Culturally Preconditioned

An exciting leg, for a change. Teams finally left India and head to Almaty, Kazakhstan. All five teams were all within 1.5 hours at the start of this leg. However, thankfully, there were flight bunchings at the airport as they got on 3 different routes from India to Kazakhstan. Nick/Star, Toni/Dallas and Ken/Tina made their way via Frankfurt, Terrence/Sarah through Moscow, and Dan/Andrew via Dubai. Once in Almaty, teams headed to a Chicken Farm to get their next clue.. only to be foiled by the dreaded Hours of Operation.

The clue at the Chicken Farm contains information on the next Detour, and also a clue to the Fast Forward. Nick/Star and Sarah/Terrence quickly leaves the farm and head towards getting the Fast Forward at a restaurant. At the restaurants, teams find out that they had to eat the local Kazakhstan delicacy - which turns out to be two bowls of soup containing meat/fat from the rear end of a sheep. I don’t know about you guys, but this little FastForwards makes me wanna head down to Raja Sup in Taman Tun Dr Ismail tomorrow. YUMMY.. haven’t had cow’s tongue in a while now. The local delicacy is nowhere as gross as what the TARA3 racers had to endure, that’s for certain. I would like to say that both teams were neck and neck trying to finish the fast forward, but that would be lying. Terrence sucked so much at this challenge. I knew he’d be the one to fuck it up for this team. So… midway through they give up and head back to the Chicken Farm as only one team will be able to get the Fast Forward, and Nick/Star didn’t seem like they were slowing down. So Nick/Star got the Fast Forward, and were once again the first team to head straight to the pitstop. *yawnsies*

Back to the rest of the teams. At the Chicken Farm, they had to search for one of only seven golden eggs hidden on the grounds among all the chicken and shit (literally speaking). One thing I noticed, TAR has been amazing with the added soundtrack to the footages - I wish the TARA producers would pick this up for added entertainment, instead of shoving product placements in our faces. Pimp Mama (ie. Toni) managed to find the golden egg first and made their way out. Andrew found his egg next, and closely followed by Tina. Sarah was way behind the other teams, so they’re probably not worth mentioning from here on out.

Next they had to search for a giant crane truck thingamagic, get on it, and instruct their drivers  to drive to Koktobe Arch and hike up a hill and wait for a Mongolian Warrior. As expected, Ken/Tina overtook the fatties on the ride to the Arch. Seriously? Dandrew’s nonchalance in this race is so fucking annoying.. even more so than AD/Fuzz. How the hell did they end up this far in the game? Pimp Mama and son were the first to get their clue (via the wickedly cool flying clue-bearing eagle zomg) for the next Detour.

For the Detour, teams had to choose between (1) Play Like Mad - where teams had to learn to play a tune using two different types of local musical instrument, and play in public to collect tips, or (2) Act Like Fools - where teams had to travel to the children’s theater and don a cow costume, walk through public, find milk booth, drink milk, find clue, go to market and deliver themselves (LOL) to the butcher. Glad to know everyone realized that although option 2 sounds long-winded, it was indeed the better detour to choose. And the cow-costume thingy was put to much better use than it was in the latest installment of the Mole (seriously worst self-proclaimed Mole in the history of Moles ever).

Suffice to say that Toni/Dallas did no wrong in this task and was the first ones to complete, and they were the second team to arrive at the pitstop (YAY!) Well done! Ken/Tina did a lot of snafus on this one.. well Tina, mostly.. well Tina did everything wrong actually. First up, she missed the clue at the bottom of the milk glass, then she was stupid enough to say the clue tells them to leave the cow outfit back at the theater, before heading to the market. Obviously she was wrong and lost valuable time getting back the costume before they can proceed back to the market and to the pitstop. She almost did her third straight mistake by saying “let’s take a cab” before Ken reminded her that they were to “go on foot”. Seriously, did all the green dye get into her brains from last week? Or did she get some divorcee cooties from Kelly/Christy for suddenly turning so dumb? It’s hard to tell, people. Whatever it is, they actually were the third team to arrive at the pitstop.

Next, the bumbling fucking idiots, the Frat boys. I wonder which dumbass fraternity actually accepted these two fools’ initiation? These guys actually left their shoes at the theater (why in fuck, right?) and actually got into a cab instead of getting to the pitstop on foot.  I was wishing so hard that these two would get the 30-minute penalty or something that would lead them to being eliminated ala the Indian guy models in TARA1 (man, was that a superbly delicious elimination or what?) Alas.. they did manage to turn back to the market, and make their way back to the pitstop on foot (literally since the shitheads left their bags at the theater) in time to be the fourth team to arrive. I really loathe this team, I really do. There’s nothing redeeming at all about this team, especially the four-eyed git.. he’s such a big whining baby. Really.

Oh, and Sarah/Terrence was the final team to arrive. I honestly though Phil would say “.. However, this is a pre-determined..” but he didn’t. I was actually surprised cause I thought this would be an NEL. 11 episodes in and how many NEL’s have we got this season? I’m too lazy to go through my own posts to find out. Ah well.. it was nice while it lasted. I actually thought Sarah/Terence were actually going to win.. so I’m superbly glad that my gut was wrong. Let’s hope my gut stays wrong for the outcome for TARA3.

Next week’s preview looks good. Dan making a fool out of himself. And the downfall of Nick/Star. How could you not want to watch next week’s episode. But for now.. tomorrow, at least.. Raja Sup. MmMmmmmMmmmMMMMMmmmmm (don’t be hating me cause you’re still in the States, Siew Kim).

Okay where do I start? Where do I fucking start? I should be happy that Ida/Tania made it to the finals, but I’m overtaken by my rage over AD/Fuzzie quitting the race after a golden opportunity was practically given to them. Whatever good things I’ve said about these two, I officially take it back. Their actions were kind of a little FUCK YOU to the fans who’ve been rooting for them.

And YES PEOPLE! The Malaysian Goddesses have made it to the Finals. YAYGASM! Not only that, they also totally pwnt this leg of the race and came in first place at the pitstop!

Okay, so teams started off in Pune in India. They had to take a taxi to the Bhaja Caves (which looked absolutely spectacular) whiuch was about 60km away from Pune. Teams were all bunched up over the Hours of Operations (the caves open at 08:15 am). Once they get into the caves, the clue tells them to get back to Pune on a train. WTF? Go there, come back. I’m guessing the editors were really looking for some obvious Indian-train drama - but I guess that didn’t happen.

Once back in Pune, teams had to take note of a Mahatma Ghandi statue and go to a designated Standard Chartered ATM for their next clue. The clue says to key in Ghandi’s year of birth in the ATM to get the next clue. zomg what was the point of asking the teams to take note of the Ghandi statue? If the producers deliberately wanted to confuse the racers, then well done. ALOL @ Tisha typing in the wrong key. Guess what? I’m older than Ghandi by one year! Dumb dumb dumb. And even dumber, the penalty was to wait 10 minutes after they keyed in the wrong combination. The show sure do love their 10 minute penalties huh? Oh well.

The next clue reads : FLY TO MUSCAT, OMAN! Wow! Finally an amazing destination. Unfortunately no airport drama as all teams are bunched up on the same flight to Oman. Once in Muscat, they needed to find a marked vehicle and drive themselves to Al Alam Palace, then drive to Nizwah Fort which was 140 km away from Muscat. There was an Hours of Operation bunching at the fort, so all teams caught up with each other again.

I loved the fake clueboxes at the Fort : “Did you think it’s this easy?”, “So wrong”, “Sorry try again”. LOL Now TAR/TARA has placed fake clues before, but not many with the racers not knowing that they were fake till they opened it. Well done, producers. Wait, did I just say that right? Teams then had to go to Mutrah Souq for their next detour. Teams had to choose between (1) Carpet - where they had to match unique designs taken on the Sony cybershot camera, with the corresponding carpet, or (2) Count It - where they had to count thousands of betelnut (very similar to the one in TARA).

All teams chose Count It, but Geoff/Tisha changed midway through, and went to do the carpets. Then they changed back to the betel nuts. Then back to carpets. Then back to betelnuts. Seriously, is this some kind of a record? Anyway, Sam/Vince finished it first, then Ida/Tania, then AD/Fuzz and finally Geoff/Tisha. However, that didn’t really matter since all four teams got lost finding their way to the next destination, Wadi Tanuf, which was 2.5 hours away from the Souq.

Now here’s where things got interesting. The final roadblock this leg was traversing across a canyon to get their clue. Sam was the first to go. He got the clue first, then made his way back to the other side of the canyon. He stalled. Ida was the second to go. She got the clue, and overtook Sam and was the first to finish the roadblock. Geoff was the third to go. He overtook Sam and completed the roadblock. Sam was still halfway through pulling himself across the canyon, when Fuzzie started on the roadblock. Fuzzie had the clue and tried to make her way back to the other side. She stalled.

Sam was disgustingly begging to Vince saying that he couldn’t do it. Seriously, it was pathetic and disgusting. The incessant whining, begging and grovelling. YUCK. If real men want to quit, they’d just say FUCK THIS SHIT (like Tisha’s comment which was censored out at the Souk). Disgusting. Anyway, I couldn’t fucking believe it when they actually quit the task and incurred themselves a FOUR HOUR penalty.

Now, since this is the penultimate episode, I’ll just go on the record and say this. I have had a major hunch that Sam/Vince are going to win this race. HOw do I know? Let’s just say that AXN isn’t too secretive about the outcome of the show. I might be wrong (and believe me, I’m PRAYING that I’m wrong still) but I do think they’ll go ahead and win this show. So imagine my pleasant surprise when they actually quit the roadblock!

That gave AD/Fuzz a 3.5 hour lead!!!!!!!! which was a fucking golden opportunity because they already have the 30-minutes penalty from the last episode. I actually thought with 3.5 hours to go, there’s no fucking chance in hell that these two people wouldn’t try and finish the roadblock.

Alas.. they too chose to quit. Motherfuck. Seriously, that was a major FUCK YOU to all your fans. Urgh.

Next up was the pitstop. Ida and Tania were the first ones to arrive (officially the best TARA team in existence ever), Geoff and Tisha was second (they deserved it) and Sam/Vince were third (luckiest asshats ever, especially if they go on winning this race). AD/Fuzz- buhbye. And I can’t believe I’m actually saying this since I’ve been supporting them since Episode 1, but good fucking riddance.

Now, next week’s preview is pretty interesting. The following tags have been used in the previews to describe the teams :

• Geoff/Tisha - will they pull an upset and win ? (I thought these guys were the absolute favourites at the AXNSHITTY forum?)
• Ida/Tania - will they continue their lucky streak ? (Lucky? They’ve been competent, not lucky. Lukcy = the asshats that quit and are now in the finals)
• Sam/Vince - will the underdogs win? (Underdogs? WHAT FUCKING UNDERDOGS?)

I’m sorry but it’s painfully obvious that Sam/Vince is going to win. Again, this is not a spoiler, but a major, major hunch that I have, so let’s all pray that I’m wrong.. and the Malaysian Goddesses will go ahead and win this.

ps. Oman is amazing! It’s a shame that we saw so little of it on the show.

Man, I loved tonight’s episode. Just loved, loved, loooved it. Teams are still in Delhi throughout this leg of the race. At the start of the leg, teams had to make their way to Deshbandu Apartments and look for a clue. The clue reads a Roadblock where one of the team members had to take part in the Holi festival. They had to go through the revellers, who were throwing paint and magical fairy dusts, and searcg for the correct clue at the top of the tower.

Okay, that festival? Yeah, that was downright scary. Sorry if this sounds offensive, but it really was scary. One of the f(r)at boys commented that it was like a street party, but instead of hot chicks.. it was a “sausagefest of guys” LOL. That was funny. And Kelly really defined what “KENA BAMBU” means. Hahaha I so enjoyed watching that. And how stupid can you get with the clue? Holy crap. They lost at least 45 minutes on that roadblock, and dropped what.. 4 notches in the placements? Seriously, too stupid to live.

Once the roadblock was done, teams had to go to Old Delhi and find the Charity Birds Hospital and search through the cages for their next clue. I though this was an interesting way to find the clue.. until I saw that there couldn’t possibly be more than 50 cages at the place.  Oh well. There was a SPEED BUMP at the hospital waiting for Ken and Tina - who had to perform an additional task before resuming. The extra task was to go to a certain temple and offer help in serving holy water to people who came to the temple. The clue read that they must do this till no one wants to drink the water anymore.. and I was like.. ZOMG how long is THAT going to take??? But apparently, it finished earlier than I anticipated, so Ken and Tina quickly finished off the speed bump and joined the rest.

The clue at the Hospital was a Detour. Teams had to choose between (1) Bleary Eyed - where they had to keep track of the power lines on a long street, note down the small numbers and reveal that to the person holding the clue at the end of the street. Or teams had to choose (2) Teary Eyed - where they had to deliver two forty-pound sack of dry chillies and pound some to fill a huge bowl. I have to say, I thought that both choices were equally difficult, but it seemed only Terrence and Sarah opted to go for the chillies.

Nick/Star.. well Star basically. I just want to stab Nick in the eye for being an unnecessary uncooperative lying cunt. Star decided that this would be a good time to work together with Toni/Dallas.. which proved helpful as they were the first two teams to finish the task. Kelly/Christy and Dan/Andrew had a difficult time with the task. I was laughing my ass off when that idjit manhater tried to cover her answers when Elphaba… I mean, Tina, was there. Please, if anyone wanted to copy the correct answers, I doubt the divorcees would have it. Dumb bitch. Ken/Tina surprisingly finished the task ahead of the two teams and they actually offered some help to Dan/Andrew.

See people?  I fucking know you don’t get on these reality shows to make friends.. but being NICE can actually help you out in the game. I’m fucking surprised how many people keep saying shit like I’M NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS. We fucking get it. But for the love of Mirna, don’t be complete jackasses to everyone in the game - and then go boo-fucking-hoo when you don’t get help from the other teams.
And can I just say that the clue giver at the power lines task, was one of the best ones I’ve seen. I love his couldnt-give-a-fuck attitude as he throws away the team’s notepad (with the wrong clues), and basically shooes them away to redo the challenge.. and also the way he shoved Tina away - I mean, wouldn’t you do the same thing if someone were to breathe down your neck while you’re checking on something? Okay, maybe you won’t, but I wouldn’t hesitate for a tic.

Next was the pitstop at the Humayun’s Tomb - which also gave us one of the more interesting pitstop greeter - who seemed to care more about watering the plants than to greet the racers. LOL. In the order of the arrival at the pitstop :

1. Nick/Star - Star is okay. I still can’t stand gay Nick.
2. Toni/Dallas - Glad they didn’t lose their momentum. Loving this team.
3. Terrence/Sarah - It feels like they’re in this race, completely on their own. *shrug* Uber weird team. Watch them win this race.
4. Ken/Tina - Nice comeback. Tina reminds me of the wicked witch Elphaba with the green ‘do. She still looks like a cat lady though.
5. Dan/Andrew - Meh.
6. Kelly/Christy - can’t believe the bitter bitch still complains about her ex-husband in her closing statement. I bet the ex-hubby is laughing his ass off watching how she comes across on the show. Anyway, glad these beyotches are gone. Good riddance.

Next week’s episode seems to show a second Fast Forward.. or is it a super fast forward.. I dunno.. but I sure hope to Charla, Nick/Star won’t get it. I’m sick of seeing these two far ahead in the race.

I’m torn as to how I feel about this latest episode. I’m still reeling over the loss of Henry and Bernie from the last episode. I have to say that despite them ending up fifth, I feel that they really are one of the most competent teams to ever be on the race, so… bravo guys! You made us proud, and if McKay keeps casting mactors like these to represent Malaysia, then I will have absolutely zero qualms about it. Okay, now back to the show.

Teams left from Cochin and head to Pune (which kinda sounds like Punai), about 120 kilometers east of Bombay. All teams get on the same plane to Bombay. Once in Bombay, Ida/Tania was the only team who took a chance by NOT taking a pre-paid taxi for the 3 hour long drive to Pune. This proved to be an advantage to them since it took them into the lead. Once in Pune, teams had to play cricket at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.

On one hand, I thought it was kind of a good way to incorporate one of India’s most beloved sports into the race. The execution, however, was kind of retarded. So the teams didn’t complete the challenge, so they get a 10 minute penalty, so what? At least this was an improvement over the rugby challenge thingy in one of the earlier episodes. The next clue tells them to use the MAPS application on the Nokia thingymagic and guide the rickshaw driver to their next clue. Geoff and Tisha had a tough time with this one, where they actually went around in circles. Note to future racers : get yourself a Nokia phone and familiarize yourself with it. Seriously.
Next is a roadblock where they had to search among 50 men in a park somewhere and find the one wearing the correct bheta. Mmm what? All the time I was watching this segment, all I could think of was how much these people are getting paid to wander around aimlessly under the hot sun and let strangers hold your head at their will. Unlike the spot-the-kiwi-tattoo challenge in TAR13, this one actually left me scratching my head.

Next, is the obligatory head to the nearest Sony Showroom, for the uninspired Sony HD camcorder challenge. This time they needed to convince someone to tell a joke while they record the whole thing on the camcorder. If that wasn’t lame enough,  they even got six incredibly dense ‘judges’ to determine if the jokes are funny or not. For what it’s worth, the joke told by the old man (about Sadarjhi’s playing chess) was definitely snicker-worthy. I bet these idjits would probably pop a vein in their brains if they accidentally watch an episode of Frasier. And come on, the pig eating shit joke was hilarious! What is wrong with these people? Those Sony employees are serious dumbasses (Yes. I hope at least one of you fuckers are reading this).
After the lame Sony challenge, a detour. Teams had to either (1) Push - load 75 clay pots and deliver at least 70 unbroken through the streets on a push cart, or (2) Crush - crush sugar cane sticks and sell at least 40 cups to strangers. Ida/Tania did Push, while the rest did Crush. Ida/Tania and Sam/Vince were neck and neck doing this detour. There was a U-Turn after the detour. If a team is U-Turned, they had to complete the other detour that they didn’t do.

Sam/Vince finished first and the soft spoken one contemplated on U-Turning Ida/Tania. THE FUCKING NERVE! Anyway, at this point in the race, why wouldn’t you U-Turn the biggest physical threat (Geoff/Tisha) ? Anyway, they decided not to U-Turn anyway. Ida/Tania were next. They wanted to U-Turn Geoff/Tisha, but unfortunately they misplaced their own picture, so they couldn’t do it. Gaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh I was so frustrated. Geoff/Tisha were next and they U-turned AD/Fuzz who were trailing not far behind. Again, much as I don’t like Geoff/Tisha, that was a good move IMO. Even though if this leg turned out to be a Non Elimination Leg, it would still put the last team at a distinct disadvantage. Poor AD/Fuzz had to complete the clay pots challenge after getting U-Turned. And after that, the pitstop. In the order of the arrival at the pitstop :

1. Sam/Vince = Not loving this team. Watch them win the race.
2. Ida/Tania = They were frontrunners throughout this leg. How can you not love them? <3<3<3 But how did they misplace their picture for the U-Turn. Urghhhh I still heart this team to death though.
3. Geoff/Tisha = If they get into the Final Three, which they will, watch them win the race.
4. AD/Fuzz = Please please please let a second miracle happen and let AD/Fuzz be in the Final 3 with Ida/Tania!

Major rant alert : WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? PLACING A U-TURN IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE FUCKING PITSTOP? That practically gave ZERO chance of the unfortunate team of ever catching up. That fucking blows, man.

Product placements and lame challenges aside, I still think this leg had it’s exciting moments, probably due to how close the teams all were (before the U-Turn). Here’s hoping we’ll get a non-too sucky Final Three teams next week! Go Ida/Tania! Go AD/Fuzz!

Terrence is a whiny cunt. Watch him win this race.

Kelly and Christy are whiny cunts. Watch them win this race.

The four-eyed frat manbearpig is a whiny cunt. Watch him win this race.

Sorry I missed the recap for last week’s TAR13. Working the night shifts almost always throw me into some weird loop. I made some notes on the episode somewhere, but couldn’t find them.. but I thought it was pretty cool that they visited the Angkor Wat in the last leg. Teams arrived within an hour of each other at the pitstop and Aja/Ty were eliminated. Terrence/Sarah were incurred a 30-minute penalty at the beginning of this leg (so glad the word ‘pitstart’ was never used) because of a traffic offense.. although I’m not quite sure why the penalty was not incurred immediately at the end of the last leg.

In this leg, teams had to fly out to Delhi, India. Teams had to buy tickets at a tour agency before getting to the airport. Teams were all bunched up on the same flight, which is okay, I guess.. considering how close everyone were at the end of the last leg. Once in Delhi, teams had to find Moon Light Motors, were they received a clue.. that turned out to be a Roadblock (”who’s got an artistic flair”) where one team had to cover a taxi and paint it green. Dan and Andrew were the first to finish.. only to fuck it up again by not getting a taxi. I’m telling ya, these guys are the kings of losing-the-leads. I was actually slowly starting to root for them.. but I have come to the conclusion that they are a lost cause.

Once they finished the roadblock, teams had to make their way to Ambassador Hotel and search the gardens for an Indian Doormand who will give them their clue. And by ’search’, they mean.. head straight down to the hotel, and immediately spot the guy in costume standing right smack in the middle of the fucking garden. A detour is next, and teams had to choose between (1) Launder Money - where teams had to go to a banquet hall, create a necklace with Indian notes totalling to a specified amount.. basically too confusing even for me to explain, or (2) Launder Clothes - where teams had to go to a Dhobby and press 20 pieces of clothing using the traditional iron. You’d think this would be an obvious choice, but surprisingly enough.. two teams, Sarah/Terrence and Ken/Tina, chose to do the first one.

After the detours are done, teams head to the next pitstop, which is the Baha’i House. In the order of their arrival at the pitstop :

Show Me The Spoiler

All in all, a pretty mild episode.. and looks like they’ll be staying in India still next week. Boy, the franchise sure love shooting in India, don’t they?

so.. no major thoughts yet, although I already found out who got eliminated. *le sigh*

hopefully I’ll be able to catch a repeat of this episode tomorrow.

OHGODDAMNFUCKINGSHIT

There I’ve said it.

Well that was what I was thinking the first 59 minutes of tonight’s episode anyway. Can’t say that this was unpredictable, as they did the same thing with Terri/Henry from last season (saved from elimination back to back).. but I thought this would be a To-Be-Continued leg. Am I happy with the outcome of this episode? I dunno.. I’m kinda torn, but I’m glad Ida and Tania are still in the race.

Teams started off from the last leg (Sam/Vince were first to start the leg at 5:47am, and Ida/Tania were last to start at 9:57am). Teams had to travel to Mongkok Market and collect two goldfish and deliver it to an aquarium. Perhaps one of the most WTF challenges this season. I mean, it’s not like catching and delivering live chicken on foot somewhere. All they had to do was carry two bags and get on a taxi and wait for the aquarium to open. Teams were stalled with the Hours Of Operations as the shop only opens at 11am (sorry but what kind of a lazy ass opens his shop at 11am?).

Next they had to get on a ferry to Macau. Sam/Vince actually ran on foot to the ferry station, and got a huge lead, Major home advantage if there was one.  Tisha/Geoff swapped for a ferry that leaves 5 minutes earlier than AD/Fuzz and Henry/Bernie - which proved to be an excellent move on their part cause that contributed to the lead that they maintained the rest of the leg. Even 5 minutes makes a difference, y’all. Ida/Tania took a ferry much much later than the rest.

Once in Macau, they had to go to Senado Square on a petticab (?) aka trishaw and get their next clue. Caution : Yield Ahead. Sam/Vince mentioned that they might yield someone but they didn’t mention names - but I already knew they were targetting Henry/Bernie, way before Sam high-fived Tished later. I mean, that only made sense. Geoff/Tish were the next to arrive, and THEY yielded Henry/Bernie. I’m not their fan, but that was totally understandable, and justified IMO. It’s about time the rest of the four teams realize that Henry/Bernie are the alpha-male team this season, and they need to be stopped if the rest really wants to win this race.
The next Roadblock was to ‘climb the ladder of success’. Teams had to climb up Macau Tower and climb up the tower mast. Hmmm challenging roadblock, cause I would’ve been petrified myself, but we JUST saw this challenge on Monday on TAR13. *shrug* Anyway, Vince finished first, followed by Geoff. Fuzzie was overtaken by Bernie (whose yield lasted for only 15 minutes). Tania came soon after. While doing the challenge, Fuzzie and Tania were basically given their clues before completing the challenge, because of bad weather. Hmm another lame mercy fucking clue. When will this stop? Shouldn’t they be given some time penalty for that? Yeah I don’t care it’s bad weather. Nevermind lah.

Next the teams needed to go to Dragon Boat Pier and select a marked boat and paddle it around a bouy. I thought this would’ve been too much on the person who just did the Roadblock, because both tasks require strong upper body strength. I can only imagine how exhausted those racers were. Next was a Detour and teams had to choose between (1) Dance - complete a lion dance, or (2) Chance - win 9 rounds of blackjack in a casino. All teams but Geoff/Tisha did Chance. Not much drama here, although it was fucking funny watching AD and Fuzzie’s look of disbelief when they saw the dress. I was so laughing my ass off with their comments about that. Sam’s (seriously I don’t know which one is which.. so… sorry if I get the names wrong) switching the name tags on Henry/Bernie’s attire was a pretty ssts (snickering silently to self) moment.. but between this and their desire to yield Henry/Bernie, I guess they’re even more fake than Geoff/Tisha. I’m just saying, ya know?

Once they finished the detour, the teams head to the Ama Culturally Preconditioned Village where they had to arrange the chinese lanterns according to the Chinese Zodiac, before they were allowed to go through the doors and straight to the next pitstop. I thought this was quite an interesting challenge, before finding out that they actually had clues to help them determine the order. But oh well.. at least it was quite an attempt to include some sort of cultural thing into this leg.. I mean, they really should, seeing that they’ve stayed practically in the same region for the last few episodes.

Geoff/Tisha was the first team to arrive at the pitstop, their FIRST, I believe. They did well this episode, so good for them. I was actually glad that they were first to arrive, than the HK boys who seemed pretty overconfident this episode. Sam and Vince followed closely behind. Surprisingly AD and Fuzzie came in third place, even though they finished the Chance detour after Henry and Bernie did, who apparently had a tough time looking for a cab. And because of that, Henry and Bernie came in fourth place. And fucking finally, the beautiful Ida and Tania. I was devastated. I really thought that they would be toast this episode, if not for the NEL. But it was close. Ida and Tania were saved from elimination. However, they must come in first place in the next leg, or they will incur a 30-minute penalty.

I can only hope for miracles to start happening next week. PLEASE DON’T LET MY GIRLS GET ELIMINATED!!!!

I usually abhor ads during the show, but can I just say that I love Hugo Boss’ new advert? It was weird seeing him ‘out of character’. I have a totally new found respect for Jonathan Rhys Myers after watching The Tudors.  They couldn’t have found a better King Henry VIII. Nope, not even Eric Bana was as good in The Other Boleyn Girl.

Okay, so this episode started off in La Paz. One of the things that I look forward to at the beginning of an episode is where we see their arrival times at the pitstop. Now, there were less than one hour sparating the eight teams - makes you realize how close the gaps were between these teams.. something sorely lacking in TAR Asia, I’m afraid. Teams received their clue to fly to Auckland, New Zealand. Was this the longest direct flight in TAR history? From La Paz, Bolivia to Auckland, New Zealand?

All teams were on the same direct flight and there didn’t seem to be much airport drama. Once in Auckland, teams had to drive to Gulf Harbour and untie some kind of knot. The knot itself didn’t look particularly difficult, as I saw one of the team untangle it like a ball of yarn. What’s interesting was that they put the strip of clue at the end of the knot, visible to the teams once unravelled.

A Fast Forward awaits for them. For the Fast Forward, teams had to drive to Auckland Sky Tower and climb up from the sky deck to the top. Can I just say that this was probably one of the most scariest Fast Forwards I’ve seen on the race? The way the tower was swaying in the wind.. wow. Major kudos to Ken and Tina who completed this challenge and rode a helicopter right straight to the Pitstop.

As for the other teams, they had to drive to the summit of Mount Eden (all except the divorcees who are “too stupid to live” who parked their car at the base of Mount Eden and walked right too the top - but even then they finished the challenge before Dan and Andrew who drove past them to the summit. I honestly can’t tell who’s stupid, and who’s stupider). At the summit, they had one of the more interesting Roadblocks yet. Teams were given a picture of a tattoo, and they had to match it with a Maori who’s doing the hakka dance. I can’t believe Terrence managed to complete this task during sundown. Wow. And it was way funny watching the warriors rin and take the clue away every time they gave a wrong answer. The nose greeting was kinda cute to watch too. Way to inject some cultural stuff into the show.

Next, teams had to drive and find the City Life Hotel, get on the rooftop and use binoculars to spot one of the Travelocity Gnomes spread throughout the city. I honestly don’t mind if the obvious product placements are obvious as this, if they do it right, and sparingly. But ohmagahd… I would’ve hated this challenge! It’s even worst than finding Where’s Wally. Madness. The gnomes were placed on different buildings, in parks, under trees, on balconies, etc. Again, a really interesting challenge in my honest opinion.

On finding the Travelocity Gnome, teams had to get their next clue at the Kiwi 360 landmark. Once there, a Detour awaits them. Teams had to choose between (1) A matter of time - where they had to crush kiwi fruits using their feet to yield 12 glasses of juice, and drink 2 of them, or (2) A matter of skill - where they had to assemble a flow cart (?) and complete 3 lapse around the track. All teams chose the first detour, but somehow, four teams decided to change the detour midway through - I’m not quite sure how some of the teams seemed to breeze right through the challenges, and the others did not. I noticed the more ‘weaker’ or ‘lighter’ teams managed to complete it with ease - Terrence/Sarah, Divorcees, Southern Belles. *shrug*

On finishing the detour, teams headed to the next pitstop where they were greeted by Phil’s Dad. Yay! In the order of their arrival at the pitstop :

Show Me The Spoiler

Well, that’s it I guess. I enjoyed this episode more in terms of the challenges and tasks. Here’s hoping that next week’s episode will be better.

First up, that was possibly one of the more enjoyable episodes this season - although in all fairness, nothing can possibly be worse than the episode that was show last week. Secondly, I loved the short recaps from the first episode to the fifth episode - although it was kinda stupid that they totally edited out the real reason why Mai and Oliver was eliminated last week. Thirdly, I have never been so glad for a Non-Elimination Leg till I saw this race. I honestly thought this was going to be a To-Be-Continued episode, what with the extended recap at the beginning of the episode and all.

Teams started off from Taipei from the last leg. Sam and Vince had a comfortable four-hour lead, which led to their constant lead throughout this leg. Henry/Bernie, AD/Fuzzie and Geoff/Tisha were within an hour and a half of each other. Whereas Ida/Tania were trailing more than seven hours behind Sam and Vince. Usually after Fast Forwards, there usually would be an equalizer for the next leg, but that wasn’t so in this case. Takpe lah. No use harping on the flaws of the shortsightedness of The Powers That Be.

Teams were to fly to Hong Kong. Not much airport drama, but I just LOVED the blatant zoom in on the Standard Chartered credit card when they were purchasing the tickets, don’t you? Once there, they had to run through a rugby field in Kowloon to get their next clue. Although, kind of a pointless thing here, I suppose it was kind of fun for the racers.  After getting their clue, teams had to take a taxi to central Hong Kong to the next Detour.

The Detour was between (1) Fishy - where they had to clean, gut and scale 15 fish, or (2) Lucky - crack through 300 fortune cookies to get their next clue. Although it seemed a little lop-sided, only one team did the Fishy detour - Henry/Bernie which didn’t surprise me. I know it’s crazy, but I would’ve done the same thing. Can you blame me? I get an instant hardon everytime I use my Zwilling knives. Bite me. The fortune cookie challenge proved to be the easier one though.. and I HAVE to search for that particular Confucius proverb about backsides and waking up with a smelly hand or summink or nuffink (channelling Vicky Pollard - God I love that bitch).

After the Detour, teams had to get on a taxi to Central Pier, get on a ferry and head to Ladies Market for their next Roadblock. The Roadblock clue was : “Who’s got an eye for the ladies?”, which resonated particularly well with AD & Fuzzie.. awww how sweet. The roadblock was to choose a handbag, and spot the exact same handbag among the people and shops at the Ladies Market. I’ll tell you one thing, I would’ve DIED if I was to do this. Sooo not my thing. This is kind of a needle in a haystack type of challenge  thingy.. but I thought it was pretty original. And LOL @ Bernie keeping the handbag. Next was the pitstop, and in the order of their arrival :

Show Me The Spoiler

Yup.. pretty good episode indeed. And if anyone missed out on the past TARA3 episodes, this episode would be a great place to start - especially with the short recaps that was shown in the first five minutes of the episode. I hope Ida/Tania will be able to make up some grounds in the next leg, cause I do think they are at least 5 or 6 hours (if not more) behind the first team at the next start of the leg.

After the dreadful, dreadful episode of TARA3 last week, I was so looking forward to tonight’s episode of The Amazing Race. Teams started off from Fortaleza, Brazil. It’s surprising to know that teams #3 to #9 all arrived within only 90 minutes of each other at the last pitstop. Anyway, teams were to fly out to La Paz in Bolivia. The city sits above 12,000 feet above sea level, which promises this leg was going to be just a little harder than the rest because of the elevation. Teams arrive in La Paz with surprisingly no airport drama. I have a feeling they were given two predetermined flights out fro Fortaleza, as the producers had to ensure they would all arrive in La Paz in time for the morning paper.

Once in La Paz, teams slept overnight at some plaza while waiting for the morning newspaper. We see once again, a rehashed challenge where they had to spot in the newspaper on where their next destination was going to be. The clue that they were looking for (”a hat sale”) personally didn’t indicate anything to me that it was a TAR clue, so I would assume that was the one and only English advert in that paper today. Once at the Narvaez Hat Shop, teams receive clue to the next detour.

The next detour asks the teams to pick either (1) Musical March - where they had to pick musicians and lead a marching band on foot to two different plazas, or (2) Bumpy Ride - where they had to choose some classicial bicycles and ride in down to .. mm somewhere. Interesting to note that two teams failed to read their clue, and picked a taxi, instead of going on foot, to reach their next detour. Terrence/Sarah realized their mistake and went back on foot, whereas Bill/Mark didn’t realize this till much later in the leg. I’m a little puzzled as to why teams chose to go with the musical march, cause you can only go as slow or as fast as the marching band.
A U-Turn awaits at the end of the detour, and there was almost some U-turn drama… but not really. Seems like we’ve gotten one of our weirdest fights ever on TAR so far. SPORTSBRAGATE. lol i mean.. wtf? The whole divorcee/Starr tiff was unnecessary drama IMO. SO this little tiff almost caused Star to U-Turn the divorcees, but she didn’t. She did, however, tell Aja/Ty to U-Turn the divorcees. Actually it kinda made sense if they were the second last team.. but oh well.

So they get to a roadblock about 8 miles away, where the next Roadblock was fighting Cholitas. One person from the teams had to go through a wrestling training with a chica. They had to successfully complete six different stunts in order. A pretty original idea, and was kinda fun. I would expect this roadblock gave a chance for some of the teams to relax and have a laugh, which is a good thing. After the roadblock, teams head to the next pitstop. In the order of the arrivals at the pitstop :

Show Me The Spoiler

All in all, it was an okay episode. Looking forward to next week’s episode where someone breaks an arm after being told not to. ssts.