Adrian's Adventures

The main theme of the expedition is education and children - documented reactions and observations from the perspective of a child just old enough to recognise and express his emotions in words and action to new environment and culture would be focused upon.

Growing up on an overland expedition, will expose the child and in our case Adrian, who is 3 years old, to many other adults and children of various nationalities, race, religions, cultures and traditions, each with their own way of life and diet.

It will not only be interesting to follow his progress and reactions, but also to see how we, as his parents handle the hurdles we will encounter to educate a child informally, while his is supposed to be in a formal educational environment.

For the 2.5 years we will be on the road, the family will not have a fixed abode as such, living a nomadic life. The effect on the child will be interesting to compare, to that opposed to a child brought up in a regular environment. We as parents are hoping, of course, that this expedition will have a positive effect on him, bearing in mind that he is constantly under parental supervision, with a vast degree of independence and exposure.

Being outdoors for the most of the time, we hope to be able to demonstrate that a child can be brought up to have respect for nature and the environment.

Where possible, we will be approaching schools en route to enable Adrian to experience a few hours in regular classes and if given the opportunity we aim to provide the children with an insight to Malaysia and what we have to offer, through the promotional materials provided to us by Tourism Malaysia.

This separate journal, ‘Adrian’s Adventures’, will record our travels as seen by Adrian.

June 2008

1st June

We wake up rather late, to the sounds of birds singing. We drive out to town for a late lunch, but find it impossible to park Tuah anywhere. Eventually, Dad and Mum decide to head to the touristy Estepona Marina, where there is plenty for parking. Dad remembers the restaurant they had lunch at with their friend, Uncle Andres, and the waiter tells us where to find him. When we get back to Tuah after lunch, we discover he had made a new friend.

2nd June

Dad’s birthday today. I give him the card Mum helped me make, with whatever bits and pieces we have to use. After Tapas lunch with Uncle Andres, we drive towards Granada and find a campsite. We book our pitch and head out to Alhambra.

It’s a huge place, with lots of old, intricate, slightly broken buildings and lovely gardens. Great views, too!

                

When we get back to the campsite, though, Dad and Mum are not happy – they realize that the handle that cranks up Tuah’s roof tent is not where is should be….probably somewhere on the road between Estepona and Ganada!

3rd June

Both Dad and Mum are grumpy today – it seems I am the only lone who managed to get any sleep last night. Anyway, I have my breakfast, as Uncle Barry tries to help come up with some makeshift tool to crank the roof tent until we manage to get a replacement. In the meantime, Dad contacts the Autohome factory in Italy and gets the number for the dealer in Spain. He’s somewhere near Barcelona, so we can get there, hopefully by tomorrow evening.

        

Both Dad and Mum are grumpy today – it seems I am the only lone who managed to get any sleep last night. Anyway, I have my breakfast, as Uncle Barry tries to help come up with some makeshift tool to crank the roof tent until we manage to get a replacement. In the meantime, Dad contacts the Autohome factory in Italy and gets the number for the dealer in Spain. He’s somewhere near Barcelona, so we can get there, hopefully by tomorrow evening.

        

4th June

We drive and drive and drive all day, to get to El Vendrell, near Barcelona, where the Maggiolina dealer in Spain is. We make it there shortly before it closes, thanks to the help of a kind gentleman, who figures out we are lost and offers to show us the way. We get our replacement handle and I get another bear.

We are directed to a nearby campsite, on the beach front and set up camp. Dad and Mum decide that since it’s a nice site, and we are ahead of schedule, as we rushed up here today, we’ll stay for 3 nights. There even are two resident parrots here, but they don’t speak English. That’s okay, because I can say hello to them in Spanish – Ola!

5th June

We wake up and after breakfast walk down to the beach. What fun, playing in the sand, building sandcastles and collecting shells by the sea shore. We even see a real live baby octopus, which one man caught just a few feet away from where we were.

        

6th June

Mum takes me to the kid’s club at the campsite and David does some art and plays the 'memory game' with me while Dad gives Tuah a bit of a wash.

We take a drive down to Barcelona, some 50km away and take in the sights. There was a strange looking bus stop there. Looked to me like there was a prawn on it! Mum says it’s art…looks like a prawn to me, still! We saw some of the main landmarks in the city, and also visited the Temple of the Sacred Family, which reminded me of the Kuala Lumpur twin Towers.

        

We drove to the Olympic Stadium, which was a huge area and also visited the Barcelona Football Club Stadium.

        

8th June

Yesterday, we drove to Andorra, and spent the night in a campsite. It is a tiny country about the size of Greater London. On the way we pass many lovely small Spanish villages. It is a part of the Pyrenees, and mostly mountains and valleys. On the way to the South of France, we drove through the mountain pass, seeing many ski slopes. Mum said Andorra was duty free, but Dad still made me do my duty of helping to set up the roof tent. There wasn’t much snow, but enough for me to play in it for a bit.

        

9th June

From Andorra, we crossed back into France and spend the night in Beziers, by a canal. There are lots of Narrow Boats, just like in London. What I liked about this campsite was the special kiddy washroom and shower – it was just the right size for me!

        

10th June

Today we drive to St Tropez, Cannes, Nice and Monaco. I get to play on the beach in St Tropez. Dad says this is where all the rich and famous come….we saw lots of rich, but no famous. Mum watched me like a hawk though, because she spotted a baby jellyfish in the crystal clear water.

        

I found it hard to believe that there could be a country smaller than Andorra, but Monaco was really tiny. Nothing much to see, as it was so crowded and congested. It seemed that everyone was heading for the casino.

Seeing there were no campsites about, we crossed the border to Italy and found a campsite soon enough. It ended up being one of the worst we'd been to.

11th June

Dad is determined to get some photos of Monaco’s Casino and to take Tuah for a drive on the main roads that form Monaco's F1 track. We take in some sights and get stuck in traffic for ages.

Eventually, we decide to drive on towards Milan, and as there were still no campsites in the area, spend the night in the highway rest area, as the truckers do. We find a nice rest area 60km from Milan with a 24 hour shop, petrol station and even a McDonald's.

Another camping car is in the parking lot and tells us that it is very safe and 'tranquil' and that we should move Tuah to where his camping car was in the truck stop area. We set up the roof tent, pull the ladder in and go off to sleep.

12th June

Mum was awakened at 4am by a movement of the car, which you can feel from the roof tent. She thought someone was trying to steal my scooter and checked the back through the tent window but all was ok. She then checked the front and saw a small dark couloured car parked in front of Tuah. She opened the tent flap and stuck her head out, in time to see the car drive off, but did not notice anything amiss. She woke Dad up at 7am, which he did not appreciate, as she had not slept again since 4am and could hear thunder coming towards us. Dad grumbled and went downstairs to find that Tuah’s passenger window in front had been broken. A quick check showed that the thieves only had time to take Mum’s beloved Built NY bag, from the Baby Loft, which had 20 days supply of Acuvue Contact Lenses, her antihistamines, manicure set, my nail clippers and sun block, and various small everyday things. Thankfully, they did not have the time to get anything else.

        

We drive off to find a replacement window for Tuah and eventually find a CarGlass workshop that placed a temporary plexi-glass on, replacing the makeshift cover Dad made with items provided by the McDonald’s in the rest area. We then go to 3 different Nissan Dealderships before one helps us get a replacement window ordered for tomorrow.

After the ordeal, Mum finds a campsite 80km east of Milan at Lake Iseo. It’s a lovely campsite at the edge of the lake and there are swans and a great playground. Mum and Dad finally begin to relax.

13th June

We wake up to a nice warm day. After breakfast, Mum does the laundry and Dad takes me out to Lake Iseo on which the campsite was located.

We feed the swans and ducks and I play on the artificial beach created for sunbathers. By the time we get back to Tuah, Mum had confirmed with the Nissan Workshop in Sarrono, some 100km away, that we could have Tuah’s broken window replaced that afternoon.

        

Everyone happy, we return to the campsite but it rained so heavily there was not much we could do the rest of the day.

14th June

More rain. Mum said it’s a good day for the ducks. The ducks always seem to have good days, to me….people feeding them and swimming. I get to watch a DVD in the car while Dad and Mum break camp. After 1.5 months on the road, they can do it pretty fast now, compared to when we first started off!

We head towards Venice. Mum looks through our campsite directory and decides on a campsite in Fusina, across the bay from Venice. We can take a 20 minute ferry ride from the campsite to the centre of Venice, so that would be handy.

15th June

Mum tells me today is Father’s Day. It had totally slipped her mind, with all the stress and hassle of the past few days, having Tuah broken into, and was reminded by Mama, in Taiping (Malaysia).

We get ready and catch the 11am ferry to Venice. I was not happy about leaving Tuah behind. I wanted him to come too, in case someone hurt him again. Once on the boat though, I cheered up.

        

When we got to the other side of the bay, we picked up a map and followed the crowd. Everyone seemed to be heading the same way. There were no cars on this side on Venice, only boats and some strange looking things called Gondolas. Now I see why Tuah could not come with us.

I walk all day on my own, being carried by Mum just a short while, when it was very crowded in St Marks Square. There were many little alleyways and places to sit and rest.

        

We make our way back to the campsite and I am pleased to see Tuah is safe. Mum takes me out to the playground at the campsite and for a walk by the bay before dinner. What a nice day.

        

... and by the way, Dad, Happy Father’s Day!

16th June

We leave Venice in the rain and drive on to Slovenia. Dad and Mum are very impressed with what they see and decide to look for a campsite in the Upper Savinja Valley. It is by a lake and in the woods. It had a nice playground too.

17th June

As we get ready to move on from the campsite, a friendly neighboring camper gives me a toy dolphin. I had seen something like it in the shops a few days ago but Mum said I had too many toys already.

        

Mum is excited about today, as we are driving through Austria to Slovakia and meeting our dear friends from London Aunty Zuzi and Nella in Bratislava. We arrive at the campsite in Bratislava just after 7pm and Aunty Zuzi comes around an hour later to take us out for dinner nearby. After dinner, as we walk back to the pitch, Mum spots something moving on the grass. It turns out to be a hedgehog! I was so excited!

18th June

We send the morning with Aunty Zuzi and Nella. It’s great to see them again. I wish Aunty Dannele and Lachlan could be here too. Mum says we’ll see them when we reach Sydney, Australia.

         

In the evening, Aunty Zuzi takes us for a tour of Bratislava. It’s been a long day and at the of it I end up hitching a ride on Aunty Zuzi’s back.

19th June

We leave Bratislava and head towards Hungary. We drive though a town called Papa and on to Lake Balaton, where we camp in a site on the lake. Soon after we arrive a group of teachers and students from a Hungarian school arrive and set up tent next to us. We give them some Tourism Malaysia DVD’s and educational items on Malaysia.

        

Once we have set camp up, Dad and Mum take me down to the lake for a walk. There seems to be a cotton like thing everywhere. I thought it was snow at first, but Dad says it’s pollen and that I should not kick it about as Mum will start sneezing, as she gets hayfever!

20th June

We are staying on at Lake Balaton today. Yippee, I get to swim in the lake! The water is nice and warm, and it’s not too deep. Dad takes me, while Mum stays back at the pitch to clean the inside of Tuah and do the laundry.

        

That night, Mum makes some nasi goring for us and we invite our neighboring camper, Barbara to join us. She gave me a blinking rubber fish which I can wear round my neck and be seen when it’s dark. I love it!

21st June

On the road again….We cross over into Croatia today. It’s a long day on the road with not much to do aside watch DVDs, eat, sleep and whine and whinge. We get held up at the Hungarian-Croatian Border for a bit as they had never seen Malaysian Passports before.

        

We drive on to Duga Resa, about 50km from Zagreb. The campsite is on a river and has a great playground. On the way we pass many small villages, some with damaged homes, which were left like that since the war ended some 10 years ago. Many homes looked as though they were rebuilt since then.

22nd June

We head for the coast today. Mum is excited, as she says she is taking me to see the Adriatic Sea. We stop on the way at a town called Slunj for lunch and meet a really cool family, the Duspara’s. They were on their way from Zagreb to their holiday home on the coast.

We have a long drive ahead of us and arrive at the campsite near Split quite late. I am not too happy, as I am bitten by lots of mosquitoes!

23rd June

I have a treat today as Mum takes me for a swim in the Adriatic Sea. The water is warm and clear, but there’s no sand on the beach, just pebbles.

We take off for nearby town of Kastel, where we look for Dad’s old friend. We find him with some difficulty and everyone is happy. We move on again towards Dubrovnik and find a campsite in the small fishing village of Zaton Mali. There’s no beach here, but I can get into the water from the pier in front of the campsite. There fish swimming in the water and even little crabs.

24th June

I wake up today and enjoy the view from the roof tent – the Adriatic Sea! We have breakfast then take a bus ride into the city of Dubrovnik and spend the day exploring the Old Fort and the ancient town.

                         

When we get back to the campsite in Zaton Mali, a local fisherman gets a baby crab out of the sea and gives it to me. After playing with it for a bit, we put it back into the water, and I am given a little fish which he catches. Dad decides to cook it in the frying pan and has it for his dinner!

        

25th June

We leave Zaton Mali and head towards the border between Croatia and Montenegro, which we were to pass through to Albania. However at the border, we get turned away, as it seemed we needed Visas with our Malaysian Passports, a small fact that was overlooked. We head back to Dubrovnik, where we have the lunch Mum packed for us under the shade of some trees and decided on an alternative route.

        

We decide that we will leave Greece for later on in the Expedition, when we are traveling back to London, from Turkey, in 2010 and travel through Bosnia Hacergovina instead. We cross the border after buying a Green Card for Tuah without any problems and head for Medugorje. There were many pilgrims there, but not quite as many as Fatima, in Portugal. We head next for Mostar, a town heavily damaged in the Bosian War. On the way, we pass some homes which still bear the marks of the war.

        

There are no campsites in Mostar, so we stay in a Bed and Breakfast tonight – a proper bed…bliss!

26th June

We wake up and have breakfast, prepared for us in the B&B. After that Dad and Mum are on the internet while I watch some TV in our room. What joy! Once we are ready, we take a drive out to Blagaj, where we visited the famous Tekijah, a house suspended on the water of the River Buna and the rocks. The River Buna looks so inviting in the 40 degree heat, but I am only allowed to stick my toes in every now and then for a short while, as the water is really cold, at less than 10 degrees. Mum buys me an ice cream to cool me down with instead.

        

We have lunch at the local restaurant and meet a Malaysian family on holiday in Bosnia. They are the first Malaysians we have met in our months on the road, aside the lovely people from the Tourism Malaysia office in Paris. Tuah is also quite an attraction!

        

From there we drive out to Pocitelj, and ancient city, called the City of Stone, an Ottoman Town dating back to the Middle Ages. Never heard of Ottoman before…wonder if he’s a friend of Ultra Man or Superman?

        

We head back to Mostar, where we are staying and visit the Old Town and the Old Bridge. The Old Bridge was first built in 1566 but bombed during the Bosnian War and was rebuilt in 2004. Someone had left a shower on at the foot of the Bridge for anyone feeling too hot to cool off in. It was brilliant!

27th June

We are sad to move from Pension Rose in Mostar. We had a great time being guests of Rashid and Asmida and enjoyed the company of our fellow guests, a bunch of happy Aussies and the landlord’s niece, Amenah, whom I had, loads of fun playing with! Their room was also very cozy and clean and the best bathroom we have seen a in while!

On the way to Sarajevo, we see many more war damaged homes. It is a sad sight. We stop halfway for a traditional Bosnian lunch – meat grilled on the spit. In the city, there were many old buildings, and even homes with bullet holes in them, bomb shells and burnt bits. There were lovely ancient buildings and busy markets. From the top of a hill, we could see miles and miles of tombstones, where the war victims were buried. This was just one of many cemeteries, where both Muslim and Christians were buried, side by side.

        

It rained from the time we got back to the campsite, so we stayed in Tuah most of the evening, until it was time to go to bed.

28th June

We wake up and meet out next door pitch neighbours, the Raid Normandie Monde Expedition, a group of 3 cyclist and 2 other guys, a cook and a support vehicle driver, who are traveling from Normandy, France to China by bicycle in 70 days. McDonalds Normandy was sponsoring the 2 French cyclist…wonder if we can get them to sponsor me a Happy Meal in every town? The German cyclist had the same pair of Teva Dozers as me (slightly larger, though)

        

We head off towards the Croatian border, stopping by a river for fresh local trout. It’s very tasty and there were two ducks in the river, just by our table. They weren’t very hungry though. The highlight of my day, though, was having a butterfly land on my shoe!

        

In the fields, men, woman and children and raking up cut grass and making them into little hills. Mum says that they were making haystacks – a different way of doing it from what I am used to seeing. In the UK, the hay is either rolled into bales or compressed into cubes. It’s such a hot day to be out doing that, but I guess that’s why they say, ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ In Croatia, we see this huge plant with mountains of sand coming out from funnels….a sand making machine, maybe? Dad did not think it was necessary to stop the car and let me play in this sand pit.

        

29th June

We spent the night in a public camping area in a local park in Osijeck, Croatia. After breakfast, we drive towards the Hungarian border and drive through towards Romania. That will be the 14th country we are visiting. We get held up at the Romanian Border for 45 minutes, as although we were told by the Malaysian Consulate that we do not require visas for Romania, the Romanian border officials seemed to think we did. We are eventually let through, thanks to our UK Residency Permits. We make our way for the mountains, as upon entering the country; nothing seemed to inspire Dad or Mum. After driving a few hours on roads that are so bumpy we see signs to a campsite. We follow it for what seems like forever and end up in a hotel at the top of a hill with roads so bad, you’ll not be in a hurry to go down, and no campsite. We end up staying in this small and damp room, with a TV that doesn’t work and a shower in which I was not allowed to touch the walls. Dad and Mum were not impressed (especially as it was not cheap either). We weren’t the only ones fooled by that sign either, though. Two German bikers we saw at the border ended up at the same place, after following the same signs!

                

30th June

After a bad night in what Dad and Mum called the hotel from hell, we take off and head towards town. There was not much to see in Reisita, aside the Locomotive Museum, so we drive on to Hateg. Dad gets out at the Tourist Information Office (the first we’ve seen in the country) and comes back decided that we head towards Petrosani. He also said there were dinosaur eggs found near Hateg on display at the office. I was asleep in the car and missed out. They look like footballs, apparently! We take a major route from Petrosani towards a lake 30km away, but the road is so bad that after about 13km, we decide not to proceed. There is a little spot by a fast flowing river, where we could park Tuah for the night and camp, and decide to check out what the local beekeeper up the road had to say about safety there. He seemed to think it was ok, and just told us to make sure we kept our doors locked.

        

        

Dad and I start us a campfire and Mum prepares some Maggi Mee for dinner. We go to sleep to the sound of the river flowing outside our tent.

Previous months:

May 2008