And… We Have Some Winners!

One of the best things about doing a giveaway? Getting a whole bunch of new travel ideas.

To celebrate our 1000th day of travel and our brand new name, I asked you where you’d like to escape to, and offered you the chance to win over $1000 of travel in my first ever EscapeArtistes givewaway.

And – wow! – what a list.

Bhutan? Myanmar? Ethiopia? Norway? The Galapagos? Malawi? Taipei? Tonga? Pakistan? Greenland? Mozambique? Capri? Paris? Japan?

Seriously, your comments are a bucket list in themselves.

And now I really want to go Norway. Thanks, all.

Among those of you who were brave enough to do battle with the Rafflecopter widget, a few themes recurred.

Folk in hot countries wanted to escape to cold countries. And folk in hot countries were itching for the cold.

Several parents would like to escape their children, thank you very much. Others would dearly love to see the world, including some places I’ve never heard of.

Thanks, in particular, to Leslie for introducing me to Socotra, an Alice-in-Wonderland Yemeni island 250 miles off the coast of Somalia.

Will ya look at that?! AMAZING.

As I predicted, the competition for most creative comment was tough, largely because the sprog and I bickered. (Sorry, Mary, but your Minecraft link didn’t swing it this time around…)

Highlight of the poems was Alison‘s, who managed to make my name scan, while Zac loved Lisa‘s observation:

“I want to escape to South Wales, because the cliffs are breathtaking, and the sheep don’t talk back.” (Seriously, Lisa?! South Wales?!)

Raymond raised a snigger from both of us:

“I’d go to Bangkok again because they have cheap beer (not like Oman which has virtually no beer) AND I’d like to track down the chap who stole my underwear that were drying in the hotel window last time I was there.” (Raymond actually wrote “underwater”, so I’m guessing he found some beer…)

An honourable mention to Kristen, whose comment is well worth reading in full:

“Seeing as my attempt to strap myself to Curiosity failed and Mars is still out of reach, I’d like to escape to Iwakuni, Japan … Japan is awesome. I’d like to eat sushi until I puke, sing karaoke every night and see the cherry blossoms in spring.”

But in the end, we awarded the bonus points for most creative entry to Serena:

“I would like to escape into space. Float around in zero gravity and swim through the spaceship catching floating balls of grape juice and maltesers that hover deliciously in front of my nose. I would like to see the earth rise and marvel at things like the Great Wall of China and bulging cities and alien space craft and passing satellites.

Failing that I would love to escape to the Galapagos Islands and swim with the fishes.”

And then we plugged them all into Rafflecopter and let the widget choose.

And, you know what? The bastard machine didn’t even choose the most creative entry!

And THIS is what I think of Rafflecopter now.

So, with no further ado and one EXTREMELY embarrassed cough, let me announce our lovely winners:

The first prize, $400 worth of flights from search engine Skyscanner, goes to Micki Kosman, who is planning to escape to Southern Europe.

The second prize, $350 worth of car rentals from Carrentals.co.uk goes to Jac Seah, currently dreaming of the blue, blue waters of Croatia.

The third prize, $150 worth of adventures, activities or tours from GetYourGuide, goes to Anjelie Dawn Mendoza, who loves Italy.

And five GO-SIM cards with credit go to: Christiene Guiwo, Jennifer Ortiz, Corey-Ann Khan, Lindsay Sauve and, last but not least, Rodrigo Neves.

I’ll be contacting the winners by email today or tomorrow, depending on your time zone. And, once more, a huge thank you to everyone who entered, and, of course, to all our lovely sponsors. I’m looking forward to doing another giveaway, hopefully with a competition programme that doesn’t make me want to rip my own arm off and hit myself over the head with it.

Astute readers may have noticed I’ve managed to miss not one but two of my “regular” Monday postcards slot. That’s because I’m pulling together an extra-special bumper 1000-day edition. Stay tuned for that, more Bali bits, more tales of life on the road, and, last but not least, our attempt on Everest Base Camp.

And, no, I haven’t been training. What could possibly go wrong?

Picture credits: Tom Margie, Froskeland, Tadashio Koshi, Lena Ni and Hope Hill.