I sailed around Europe and lived with the Karen tribe in Thailand for a month.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
What a different world it was when I first sailed for Europe in 1930, with my mother, sister, and brother to spend six months abroad.
I love Southeast Asia. As a child, I lived in that part of the world. My first time in Burma was in 1958 with my parents.
When my father arrived in Kenya, he had found the Kikuyu way of life similar to that of the British at the time the Romans invaded England 2,000 years ago.
I've traveled all over. I've been to all 50 states. With my dad in the Navy, I lived in the Philippines from nine to 12, and I had dog, monkey, lizard, everything. Then I was in Hawaii, and I'm spear-fishing, catching octopus with my hands.
I lived among the Japanese, and saw their mode of living, in regions unaffected by European contact.
When I crossed Asia with my friend Peter Fleming, we spoke to no one but each other during many months, and we covered exactly the same ground. Nevertheless my journey differed completely from his.
Everyone in Denmark has at least two or three sailors in their family; sea travel is part of the DNA of our nation, and because of that, I'd always wanted to tell a story aboard a ship.
My father is Indonesian Timorese, my mother Aboriginal Australian.
I grew up sailing in the North Sea.
I lived in grass huts in a jungle in the Philippines for three weeks with tribal people.