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 In spite of many parents throwing up their arms in disgust
about how television is a bad influence, it was a TV advert
on Discovery Networks Asia that alerted 23-year-old
Lavinia Tan about the search for a new Globe Trekker
host, and gave her this life changing opportunity. She applied,
and was invited to round 1 of the search in Singapore.
Round 1: Lavinia and the other contestants were spilt into group of
fives. The whole group got onto the stage and questions were
read out, and they all had to jump in to answer and try to
spontaneously explain - or make up - the meaning of strange
foreign words, for example, "What is a tuk-tuk?"
Round 2: Once again, the contestants were split into groups of five.
MCs gave them envelopes to choose from, then Lavinia had to
wait nervously for her turn. When she was up next, she had
to rip open the envelope which contained a card with a subject
matter on it. All the contestants had to improvise for five
minutes, fact or fiction, on that topic, while they were given
the object (like a snakefruit) to talk about.
Round 3 - The Globe Trekker Audition: Lavinia and the other contestants had to make speeches
in front of a live audience, consisting of mostly mall shoppers.
Masses of people were there, all curious and amused by the
sight of the eager beavers sweating it out. The tasks were
designed to test how spontaneous and confident the contestants
were in the face of pressure, and whether, between their frayed
nerves and stage fright, they had an ounce of credible humor.
First, contestants had to jump in and answering questions
posed by the MCs, like explaining: "What is a haggis"?
 Lavinia takes up the story...
"I hear some of the strangest things that rightly confirmed
my general knowledge needs an upping of sorts. I grabbed a
question with slight hesitation: "What is a karioke?" On
realizing that I was the only one stepping forward to lay
claim on the question, I concluded firstly, I wasn't the only
one who had no clue what it was and secondly, that I had just
laid out a nice noose for a quick self-hanging. To this day,
I haven't a clue what it was. However my fabricated answer
(that it is the name of a group of people who love everything
to do with karaoke singing) seemed to have gone down well
with the judges. I got through to the next round.
It was down to just ten of us thereafter, and once again our
fate in our own hands. We had to repeat round 2, and pick
an envelope with a subject on it. When it reach my turn, I
opened the envelope and stood there dumb-founded for a spilt
second. Lo and behold, the thing that was to decide my fate
on travelling around the world was, unexpectedly, a pretzel,
in all it's plain flour goodness. I must confess that (1) i
love eating them and (2) that was all I knew about pretzels.
So for those five minutes, I said the most unbelievable things
about the origins of the pretzel and what else one could do
with a pretzel besides eating it. For example, that its shape
made it the perfect edible Frisbee, of sorts.
Sadly, I was eliminated from the final three who would represent
Singapore in the search for the new host for Globe Trekker.
I boil my loss down to my unsavory belief of the pretzel's
origins (that it was the sight of an unknown baker's turd
in the loo) that failed to go down well with the judges. I
walked away that day saddened by dashed hopes of a pretzel
company sponsorship, and yet proud that I had make it so far
in the competition.
But the story goes on…
 A few weeks later, once I have recovered from my loss and
was able again to wolf down another pretzel, I got a call
from a rep from Discovery Networks Asia. She informs me that
I have been selected as a 'wild card' for the final round.
I was so overcome with happiness that I swear if I was eating
one then, I would have choked on a pretzel. A week later,
I was informed that I had made it to the final four and the
next step was to do a screen test. The location was the bustling
Little India, a tourist hot-spot in Singapore.
We each had to do three things in front of the camera: make
an introduction to Little India, buy something and talk about
it, and interview locals about the area.
After that, it was a few more weeks of waiting with toes
and fingers crossed hoping for the best. It must have worked
because Melvyn Goh from Pilot Productions in Asia called me and… whoopee-bring-out-the-champagne!
I'm the new host for Globe Trekker!!!".
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