the runner-up next week.

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