From The Straits Times    |

Travelling six months around the globe without forking out a cent sounds like a dream way to spend your time. That is the prize on offer in a new travel contest.

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All expenses and spending money of up to US$50,000 (S$61,000) will be covered in The Biggest, Baddest, Bucket List competition being held by global online travel resource My Destination.

You also get a camera and tripod, and when you get back, the organisers will pay you an extra US$50,000 prize money.

The only catch, if it could be called one, is that you have to blog about it.

Oh, and to enter, you have to be 18 and above, and submit a video of a destination you have been to or else your dream location. You also have to submit a travel blog-style entry with three photos.

Applications open tomorrow at 7am and close on April 1 at 7am.

The winner picks a minimum of 25 destinations and maximum of 35 around the world that they want to visit.

They are given a list of suggestions of activities to do at each of these places by local contest advisers.

My Destination Singapore director Monika Khaled, 38, says: “The co-founders themselves love to travel and they thought that this competition would showcase the best of each location and also engage the local communities.”

My Destination has more than 80 destinations and is looking to add 30 to 40 more destinations in the next one to two months.

The top 10 contestants will be shortlisted by public and judges’ votes. This pool will then be narrowed down to the top three finalists and the final winner will be chosen on May 7 and start his trip on June 8.

The panel of judges will include co-founders Neil Waller and James Street as well as the winner of the Best Job In The World contest, Ben Southall. This was a competition organised in 2009 by Tourism Queensland, in which the winner got to take care of the islands at the Great Barrier Reef for half a year.

The winner of the My Destination contest will have to blog at least once a week on what he does at the destinations and it will be posted on the competition’s webpage (www.mydestination.com/BBB).

My Destination, launched in 2006, is a one-stop shop where travellers can find information and tips through articles and guides, take panoramic virtual tours and book their hotels, rent cars and buy insurance.

This article was first run in The Straits Times newspaper on January 27, 2013. For similar stories, go tosph.straitstimes.com/premium/singapore. You will not be able to access the Premium section of The Straits Times website unless you are already a subscriber.