Ah Chung: Living in a Double-decker Home
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the double-decker bus in Hong Kong (Apr 17), we meet Ah Chung, who bought an old double-decker and transformed it into a two-storey home. He tells June Ng about the practicalities of his unusual living quarters.
HK Magazine: Why did you decide to start living in a bus?
Ah Chung: I always loved buses as a child. I admired the British-style buses and I would daydream about how cool it would be to live inside one. In 2004, my family home needed repairs as it was getting increasingly dilapidated. It did some calculations and realized that to renovate my home would cost several thousand dollars, so why not realize my dream of getting a bus and turn it into a home? I often saw old buses sitting in a dump in Kam Tin whenever I passed by, so I went there, spoke to the owner, bought an old bus and started my project.
HK: How long did the renovations take? What was the hardest part?
AC: I worked practically around the clock for an entire month,so in a way, it didn’t take that long. But getting the bus towed to the village was pretty painful. The hardest part was figuring out where to put the bathroom, but it turned out that the space next to the stairs was ideal. I just asked a technician to connect the pipes.
HK: How did you decide on the best way to use the space?
AC: During my bus commute to work, I would think very hard about how to compartmentalize my bus. The space is roughly equivalent to a 400 square meter flat, so there’s a lot to think about! I turned the driver’s seat into a grooming area with a closet beside it. The middle part of the lower deck is where the bathroom and washing machine is located. The back seat leads into a kitchen with an open dining area. Then on the upper deck, the front end is an audiovisual entertainment room for movies and TV games, and the bedroom is at the back.
HK: Which feature are you the most proud of?
AC: I have a “games room” in the middle of the upper deck, which is where I keep my slot machine. My current job is to break down slot machines that are shipped from Japan to Hong Kong so that the useful parts can be sold on. Sometimes, there are machines that are in really good condition, so one day, I decided to keep one for myself. I also have a traffic light that I fashioned into a lamp. One of my hobbies is to wander around and look for interesting items that have been discarded so that I can reuse them.
HK: Do you get many visitors? Has anyone ever offered to buy your bus from you?
AC: My home is right up in a really rural area of Fanling, so the only people that really see it are old folks taking a walk. The press accidentally found out about it two years ago when they were covering a story about a piranha that bit a villager in a nearby river. One reporter, a huge bus fan, actually came all the way out here—but not for an assignment; he just wanted to visit. No one’s offered to buy it yet, but they certainly enjoy peeping in through the windows.
HK: What does your wife think of your home?
AC: She’s not that impressed. She just sees it as a place to live. I managed to convince her that it’s better than living in a regular house. She did get grumpy because we went over our budget—we ended up spending around $150,000 on refurbishments. She jokes that she can’t get away from buses, as she has to take a bus to work as well as live in one.