I just hate it when the voiceovers in TAR says “Can xxx and yyy’s relationship withstand the pressure of the race?”. For fucks sake, do you really need to get on this race to find out if your relationship is going to last? Hmm.. let’s see. If you can withstand 10 years of your guy shoving you around when he doesn’t get his way.. I’m sure this race won’t do any jackass shit difference to what your relationship is heading into. (Yes yes I’m being over dramatic, but that’s allowed - and very welcomed - on my blog)
But let’s not jump to that just yet. Teams started off at Fort Santiago in Manila for the start of this leg of the race. They had to board a taxi to the GreenStar Bus Terminal and head to Pila Laguna which is an hour and a half bus ride away. Lots of unnecessary bus footage, I almost dozed off. And it was interesting to hear Marc say that “It’s amazing what pretty girls can do (to get what they want) in this country”.. cause I was thinking almost the same thing “It’s amazing what pretty mactors can to get on this show”. Well I guess that’s why it’s called the Amazing Race. Amazing things happen, and amazingly enough, I am still slightly bitter. LOLtastic.
Once they reach their destination, they find out it’s a Roadblock, where they had to go into the muddy rice field and plow a figure of 8 using the carabou. When Allan first explained it, I was like.. WTF is a carabou? I know a caribou… but what the hell is a carabao. It took me several minutes to realize that he was talking about the water buffalos, and interestingly enough.. carabou = kerbau. Duh, right? Yeah, must admit that I was stupid enough not to realize that instantly. I was kinda excited to see this because a few months ago, some spoilers surfaced showing Paula and Natasha finishing this roadblock.
After their roadblock, they next had to go to a Caltex Star Mart (dumbass token product placement of the week) in Manila and deliver 4 boxes of donation using a jeepney to some orphanage. I love the Chong sisters, but man, they really fucked it up by missing the “in Manila” clue, but I guess it could happen to anyone. And I’m not going to go all politically correct here, but the orphanage kids scrambling/attacking the donation package was downright scary/sorry at the same time. Geez! I swear the kids at the African orphanage seemed a lot more civilized than these poor kids. I know that’s not a nice thing to say, but I was just surprised at how the kids were reacting to the care packages. And one of the Chong sisters totally stole my heart for saying this : “given between the kids and the kerbau, I’ll go back to the kerbaus right now”. Again, probably not a nice thing to say, and she’s probably joking, but that’s exactly how I felt. And this is nothing to do with them being orphans. I personally just don’t have the patience around kids. Yeah I’m an asshole. Tough shit.
Okay, next was a detour in Santa Cruz between (1) Heel - where they had to match up 250 pairs of shoes, and (2) Wheel - where they had to assemble a bicycle from scratch. I personally thought matching 250 pairs of shoes would be a total nightmare, but surprisingly the Australian-speaking girls from Thailand did really well on this detour. And finally, the next stop after the detour was the Pitstop for this leg of the race. And in the order of their arrival at the pitstop :
- Marc & Rovilson - pretty strong team, but after a while, I can’t help but noticed that almost everything these two have to say sounds rehearsed (very much like their audition video). Their likeability is wearing thin, and it’s only been the second episode.
- Paula & Natasha - I’ll give credit where credit is due, and they did pretty well on this leg of the race, so kudos to them.
- Anne & Diane - Wow. Third place again. Quite an amazing feat. I’m loving this team more and more.
- Pamela & Vanessa - Poor girls had a shitload of bad luck in this leg. But hey, 4th place isn’t too shabby. They’re still proving to be one of the teams to beat. I hope they’ll continue to do well on this show.
- Adrian & Collin - I’m glad their ranking is improving. I like this team, but seriously now, are we going to be preached every goddamn week how they are having communication advantage because they can read body and sign language? God! This is going to be Charla all over again (but then again, I totally heart Charla and Mirna, so that’s okay)
- Brett & Kinar - I thought this team would continue to be all boring. Oh hang on, they did. However, Kinar literally made me laugh out loud when she wanted to mount the water buffalo. OMGWTFLMFAO! At least she was able to laugh at herself, so they’re okay, I guess. I look forward to seeing more personality from this team.
- Sophie & Aurelia - “I got ze clue!”. LOL I love it when she sayz zat. And I sincerely believe this will be team to bring us the trainwreck entertainment value this season. You can tell how badly Sophie wanted to strangle Aurelia at the bicycle detour, and how Aurelia was all “oh I’m pretty! look at me! *wink* *flirt*”. LOL. I hope this team won’t go anywhere anytime soon.
- Daichi & Sawaka - so they’re ‘big’ story this leg was them having a ’small argument’ in the taxi. Mmmm okay.. moving on….
- Henry & Terri - Not much coming from them this week, but if I was in the same bus with them, I wouldn’t hesitate to shout out “shut the fuck up, lady!” during all the singing in the bus.
Monica & Edwin - (eliminated) - Urgh.. I don’t know if I even want to start. The Asian Romber? Dude, Rob doesn’t sit on the sidelines and whine, oh we cant stop cars like that, oh we cant do this, blah fucking blah. Rob doesn’t shove his partner around like Jonathug does. Man, what a douche. I’m so glad, they are off the show.
That said, I do think the editing still has a lot of room for improvement. They didn’t even bother to mislead the viewers at how large the gaps were in between the teams. Halfway through the show, did anyone REALLY think Monica and Edwin wasn’t going to be eliminated? Hmm I thought so.
November 30th, 2007 at 7:42 am
I agree that Marc and Rovilson are wearing thin on me. Out of curiosity, I checked out Marc’s pictures from his modeling days (google “Marc+Nelson”) and ugh, they were scary in a “My boyfriend is actually a Ken doll” way. Anyone heard his music? He released two albums during his “singer” days.
The gal teams in this season are hilarious. Aurelia is Mirna all over again. Paula and Vanessa may look like MTV VJs but one of them - can’t tell which - speaks like a pasar malam fish wife when she’s mad. F-I-E-R-C-E. Paula and Natasha aren’t so memorable compared to these two, but they are okay. Ann and Diane are fine too. I think their innuendo-ish “I did all the screwing” comment is deliberate, don’t you think?
Henry and Terri really grate on my nerves. If I were on that bus, I’d organize a “Gag these morons and throw them off the bus” campaign. They, like Marc and Rovilson, feel very rehearsed in their bickering couple shtick. They overdo it too much, I feel.
My god, Edwin. Standing there and scolding Monica in his passive-aggressive “See what you do? Tell me what you did!” manner must have delayed them even more than traffic and taxis. Monica, be a smart girl, turn the dating into hating and run for your life, girlfriend. Boyfriend here looks like any generic Ah Beng with an American accent anyway - there are plenty of them out there.
November 30th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Also, I can’t get bitter over the fact that there are mactors all over the place here. This is Asia. Not everyone can take two months off their job to run the race, especially when we think of how bad the job situations here can be and not many employer will give you two months of unpaid leave. This leaves the contestant pool to people like mactors, rich self-employed people, and rich people who work for fun rather for living. In other words, people like the cast of TARA2.
November 30th, 2007 at 9:30 am
But… but…. Mary and David weren’t rich! and they were on the show twice! LOL j/k I guess I will always still be a little bitter about this casting.. but at least they’re giving us good entertainment.
Yes, I’ve seen Marc’s modelling pics.. and yeah, they’re totally Ken-like. LOL. And yeah.. I noticed the pasar malam talk when she (Pam? Vanessa?) was annoyed too.. hahaha. They were a number of ’screwiung’ jokes last night (I think team Sophie/Aurelia had one too in there somewhere). I’m still okay on Henry.. but Terri certainly make one want to bitchslap her whenever she opens her mouth, doesn’t she? As for Edwin… well you certainly hit the nail on its head with your American speaking Ah Beng remark. LOL.
November 30th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
seriously dude, what does monica see in edwin? he’s ugly, rude, stoopid, & last i heard he’s not a lovechild of some tycoon. but then again she looked thick so maybe i just answered my own question (i was about to go all perz hilton-like & suggest he maybe has a big weewee).
agree re: henry & terri. henry seemed like an okay, laidback guy. terri now just seemed too eager for screen time.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Is it just me or is this episode boring.. not much change in the way the contestant finish .. and the challenge .. not much of a challenge in this episode for both the roadblock and detour… i was anticipating a collin meltdown ala ” my ox is broken ” and the closest to it was by pamela or was it vanessa… but they manage to finish it in a timely manner.. where is the friction that allan was saying about between teams…
November 30th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Apparently Monica has dumped Edwin! AHAHAHA! After 10 years! How fucking sweet is that, the race really does know how to solve relationship problems.
I fucking love Aurelia. Seriously. “Oh we have done zat!” LOLZ! “Lazt teamz to check in weel bee elemeenatod!”
How funny are Marc/Rovilson!? Not very.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Freako : LOL loving your assessment on Edwin & Monica. And yeah.. Terri is now bordering slightly on not ‘entertainigly annoying’.. but just annoying.
eksk : I know! I’m guessing they really were trying to recreate Colin’s broken ox.. but I guess it didn’t happen. I sure hope the friction that we were promised will come to fruition soon.
Dan : Hahaha… wow.. she has a brain cell after all. And I have to agree with you… Aurelia seems to oblivious to everything else, that it’s kinda hard not to like her. PLUS like what roadblocker mentioned, we get to see her build her English vocab too! Week One : embryo. Week Two : plow. LMAO!