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.

The post And… We Have Some Winners! appeared first on EscapeArtistes.

To celebrate our 1000th day of travel and the all-new, spangly EscapeArtistes, I’m giving away over $1000 worth of travel.

That’s $400 of flights from search engine Skyscanner, $350 of car rental from CarRentals.co.uk, $150 worth of adventure, activities or tours from GetYourGuide plus a bundle of global SIM cards from GO-SIM.

Which is, let’s face it, more than enough for a great escape.

All you need to do is log into the widget and leave me a comment.

Not Sure Where to Go?

Log onto Skyscanner, select your location and just click Everywhere. That will pull up your cheapest flights and provide plenty of inspiration.

Or, if you’re looking for travel inspiration, why not check out amazing places like the diving mecca of Dahab, Egypt. Or how about Lijiang, China, Cappadocia, Turkey, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, or Flores, Indonesia… or just explore where we’ve been.

For More Chances To Win!

This is a Rafflecopter giveaway. The only thing you HAVE to do to enter is log into the widget and leave me a comment.

To gain more chances to win you can also:

– Like our EscapeArtistes Facebook page (if you’re already a fan, click yes)
– Follow EscapeArtistes on Twitter (if you already follow me, click yes)
– Spread the word about the contest by sharing it on Twitter (optional — and you can do this as often as once a day)
– Subscribe to our email feed (if you’re already a subscriber, click yes)

LOG IN to the widget by email or Facebook to enter…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And… One Bonus Entry for Creativity

We’re all about creativity at EscapeArtistes. So… the most creative comment, which will be selected by an authoritative panel comprising, umm, me and Zac, will win an extra 15 bonus entries.

And, believe, me, we will bicker!

THIS CONTEST HAS NOW CLOSED. I’LL BE ANNOUNCING WINNERS SOON, STAY TUNED!

Small Print

The EscapeArtistes giveaway closes 24th October. The giveaway is open to anyone aged 18 or over, anywhere in the world, except where local law prohibits entry. The car hire prize is only open to those aged over 25 with a full driving license and a valid, international credit or debit card. Should the winner not fit these requirements, prizes will be reallocated. Click here for full Ts &Cs and here for more competitions.

The post 1000 Days, 1000 Dollars! The EscapeArtistes Giveaway! appeared first on EscapeArtistes.

Zac was nine. We were going travelling for a year.

And this is what he looked like then:

And, well, this is what he looks like now:

So…

Thank you, to all of you, who’ve been following us for the last two-plus years.

For almost a thousand days of travel (974, in fact).

But this is goodbye.

Nah, not really.

Less a goodbye than sayonara.

We’re moving on.

Of course, we’re always moving on. We’re nomads, goddamn it!

But this relocation is digital.

You see, some people might have thought that the web address travelswithanineyearold.com would have reached the end of its useful lifespan around the time Zac turned ten (November 2010).

And, it did cross my mind.

And again when he turned eleven. (November last year.)

But now he’s rising twelve, even I have to pull my finger out.

So we’re moving! Lock, stock and barrel.

After 974 (count’em!) days of travel, for well over 600 of which Zac has been well past nine, we’re relocating to a brand new url, which I hope is a bit more futureproof than the last. (It couldn’t be much less, right?!)

And a website designed by a real, live designer, rather than one downloaded for nowt.

The new site will be EscapeArtistes, the name those of you who follow my drivel on Twitter will note I’ve been using for a while.

And I’m really excited about it.

All the good old stories are moving over, so you won’t be missing out on anything.

And I’ll still carrying on writing about our journey, geographical, physical and emotional, my infinitely sardonic and incredibly tolerant son, and the fabulous and less fabulous places we go to along the way.

To be honest, I should have realised the old name wasn’t quite right on oh-so-many-levels when a fellow blogger refused to share a post on the grounds that it contained profanity, and they had a policy of only including family-friendly content.

You see, here’s the thing.

It’s all very well being the most sweary, least family-friendly family travel blog (and, yes, that’s a thing! Alright?! It’s TOTALLY a thing!) out there, but it does kinda limit you.

Hell, even my son’s blog isn’t family-friendly.

*cough*

Time for another pretty picture!

So… What to expect apart from more of the same?

Well, I’ll feel a lot better writing about 10p whiskies, that moment in Beirut when sex met Facebook and it all went horribly wrong, or prostitute-y personal ads, on a domain that doesn’t say “it’s all about the kids”, and where I don’t feel I have to preface said post with a warning to my audience of pre-tweens…

And, also, I’ll feel more free to write about stuff that I feel like writing about. Be that movies, books, politics, parenting, or observational stuff on sex tourism and similar.

I’ve been doing some of this already. And I’m looking forward to doing more.

But still what you’ll find at the heart of this blog is what it’s always been about.

It’s the story of an incompetently unconventional life, of adventures, mishaps, wonderful and, actually, kinda crappy places, and, what I hope shines through most of the time, of the journey through mother-love and motherhood, and a rather fantastic kid.

This is a great life, if a crazy life, and I’m very glad to live it.

I think (and Zac thinks) it’s also a fantastic childhood for Zac to have. Though I guess his therapist will have the last word on that.

*cough*

So… I’d like to say thank you, to everyone who’s read and enjoyed my stuff and encouraged me to keep going on this creative path I love so much.

To every single one of the 18 people who tuned in during my first month (I have a large family…), and have, I hope, stayed along for the ride, and to the (gulp!) twenty thousand or so of you who tune in every month now.

Also to everyone, and I do mean everyone, who’s ever left me a comment, and all you silent lurkers out there who keep coming back.

In fact, I’ll be giving one of you a holiday to say thank you!

I’m hoping this is going to be an absolutely smooth and seamless transition, because, you know, the interwebz are TOTALLY like that, and I always have such great luck when it comes to organising complicated things like transferring a gigantic, badly-organised website over to a whole new platform while staying somewhere with no internet.

Yeah, it’s going to work great!

Still, insha’allah, those of you who subscribe will carry on getting emails (if you don’t hear from me by Thursday, something’s gone horribly wrong), and we’ll still be there on Facebook, just with a new name, but everything will be:

BETTER, SHINIER, PRETTIER, LOVELIER and (not least) EASIER TO READ.

Honest!

So, thank you! Here’s the biggest virtual hug, ever. And I’ll see you in a day or so on EscapeArtistes.com.

The post The Last Post on Travels With A Nine Year Old appeared first on EscapeArtistes.