Like a travelling picture show, Ter Wen Chin rolls into rural town with a sense of excitement.

With the help of volunteers from faraway countries, Ter, 30, works with children in rural schools to provide them with experiences beyond their borders.

In its first project Kedah, the fledgling Rolling School Malaysia worked with a secondary school with less than 200 students to provide free dancing, singing, acting and drama classes with the help of trained English and Drama teachers from the UK.

“I try to collaborate with local communities and schools, invite volunteers from different countries to join the projects, at the same time shown them around the real Malaysia, out of those tourist attractions.

“It gives them the opportunity to live and work with locals whilst learning and exchanging cultures,” she said.

The Rolling School is funded by public donations, while partner schools offer accommodation and sometimes petrol money to offset costs.

The Batu Pahat native said it all started when she returned home after five years on the road.

Having traveled across 30 countries in three continents - hitchhiking and relying on the kindness of strangers - Ter realised there was still much of Malaysia she had yet to see and understand.

"The further you travel, the closer you'll get to yourself, your inner self," she philosophised.

And it is the true face of the nation which she tries to understand, as she ventures further into the heartlands.

This is her story, in her own words:

I STARTED MY JOURNEY in 2011, through the Working Holidays visa in New Zealand. I lived in New Zealand for 18 months and traveled to India, Nepal and Europe after that.

After setting foot in 30 countries, I spent another 18 months in Dublin, Ireland. Most of the time I traveled frugally and tried to work to save money for emergencies.

Especially at the very beginning of my travels, I was not very comfortable with my command of English.

I found it difficult to understand different accents from different countries. It took me a long time to practise and became more comfortable and confident to express myself in English.

FUNDING MY TRAVELS WAS NOT THE BIGGEST PROBLEM for me as I found some really good websites such as Couchsurfing and Help Exchange, which helped to find work in exchange for food and accommodation.

They helped me to travel with very low budget, and at the same time learn some new skills. For instance, I did farming, cooking, painting, etc.

I hitchhiked when I needed to move from one place to the other. Hitchhiking is very common in Europe, people were very friendly and willing to pick you up even though they didn't speak English.

It helped me save a lot of money on transportation, as train and bus tickets were really expensive.

IT WAS THE MOST INTENSE THREE WEEKS of my journey, constantly meeting new people, jumping in random cars and trucks, sleeping in the wild, or in a stranger's house.

In 2012, I hitchhiked from the Netherlands to Istanbul - over 3000km within that period.

I was initially planning to hitchhike all the way to Malaysia but had problems with visas for Pakistan and India, so I had to give up and flew to Nepal and then back to Malaysia.

I'VE LEARNT HOW TO LIVE in a minimalist way, to give up on unnecessary desires for material things. At the same time, I learnt to be down to earth and flexible regarding different cultures and customs.

Travelling motivated me to not only to learn about the world but the most importantly, about myself. The further distance you travel, the closer you'll get to yourself, your inner self.

You'll slowly find a way to make peace with yourself, the people around, and the world. Therefore you'll become more conscious about the problems nowadays with this world we live in, and you'll start thinking about what you can contribute to make it a better place.

TRAVELLING AS A SOLO WOMAN IS SOMETIMES RISKY, especially when hitchhiking alone, sleeping in the wild, or in a stranger's house.

I was always aware of people and surroundings, and gauging my limits before doing certain tasks by my own.

At first, my family and friends were skeptical of my idea to travel solo.

They were surprised by my changes within this few years. It took them a while for them to finally realise those changes are good.

THE WAY I SEE MALAYSIA HAS CHANGED compared to five years ago, makes me appreciate the diversity of Malaysia.

I'm always glad and proud to be a Malaysian where I was able to grow up with the diversity.

Coming from a multicultural background trains us to be flexible, and accepting of differences from young.

Growing up with multiple languages and dialects trained my ears and helped a lot when learning a new language. It gave me good fundamentals to travel and make friends comfortably around the world.

I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A LITTLE SELFISH and less exciting to just travel around alone (in Malaysia). Therefore I tried to combine the campervan idea and volunteer work around Malaysia.

It's to travel around while at the same time do volunteer work, collaborate with local communities and schools, and invite volunteers from different countries to join the projects.

This gives the volunteers the opportunity to live and work with locals, whilst learning and exchanging cultures.

THROUGH ROLLING SCHOOL MALAYSIA I have the opportunity to get closer to local communities, meet people from different provinces, and learn different dialects and skills.

I have the opportunity to get to know more about Malay and Indian cultures which I did not get a chance to learn much about, before I left for my travels.

For instance, I'm from the south of Malaysia - Batu Pahat - and I had never been to the northern part of Malaysia till now.

Our first project was to Alor Setar, and I was amazed by the tiny differences in the food and the dialects, compared to the south.

IT WOULD BE GREAT if we know better how to seize this diverse environment has given to us, learn to be more helpful towards each other with deeper understanding, to allow and be tolerant of differences which may come to us as a surprise.

I'm positive Malaysia will be more creative and colourful in the future.

MALAYSIANS KINI is a series on Malaysians you should know.

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