Why a bus?

So we bought an American school bus to convert it into a tiny home. We bought it on eBay, in the US, in landlocked South Dakota. We live in Singapore. There are no American school buses and campervans in Singapore.

So why did we buy it?

I think partly because we secretly loved the YouTube videos our boys were watching. ‘Expedition Happiness’ was well done and maybe it reminded us of ourselves in our 20s in the 1990’s.  We loved adventure. We were living in Perth, Australia but as we felt it was a little too unexciting at the time we decided to move back to our childhood home, Singapore.  

In 1993 that was quite a move. Most ‘expats’ were often on generous packages. We rented a cheap sublet apartment in the jungle, bought an old VW van and collected furniture from the street. The intention was to stay for a year or 2 and then move on. But things worked out, we moved to another house in a lovely but at the time remote area of Singapore and our adventures were road trips in our VW van in Malaysia.

Cameron Highlands Malaysia 1995 with our VW

Kids came along in 03/04 and our adventures took a bit of a back seat, although looking back, road trips for some reason have always been our favourite. On family visits, we would make the most of exploring France and Scotland and on a caravan holiday in 2013, that took us around Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria opened our minds to taking the ‘comfort of a tiny home’ on the road.

When we visited Australia, we’d visit car junk yards, and at a big bus graveyard, our dreams started to take shape.

So here we are, a few years on, and ready for bigger road trip adventures. Being a bit older & wiser and with a bit more life experience, we are overjoyed we bought a silly big bus!