Juliana hopes to host a travel programme in future
Juliana Evans is grateful for the opportunity to guest-host the travel programme Travelogue Air Asia. Now, she’s hoping for more hosting jobs, writes Bibi Nurshuhada Ramli
Juliana Evans has graced the small screen and silver screen through Kami The Movie, Hooperz and most recently, Hantu Bonceng. Though the 22-year-old is thankful for such acting opportunities, she’s secretly hoping for more hosting jobs.
She recently guest-hosted TV3’s travel programme, Travelogue Air Asia.
Work, she says, has held her from taking a vacation, something she’s dying to do. Rome, Paris, Egypt, New York and Los Angeles are some of her dream holiday destinations.
“That’s why I hope to host a travel programme so that I can work and enjoy the places that I visit at the same time. I think I would learn and experience more that way. I would get to meet the locals and have access to more activities,” she explains.
For the 13-episode Travelogue Air Asia, which premiered on Nov 20, it highlights cities such as Paris, Osaka, Yogyakarta and Hong Kong.
Each episode features a different location and guest host. The episode featuring Juliana sees her in Ho Chi Minh City. With main host Edd Razhe, personal assistant to chairman and group deputy chief executive officer of AirAsia Berhad, they covered the bustling city’s tourist spots and activities.
Juliana’s most memorable experience there was at the Cu Chi Tunnel, the base of the Cu Chi District Party leadership during the anti-US resistance. It was also an exclusive battlefield for the Vietnamese soldiers.
Besides getting inside one of the narrow tunnels to experience how the soldiers operated during the war, Juliana got to fire from a real gun. “I used an AK47 — that was something I’d never done before. My friends are jealous of me now,” she says gleefully.
On the shooting experience, she recalls: “There was an adrenaline rush when I pulled the trigger. I was surprised by the huge impact it had on me. I felt somewhat drained after one shot.”
She also visited the Reunification Palace and Ben Thanh market, watched a water puppet show and the making of egg-shell paintings, and went on a 2½-hour boat cruise along the Mekong River.
She initially thought Ho Chi Minh City would be similar to Bangkok, where there’s a floating market. “I expected something different, but it turned out much better,” she says.
Vietnam was not on her list of to-go places, probably because she had not heard much of the country before. “Most likely, I wouldn’t have visited the country by myself, so when the chance to be on Travelogue Air Asia came around, I just took it.”
At present, Juliana is filming Mail Lambung with Zizan Razali and Taiyuddin Bakar, her co-stars in Hantu Bonceng. The film is based on Zizan’s alter ego and a character he played in Maharaja Lawak recently.
