The Straits Time Article of Josh Bernstein

I found the article of Josh's Straits Time interview, dated 7 November 2008 online at http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Lifestyle/Story/STIStory_299170.html but it is not the full article and i have added the rest of the article extracted from The Straits Time, Friday November 2008, Life Section, Page C21 below to share with fellow fans:

Don't call me Indy

Jocelyn Lee Jocelee@sph.com.sg

AMERICAN television host Josh Bernstein is often called the real- life Indiana Jones.
That is because the double- major graduate in anthropology and psychology from Cornell University is the host of the highly rated archaeology series Digging For The Truth on the History Channel.

As flattering as his Hollywood nickname sounds, Bernstein says he is not at all comfortable with the comparison.

'Indiana Jones is a Hollywood creation and he is a fictitious character, while I am not. I am a real person - I explore, travel and I make mistakes sometimes,' the 37-year-old tells Life! over the phone from London.

'I think it is not a fair comparison and I do hope it will fade away.'

Based in Manhattan, Bernstein is also the president and chief executive officer of an outdoor survival school, as well as the proud owner of two yurts in southern Utah. A yurt is a felt-covered tent-like home to many people in Mongolia and Central Asia.

Last year, he left the History Channel for Discovery Channel to host a new show, Into The Unknown With Josh Bernstein. The eight-episode series sees him travelling to 15 different countries to learn the local culture and unravel its hidden treasures and mysteries.

Of his new show, he says: "There are many television programmes now which are purely for entertainment and they can be quite frivolous. But this series is educational."

In Papau New Guinea, he witnessed and captured on tape a secret mummification technique which had not been performed in more than half a century by the natives.

"It was profound to watch an old man tell his sons, 'This is how i want you to mummify me', while he massaged a corpse that was itself going through the mummification process," he recalls.

Egypt also fascinates him.

"Egypt is a 3,000-year-old civilisation which left us endless monuments that are almost timeless in their beauty and their relevance. If anyone hasn't been there before, they should consider the trip."

He has been to 43 countries around the world. Next on his to-visit list: Nepal, India and the Artic, as these places have great stories to tell and interesting culture to explore.

He says: "I want to check off every single country on the planet. I can't do that all in one year. Give me five years."