188 writers from Thirty-one countries participated 

in our Independence Travel Writing Contest:

Writers from 31 countries: 

Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Uganda, UK, Ukraine, USA, Vietnam.(see map above)

Wrote about 73 countries: 

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Benin Republic, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sinapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, USA, Vietnam (see map below)

Thank you to all who have participated or shared about it! We are especially grateful to our two wonderful judges, Richard Bangs and Amy Friedman.

Read the INCREDIBLE INDEPENDENCE ENTRIES! More are being published each day.

We left last July for Indonesia for this one year journey and five years ago in July for our first one year sabbatical! Read our memoir, Traveling in Sin , to learn how we met online, and chose to meander from Indonesia to Mongolia. Along the way, I lost over fifty pounds and we got engaged underwater. This book is NOT a collection of blog posts. We have never published this story before! Enjoy all the colorful characters we met and the tears and triumphs of a Peace Corps Worker and a Princess (cruises employee) finding their way together in Asia.