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SCMP Reporter

Renowned traveller Ian Wright, who visited Hong Kong on Wednesday to promote his new TV series, said karaoke bars and noodle shops are his favourite hangouts in the city.

VIP Weekends with Ian Wright will premiere on the Discovery  channel on May 7 at 10pm.

Before he became the host of the backpacker series Globe Trekker 12 years ago, the

British-born TV star had odd jobs, including working as a courier and selling handicrafts, jewellery and homemade jam.

In the six-episode VIP Weekends series, Wright is a gracious guest who mingles with the world's rich and famous.

In the first episode, he shadows local actress Karen Mok Man-wai and displays his trademark humour.

Apart from gate-crashing Mok's fashion shoots, he eats her pudding, 'steals' her karaoke booth and fights her martial arts trainer.

Wright also does the voiceover for a character in an animation.

Then he  spends a weekend with Lord and Lady Carnarvon at Highclere Castle in the English countryside, joins the Spanish Fiesta Week,  boards British entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe's houseboat along the River Thames in London, and becomes a member of  the Bordeaux Society of Elite Wine Drinkers.

Wright said he was amazed by the people and places in Hong Kong, and wished he could have spent more time in the city. 'Karen [Mok] was like a kid. She's got a positive vibe. She works so hard ... and surely plays hard,' he said.

'I got to go to all these functions with her and it was fun.

'I also went to one of the wet markets that sells T-shirts and DVDs. I ate at a Hong Kong-style noodle shop in Wan Chai. It was nothing fancy but I liked it very much.'

The new series is totally different from Globe Trekker - but Wright enjoys both.

'In the VIP series, I stay in one place and do one good story. I met VIPs who are all positive and I was able to learn so much,' said the 40-year-old.

'I know exactly what we need to focus on. There may not be as much freedom as in Globe Trekker, which is more spontaneous.

'Globe Trekker is more a 24/7 job as we try to capture everything during the journey.'

The award-winning host also has his own show, Ian Wright Live, where he takes a hilarious, behind-the-scenes look at the world of adventure travel in front of a live studio audience.

Wright said he has one of the best jobs in the world - being paid to travel around the world.

'There is hardly a downside about this job. I've seen and done so much, and met people whom I never could have met, such as having dinner with atomic-bomb victims,' said Wright, who is also a painter and theatre performer.

'The whole thing is so phenomenal. How many people have got a job which they really enjoy?

'The only thing not so good about this is that I hardly keep in contact with my friends. I go home about seven or eight times a year and sleep all day.'

After globetrotting for so many years, Wright has come up with his unique travel philosophy.

'If you spend too much time thinking about it, then you miss it. Things come. Keep looking, meet different people and exchange ideas. There is no rule,' he said.

'The first step is in your head. So don't think about it, buy a flight ticket tomorrow and then worry about it on the plane. This is the hardest step.'



Globetrotter treads new ground