KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — Armed with nothing but US$200 (RM800) and wanderlust, 29-year-old Petrina Thong successfully hitchhiked from Sweden all the way back home to Kuala Lumpur last month.

The freelance scriptwriter crossed 22 countries across two continents, came face-to-face with the Iranian military and even rummaged for food, but ultimately survived her 13-month long solo hitchhiking adventure.

"For food, I’d be digging out food from the trash, hanging around eateries and pouncing on people’s leftovers, asking markets for fruits that can’t be sold anymore.

"Once evening came, I’d look for places to camp or get invited home by randoms,” Thong said in a recent interview with UK’s the Daily Mail.

She even recounted on her Instagram page how she drank leftover coffee from cups she found, one of which even had a piece of chewing gum in it, just to get by.

She explained that she started out with just US$200, wanting to see how far it would take her, but the money quickly ran out within the first three months.

"I would stand by the road, thumb out, wherever the car went, I’d go.

"Only upon arrival I’d allow the Universe to reveal where I would be sleeping and eating,” she said.

From Sweden, Thong travelled south to Denmark, then moving east through Germany and Poland before she crossed over to the Baltics, through Albania, Kosovo and Bulgaria, into Turkey.

From Turkey, she continued south through Iran, Pakistan, India and Thailand before finally reaching Malaysia.

While her trip showed her the inexplicable kindness of many strangers, it was not always smooth sailing, particularly when she was trying to get to Pakistan from Iran.

"Due to cases of travellers getting kidnapped, I wasn’t allowed to travel by myself. From the Iranian border, I got into a police car, trailed by two more gunmen on a bike.

"We got to the first checkpoint, then I got chucked onto a police truck. Went to another checkpoint. Waited for ages, then got handed over to an Army guy and he hitchhiked with me to get to another checkpoint. From there, I got onto three more Army trucks,” she explained.

One of the highlights of her trip, however, was when she met a Rainbow Gathering, which had its roots in the US Burning Man festival, in the mountains of Lithuania.

"Money has no value, food is equally shared amongst all, everyone is family. There is no hierarchy, no alcohol or drugs allowed, so one can only be high on life. It’s very back to basics.

"I found myself falling in love with this bizarre community. With no contact to the outside world, all one has is reconnecting with nature and building relationships with once strangers as you’re huddled around a shared fire trying to keep warm or rejoicing at the sight of sunshine after days of endless rain,” she recounted.

According to US news channel CNN, the Rainbow Gathering is a community of people who congregate in remote forests around the world and have a shared ideology of peace, harmony, freedom and respect.

Thong documented her entire adventure on her Instagram account that showed her getting her fortune read in Turkey, donning a headscarf in Iran, enduring a 19-hour train ride through India and even pitching a tent to sleep by the streets.

Despite immigration hiccups, quizzical looks from strangers and her encounter with the authorities, the 29-year-old traveller said she has no regrets making the journey.

"My greatest lesson is that the world or the unknown isn’t as scary as you make it out to be. People everywhere are unbelievably kind and willing to help.

"Now I know that even if I’m lost in a country where I can’t speak the language and I have no money, I will still be alright.”