It Never Rains...

Day 84: Siem Reap (K). Throughout our journey the most common question that we had been asked when we recounted our travel stories was “What was the highlight of your trip?”. The answer to which was always simple: “The people that we met along the way”. Whether that be the nomads in the depths of outer Mongolia, the rice farmers in the northern Vietnamese mountains or the like-minded back-packers that we met in the hostels along our route.

Like David for instance, the proprietor of the Babel Guest House in Siem Reap: A crazy opera loving Italian with a passion for the Azzurri, for travelling and for motorcycles (especially if they were red and came from Bologna!). And as soon as we saw him wearing his Valentino Rossi shirt we knew we had to get together to watch the opening round of the MotoGP season – even though that meant setting our alarms for a 2am wake up!

So there we sat; outside on the terrace clutching huge mugs of coffee to keep us awake, huddled around the little TV watching the satellite images beaming from Qatar. The two minute bell sounded: Stoner on pole, totally focussed on the task in hand, Rossi next to him, knowing as well as anybody the importance of drawing first blood at this marvellous circuit.

But wait. What's that we see? Surely it's not rain? In the desert? In April? But it was! As unprecedented as it may have been, a tropical monsoon similar to the one we had encountered in the Cardamon Mountains had descended on Losail and to our (and everybody else's) disappointment, the officials had no choice but to cancel the race.

It was now four o'clock in the morning and we were wide, wide awake. In the sky, the first glimmer of dawn was starting to break through the clouds heralding the signs for another beautiful day. So, in order to make the most from the situation we jumped on board the nearest Tuk-Tuk and headed out to Angkor Wat to witness the new day in the most romantic way possible.

Well, it would have been romantic if I could have got Rolf Harris's 'Sun Arise' out of my head. Still, I think my singing was enough to flummox the bus loads of Japanese Tourists, who seemed to thing this was some kind of pagan ritual! Never the less, a truly memorable and magnificent experience!

Day 84: Total Mileage to Date: 14,481: Number of Time Zones: 10; Number of Countries Visited: 10; Number of Transport Modes Used: 34, Maximum Temperature Encountered: +35C, Minimum Temperature Encountered: -32C.