Originally posted by Nick Armstrong
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I watched the first two series of 'Race Across the World' when they went out and enjoyed them very much. For some reason, I missed out on series three across Canada, but my interest was rekindled by 'Celebrity Race Across the World' from Morocco to Norway's Arctic Circle, even though I had no idea who the celebs were.
The present series is just past the halfway mark, as the five English pairs travel from Sapporo in Northern Japan heading for Lombok in Indonesia, via seven checkpoints, with no mobile phones or bank cards, but armed with a map and the price of a first class air fair. The five couples are now four as one pair was eliminated as they chase the £20000 prize.
The thing I have found fascinating is, having never visited this part of the World, I was only casually aware of the geography of that part of the world, so it has been really interesting to watch and to see how the teams negotiate their ways through vastly different cultures on their way south. All the time they have to balance cost with the need for speed and the need to experience the countries and also earn money where they can. I have been thoroughly hooked in. Cambodia and Thailand were particular revelations, so far with some particularly moving moments; one where the elderly couple, Stephen and Viv, are shown an amazing cave in Cambodia where, every evening, six million bats fly out at dusk in a twenty minute period - they are spellbound. Then their cab driver points out a cave next door to it where, he tells them, the bones of ten thousand people lie, thrown from the cliffs by the Khmer Rouge.
Watching the relationships change over the couple of months is always interesting. If previous series tell us anything, money, or the lack of it, may well prove to be the deciding factors for the teams. Very interesting series, I think.
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