How it all started

by Kim Bainbridge (United Kingdom (Great Britain))

A leap into the unknown Malaysia

How it all started As long as I can remember, I dreamed of becoming a famous explorer and discover new land or an unknown animal species. At the age of seventeen, I joined the Dutch army to prepare myself. Of course, I grew up and realised that that was a child’s dream but the urge to travel lingered. Then, while on my second mission in Bosnia Herzegovina, I got shot, and realised that life is too short for just dreaming. As soon as I had the “all clear” from the hospital, I bought an open ticket to Singapore. With no knowledge about my destination and nothing planned for how long I would travel, but with a backpack filled to perform open-heart surgery after surviving a plane crash during a zombie apocalypse, I hopped on a plane. I had no idea what to expect on the other side of the world. I was prepared to defend myself from cannibals and snakes, ready to build my own shelter and set animal traps to feed myself. It was actually a disappointment when I stepped off the aeroplane and walked in a hyper-modern terminal where free computers were available to send your loved ones a message that you have arrived safely in Singapore. Less than six hours roaming through this city I had seen enough and crossed the border on a bus into Malaysia. Ones through customs, I had to change the bus, which was a little less luxurious. In fact, the more I travelled North, the less comfortable the transport became but the more I liked it. I used public transport from one town to another. Stopping over when I liked what I saw or getting on the next bus when I did not. Travelling alone is fantastic, however, it was nice to arrive in Kuala Lumpur and meet other travellers to share experiences and a few beers. I met a nice couple in a hostel and hung out with them for a week. It was a little holiday within and took the time to repack my backpack and got rid of stuff I did not need. I and my clothes had a good wash for the first time in a month. The Malaysian food was delicious, the nature is stunning and the people were incredibly friendly, but too soon, I had reached the border to Thailand, making my way to Bangkok and there I booked my first “organised” tour to Siem Reap to see the great temples of Angkor Wat. The Journey into Cambodia took two days longer than planned because of the damaged roads. When we finally arrived in Siem Reap, we only had one night left at the hotel and half a day at the temple complex before the bus was supposed to take us back to Thailand. I decided to leave the group and continued on my own terms. This was the first and the last time I pre-planned anything. After crisscrossing Cambodia, I arrived in Vietnam and travelled slowly North to Ha Long Bay and Sapa. Then across Laos arriving back in Thailand in a long tail boat. In four months, I had travelled by aeroplane, bus, boat, train and even on elephant back, trough South East Asia and caught a serious case of the travel bug. I informed work, friends and family that I was not ready to come back home. I changed my return flight ticket to a flight to New Zealand where I spend one month on each Island before arriving in Australia on a year tourist visa. I WWOOFed (worldwide opportunities on organic farms) my way around the whole continent but after one and half year solid travelling, money was finally running low and had to make a change of plans. For the following twelve years, I worked for nine months at the time on campsites across Europe and travelled the remaining four months. In September 2019, thirteen years after I took the leap in the unknown, I travelled through seventy-four countries, picked up a husband along the way and started the” BA Photography degree”, in Newcastle upon Tyne. I hope to become a travel photographer/ journalist after the next three years.