Darren Lim is known in Singapore as an adventurous travel host who has braved the excitement and unknowns of challenging environments.
This time for travelogue Rail Life Story, the 53-year-old actor-host went to Bangladesh, where he visited the dense railway stations in the country’s capital Dhaka and experienced how locals risk their lives and work long hours to purchase train tickets to go home for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.
With tickets sold out or prices increased during the period, those who couldn’t get a ticket would risk their life for a free ride by climbing onto the roof of the trains — despite being alerted by the stationmasters.
Speaking to AsiaOne while promoting the show at the recent Asia TV Forum & Market, Darren shared he did the same just to experience it firsthand and share his experience for the show.
Darren said: “In order to have a true experience of how dangerous it is, it’s really to go up on my own. But because of safety precautions, they (production team) did not want me to be up there while the train is moving… my wife (actress-host Evelyn Tan) was very concerned.
“For me as an adventurous person, I would choose to try, but since they didn’t allow me to, then I couldn’t, so I said at least let me climb up when the train is stationary to get the view and feel of it.”
As it was a safety breach, Darren said he and the production team were called into the station office for a chat with the manager about safety, and they apologised in the end.
“Honestly, as a host, I need to experience a lot of things for myself in order to have the real perspective of things, so that when I explain or talk about it, others would be able to understand why it was so dangerous,” he added.
Rail Life Story is an eight-part infotainment series that is co-commissioned by Mediacorp and Taiwanese broadcaster Public Television Service. Each episode follows a celebrity as they travel across different railways in countries including Finland, Vietnam, Japan and Australia, to explore the stories of the people and places they visit.
In the episode, Darren follows brothers Arif, 22, and Atik, 15, as they laboured at the heavily polluted Hazaribagh to earn enough money for train tickets to bring their younger sister and Arif’s wife and son back to their hometown Gaibandha.
He shared with us: “It’s so simple for everyone [here], after work you go home. How simple is that? But for them, going home is not a simple task at all. They had to go through a lot of sacrifices, they had to work maybe double, triple or even more to get to where they want to go, and during such times, the train tickets are so expensive.
“So if they can’t get tickets, they would have to buy from scalpers. If they still cannot buy or afford it, then they have no choice but to risk their lives, because ultimately, they only have one goal, which is just to get home.”
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Darren said Arif earned about USD$10 (S$13) per week, and besides covering his family’s expenses, he also sends money home to his ageing parents, who are not working.
“It’s worse than survival… can you imagine they saved up for years before they can make a choice to go home?”
In the episode, as Arif didn’t manage to purchase tickets at the ticket booth and through scalpers, Darren stepped in and requested for their production fixer, who is a local, to secure non-standard tickets just 30 minutes before the train was set to depart.
The tickets were actually for a space in the train conductor’s resting area.
Recounting the experience, Darren told us: “We had to squeeze into a small little compartment that is behind the train driver’s cabin, and all of us, including the cameraman, producer, Arif and his family and myself, I think there were easily 10 of us. We had to squeeze into a toilet-sized space for 10 hours.
“It was very unbearable. It was so hot, stuffy and uncomfortable, but you know, they had to get to where they wanted to go and they had no other choice.”
This trip also marked Darren’s second time in Bangladesh after more than a decade, and he was more wary and attentive about crowds.
Darren said: “I know that it’s a third-world country and it can be dangerous, especially during the Ramadan season when there are so many people trying to squeeze onto the train. The biggest fear I had was stampede. Because if something goes wrong and there’s a panic, a stampede will happen and I might die. So I need to be very watchful of the surroundings and my situational awareness has to be top-notch.
“On the other hand, I am a foreigner, I don’t understand their language and wouldn’t know what is happening. So I go by sound; if there is a shout somewhere, or something chaotic is happening around me, I would react. So that’s the kind of expectations I placed on myself, to be constantly alert.”
Rail Life Story airs every Thursday on Channel 8 at 8pm and is also available on Mewatch. Other hosts include Kit Chan, Danny Yeo and Mark Lee, as well as Taiwanese artistes Bowie Tsang, Pets Tseng, Lulu Huang and Kaiser Chuang.
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