My Story
How It All Started
Hello I’m Yasmin, and I’m glad you’re here. My story began while I was in my car, stuck in an early Monday morning commute to work, on one of the busiest roads in Kuala Lumpur – Jalan Tun Razak. This was the exact moment in time where I experienced a moment of epiphany. I was a product development manager at a multinational corporation insurance group at the time, and I remember thinking clearly that, I haven’t seen much of the world, and now’s a good time to do it.
Enter tunes from Vampire Weekend’s Harmony Hall. 🎶 🎧
The plan? To travel the world sparingly and for as long as possible.
Twelve months later, after scrutinising my expenses and examining my financial capacity, I started saving wherever possible and arrived in Okinawa with my backpack, my HP laptop and my iPhone 6S. This was my first ever solo trip, spanning three weeks. This was 2016.
In the following years leading up to 2020, I had been travelling extensively and have been booking travel writing and retention marketing work, all while running a travel blog that was, to be quite frank, docile for four years, with the occasional posts being published once or twice in six months.
It wasn’t until 2021, when I decided to turn this travel blog into a proper website. It did not come without challenges and technical obstacles. Not only that, but it was also a balancing act between being committed to work that pays and clearing a backlog of pieces to be written about the places I’ve visited over the years. After refining routines and priorities, I finally got the hang of it and began publishing more frequently in December 2023.
Fast-forward to today, I’m a full-time travel blogger and a part-time contributing writer for local and international print and digital publications such as Red Bull, Kayak and Go Asia Plus. When I’m not writing, I work with direct-to-consumer e-commerce businesses to build and grow their retention channels. The majority of them serve customers in Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
I’m happiest when I’m out discovering places and being outdoors, surrounded by nature. Winter is my favourite season, but I also love the subtle tropical weather of Southeast Asia. I’m into photography, and my inspiration comes from the everyday life and when I discover places again and again.
I created the Yasmin Uurya travel blog to help people explore the world more and do it better.
As the blog evolves, it won’t just be a place for you to find inspiration and encouragement through my experiences, my perspectives, my photographs and my mistakes, but it will also be a place where you can seek advice and valuable guidance to exploring more and write your own stories.
I felt that by sharing it would also contribute a little bit to helping people craft better travel experiences, and eventually benefit the people and places we all visit at some point in our travel journeys.
