Several days of almost-incessant heavy rain that resulted in a river bursting its banks and flooding the surrounding countryside would not be the cause for celebrations in too many places, but that's what one man found at the weekend, when he tried to take a trip into one Southeast Asian town.
Moys Kenwood, 57, was the passenger on his wife's motorbike as they made their way from Tapon to Battambang, after four days of torrential storms had left fields on either side of the road looking like brown lakes.
When they came to a particular point in the road, however, a large crowd of young reprobates had gathered, and were throwing bucketfuls of water at passing motorists and motorcyclists.
This, thought Kenwood, was unwise.
The motorbike being at a standstill in a queue of traffic, he thought about remonstrating with them, but didn't.
Taking in, at a glance, the childlike antics of this collection of rowdy, ragged, giggling morons, he kept his mouth shut, and mentally inserted knitting needles into their eyes instead.
When one of the revellers emptied a bucket of the dirty water over Kenwood and his wife, the Englishman raised the visor on his helmet. Everyone stopped. The scene became deathly quiet. Birds stopped singing. The euphoria of experiencing the aftermath of days of torrential rain evaporated, and the throng started to get on their motorbikes, and go home.
