Off to India this time, the most visited country in the world for The Amazing Race program (aside from the US, of course). It’s a shame that the arrogant models were eliminated long before they reach their own turf. A shame? Who am I kidding? Anyway, since this was a to-be-continued episode, I’ll write a short recap of the entire leg instead of comments of each individual teams.
The teams started off from where we last saw them in Krabi, and headed off to Bangkok and then to Calcutta, India. The thing that realy surprised me was fniding out that after taking the Fast Forward last week, there were only 10 minutes separating the M&Ms and the second team. I was only surprised to see how amazingly incompetent they were. I may sound harsh, but I don’t care. Again, we are being shown one of the Ms gorging down on a sandwich. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and blame it on editing, I mean come on, don’t the other teams eat as well? So why did the editors keep on showing them eat, eat, eat? Is that all there is to their ’story arc’, as we so fondly call it in Survivor?
Anyway, teams fly into Calcutta, and Francesca’s initial comments bothered me with her terrible generalizations on India. It’s not fair, I’m not from India, but even if it’s true, I thought that was highly un-Politically Correct of her (and to say such things on national tv, wtf?). So their first stop was the Molali Church. It was actually kind of nice to see some of the teams accidentally went to the place where Mother Teresa was buried (nice because we get a glimpse of it). Some of the teams had reservations about lighting the candle (because it was ‘against’ their religion like Andrew & Syeon) and some flatly can’t be bothered (Andy & Laura). I don’t know, personally, I don’t think it’s harmful in anyway to show the gesture, but that’s just me.
The roadblock was to shine even different pairs of shoes. How fucking original is that? It was weird, how they actually allowed (what I assume to be) leather slippers t be polished as well. Now, that was definitely a first. I thought Andrew’s gesture to ‘donate’ their meagre polishing earnings to their ‘tutor’ was pretty nice. JJ & Zabrina got it right by actually getting some direct help from the locals (what we Sucksters fondly call as FERNS. We <3 FERNS) when they almost lost their way. They not only got one, but TWO skinny children in the taxi with them ("How many can we take??" LOL). The M&Ms on the other hand whined that the five minutes walk away was “too far” and gasped OMG when they found out about the polishing task as if the roadblock was to find a wooden block that is more kayu than Allen Wu.
Next stop was feasting on the Bengali food at the Aaheli Restaurant. I was bothered by Francesca’s comments before, but I was pretty annoyed with her “I’m not planning on eating ANYTHING in India” comments. Bloody generalization much? I mean, I get that some street food may be laced with bacteria and stuff, but don’t we get there everywhere? Whatever. She lost a lot of points from me this episode. And was it her who was planning on to “hide the food under the napkin”? Cheaters never win, but we’ll soon see. And at one point she was also pretty pissed because her taxi driver was stolen by Andy & Laura. Even though that was kinda mean, I personally thought in the context of this game that was fair. If anyone’s at fault, it’s their ‘perfect driver’ for not keeping his word to Sandy & Francesca.
Anyway, back to the Bengali food fest. That looked a LOT. I was not at all surprised that Joe Jer were quick to finish her portion. Seriously, she is a LOT like my supposed TAR partner (no, don’t get me wrong. this is a compliment to both of them. Seriously, I’m not being sarcastic for once). Poor Zabrina, it was hard to see that small figure forced to gorge down all the food until there were tears in her eyes (I’m guessing from all the puking). The M&Ms.. what can I say. Mintak nasik tambah.. boleh? Add more sugar to the sweetened dessert. Surprised? Man, they have fulfilled and acted out every single fat stereotype there is in the book, and it has culminated with this eating challenge.
They.are.done.and.have.served.their.purpose.on.this.show.
After the eating roadblock, there was another token retarded equalizer at the Saree Boutique. Carry - where they had to carry milk jugs on their heads to fill up a basin, or Count - where they had to count the betelnuts in a large bowl. For some reason, I immediately remembered of the counting detour in Ikea from one of the past TAR seasons and how extremely difficult that was if you don’t really concentrate. I would go nuts (pun intended). Personally, I know I won’t be able to do the counting detour. It would’ve driven me totally insane.
However, all the teams, except from Andy & Laura, took the counting detour. Sandy & Francesca had the hardest time. I loved how JJ & Zabrina distracted those two with their loud counting. Nice job, girls. Andy & Laura did the relatively easier (IMO) detour with the milk carrying, but imagine your shirt getting soaked in milk, and then have that fermenting under the hot Indian sun. Eww.. they must’ve been totally rank after that.
What follows next was a total buzzkill.. and a total sense of deja-vu. Allen describes that the Kolay Market or whatever, would be the place “where the teams will be checking in”. Notice something? Yeah, no mention of a pitstop. And again, like in another TAR season’s TO BE CONTINUED episode, the ‘cliffhanger’ was also done on a rooftop of a seedy building. If I didn’t know any better, I think it was a TBC episode in India as well.
And finally, the turd icing on the monkey faeces cake was Allen’s final delivery of the night to Andy & Laura :
“Andy and Laura, you are THE …….. first team to arrive”
I fucking swear that is the most retarded emphasized word and most idiotic pause in a sentence ever uttered on a television show. EVER. How the fuck does he get away with that? Weren’t they producers around when they were filming? For flying fuck’s sake. I’m not gonna stop bitching until they replace this guy.
Anyway, Andy & Laura got in first …. to the check in mat (see how fucking annoying that sentence is? I even wanna strangle myself). Will they maintain their lead? We’ll see. I did, however, loved Sandy’s summation of Andy’s character “Behind all the laughter and the smile, deep down inside you can see the malice behind it”. LOL. Truer words have never been spoken. Can’t put it any better myself. Brava Sandy. Brava,
January 5th, 2007 at 6:33 am
sounds sucky.
holy crap, the detours and roadblocks sound like some karang guni race we had in primary school!
don’t feel like watching this one, but ‘cos i am a sucker, will probably catch the re-run this weekend
January 5th, 2007 at 9:16 am
ah..i missed 40 minutes of this episode…but i get to see sandy and francesca counting the betelnut….no concentration at all…dump bitch i shud say…keep whining about this and tat…pretty much same like the sahran the wanker..hey..u wan to finish the counting fast..concentrate a while bitch…but of course..francesca is much more better than sahran..but still..dun like her..
January 5th, 2007 at 11:03 am
neo : LOL kalau kau nak jadi Lucy Lawless, boleh la jadi partner aku. Kau kan nak masuk dgn Sherry or Unta?
==>hnjj…unta laa..mcm kesialll je unta… ye laa saper lagi kalu tak aku yg jadi lucy lawless… saper lagi
yg nak swimming..buat bungee…buat itiew buat inieww kalu tidak aku…ko kan takut pada HIGH hehehheheheh
smlm mmg neverss…suka Joejer nagn zabrina..hopefulyy depa dpt top 3…
January 5th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Instead of a NEL episode as I have suspected, it became a TBC episode.
Wow I thought there was a lot of puking in this episode. M&M was right.
Who can gorge food down in a middle of a race irregardless of how tasty it is?
January 5th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
altho the challenges on this eps is considerably easy for a place like india (compared to ones in TAR), i find that i’ve warmed up to ARA since the last eps. cos the krabi eps has started to feel like a TAR eps.
(& not because sahran had to spread his ass or howard in his tight speedos in full technicolor gdlory)
my only gripe is why do they have appointed flights in the game? it’s retarded to have people departing according to their arrival time when at the end they all have to be in the same flight.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
o ya, i don’t think andrew & syeon are the only ones who gave the shoeshiner their wages.
i think the only ones who didn’t give were sanfran.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
“…wooden block that is more kayu than Allen Wu…”
Haha. Hahahaha. Indeed, I kept thinking, they might have as well hired Maya Karin as host. At least she’s pretty and distracting in a pleasant way.
January 5th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
me heart goes to joe jer and zabrina.
January 5th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Suan : Ala… I’m sure you’ll watch the rerun. LOL Anyway the episode is not that bad
Timun : Yeah Francesca rubbed me the wrong way this episode. But I don’t think I’ll be able to do it any better than them cause I suck at counting a zillion things and get frustrated really quick.
Neo : Ye la ye la ko la buat semua tu.. hahaha
Snooki : I too thought this was going to be a NEL, but it turns out to be a TBC episode. Hey, but Joe Jer managed to finish her meal pretty quick
Freako : I agree. For an Asian production, TARA is actually one of the better shows on TV especially since these past few episodes. And I echo your thoughts on the same flights thingy too. I guess because they needed the sponsors for this season. But it sure sucks the fun out of the airport scenes. Oh and I must’ve missed the shoeshine wage thingy with the other teams. Hmm sure doesn’t look good on SanFran this episode, huh? (and the ghastly tank top doesnt help either)
Dzof : Exactly dude. My friend and I were just commenting on how is it so hard to find someone else who is at least a little competent in delivering their lines….
… scripted lines? We have Maya, we have Asha, hell, even if they get Karam Singh Walia pun I don’t mind.
Latique : Yeah, JJ & Zab for the win, baby! I’m glad they’re not only getting supporters from Malaysians but also from the viewers overseas.
January 5th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
yes you are right, joe jer finished her meal rather quickly
January 5th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Yeah, Allen is pretty wooden but he’s about to burst out of those shirts. And I see some nipple action too. Did he speak in this episode? I wasn’t paying attention…
Because Allen’s pecs and Phil’s package, I think it is written in the job requirement list for the host to be, er, bulging with talent.
January 5th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Oops, that should be “Between”, not “Because”.
Oh, and I don’t mind Francesca at all in this episode because having been to Calcutta myself, I would say exactly what she said if I’m on the show - I won’t dare to eat anything from that place that isn’t prepackaged. Six hours of sitting on a toilet bowl was a hard lesson learned indeed.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
LMAO Mrs G you slay me. But if you’re looking for tit action and bulges, does Karam Singh Walia not fit the bill? Oh come on.. imagine getting greeted with all the peribahasa and pantun dua kerat at the pitstop.
Gilap selipar, gilap sepatu,
Andy dan Laura, anda team nombor satu. LOL
And Calcutta was really that bad huh? Sorry to hear about your bad experience.
January 5th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
what exactly did f say? i missed this weeks, only caught a bit towards the end.
i came across some mat salleh forum comments about ARA and most felt the same way we do about allen being quite kayu too hahaha.
“karam singh tit action?” my brain almost farted.
January 5th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
oBTW, i think asha needs to be subtitled everytime she talks. i donno whats worse, madonna’s pseudo brit accent or asha’s “british” blab.
January 8th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Y : Nothing much really.. it’s just that Francesca mentioned something about the state that India is in. Kinda. Reminds me of KKKendra for a bit. I’m kinda surprised there is a surge of Francesca love over at Sucks. They’re saying she’s like Flo-lite. LOL.
January 8th, 2007 at 10:48 am
i’ve watched the repeat on sat. i almost had to agree with fran actually. i feel ashamed to think the stuff she was saying but at least she had the guts to say it. the place just didn’t look very touristy to me, reminded me of some of the towns here, so NOT ready for VMY07!
August 20th, 2008 at 3:33 am
I read similar article also named Amazing Race Asia - Episode 9, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me