Couple back in Singapore after 2 years of van life and tandem biking

SINGAPORE – Ms Gracia Ng, 26, and Mr Ooi Yee Jia, 28, spent most of 2023 riding a tandem bike from Britain to Singapore, covering a distance of more than 20,000km.

Starting from London in March 2023, they cycled to the south-east of England to catch a ferry to the Hook of Holland, a town in the Netherlands that was their entry to Europe.

Riding a pre-loved, breakdown-prone tandem bike older than them, they wended their way through countries such as Germany, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, China, Laos and Thailand, before arriving home in time for Christmas on Dec 21.

The plan for 2024 is for Mr Ooi to find a job in finance – he has a post-graduate degree from the United States – while Ms Ng plans their next project: sharing their love of adventure by organising bicycle tours in countries such as New Zealand and Thailand in the coming months.

He says: “I wanted to bring this experience to other Singaporeans. I think there’s an adventure out there for everyone. It’s a very different kind of education.”

The couple’s momentous bike ride came on the heels of another epic road trip. Mr Ooi’s dream, fanned by YouTube videos about van life, had been to live out of his own van to save costs while taking in new vistas.

After he graduated from the US, and Ms Ng finished her master’s in English Literature in Britain, they set off in December 2021 in a van they outfitted themselves across 48 states in the US, excluding Hawaii and Alaska. In Singapore, Mr Ooi had never used a drill, but they learnt how to wire their vehicle for electricity and installed solar panels.

Shortly after their American travels were over a year later in December 2022, he proposed to her with a ring made out of the spoke of a wheel from their van. She said “yes”. They then wondered how they would get back to Singapore and decided to return home “on wheels”, says Ms Ng.

They bought their second-hand Ford Transit Connect 2013 van for US$6,000 (S$7,900) and, after outfitting it for their travels, sold it for US$12,500, which they used to fund their next tandem bike adventure in 2023. They bought a second-hand, 32-year-old Santana tandem for US$300.

Confining themselves to spending an average of US$1,000 a month over the past two years, they post about their budget travels as The Proper Paupers on Instagram and YouTube.

Whether living in a van or travelling on a tandem, they have been sustaining themselves on financial investments made by Mr Ooi, their personal savings and part-time work. While travelling, Ms Ng provides online consulting services for university admissions or teaches English online. When expenses spiked, due to unexpected van repairs, they lived on beans and rice to tide themselves over.

But bike life, they soon found, was a very different beast from van life.

Before, they always had a (van) roof over their heads and could take showers whenever they wanted at Planet Fitness gyms across the US, using a US$10 monthly membership pass they bought.

Mr Ooi says: “On our bike, we don’t get a shower after eight hours of peddling. It’s pitch dark as we listen to the rustling in the background, whether made by animals or people.”

While intimidating at first, they got used to wild camping, pitching their tent for the night wherever they stopped. This happened about 80 per cent of their trip, they estimate. For the remaining time, they used couch-surfing services for cyclists, where fellow bikers offered a bed in their homes for a night for free to those on the road.

Ms Ng adds: “Less is more. We could live with two sets of clothes. At first, I realised that I didn’t need a closet of clothes, then I realised I didn’t need a box of them. It was very liberating to be able to live like this.”

There were hairy moments, though the silver linings were never far behind.

At the Iranian border with Pakistan, they spent a few uncomfortable days cycling through unsafe terrain where petrol-smuggling took place. They were sometimes snubbed at camping sites, even when camping was allowed.

But then there were people like a man in Georgia, whom they hitched a ride from, when their tandem broke down. He kindly stuffed some money in their pockets as a goodwill gesture before driving off, leaving them no time to react.

When they rode to South-east Asia, the anticipation of home grew as the flavours of food grew more familiar.

Oddly enough, crossing from Malaysia into Singapore at the Woodlands checkpoint felt disorientating.

Mr Ooi says: “We’re with hundreds of motorbikes and everyone’s staring at us. So many people have to sit for hours in exhaust fumes to cross over to earn a better living. We were so close, yet it was unfamiliar to us.”

The only exotic wildlife they encountered on their travels was, ironically, in Woodlands, after they crossed the Causeway. Ms Ng had seen camels used for transportation and encountered stray dogs, but she had never seen a wild boar on a grass verge in Singapore before.

The engaged couple have spent their days back home filling up on their favourite foods such as bak kwa and chicken rice.

They say life on the road has strengthened their bond.

Ms Ng says: “When we started, he would say things like ‘I’m changing gear’ or ‘I’m turning left’ out in front. Later, communication was non-verbal. It was so silent because we could read each other.

“The teamwork that’s required is on a whole new level and it’s made our relationship better.”

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.