Barefoot Exploring

Win your own contest by helping me promote my video!

Promotion details are at the bottom of this post.

Want to know more details about the trip and about me? Read on!

First of all, if you haven’t watched the video yet, do that.  It gives the best introduction to the trip of my life.

And now for the backstory:  When I heard about this awesome contest I thought long and hard about a catchy, marketable theme. For a long time I planned on entering with my trip being:

25th Birthday…25 Countries…25 Weeks

While researching and crunching numbers, I was finding this plan to be hard to keep within the $10,000 budget.  More importantly, though, I realized I was swelling the “trip of my life” to fit a catchy theme and, in the process, was removing the real trip of my life from the destination list to fit the budget.  I decided to scrap that idea, and really propose the true trip of my life.

I love asking people where they would go if they could go anywhere.  If asked of me, this is my response: If I could go anywhere, the places at the top of my list are the Middle East/North Africa, Central Asia, and India.  Now, technically, there isn’t a country in the world that I don’t want to visit (a side effect of being a geographer; or perhaps the cause itself) but these countries/regions are at the top of my list. Reasons for these choices are given in the video.

Budget

Can my proposed trip be done for under $10,000?  Abso-freaking-lutely YES!! Not only can it be afforded, but because of my travel style I will be able to stretch this $10,000 farther and longer than most.  What does that mean, SCOTTEVEST? It means more bang for your buck. More blog posts. More pictures. More videos. More tweets. More pocket-lovin’ goodness spread across the internet and across the world!

I’ve researched the costs and list them here by category.  (costs were calculated for a 11-12 week journey)

Gear: $300 – this is for a small pack.  very small.  like this kind of small.
With pocketacular SCOTTEVEST clothing and this bag (for souvenirs, minimal extra clothes, etc.) I’ll be ideally set.  Other gear costs are for a first aid kit and sundries. I already own many needed travel items.
RTW ticket: $3300 – rough quote from airtreks.com is $2359 – $3231
Other travel: $1000 – this covers in-country travel (trains, taxis, short flights, etc.)
Daily expenses: $2700 – subtotal from weekly budgets for each country (for 11-12 weeks)
Visas: $500 – Central Asian countries and India have some of the more expensive visas to obtain. But totally worth it, in my opinion.
Vaccinations: $400
Insurance: $300 – WorldNomads.com quote is $250.42 (also includes the more extreme of activities in the coverage).
Trip of My Life: Priceless!

That makes a grand total of $8200!!
The remaining $1800 will go toward spending money, entrance fees, excursions, etc.  Remember that these subtotals were rounded up.  Also, some of the cost will be offset through couchsurfing.com, which I plan to use to connect with people as well as cut costs. In effect, this trip is well within the budget.

Additional reasons SCOTTEVEST should pick me.

-You’ll see over the next three weeks that I know how to promote content and get it seen!
-I write well.  My blog posts and SCOTTEVEST reviews will be informative and readable. Keep an eye on BarefootExploring.com for samples.
-I aspire to minimalism, a value I believe SCOTTEVEST also shares and promotes. My trip will be done extremely light!
-I do my research!  I have spent countless hours watching travel shows and reading travel guides.  But it hasn’t stopped there.  I have international travel experience and am a competent traveler. However, I still have an open mind and am eager to continue learning. I’m young and energetic, but also mature. (I may look like I’m 12, I realize, but I’m actually a couple months away from a quarter-century.)
-I am attentive to detail and follow directions  (i.e. video posted as a response to the original. Also, I have the right to use all of the content in my video, as was requested in the contest rules (and is proper, anyway).
-For me, this trip of a life won’t end when I come home.  Not only will the experiences stay with me, I believe they will also help propel me to the next stage of life.

A little bit about me:

-I graduated from Weber State University with a degree in Geography.  As part of my education, I worked as an intern with the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.
-Some of my funky talents:  I can crochet, tap dance, and yodel
-I’ve been skiing since before I could walk.  According to my mom, I was 11 months old the first time I went skiing.  Thanks to the sacrifices of my mom and dad, me (and my siblings) grew up skiing almost every week in the winter. Thank you to my wonderful parents!!
-I was on a folk dance team for 3 and 1/2 years while in college.  I loved learning and performing dances from around the world.  And wearing lederhosen could always help matters.  I am grateful for that experience and the many friends made through dancing.

I believe I will be a great representative of SCOTTEVEST while on the trip of my life!  I look forward to using my experiences to inspire others to take the trips of their lives.

Scott, I think it’s time for me to “Go Away!” with SCOTTEVEST

AND NOW FOR THE PROMOTION PRIZES!!!

The viewing period ends Dec. 31 so let’s get crackin’! And the sooner the better, so we can reach critical mass! Wouldn’t that be cool

After you watch the video (as many times as you want…really, feel free), give it a thumbs up rating and comment, as well.  Let me know what you liked (or didn’t like) about the movie.  Also, tweet @scottevest telling them how much you liked the video by @BarefootExplore.  Doing these things will help me tremendously!

Then, to be eligible for the prizes, do the following (it’s really easy):
1) Share the video on facebook, tweet it on twitter, etc.!
2) Go to facebook.com/BarefootExploring and ‘like’ the page.  Post on the wall telling me how/where you shared the video.

That’s it!  That’s all you need to do for the drawing. I will randomly select 2 people who share (and post on the facebook.com/BarefootExploring wall telling me so) and they will each receive a $20 gift card to GotYourGear.com! GotYourGear.com is a quality purveyor of excellent gear that will compliment your SCOTTEVEST lifestyle.

Want to go the EXTRA MILE??

In addition to the 2 randomly chosen winners, the 2 who do the best job at promoting (most creative, most far-reaching) will each receive a $40 gift card to GotYourGear.com! Again, just post on the facebook.com/BarefootExploring wall telling me what you did.  If possible, also give me an idea of the impact you had [maybe by referring using a personalized, shortened URL (i.e. goo.gl).  There are ways you can track clicks on the link.]

Like SCOTTEVEST, I don’t “condone cheating by technical means to raise your number of views, but [encourage] creative promoting.”
(Couldn’t have said it better myself…hence the quote )

All 4 Winners will be announced at the beginning of January here on BarefootExploring.com

Thank you for your support!  With your help, this is totally possible!

E-mail me at andy (at) BarefootExploring (dot) com if you have any questions.