Welcome to this brand-new series here at
theAsianParent -
The Excursion of Big Hands Small Hands! Here we follow the travel adventures of the Singapore family, composed of Sean (Dad), Tun Ling (Mom) and two young children, Yi Xi, two and Yi Ken, five. The adventurous family will be updating us - in their own words - as they travel across Asia and Europe.
They left their home in Singapore in March 2015 and have been travelling for more than nine months since. During the first five months, they have backpacked in South Korea, Japan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They already have plans to do bike touring in Europe, so when they were in Moscow, they were searching online for second hand equipment needed for bike touring.
After some effort, they bought a child trailer and panniers from Latvia and a tandem bicycle from Lithuania. They went to Finland by ferry from Estonia where they based themselves in a long time Finnish friend's home to rest and prepare for the cycling leg of the travel.
On 1st August 2015, they took an overnight train to Rovaniemi, near the Arctic Circle where they began their bike touring. They have visited Santa Claus in Santa Claus Village and Nordkapp, the northernmost point of Europe, in Norway.
The family spent about six weeks cycling in Finnish Lapland and Northern Norway, and then flew to the Tuzla, Bosnia to continue their travel in the Balkans. They have cycled in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia. Along the way, they have also used the buses, trains and ferries to cover some distances, particularly to cross mountains, seas and when the weather gets too harsh for cycling. They are currently back to Albania where they would take a ferry to Italy.
From Italy, they will continue the travel by backpacking as it would be too cold to be cycling in winter. This will mark the last leg of their journey before returning home. They intend to visit Austria, Poland, Germany, Belgium and lastly Holland, where they will fly back to Singapore.
