IT WAS a trip to Singapore 10 years ago that changed everything for Caucasian-Chinese Cleo Bachelor winner Vivian Dawson.

He was then a chubby teen who weighed 90kg, sported a long mullet haircut and was always dressed in hoodies.

Dawson, 26, who is now 1.9m tall and weighs 82kg, was born to a New Zealander father and Singaporean mother.

He said that on that first trip to Singapore, his aunts took him on a shopping spree and gave him a complete makeover.

They also forced him to cut his hair and he said he hasn't looked back since.

Now, he has a strict health regimen that allows him to take only low-fat protein and vegetables.

No wonder he picked up Cleo magazine's Most Eligible Bachelor title last year.

Based in Bangkok, Dawson is in town on holiday and to hand over his title at Cleo's 50 Most Eligible Bachelors competition next month.

And guess what the avid clubber would like to drink at night spots when he lets his hair down? Ribena.

He usually can't get that, so he settles for water or apple juice.

Dawson claimed that he has never had alcohol.

He explained that he didn't feel the need to have any when he was younger and had stuck with the "habit".

However, he does treat himself to his "all-time weakness" - full-cream chocolate milk - on occasion.

LIKES ASIAN GIRLS

It was also on that first Singapore trip, made at his mother's insistence, that he began to dig Asian girls.

Dawson, who is signed to a Bangkok modelling agency, doesn't think much of the girls he grew up with in Rotorua, New Zealand.

"There were only a few Asian girls where I grew up. To be honest they were rather big-sized so that was the impression I had of them all along," he said.

"Then my trip here changed everything. The Chinese girls in Singapore are really pretty."

Dawson added that only extremely attractive Caucasian women catch his eye but most Asian girls have a "certain beauty" about them.

His two ex-es were both Chinese, from Laos and Malaysia. He is now single.

DANCE FLOOR HOTTIE

After becoming the 2009 Cleo Bachelor last March, he has been travelling all over Asia. He has been to Korea, China and the Philippines for modelling jobs.

He said women literally throw themselves on him at nightclubs, especially when he is on the dance floor.

"I'll definitely talk to them. But I just wish they would be more direct and come straight up to me and strike up a conversation."

And he added with a laugh: "You'll be surprised. Most of the time, it's their friends who push them towards me."

There is also a difference in how he is seen here.

"The one thing I can't understand is that in Western countries, everyone thinks I'm Asian," he said.

"But in Asia, everyone can tell that I have mixed blood. That's one of the reasons why I really like it here."

This article was first published in The New Paper.