As a newbie travel host, local artiste, Thomas Ong had much to learn from the filming of his upcoming travel programme, Diminishing Horizons. Apart from making long treks to faraway places, the host even committed a few errors due to the differences in cultures.
The camera crew's first encounter was when they visited the Beehive houses in Harran, Turkey. After the actor drank a cup of water delivered by a 17-year-old Turkish beauty, he unwittingly sealed a marriage agreement with the lady. If Thomas were to back out of the marriage agreement, he had to pay her a token of 50 camels as alimony.
"He [The girl's father] said that I had to exchange my freedom for 50 camels. That was considered as the alimony and divorce fees." The 17-year-old's father eventually decided to let Thomas off the hook after he understood that the actor was filming a programme.
Apart from his brief encounter with his "prospective" bride, the filming crew bumped into a motorcycle driven by a father with two children sitting on it in Mali, West Africa. They did not wear any safety helmets and were sent to the hospital to treatment for their injuries.
The entourage's tour guide informed them that the Western African government originally made it compulsory for all motorists to wear helmets. However, their legislations were met with protests from the country's females as they explained that they had to use their tresses to attract the men and their husbands. The government decided to heed the people's words and allowed them to ride without their safety helmets.
Thomas was perplexed at the women's fixation and love for their long hair, "In itself, life is so precious, and they actually feel that their hair is more precious!"
Traipsing from one corner of the world to another, Thomas shared, "Their toilets are a hole - how do you use it? Their water is yellow and normally the water I use to wash my face is even cleaner than that. Do I use their yellow water to wash my face? Before using it I struggled a little. This makes me feel very fortunate. After I returned, I won't waste water, I am more appreciative now."
Produced by WAWA Pictures, Diminishing Horizons will be broadcasted on Ch U every Wedesday starting from Nov 11 at 8pm onwards.
