January 15, 2009

Hugs for a Dollar

What could be better than taking a year off and traveling around the world?

The taste of Wendy's fries dipped in Frosty?
The smell of new shoes and bicycle tires?
The applause you get after finishing your 400 lb bench press?

While all of the above may be correct, the answer we were looking for is "taking a year off and traveling around the world for free." So that's what we plan to do. How, you might ask?

What if we give people hugs for a dollar? I assume you've seen the best movie of all time (if you haven't, stop reading NOW and go watch it). During one of the many - who am I kidding - all great scenes, Derice and Sanka set up a kissing booth to raise money to get to the Olympics. I'm somewhere from 10% - 100% sure that this is where Zhou got her inspired idea.

Since we are both math majors, we did a quick calculation. Wow, that would take a lot of hugs. What about five dollars per hug? The math was a little tougher, but we eventually calculated this would take 1/5 as many hugs. Still too many. There has to be another way.

Sponsorship!

Who wouldn't want to sponsor two young, well-spoken, intelligent, buff, adventurous, charming, Asian, well-dressed, courageous, outgoing, charismatic individuals as they enjoy life and don't really contribute anything to society? I sure would. So here's a few ideas:

(1) Like boxers, we tattoo our sponsor's logo to our foreheads and take our pictures all around the world.
(2) We create a reality series, "The Amazing Medium-Pace World Travelers Who Have No Competition," that follows our every move.
(3) Similar to, but not exactly like "Where the Hell is Matt?" (pardon the language), we do the Irish Jig everywhere we go (no, this is not a picture of me):


We'll keep you updated on how our unscrupulous, shameless search for a sponsor goes.

In other news, we have updated and added more details to our itinerary, and we thought as we narrow it down, we would keep everyone updated.

Newark, New Jersey to
London, where we'll have a 3 hour layover before flying into
Nairobi, Kenya. From there, we'll do a 46 day safari through:
Kenya
Uganda or Rwanda
Tanzania
Malawi
Zambia
Botswana and ending in
Johannesburg, South Africa. From there:
Hong Kong (less than a week)
Nepal (21 day, 180 mile trek), then a month-long journey through SE Asia, thanks to Brenda:
Singapore
Malaysia
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam. From there, we meet our people in:
China (2 -3 weeks), then:
Tokyo (less than a week)
Australia (3 weeks)
New Zealand (2 weeks), then off to South America:
Easter Island (almost a week)
Chile (a week or two)
Argentina, a bus journey through the country down to Ushuaia, the Southernmost city in the world. From there, depending on time and money, we may or may not do:
Antarctica! Unfortunately, cruises there are very expensive.
Argentina, again by bus, up to:
Bolivia (a week or two, check out Salar de Unuyi)
Peru (three weeks, including Machu Picchu and the Amazon rainforest)
Ecuador (two weeks to relax)
Galapagos Islands (only if we don't do Antarctica), then back to Peru to fly to:
Spain, where we start a month-long Eurail journey through:
Italy
Austria
Switzerland
France
Spain, then fly to:
Egypt (two weeks)
London (a week or two), then back home.

The following is what the world would look like if it had chicken pox in all the places that we plan to visit:


Once again, we'll leave you with a somewhat famous quote from a famous movie:

"Show me the money in exchange for something that won't really help a business but would be cool to those who want it."
- Jerry McGuire

3 comments:

  1. You could sell Krispy Kreme donuts! Or have a car wash!

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  2. Nice travel itinerary. though you guys are neglecting the northern regions of Asia and America. What about adding New Orleans to your itinerary?

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  3. That guy in the picture is jacked. Check out those abs! (beneath the ribs that are showing) And I think the picture of Salar de Unuyi is just a guy standing inside the Truman Show world. And you could gain sponsors by entering Zhou in eating contests. She fits the new winning profile: small and Asian. That means she must be able to eat 70 hot dogs (or chili dogs - it took me awhile to get your chilly dog joke; I just thought you love chili dogs so much, you would pet one while eating one) in 12 minutes. Money-making and delicious...

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