The reality of what I've been doing never really dawned on me until I met Zahid.
Zahid is a Bangladeshi linguistic researcher who joined our jungle trek to one of the villages in Sarawak, Malaysia. Eight hours trek, one river crossed, numerous hills traversed, and one rainy night after, we had a small "chat". He discovered that I've been to several countries and was mostly travelling on my own. Amazed was he when I could keep up with their hike, and ate whatever (and with whatever) I was fed.
All this time, he thought solo women travellers are confined to European females only. He never saw any Asian woman do it. He thought all Asian female travellers are finicky and "sheltered".
I definitely broke his mindset.
After we dropped him off, he simply uttered, "You are unbelievable!"
*gasp* it's official:
I am a solo woman traveller.
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