CHAPTER 20

Original (Published in "Lun's World"): 2004-09-01

Rewritten: 2025-06-20

Victoria and I both like traveling. After knowing that Lun has autism, we decided to take him traveling as much as possible to enrich the life experience of Lun and his younger brother, as well as gain more freedom for the family.

Lun knows how to enjoy traveling. When we travel abroad, we often collect some beautiful brochures and magazines introducing scenic spots, restaurants, hotels and vacation homes. Lun loves to see vacation homes with swimming pools and bright designs. He puts his favorite magazines by his bed and takes them out to carefully appreciate them when a long vacation is approaching.

The night before departure, Lun saw us packing and knew that we would have something interesting to do in the next few days. He walked up to us, tilted his ears, and patiently waited for us to tell him where we would go tomorrow. After we said "...vacation, take a car, or take a ferry...", he walked back to the room happily, waiting for tomorrow to come with joy.

We didn't dare to tell him in advance because we were afraid that he would be too excited and become irritable. The main reason is that his concept of time is very weak, he doesn't quite understand the specific meaning of "a few days or two weeks later", and he lacks patience. Just like the time at the end of August, when the itinerary was leaked in advance, he almost didn't sleep all night.

We both like to travel. After knowing that Lun suffers from autism, we decided not to trap the family at home, and decided to take him and the younger son out to travel as much as possible. Firstly, we hope that they can see more things, and secondly, we want to gain more living space and freedom.

Therefore, since young, Lun has been traveling with us in the interior of British Columbia and various scenic spots on Vancouver Island, enjoying the scenery and staying in different towns. He likes to sit in the back seat of the car to eat snacks, drink soda and enjoy the scenery. Generally speaking, he is very quiet and cooperative.

There are two exceptions. One is that he thinks I am going the wrong way, and he will protest constantly. Whenever the road is changed, I will suffer. The other is that whenever there is a traffic jam and the car stops for too long, especially when waiting for the ferry, the longer the waiting time, the more irritable he becomes, and even loses his temper. In addition to protesting constantly, he will lean forward to fasten my seat belt and even urge me to start the engine. As he grows up, his reaction becomes more and more intense, so in recent years we dare not travel to Vancouver Island anymore.

Whenever we arrive at a hotel or cabin, Lun's spirit becomes high and walks around the room, checks what is stored in the cabinet, pats the bed and sofa, and then chooses the bed to sleep on at night. In recent years, he loves the sofa bed and sleeps wrapped in a bedspread.

As Lun got older, he became more opinionated. When he was about ten years old, he began to refuse to go to unfamiliar or sparsely populated places at night, probably out of safety awareness. If it was cloudy or windy, he would also refuse to travel to the countryside. He was very cautious. He would just sit in the car and not listen to our advice. But if we changed to go to the mall, restaurant or supermarket, especially if we tempted him with snacks, he would immediately cooperate.

From then on, every time we went to a new place, we had to make full preparations, tell him the itinerary and content in advance, and let him observe the surroundings from the inside of the car after arriving. Only when he got used to it and felt at ease, could we coax him out of the car. Lun’s principle is not to hurt his body, not to tire his mind, and safety comes first.

Every time we arrived in a new town, if we passed by a public swimming pool, he would ask to "swim". We couldn't refuse this request, otherwise he would not want to go anywhere and would nag the whole family all night. So we must bring swimming clothes, supplies and his toys, pay the entrance fee, take him into the swimming pool, and play happily for more than an hour.

He loves to see new attractions and things, and cannot stay in one place for too long, otherwise he will start to miss home.

(After years of hard work and subtle influence, today, 20 years later, Lun’s brother's ideal career is a park ranger. Indeed, very different from parks in Hong Kong, Canada's parks are amazingly large.)