By Celine Pasche. Photography: Xavier Pasche.
We are a young couple from Switzerland. In 2010, we decided to undertake a long bicycle tour around the world. We’ve travelled 60,000 km and the adventure continues to this day. In 2013, Céline gave birth to little Nayla in Malaysia. Nayla is now 4 years old and since her birth, she too is a nomad on a bike. She discovers the world to the rhythm of the bicycle. Over 25,000 km, she has been meeting local people and their customs. Everything is an excuse to discover and quench her thirst for learning through the countries we are passing through. Of course, her education is very important. We then sit together to learn writing, reading and mathematics. Nayla does the schooling next to the tent on the roads of the world. Here are a few of our adventures.
“Come! Try my taiko!” said Kanon. “Look at me, and hit the drum this way,” she adds with a smile.
Nayla attended a traditional Japanese drum concert. She met Kanon, an 8-year-old girl, with whom she got along well. Here we are now at the training. The group of children, ages 3 to 12, is training for the next concert. The movements of the children impress Nayla. They sometimes turn into dancers, sometimes into a warrior, while the rhythms change and the beats combine with each other. Here we are at the heart of Japanese traditions. The drums have punctuated the lives of the inhabitants for centuries. At the time of striking the taiko, Nayla realizes, however, that it is not so simple to make the skin vibrating.
On the Roads of the World
“Travel before you have children! After, it will no longer possible,” our friends told us.
Nayla was born in 2013 in Malaysia during the long journey that we undertook. A young Swiss couple, we started this adventure on our bicycles from our homeland in 2010. We never thought that the adventure we dreamed up, imagined then created, would turn out to be more than a journey, more than an exploration. In fact, it has become our life. A life of nomads by bike as a family. Little by little, we brought our daughter into this life. Today, Nayla rides on her small bike thanks to a tandem system. When she is tired, she sits peacefully in her trailer. It is her house sheltered from all external elements. She then enjoys reading, playing, writing or resting. Today, our nomadic life continues after more than 60,000 km on the roads of the world.
“What are you going to do for the education of your daughter?” a Taiwanese family questioned.
The reality of this nomadic life is that everything is an excuse to learn, for Nayla and for us. There are learning experiences on an Earth scale and tinged with the traditions and cultures of the countries we are passing through. How do they fish for salmon on the island of Hokkaido, where does rice grow in South Korea, what are the traditional or national sports of different countries and different ways of writing?
