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spiderbraidsBeen sitting on this for a while...
Ep 6:
1. This week we're in the Phillipines, and there's a task in which all the teams run around a neighborhood in Manila to buy various things, for donation to the Red Cross office in the suburbs (one of their recipents is missing his arms!) Then followed by a Roadblock, in which contestants go on ziplines and try to drop a flour bomb on a target... essentially, a planeless version of this task :-)
2. Detour in Vigan City, between stuffing sausages on a horse carriage and karaoke... Local team Eric/Rona admit in a confessional that they chose to do karaoke since, basically, it's the Phillipines :-) And since the song is in Tagalog, they've got a bit of a home advantage :-)
3. Meanwhile at the other Detour with the other local team, Parul(/Maggie) is great at sewing from her medical experience, so she sews up the sausages real good, while Anita/Tom (Thailand) are so terrible at it, Anita comments on Tom "having his period" while he's complaining, and becoming a vegetarian after they're done...
4. Pitstop is at a belltower on the outskirts of town, where JK/Mike (Singapore) come out of nowhere to take their first win, and quip about finishing either first or last in the next leg (keep this in mind for the next two legs ;-)) while the Thai team get the chop...
Ep 7:
1. Next stop, Singapore, and first stop is the aquarium at Sentosa Resort World for a two-person Roadblock: One goes down into the aquarium to grab a card with the name of a fish, while the other tries to get the picture of the fish in question. Indonesia's Treasuri/Louisa (but Trez calls her partner "Fan") get three wrong answers in a row and have to wait their next turn (the only team this happens to), while later, two different teams alternate guesses...
2. Next stop is a viewing area at Gardens by the Bay from which teams are to look for a flag via binoculars, two pairs of which are provided for teams. Yvonne/Chloe essentially get JK/Mike to help them find the flag, and it's a ridiculously tiny thing near the top of the OUE building. Hilariously, Parul/Maggie apparently spot the viewpoint from the crew people swarming the area and have to wait their turn :-D
3. Eric/Rona end up deciding that the next location is the UOB building... Uh-oh... and even though they also have their own binoculars, they get quite snippy when they can't find the flag and threaten to go back to the viewomg point... They're well in last place when they pretty much stumble on to the clue after heading to the OUE on a hunch...
4. Next stop is the parking lot building of the Singapore Turf Club... for a non-equine Detour (HUH.) Instead, we've got remote controlled skateboards (that go really slowly in order to allow the less skateboard-savvy contestants to make the required turns [while holding a plate of cans!]) and drones (in which contestants have to land their drone on a helmet, shades of a Fast Forward from one of the more recent US seasons)
5. Pit stop is on a boat, and in a nice twist, teams may board it from any one of three different piers depending on where it happens to be :-) JK/Mike get a hometown first place and JK laments not being able to talk to his wife about it right now... while Eric/Rona are well in last, and it takes Allan Wu what feels like forever talking about how much they support each other :-/ before the other shoe drops that this is a non-elim :-)
Ep 8:
1. Back to Indonesia, whose tourism agency is sponsoring the show, and offering a co-host Tara Basro, for the rest of the race :-) This week's stop is Yogyakarta, in which the first task is a rope walking Roadblock: walking across a rope and climb down a rope ladder to retrieve a clue and return without falling... but first, Eric/Rona's Speedbump involves drinking some herbal concoction blindfolded, and guessing which bottle it is... and they guess right in one go :-O
2. Back to the Roadblock, two teams can try it at the same time, at the risk of having to either redo the task or take a 2-hour penalty after falling... Sure enough, JK falls during the return leg (screaming many profanities, many of which don't get beeped out :-D) while Parul is transferring to the ladder, and only decides to redo the task after everyone else is done... And even without the "interference", it can't have been healthy for JK's arms having to go out and hold his hands up on the rope again, and his lack of speed doesn't help :-/
3. Next stop is a temple for a Roadblock: "Who recognizes Divine Order?" Memorize the names and locations of various Hindu god(desse)s and place them on a map of the temple, which requires the typical lots of running and searching and stuff, and Maggie even wonders if she should switch boards at one point (Parul: "That's when I realized she lost her mind") After that is an archery task, and let's face it, shooting an arrow to hit a target at what looks to be at least 50 ft is pretty hard... and both have to hit one shot each (!)
4. Next task involves pedal cars decorated with tons of colorful lights :-) Pick up a local, take them for a ride around the local square, then pick up a clue to head to the pitstop... Trez/Lou get a win on home turf, while the more interesting race is between JK/Mike and Yvonne/Chloe, who were 1st and 2nd in the previous leg, and are now racing to avoid elimination (!)
5. Y/C are first to arrive at the square, but JK/Mike are coming fast, and by the time Y/C get their pitstop clue they're only Y/C a few seconds ahead (!) Then JK/Mike overtake Y/C on the way to the pitstop, before Y/C then take a left earlier than JK/Mike, who have apparently been told that a certain building is the pitstop... and it turns out they've been misinformed, as Y/C's early left turn leads them to the pitstop while JK/Mike find themselves at a nondescript warehouse building (!) In their final confessional, Mike says he wouldn't change a thing about the race, with JK noting the exception of turning left :-)
Ep 9:
1. We open with a 14-hour train ride to Bunyawangi for a HOH-bunched stop at a coffee shop for a clue pick-up... We find out Eric/Rona are Mormons and aren't allowed to drink coffee, so the coffee guy just serves them water, before heading off to the top of a volcano...
2. It's one heck of a walk: Rona can't feel her left toe at one point (and even tongue in cheek suggests using it as a new hashtag :-D), while the climb is making Parul reconsider her personal dream of climbing Everest, and Yvonne sprained her knee sometime ago (the Singapore leg, she reckons) and so struggles mightily for much of the leg...
3. There's a Yield at the top of the mountain, which Parul/Maggie issue to T/L, before a Roadblock: "Who's ready to crush it?" (We're given that Louisa has to do this one) It involves crushing yellow sulfur rocks down to smaller size... and they have to do it in sulfur-infested air, wearing dust cloths over their mouths (!) Yvonne trips while dragging her load, so that leg's going to be an issue going forward...
4. Coming up is a Detour between Dragon Horse (decorate a horse traditional for a wedding procession... including making knots in the proper fashion) and Human Bull (run around guys dressed up as bulls to deposit rice chaff in a basket... and they're pretty rough [!]) And there's a U-Turn before the Detour, which gets used on T/L again (!)
5. Only two teams may do the horses at once, and since both Phillipines teams are already doing it, Yvonne/Chloe have to do the bull task (which won't be good for Yvonne's leg), and after briefly checking on how long the horses may take (quite long), decide on using the tactic of using one player to distract the bulls while the other is putting the chaff in the basket... In fact, even with T/L's Yield, T/L (also using the same strategy) still finish the bull task before Y/C, and would not be U-Turnable under regular circumstances :-/
6. Last task before the pitstop is at a coffee refinery and involves pouring a sack of coffee beans on the floor and looking for red painted beans that spell out the word "Pit Stop"... I've been watching long enough to remember when the Gaghan mother was stymied on a similar task in Panama (S8, aka the "Family Edition") And yes, we do get a "needle in a haystack" comment :-)
7. Pit stop in a cabin in the forest, and Eric/Rona take the win, while T/L are the season's final elimination :-\ (becoming the 3rd team this season, and 2nd in as many legs, to be eliminated the leg immediately after winning)
Ep 10:
1. Everyone's heading to Bali via overnight ferry for the final leg... First task involves decorating a traditional ceremonial pole and carrying it to the next clue-pickup, and it's quite a walk...
2. Next, each contestant is to climb a pole to retrieve one marked prize each (another local tradition), which wouldn't look out of place on Survivor, and which probably won't be good for Yvonne's legs...
3. The next task is at a beach, and unusually for TAR, Balinese cabbies apparently don't drive faster even when offered extra money :-) Next task involves tying up a rig to a sailboat and then sailing out into shallow waters to look for a TAR-marked lobster trap... Eric is trying to match how the example sailboat's rig is tied up to the smallest detail, but this time his attention to detail is unnecessary since there's no judge for this task (!), just rig it up and go into the water... Hilariously, after retrieving their trap, E/R's boat is full of water (nothing to do with a badly-tied rig BTW; no one's rig falls off or anything)
4. Next stop is a shrine. E/R drop firmly to last by their inability to find a cab... and one that knows the location of the shrine at that (!!) And while E/R are trying to find a cab, there's a shot in which a bug is crawling on the camera lens :-D
5. Final Roadblock at the shrine: "Who's got things in order?" It's the obligatory memory task, and it involves placing marked coconuts corresponding to something from each given leg, the pitstop location, and the eliminated team, into the corresponding hole on a table (meant to resemble a traditional game) The real problem for the contestants is that some of the coconuts are actually dummies... Although Parul/Maggie finished the lobster traps and got themselves a cab before Y/C, Y/C end up arriving at the shrine first (!) It's mainly a duel between the top two teams, while Rona, after several attempts, comments on the messed up pictures on the coconuts and the judge's scary smile :-D
6. Eventually, after throwing out the dummy coconuts with pictures of snakes and bananas, Parul/Maggie get their clue for the final pitstop at some really big monument at an intersection, and after the usual alternate cutting between them and Yvonne/Chloe (the latter trying to get their cabbie to drive like an F1 driver :-D) Parul/Maggie are the winners of the $100k grand prize :-) In their post-win confessional, P/M brag about how probably no one expected much out of a pair of models, then go on about how Parul's father had a stroke, and this money will help him... Y/C are in second, and while they confess that it'd be more awesome to win, they're quite content with never having been eliminated, and E/R finish in 3rd with a confessional about how much they support each other... and we finish on Parul/Maggie saying they'll talk about it for decades :-)
Ep 6:
1. This week we're in the Phillipines, and there's a task in which all the teams run around a neighborhood in Manila to buy various things, for donation to the Red Cross office in the suburbs (one of their recipents is missing his arms!) Then followed by a Roadblock, in which contestants go on ziplines and try to drop a flour bomb on a target... essentially, a planeless version of this task :-)
2. Detour in Vigan City, between stuffing sausages on a horse carriage and karaoke... Local team Eric/Rona admit in a confessional that they chose to do karaoke since, basically, it's the Phillipines :-) And since the song is in Tagalog, they've got a bit of a home advantage :-)
3. Meanwhile at the other Detour with the other local team, Parul(/Maggie) is great at sewing from her medical experience, so she sews up the sausages real good, while Anita/Tom (Thailand) are so terrible at it, Anita comments on Tom "having his period" while he's complaining, and becoming a vegetarian after they're done...
4. Pitstop is at a belltower on the outskirts of town, where JK/Mike (Singapore) come out of nowhere to take their first win, and quip about finishing either first or last in the next leg (keep this in mind for the next two legs ;-)) while the Thai team get the chop...
Ep 7:
1. Next stop, Singapore, and first stop is the aquarium at Sentosa Resort World for a two-person Roadblock: One goes down into the aquarium to grab a card with the name of a fish, while the other tries to get the picture of the fish in question. Indonesia's Treasuri/Louisa (but Trez calls her partner "Fan") get three wrong answers in a row and have to wait their next turn (the only team this happens to), while later, two different teams alternate guesses...
2. Next stop is a viewing area at Gardens by the Bay from which teams are to look for a flag via binoculars, two pairs of which are provided for teams. Yvonne/Chloe essentially get JK/Mike to help them find the flag, and it's a ridiculously tiny thing near the top of the OUE building. Hilariously, Parul/Maggie apparently spot the viewpoint from the crew people swarming the area and have to wait their turn :-D
3. Eric/Rona end up deciding that the next location is the UOB building... Uh-oh... and even though they also have their own binoculars, they get quite snippy when they can't find the flag and threaten to go back to the viewomg point... They're well in last place when they pretty much stumble on to the clue after heading to the OUE on a hunch...
4. Next stop is the parking lot building of the Singapore Turf Club... for a non-equine Detour (HUH.) Instead, we've got remote controlled skateboards (that go really slowly in order to allow the less skateboard-savvy contestants to make the required turns [while holding a plate of cans!]) and drones (in which contestants have to land their drone on a helmet, shades of a Fast Forward from one of the more recent US seasons)
5. Pit stop is on a boat, and in a nice twist, teams may board it from any one of three different piers depending on where it happens to be :-) JK/Mike get a hometown first place and JK laments not being able to talk to his wife about it right now... while Eric/Rona are well in last, and it takes Allan Wu what feels like forever talking about how much they support each other :-/ before the other shoe drops that this is a non-elim :-)
Ep 8:
1. Back to Indonesia, whose tourism agency is sponsoring the show, and offering a co-host Tara Basro, for the rest of the race :-) This week's stop is Yogyakarta, in which the first task is a rope walking Roadblock: walking across a rope and climb down a rope ladder to retrieve a clue and return without falling... but first, Eric/Rona's Speedbump involves drinking some herbal concoction blindfolded, and guessing which bottle it is... and they guess right in one go :-O
2. Back to the Roadblock, two teams can try it at the same time, at the risk of having to either redo the task or take a 2-hour penalty after falling... Sure enough, JK falls during the return leg (screaming many profanities, many of which don't get beeped out :-D) while Parul is transferring to the ladder, and only decides to redo the task after everyone else is done... And even without the "interference", it can't have been healthy for JK's arms having to go out and hold his hands up on the rope again, and his lack of speed doesn't help :-/
3. Next stop is a temple for a Roadblock: "Who recognizes Divine Order?" Memorize the names and locations of various Hindu god(desse)s and place them on a map of the temple, which requires the typical lots of running and searching and stuff, and Maggie even wonders if she should switch boards at one point (Parul: "That's when I realized she lost her mind") After that is an archery task, and let's face it, shooting an arrow to hit a target at what looks to be at least 50 ft is pretty hard... and both have to hit one shot each (!)
4. Next task involves pedal cars decorated with tons of colorful lights :-) Pick up a local, take them for a ride around the local square, then pick up a clue to head to the pitstop... Trez/Lou get a win on home turf, while the more interesting race is between JK/Mike and Yvonne/Chloe, who were 1st and 2nd in the previous leg, and are now racing to avoid elimination (!)
5. Y/C are first to arrive at the square, but JK/Mike are coming fast, and by the time Y/C get their pitstop clue they're only Y/C a few seconds ahead (!) Then JK/Mike overtake Y/C on the way to the pitstop, before Y/C then take a left earlier than JK/Mike, who have apparently been told that a certain building is the pitstop... and it turns out they've been misinformed, as Y/C's early left turn leads them to the pitstop while JK/Mike find themselves at a nondescript warehouse building (!) In their final confessional, Mike says he wouldn't change a thing about the race, with JK noting the exception of turning left :-)
Ep 9:
1. We open with a 14-hour train ride to Bunyawangi for a HOH-bunched stop at a coffee shop for a clue pick-up... We find out Eric/Rona are Mormons and aren't allowed to drink coffee, so the coffee guy just serves them water, before heading off to the top of a volcano...
2. It's one heck of a walk: Rona can't feel her left toe at one point (and even tongue in cheek suggests using it as a new hashtag :-D), while the climb is making Parul reconsider her personal dream of climbing Everest, and Yvonne sprained her knee sometime ago (the Singapore leg, she reckons) and so struggles mightily for much of the leg...
3. There's a Yield at the top of the mountain, which Parul/Maggie issue to T/L, before a Roadblock: "Who's ready to crush it?" (We're given that Louisa has to do this one) It involves crushing yellow sulfur rocks down to smaller size... and they have to do it in sulfur-infested air, wearing dust cloths over their mouths (!) Yvonne trips while dragging her load, so that leg's going to be an issue going forward...
4. Coming up is a Detour between Dragon Horse (decorate a horse traditional for a wedding procession... including making knots in the proper fashion) and Human Bull (run around guys dressed up as bulls to deposit rice chaff in a basket... and they're pretty rough [!]) And there's a U-Turn before the Detour, which gets used on T/L again (!)
5. Only two teams may do the horses at once, and since both Phillipines teams are already doing it, Yvonne/Chloe have to do the bull task (which won't be good for Yvonne's leg), and after briefly checking on how long the horses may take (quite long), decide on using the tactic of using one player to distract the bulls while the other is putting the chaff in the basket... In fact, even with T/L's Yield, T/L (also using the same strategy) still finish the bull task before Y/C, and would not be U-Turnable under regular circumstances :-/
6. Last task before the pitstop is at a coffee refinery and involves pouring a sack of coffee beans on the floor and looking for red painted beans that spell out the word "Pit Stop"... I've been watching long enough to remember when the Gaghan mother was stymied on a similar task in Panama (S8, aka the "Family Edition") And yes, we do get a "needle in a haystack" comment :-)
7. Pit stop in a cabin in the forest, and Eric/Rona take the win, while T/L are the season's final elimination :-\ (becoming the 3rd team this season, and 2nd in as many legs, to be eliminated the leg immediately after winning)
Ep 10:
1. Everyone's heading to Bali via overnight ferry for the final leg... First task involves decorating a traditional ceremonial pole and carrying it to the next clue-pickup, and it's quite a walk...
2. Next, each contestant is to climb a pole to retrieve one marked prize each (another local tradition), which wouldn't look out of place on Survivor, and which probably won't be good for Yvonne's legs...
3. The next task is at a beach, and unusually for TAR, Balinese cabbies apparently don't drive faster even when offered extra money :-) Next task involves tying up a rig to a sailboat and then sailing out into shallow waters to look for a TAR-marked lobster trap... Eric is trying to match how the example sailboat's rig is tied up to the smallest detail, but this time his attention to detail is unnecessary since there's no judge for this task (!), just rig it up and go into the water... Hilariously, after retrieving their trap, E/R's boat is full of water (nothing to do with a badly-tied rig BTW; no one's rig falls off or anything)
4. Next stop is a shrine. E/R drop firmly to last by their inability to find a cab... and one that knows the location of the shrine at that (!!) And while E/R are trying to find a cab, there's a shot in which a bug is crawling on the camera lens :-D
5. Final Roadblock at the shrine: "Who's got things in order?" It's the obligatory memory task, and it involves placing marked coconuts corresponding to something from each given leg, the pitstop location, and the eliminated team, into the corresponding hole on a table (meant to resemble a traditional game) The real problem for the contestants is that some of the coconuts are actually dummies... Although Parul/Maggie finished the lobster traps and got themselves a cab before Y/C, Y/C end up arriving at the shrine first (!) It's mainly a duel between the top two teams, while Rona, after several attempts, comments on the messed up pictures on the coconuts and the judge's scary smile :-D
6. Eventually, after throwing out the dummy coconuts with pictures of snakes and bananas, Parul/Maggie get their clue for the final pitstop at some really big monument at an intersection, and after the usual alternate cutting between them and Yvonne/Chloe (the latter trying to get their cabbie to drive like an F1 driver :-D) Parul/Maggie are the winners of the $100k grand prize :-) In their post-win confessional, P/M brag about how probably no one expected much out of a pair of models, then go on about how Parul's father had a stroke, and this money will help him... Y/C are in second, and while they confess that it'd be more awesome to win, they're quite content with never having been eliminated, and E/R finish in 3rd with a confessional about how much they support each other... and we finish on Parul/Maggie saying they'll talk about it for decades :-)
