Ray is going wild.
Ray MacDonald has a great life. When he’s not starring in movies he’s travelling around the world to film his latest TV show, Pai, La, Kin (Food Tribe), airing now on Line TV. But for this show, instead of relaxing on beautiful beaches, Ray is getting to know the people of remote tribes and learning how they survive. There’s no air con on this trip, and you may have to hunt and kill your own evening meal.
S Weekly caught up with Ray to ask him about his adventures.
When did you first start travelling?
Ray: My older sister enjoys travelling and she took me to a few places around Asia when I was 15 years old. I thought it was cool. Travelling became a passion.
Is 15 too young to start travelling?
Ray: I came to an agreement with my parents. As long as I’m asking them for money, I have to do whatever they say. OK, if that’s the deal, I’ll go out and work. I started earning money for myself when I was 14.
What do you enjoy most about travelling?
Ray: You set a goal to discover yourself or learn about different cultures. You go out with one question and you come back with five more answers. Because I didn’t finish school or go to university, I think travelling is my school. I’m a student of the world.
What does travelling teach you?
Ray: You learn about other people. Wherever you go, people are pretty much the same. They have different colour skin or different beliefs, but the basics are the same. And you’ll learn about yourself.
There are a lot of TV travel shows. How is yours different?
Ray: We try to show different cultures in a light-hearted way. In Food Tribe we focus on the food. But it’s not just the food that the tribal people eat. It’s about their way of living in a harsh land and the way they adapt the skills they’ve learned from different generations.
Did you eat any weird food?
Ray: The host family want to give you the best food, whether it’s pig’s brains, eyeballs or raw blood. What they eat sounds weird but it’s connected to the land and it keeps them healthy. You get to understand them through their food.
Did you kill any animals yourself?
Ray: No. I was asked to a few times but I thought it might be shocking for the viewers. But it’s reality. Your meat has to come from somewhere. If you live in a big city, your food is all processed already. You don’t see the actual killing but somebody has to do it.
You were almost naked in one episode. How was that?
Ray: It was weird because I was with two or three tribes that still go around semi-naked, but it was quite comfortable. It was quite liberating. I didn’t care. Everybody was dressed the same. And when you’re in the jungle, if you wear clothes the mosquitos attack you. But when you take everything off, they seem to go away.
What was the most difficult experience?
Ray: In Vanuatu they have a cyclone season. It started raining heavily and didn’t stop for 24 hours. There was no mobile signal so the scary thing was not knowing what was going to happen. There were landslides and all the roads were damaged. We had to walk eight kilometres to the airport through streams and rivers.
Who are you meeting next in the show?
Ray: The Moran tribes are the soldiers of the Maasai in Africa. They have to protect their land and their cows, but they’re just kids. It’s an honour for their family but you can see that the boys are scared. They grow up fast.
Food Tribe is shown on Line TV at noon every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
