Family of five live in camper truck after house break-in

ISTANBUL

A family of five ditched city life for hitting the roads in a camper truck after an unfortunate incident, a burglary which occurred 8 years ago.

Nihan Bilal and her husband Serdar Bilal moved into a new flat in Istanbul’s upbeat Acıbadem quarter in 2014.

Only three days after they settled in, a burglar broke into their home, stealing all of the couple’s valuable possessions.

“We lost everything. After this incident we started to feel uneasy about living in Istanbul. Looking back now, we are actually grateful to the burglar. This incident somehow inspired us to leave Istanbul and relocate and live in a camper in a town in the Aegean region,” the couple recalled.

The Bilal family has been living and traveling around for ten years in a camper, they call ‘the Legend (Efsane).’

“When I gave birth to one of my children, I was 37-weeks pregnant. We went to the hospital with the camper. I stayed there for two days and returned to our camper with the baby and continued to live a normal life,” said Nihan Bilal.

The couple now have three children. The family divides their time between the camper and their house in the western province of İzmir’s Dikili district because of the children’s education, but they are mostly on the move.

Living in a camper is more affordable compared to living in a house, they say. “We do not bother too much about the utility bills.”

Their camper is as big as a one-bedroom apartment with eight solar panels, water tanks with two ton capacity. It is also furnished with a fireplace, air conditioning, washing machine and a dish washer. Thanks to the range extender they can still connect to the internet while on the road.

They stay in Dikili for three months and they live in the camper for eight to nine months.

“I really hope living in a camper inspires all the women. Right, you must give up some comforts of home. All you need is to take the first step… then comes the freedom the camper offers,” says Nihan Bilal.

The family has a small business in Dikili where they build campers, repair motorcycles. “We are laborers,” they say.