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Singaporean Couple Leaves Their Jobs And Goes On The Roadtrip Of Their Life In An Old Van

They hope to reach China in 2020 and then journey to Portugal, their final destination.

Cover image via Instagram @mjroadtrippin

This couple in Singapore decided to change their lives by quitting their jobs to travel around the world in a secondhand van they found online

31-year-old couple, Martin and Jacinda first embarked on their journey on 8 July from Desaru, Johor and has been on the road since. 

According to Mothership, the couple's goal is to reach China in 2020, and then make their way to Portugal, their final destination.

To ensure they would be able to make it all the way to Europe, the couple spent a lot of time planning, saving, and preparing for their journey.

Image via Mothership

The couple shared that it was not easy for them to leave their jobs and family behind

It was easier for Jacinda to leave her career behind as she worked as a free-lance emcee. Martin, however, faced more challenges as he worked in a corporate environment.

Additionally, the couple's family was not entirely supportive of their decision to quit everything and travel the globe.

In an interview with 24 Hour Travellers, Martin shared that his family called him "Siao la" which translates to "Are you crazy?"

He added that his mother even rolled her eyes when he shared that the reason he wanted to quit is because he had been working for too long.

"This can't be it. We can't just study, graduate, get married, buy a house, and then we retire. (There is) no life in between," Jacinda said in the interview.

"If you don't like your life, change it," she added. 

As cost was a big factor, the couple managed to find a second-hand van from Mudah.my for only RM30,000

According to the couple, they spent another RM14,000 on furnishings and solar panels for the van.

The couple also manually removed the van's seats by themselves, in order to make space for their bed and storage.

They tried to make the van as comfortable as possible, adding little details and tools to their new home that would make it cosier and convenient. 

Since the start of their journey, the couple has been consistently sharing details of their adventure on Instagram as a way of documenting their journey

View this post on Instagram

the previous night, we parked & slept by this beach under the stars and by 11pm we were sleeping soundly in bed..... and.... . At midnight, we awoke to banging on our van door.. we opened our eyes & through the curtains, we saw bright headlights, followed by blue blinking lights. Must be the police. We opened our windows & 2 uniformed officers were right outside. they said they‘re from immigration control & asked what we were doing here. Martin explained we‘re Singaporeans traveling in our van. they spoke really nicely & even apologised for disturbing & left. so we went back to sleep... . Again at 1am, Martin woke me up and bright headlights were pointed directly at us. Zzz. This time there were no blinking blue lights. Martin said he was going to check it out & walked towards the car. I watched from inside but the lights were so glaring I couldn’t see anything! Now I was worried sick and regretted letting him go alone. if he got stabbed or killed I wouldn’t even know! Luckily after a few (agonising) mins he came back but in search of our passports. He said they were plain clothed police, showed him their badges but were being really rude and demanded to see us. I was now super frantic, wondering what if they were robbers instead?! Martin insisted i stay calm and follow him. As I got out of the van I smelled cigarette smoke. Made it worse, chances of them being thugs got higher. Their car was about 50m away and as we came close they really looked like 2 thugs sitting on the bonnet smoking away. Martin handed them the passports and they checked it under the headlights, cig still in one hand. Martin explained again we‘re a married couple on a road trip here. They asked a few routine qns & finally sent us away, this time kindly telling us to park our van near the chalets where it might be safer and even reached out for a handshake to apologise for intruding. . After we re-parked, though it took a while to recover from our thumping hearts, we had a peaceful rest after. we were just left wondering Malaysia’s security like better than we thought ah (at least in the desaru area?) also, mental note: needa work out a plan in case we meet real robbers next time man...

A post shared by Martin Jacinda (@mjroadtrippin) on

View this post on Instagram

How’s this trip been so far??? If anything, this journey has been more than positive...It has been sooooo good to us to the point where in a tiny place in the back of our minds lies fear. How can it be that everything is going so smoothly? This feeling where everything we have ever wanted falls into place ON ITS OWN; the kindest people we’ve met, the beautiful places we’ve seen and the sudden appearance of YOU GUYS telling us how we bring light into your lives. To be honest we’re so grateful for all this but we’re not used to it... Is this pure luck?? i think part of it certainly is. But I’m also beginning to realise positivity, the energy we bring, the vibes we hold and patience could be leading to all this. We used to panic and stumble whenever things didn’t go as planned or when we couldn’t find a solution to our problem. Now, we just take it easy and have faith in the unknown. Not everything needs to go according to “the plan”, just believe that everything right will happen for us, there’s no point panicking. No nice campsite to sleep tonight? Ok stealth park somewhere safe. Spent too much money today? No worries, let’s cook dinner tonight. Got lost? Embrace it and enjoy the present. Like this life is hard to go “wrong”, everything would seem right even though nothing is going to plan because there is no rigid plan! That’s what we’ve learnt so far, we thought we’d like to pen it down. Till next time, let’s all continue to chase our versions of #thegoodlife Xoxo, MJ . . . . #vanlife #travel #mjroadtrippin

A post shared by Martin Jacinda (@mjroadtrippin) on

At the time of writing, the couple are now in Surat Thani, southern Thailand after having travelled in Malaysia for more than a month. 

Watch Martin and Jacinda's full interview here:

In other news, this married couple is now on their way to Makkah, Saudi Arabia in a modified camper to perform their Islamic pilgrimage:

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