Asia Express is a reality show franchise that takes 18 people on an epic journey money cannot buy, literally. Celebrities and normal everyday people are divided in pairs creating nine teams that race against each other across Asia.
With a travel budget of only one euro a day, the teams have to race by hitchhiking and convincing locals to give them a place to sleep and even free food. The participants have to rely on their wits, talent and social skills to conquer the many challenges. A relentless race in exotic, unfamiliar surroundings, a harsh climate and challenging games that have them facing their deepest fears, their physical limitations and more often than not, cockroaches.
Greece was the latest country to enter the Asia Express game, and Greek Australian singer Maria Marouli made it onto a team, as the partner of popular Greek laika singer, Christina Koletsa. Upon her return to Melbourne, Maria spoke to Neos Kosmos about her life-altering experience from Cambodia, to Thailand through Laos.
“At the beginning of the year, Christina Koletsa called me in the middle of the night and literally said: Come meet me on the Asia Express show, as my partner. Don’t even think about it. Let’s do it! The night after I was on a zoom call with the producers already,” Maria laughs.
“That’s the nature of our relationship. Christina and I are both spontaneous but very down to earth at the same time. We clicked the moment we met at Kinisi; she’s the person I’ve connected the most and fastest with than all of the singers I’ve worked with in my 15 year career.”
Before she knew what she had gotten herself into, Maria was arranging visas and tickets, packing bags and preparing to let go of her life in Australia for what she thought would be a “fun, kind of holiday, but with cameras”.
“I had no idea what I was signing up for. Aside from the daily running and worrying whether or not we would find a safe place to sleep, no phones to talk to our loved ones, freaking out whether or not we would eat on 1 euro a day, we had the weekly challenge. Every week there was an elimination. Couples would get eliminated. It was a race for survival,” she says.
Maria explains that there were days that Christina and her would not eat, that often there was no time to think about food while on the road, running non stop with heavy backpacks to make it to the next destination on deadline. The contestants had to beg strangers to be picked up in their vehicles, to be allowed to sleep under a roof during torrential storms.
“We were pushed beyond what we could imagine was possible for us,” she stresses. “And it was not just us two. Each couple has their own cameraman; it’s a 15 hour day recording. They’re just following you the whole time and at night but they don’t talk. So we had to beg for them to hitchhike with us, too.”
Among the many challenges they faced to survive was working on a salt farm. The contestants had to collect salt in three big, heavy baskets and carry them on their shoulder with a bamboo stick, sweaty, with blistery feet and and hands.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. In extreme heat. Everyone was screaming at each other. Those experiences really bring out the fighter in you… or the loser…”
“It’s all about… what are you willing to do to stay in the game?” she tells Neos Kosmos while remembering another tough elimination challenge.
“On another episode they took us to an ant farm. We had to collect wild ants in a little jar. So we were standing amongst all these ants and they’re crawling all over our bodies and biting us and everyone was screaming and laughing at the same time.”
Maria, undeniably on the screamers’ side, took her vocal chord range to the next level.
“Production said ‘We heard you all the way from Laos, Marouli!’… it was difficult but I was so proud of myself for making it through.”
One would expect that an Aussie would have a leverage against Greeks when it comes to dealing with extreme weather phenomena and reptiles or insects. Maria argues that it wasn’t so. This competition had so much to do with fitness, resilience and communication that whatever familiarity she previously had with exotic fauna went out the window.
“Everyone on the show had different characters. Some are professional athletes, fit celebrities, models, singers, TV presenters paired with friends, children, wives, husbands and so on. There was a lot of friction within certain relationship dynamics that sometimes made moving through hardship extra hard,” she explains.
“Christina and I bonded very well and became like sisters. We didn’t have issues with each other even though, she’s very fit and I’ve never worked out so I was always catching up to her, out of breath.
“It is true that Greeks are not as used to weird insects and conditions as an Australian – especially a well-travelled Australian might be due to our proximity to South East Asia and how much of those cultures is prevalent in Australia, but Greeks from Greece are resilient, they don’t give up, but wow do they complain NON STOP, about everything!” she emphasises.
On second thought, she corrects herself, Greeks do give up more easily when it comes to food. On episode 5, the remaining contestants had to go through an elimination that included eating giant grasshoppers, tarantulas, cockroaches and drinking pig’s blood for the medallion that would keep the teams safe for a week and 1000 euros. While most couples chickened and pulled out, the two singers pushed through.
“We ate two huge tarantulas. And… two huge cockroaches. We’ve done that. On camera. I’ve ticked that off my list…!” she laughs, adding, “now, you see me laugh, back then we were crying!”
“It was horrible. Disgusting. It was scary and crunchy and I can’t say that the taste was any less offensive. But we won! Although, that win wasn’t exactly our proudest moment…”
What Maria feels proud for, however, is her altered world view after the Asia Express experience. Whilst the immersion into South East Asian life for the celebrity contestants was a one-off finite experience, for the majority of the population in that part of the world it is a hard, permanent reality.
“For most of us, in Greece and in Australia life is comfortable, safe and generally good. What we saw while being welcomed in people’s homes in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand was that most of these people don’t know what a bed is, what a couch is, they don’t have the technology we use, they don’t have the option of different food choices… they don’t even have privacy.”
“Christina and I spent many nights sleeping on the ground with insects crawling all over us in literal huts with 10 or more people often cramped in one small room. We cried many times holding each other’s hand, praying we last another day, another night. And while for us there is a prize at the end, or an expiration date, most of the locals that let us inside their humble homes, or offered a shed, live like this day in, day out.
“If I have a more profound message to share from this crazy experience is that gratitude and compassion go a long way. If we have two, we can give away one. We received so much help from people who own nothing… The least we can do is offer what is in surplus to those who need it the most.”
To watch Asia Express go to www.star.gr/tv/psychagogia/asia-express