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SINGPORE : When Thomas Ong signed on to be the host of Channel U's new infotainment programme "Diminishing Horizons", there were a lot of things he wasn't prepared for. Landing himself a teen bride was one of them.
In the show, Thomas visits places around the globe with a rich sense of history and culture that are in danger of being wiped out, such as Harran, Turkey, one of the oldest cities in the world; the descendants of the Sino-Russians; and the headhunters of Nagaland.
It was in Harran that Thomas found he had unwittingly plighted his troth to be wed.
"We visited these very old houses made from clay and mud. According to them, their ancestors 5,000 years ago lived in houses like those," Thomas told TODAY. "There was this old man with a 17-year-old daughter. She offered me coffee. Then the father explained to me that I had to marry her. They had this silly rule that if the girl offers you a beverage and you accept, it's like you're accepting her. I was shocked, lah!"
Don't worry, Thomas escaped unscathed, bride-less and with no breach-of-contract troubles. "If you don't want to marry the daughter, you have to give them livestock. I offered her a small amount of cash and got myself out of it!"
Smart move if you're up the creek without a goat - but that wasn't the worst of it. The most memorable thing about his journeys, said Thomas, was "the hardship".
"The life there is very tough. Things we have been taking for granted, like clean water, electricity and flush toilets - most places I visited didn't have those. I wouldn't want to live there for too long.
"I'm very lucky that I could visit these places and share it with viewers. I come back a more humble person. I no longer take for granted clean water, electricity, things like that."
We're guessing he no longer takes his swinging singlehood for granted, either.
Catch "Diminishing Horizons" starting on November 11 at 8pm on MediaCorp TV Channel U.
- TODAY/il
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