Danish's First Trip

"Ibu? Is it gonna be cold? Will it snow?" asked Danish (my eldest) so enthusiastically. He was 5 then. " It will be cold but I can't promise you snow. It hardly snows in London." I told him. Well, at least that statement was true then. With or without snow, he was very excited about the trip. Very excited as it will be his first overseas trip.

A week before the trip I reached home (I was still working at that time and we were still staying with my in-laws) with everyone trying to tell me something. It was Danish. He fell off his bicycle and sort of tore his upper lips. Gladly, our neighbour, Dr. Anis was home and quickly brought him to his clinic to be treated. When I got home, Danish has been stitched, nice and proper.

That explained why he got so excited yelling "Dr.! Dr.!" when we met Dr. Anis at the gas station on our way to KLIA. To him the good Dr is his Saviour, his Hero. He even asked the Dr. to follow us. The Dr. only smiled.

We have a smooth 12-hour flight. And what can I say. It's Danish's rezki. The second night we were in London, it snows, though it is more of sleet than snow but Danish got his wish. He was so happy. He put on his snowcap and gloves. "Ibu, take a shot of me, please". I was quite ready to tell him that it is not really snowing but I was capitulated by the look on his face. And as can be witnessed from this photo, he is jubilant. Danish is in the red cap while Hakim in blue.

For every trip that we go, we will try to make it as worth it as possible. Worth it by way of having some educational aspects to it. So, on his first trip, we brought him to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. We went there by the Westminster-Greenwich Thames Passenger Boat. Danish, always the more active among the two stood all the way to Greenwich through the River Thames while Hakim (a bit scared with the new experience) stay seated snuggling to his Baba through the journey. When we arrived at Greenwich, our first stop is the National Maritime Museum. Imagine, how all three of them complaint when they know that the way to the Royal Observatory is through 2 (or was it 3) large fields and a climb up the hill. All of us were panting by the time we reached the Observatory. It was such a consolation when there's no charge for getting in though they still handed us the admission tickets. And when they saw the Greenwich Meridien line, there was a puzzled look on each face looking at me "Is this all? Is this the line?" "Yes" I answered back. But those accusing look turned satisfied again when issued the certificate (as shown here) stating that they stood astride the GM line.

After about three nights in London, we drove to Norwich (nothing much, just to "visit" the Bally's Outlet Store - no longer there now) and Great Yarmouth (for the beach). Then we drove up to the state of Robin Hood - Nottingham. There we visited the Nottingham Castle and of course The Tales of Robin Hood (shown in the photo).

Another part of the trip is visiting one of the World's Heritage Site - what other than the Stonehenge at Salisbury Plain. After making our rounds faithfully following the designated guide, just lying down enjoying the warmth of the spring grass and watching the sheeps at the close by farm is heavenly. All right, a little bit on Stonehenge - it is the most important prehistoric monument in Britain and one of the most remarkable prehistoric engineering achievement in Europe. It was built through a span of about 15 centuries between 3050BC and 1600BC. There were 3 phases in the building of Stonehenge :

The 1st Phase - a circular earthwork comprised of a ditch, bank and counterscarp with a main entrance in the north east and secondary entrance in the south;
The 2nd Phase - timber settings were added to the earthwork interior. In this stage there is evidence of settlement within a kilometre of the monument;
The 3rd Phase - it began with the arrival of the bluestones from Preseli Mountain in Wales, weighing up to 4 tonnes apiece. These stones were set up to form a double crescent in the centre of the earthwork. The 3rd phase reached its peak with the construction of Sarsen Circle (sarsen stone transported from Marlboro Downs each weighing 25 tonnes) and the processional avenue. The main entrance was marked by the Heel Sone and Three Portal stones. Within the Sarsen Circle, the earlier bluestones were dismantled and rearranged into an unknown arrangement. The Stonehenge as is seen today is considerably ruined.

A number of reasons peculiar to Stonehenge is in the refinements of its design and construction :

(i) all the stones have been squared;
(ii) the lintels are held in place on the uprights by mortice-and-tenon joints worked in solid stone;
(iii) lintels in the circle are locked end-to-end by vertical tongue-and-groove joints;
(iv) the sides of the lintels are shaped to the curve of the circle;

(Note : Detail info - excerpt from "Stonehenge and Neighbouring Monuments" by Ken Osborne and Martin Atcherley; published by English Heritage)

Well, some wonders of ancient engineering and come to think about it, some aspects involved wonders in ancient transportation as well.

Right. Enough for "educational". We headed south to Brighton next - what else? To enjoy the beach, hmmmm... actually enjoying the rides and games at the Palace Pier not to forget having our share of the famous Brighton Rock, mmmm..... yummy and the Rock Bun, huh!. Well, before that we do visit the Royal Pavilion. When asked how he liked his first trip, with a big smile on his face "Awesome!" he said and I knew he meant it. Danish is rarely put down by anything. He always make the best of whatever may come. And he's a very good traveller. One thing that amazed me and still does is he always managed to make friends wherever he goes - and not just people of his own age but older and much older too.

In this first trip of his, Danish also went to Peak Village in Matlock where he enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the kindness of the people along the way. Well, though Danish and Hakim have their fair share of London - yes we brought them to Hamleys too and they went crazy. But, we are trying our best to educate our children that shopping is not one of the main activities in travelling. What more important is to learn about new things, to observe other people's culture - taking example of the good ones and making sure that explanation is made for "unacceptable" behaviour which cannot be absorbed into our own, making friends, appreciating nature and thanking the Al-Mighty for the Rezki provided us that we can make the journey and most importantly coming back being a better and more learned person.