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spiderbraids) wrote2024-07-07 10:14 pm
spiderbraids) wrote2024-07-07 10:14 pm
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The Amazing (backtrack to the previous) Race 35: Episodes 1-4
Just weeks after the conclusion of TAR36 in our region, I noticed TAR on the EPG one day, with no indication of season, which traditionally means the first season, but surely local broadcaster wouldn't have held on to their tapes (or what have they) of that first season more than 20 years after the last time they showed it, and surely they weren't going to show something shot on SD videotape in 2024... But I also surmised that surely it couldn't be 35 either, since that season was specifically designed for 90 minute broadcasts (according to Reality Blurred, "the show's producers planned episodes to fill 90 minutes"), and they were only scheduling it for an hour, and for that same reason, it also wasn't going to be reruns of 36 (I was secretly hoping for 34, since there were a few eps I never got to fully watch the back half of) Well, the day before I caught parts of ep 1, I managed to catch part of a promo showing scenes from the race in full HD (so, not S1), with a text caption saying 38,300km, 9 countries, 3 continents, which seemed to suggest that, despite the 60 minute timeslot, they were airing 35 (shot after 36), and sure enough, tuning in I noticed that the text next to the ID indeed said it was TAR35, which feels like there's some sort of contractual obligation going on here...
Ep 1
- Phil Keoghan introduces the monumental (his words) 35th season of TAR from the Hollywood sign (celebrating its 100th anniversary) before revealing to the teams that they're keeping eliminations on all legs like last season, and that there's an Express Pass, and a mandatory vote U-Turn... and the first sign of what's going on with this season's broadcast is a somewhat shorter montage of contestants in their cars jazzed up for the race, and the title sequence being truncated out, even in ep 1 :-\ Of course we get the intro packages during the course of racing, for example, Rob and Corey are father-son, and Corey is a Child Of Deaf Adult (CODA for short, just like the Oscar-winning movie), Liam and Yeremi are siblings from divorced parents, while best friends Joel and Garrett (and one of them has a really long beard LOL) fell in love with the race since it was airing on the Armed Forces Network, which got them through their 18 months in Iraq :-) And as mentioned in my first post for 36, there are 3 parent-child teams :-)
- After Philly friends Andrea/Malaina quip about not getting to record themselves being at the Hollywood sign and having terrible memory to remember it (followed of course by their intro package), first stop is the Biltmore hotel, for a stateside Roadblock called "Who wants to be above it all?": Walk tightrope across a building gap, and then solve a fill-in-the blanks with given letters puzzle on a billboard... Joe/Ian are talking of how the adrenaline rush is making his mind blank, and I be like "Hey, I'm here and I can't figure this out either" Anyways, thanks to the long gap between "last" season and shooting this one, this season can incorporate S34's events, so teams will get the clue from Derek and Claire, winners of S34 :-) Sibs Alexandra/Sheridan take forever to decide who takes the RB LOL.
- Texan father Steve is describing his daughter Annaleigh as a spider-monkey as she's climbing across the tightrope... We'll later learn in their intro package that Steve considers Annaleigh the son he never had, and she's learned the stuff that sons normally would learn, like shooting a gun :-) Anyways, brothers/computer programmers Greg/John are first to get the answer: "City of Angels" along with a clue to fly to the other City of Angels, AKA Bangkok, Thailand, marking a return to East Asia for the first time since the pandemic, and even more so as a first leg... Corey is next to get it (with help from a local interpreter), while the rest of the contestants are logjammed at the billboard, with Joe(/Ian, only engaged team this season) here for 50 minutes, before eventually the jam eventually clears up with teams passing the answer to each other in exchange for being earlier in line to answer :-)
- At LAX, Greg/John reveal they've also practiced ASL online, and get a small convo with Rob/Corey going :-) And just like old times, teams have been split into two flights :-) First 6 get to ride China Airlines, 90 minutes ahead of the rest on EVA Air :-) First stop in Bangkok is a clue pickup at Paknam Temple on the west side of the river, with a tall golden Buddha statue that Phil claims you can't miss on the skyline (which turns out to be the one I've featured in a recent Spidersnaps, having seen it on an alternate route :-)) Asian couple Jocelyn/Victor are riding the cab, and Vic even speaks Thai to the cabbie :-) Turns out the temple is where teams can attempt to get the Express Pass... by eating one plate of bugs (each!) Sisters Morgan/Lena get down to eating bugs, and the Philly friends look into it and be like no way, LOL. By the time anyone else is looking into it, Morgan/Lena are already done :-)
- A trip to another temple via longboat to pick up the clue for the Detour, between Spa Day and Sword Play, the former of which involves enduring 30 minutes of really painful massage at this particular massage joint without asking them to stop, and the latter involves learning a sword dancing routine at "Sarom Park" (Philly friends Andrea/Malaina are the first team to do Sword Play, quipping that they're doing it because they're sore today :-)) Asian-looking couple Jocelyn/Victor are doing massage, quipping that it's easier than giving birth in a bathroom (how specific :-)) while deaf dad Rob mugs for the camera :-D Jo/Vic later even quip about "serving pretzels" while being bent really hard LOL. Joel/Garrett have a quip about longboats: "This boat is long, is that why they call 'em longboats?" "If not, then it's a good nickname" :-) At massage, couple Todd/Ashley fall foul of the "no stopping" rule and get roughly 45 minutes instead of just 30, which is just as well since Todd says he's pretty stiff at the start of attempt #1 :-)
- Pitstop is at this temple, which turns out to be pretty far from either Detour :-\ First leg winner is Jocelyn/Victor, getting an Expedia trip to Patagonia: Biking in Punta Arenas! Penguins! Torres del Paine! Followed closely by Rob/Corey, with father making his heartfelt statement via ASL :-)
- Swords: Philly practice with bamboo sticks at first, but it turns out the swords for the actual performance are like 15-20 lbs heavier than the sticks (their claims), so they fail the task pretty quickly... Their names get shown after they fail and decide to switch, which feels like perhaps this was coming out of a commercial originally? (Given the show's apparently been cut down by about 30%, I'm somewhat more attuned to look for hints of edits beyond jumps in the BGM cues...) They arrive at the massage parlor and get going, and we also learn when mother-daughter Elizabeth/Iliana arrive at the parlor (after getting directions in Chinatown) that there are only 5 masseuses available, forcing them to wait :-\ Meanwhile Alexandra/Sheridan and Joe/Ian are doing swords :-)
- Coming up to the business end, Elizabeth/Iliana and Alexandra/Sheridan are duking it out for the last spot in the next leg, with mom/daughter doing spa, and sibs doing swords... While noticing the sibs' attempt count get to 7, my mom thought that the adjucators should be a bit more lenient considering that the contestants are foreigners, but considering that Joe/Ian nailed it first go, I wouldn't really agree with that :-\ Sibs get it done at 9 attempts, a bit after mom/daughter finish with the massage, and this segment, as aired by local broadcaster, seems to really show up the snipping that clearly needed to be done: After Joe/Ian get their pitstop clue, there's a few seconds of Bangkok scenery before showing the sibs' first attempt, and after cutting away to watch the other team getting massaged, it just jumps from the sibs' first attempt to #7 :-\ Then when Elizabeth/Iliana arrive at the pitstop with worried expressions, Phil Keoghan is immediately heard to say "...because you're not the last team to arrive", and Iliana's comments about Phil's poker face (her words) don't seem to read as well since it seems it's hardly been left in :-\ Anyways, with Elizabeth/Iliana scraping through, that means Alexandra/Sheridan are the first boot, and as short as it was, they're thankful for getting to participate in a show they've been fans of since they were young :-) Meanwhile, local broadcaster has restored Jerry Bruckheimer's credit to before the last commercial :-)
Ep 2:
- We're staying in Thailand, but the action moves west to Salaya, in Bangkok's western neighboring province of Nakhon Pathom, with cabs aplenty :-) First stop is Suwanaram Temple for a Roadblock for lotus flower arrangement caled "Who has a green thumb?" requiring contestants to ride a boat to the working area, go into a lake and grab lotuses and then arrange them into proper bouquet... as well as requiring the other contestant to remain at the temple, resulting in contestants await returning boats to see who's just completed the task... The adjugator is rather finicky with her requirements such that Jocelyn takes 12 attempts to get the right kind of flowers, arrange them properly, put the lotus leaf around the flowers properly, and tie up the bamboo rope properly, such that she feels she's a shame on Victor's family, since they've been doing it for generations... and yet after all that she's still in 1st (!) Texan Steve also takes 12 attempts, while Ashlie gets it on their 15th attempt (Meanwhile, Greg/John's arrival at the temple is delayed by going to the wrong temple at first :-\)
- Next stop is a clue pick up at Rai Khing Temple for a Detour between Stock Up and Scoop Up: Former is one of those local language shopping tasks, replete with a phonetic item list, at the Donwai Temple market; latter involves rowing a boat along waterways to scoop pomelos into the boat to fill five large baskets... Phil Keoghan notes that the locals of the nearby town of Nakhon Pathom nickname their town the "sweet pomelo town" :-) Jo/Vic have a secret weapon for the shopping task: Vic is from Laos, whose language is similar to north Thai accent, and he's been selling most of the stuff on his list since he was a teen (!) They pretty thoroughly ace the task to get a clue for the Pitstop at Suan Sampran, while Rob/Corey finish the pomelos in 2nd place, so it's going to come down to a cab race, and Jo/Vic hope to give Phil a sweaty hug LOL!
- Jo/Vic proudly proclaim they love Thailand, though thankfully sparing Phil the sweaty hug :-) as they claim first and $2000 each, with Rob/Corey in 2nd... Meanwhile, Greg/John are doing the pomelos, and Garrett get the lotuses done after 6 attempts, but mid-cabride to the next clue pickup they realize that Joel's left the fanny pack behind and have to double back to get it, prompting them to quip "Show doesnt create drama, we created it ourselves" :-) Morgan/Lena also join G/J for pomelos, and they compare the boat ride to a nice ride at Disney... while G/J fall into the water LOL.
- The final two contestants at the Roadblock are Malaine from Philly, getting the lotuses done after 11, followed by Robbin(/Chelsea, friends) taking 16 goes... Todd/Ashley take the shopping task, and naturally, the team gets to butcher the Thai words, like pronouncing the word for duck egg as "kai buh-pet" and coconut sugar as "Nam tan ma fro" :-) One that really trips them up is "Brawk koe lee", which turns out to be exactly what they initially assume it is: broccoli, and they call it a "pumpfake" :-) (Another list item is "Look ka noon", or jackfruit, which while Thais have been eating it for centuries, Americans have only recently discovered it as a pulled pork substitute for, say, vegan sliders :-)) Over at pomelos, some waterpaths have tons of fruit floating in the streamway, and teams lucky enough to find one think they've come upon a mother lode... Steve/Annaleigh stock up on one of these, and end up sinking after taking on too many pomelo LOL. Next we see of them, they're already delivering 3 of their 5 baskets, potentially another casualty of the 60 minute edit :-\
- During a break in the show, I saw a local broadcaster promo showing Phil Keoghan calling the race "bigger than ever", but I'm pretty sure he was referring to the expanded runtime, which since they're showing a 60 minute edit, doesn't make sense to leave in :-\ Anyways, Philly is doing shopping, and Elizabeth/Iliana find themselves dropped off at the market, so end up doing that as well... Eventually, Elizabeth/Iliana are missing one item at the check, and have to go through the whole list to determine which one it is (it's "Look thu rian", i.e. durian) At one point they remove the coconut sugar thinking it's peanut butter (That said, the semblance is similar, but it seems like nothing comes of the removal, at least in the 60 minute edit) Meanwhile, Philly get it done first go :-)
- After a quip in which Joel/Garrett refer to Suan Sampran as San Juan Sampran LOL before finishing 9th, it comes down to Robbin/Chelsea, who have moved up to 11th after pomelos, and Elizabeth/Iliana, who get their clue in last after having to get the durian... Robbin/Chelsea edge the mother/daughter out of the race, and in their exit interview Elizabeth calls Iliana a "Mini me" adding that it "p!sses me off sometimes" LOL.
Ep 3
- Next stop, Vietnam, and first a stop at a travel agency to get tix to Ho Chi Minh (Dad noticed a Bangkok bus in the footage and said it looked like one of "our" buses, LOL because it is :-)) Unlike the last few seasons, teams have to arrange their own tix, resulting in teams split up on 3 flights, at 1:50, 3:00 (actually was originally about the same time, but was delayed to 3), and 7:50pm, prompting racers to comment that this is old school TAR :-) The travel agent is actually skeptical of some teams' ability to make the 1:50 flights, as it's roughly 9-10am as they're getting tickets :-\
- Dad commented at this point that they wouldn't be able to do anything with a night flight; sure enough, the flights are followed by a bus ride to Can Tho (Joe/Ian and Joel/Garrett ride fancy sleeper buses there LOL), and a run to a nearby pier, where teams are then split into three groups separated by 15 minutes starting 5:45... The biggest coup is the Texans Steve/Annaleigh finding a 5:45 departure in the box that otherwise appears to be all 6:00 departures, much to Jo/Vic's frustration, since they arrived before the Texans and thought there were only 6am's :-\
- First task is at a water market: Deliver fruit to three marked boats (dragon fruit, tangerine, melons) and get a piece of the picture of the next clue pickup :-) Todd gets to quip about his basketball skills while passing the fruit along to the vendors, while Liam/Yeremi have eaten dragon fruit before :-) The real issue is that there are limited spots, like 2, to deliver for each boat, resulting in teams having to wait in line for their turn to deliver their loads, or in the case of Joe/Ian, to receive their clue piece after forgetting to take it after their delivery :-\ (Meanwhile, Morgan/Lena use the Express Pass)
- The clue pick up is some guy waiting at the pier with the clues in a tackle box :-) It's a Detour between Paper and Plastic (LOL!) Paper actually involves making rice paper, aka "Hu Tieu", while Plastic involves wrapping a piece of a motorcycle body in vinyl wrap, both of which are near each other, and of course accompanied by demonstrations :-) Morgan/Lena are comparing the vinyl wrap to saran wrap (and end up having to do it over a few times :-\), while Joel/Garrett are watching the rice paper procedure, comparing it to making a crepe and calling the part where they have to use a big wooden cylinder to take it off a cool technique :-) Texans quip they might move to 'Nam and sell rice paper LOL, while over at Vinyl, one of Joe/Ian has done vinyl wrap with his dad, while one of Liam/Yeremi always wanted to do a car wrap :-)
- Texans are first to get the clue, and the next pitstop is Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery... This I had to Google, and a quick Google of the signage at the "Paper" side of the Detour reveals they were doing this task here... At the task there are 5 stoves, first come first served, so Philly will have to wait until someone finishes or switches over to plastic, and they decide to watch the demo (meanwhile, Todd/Ashlie use a small piece of paper to assist with taking the rice paper off the oven)
- Texans are 1st, and it turns out to be a follow-on leg, where the next clue pick up is at a cafe, with 5500 VND added to their coffers... which is actually less than a quarter :-\ Back at Detours, Liam/Yeremi quip they'll spit shine their work with their sweat LOL, and Philly get to work on the rice paper, making extra just in case (good idea :-)) and end up from jumping last to 7th (!) Robbin/Chelsea get a nice following shot for their 5th place check-in, while Morgan/Lena were already in 5th after finishing with "Plastic", and at the monastery, they're stunned to finish in 6th, since they expected to get higher after the Express Pass :-\ At the back end, Jo/Vic are in 10th, but Phil considers they can still keep their record of finishing first in the first two legs because of the follow-on, while L/Y literally arrive seconds later, and also get the next clue instead of elimination (yep, an old-style two-ep megaleg, with both parts originally 90 minutes [!])
Ep 4
- Still in Can Tho, where the cafe is a pickup for a Detour clue: Stand (set up a seafood stand to match the finished example) or Deliver (four mattresses to a hotel room) Todd/Ash have moved house a lot, so are doing Deliver, and Joel/Garrett (aka the Beard Bros, tm the Texans) are doing Deliver as well, and help Todd/Ash and Rob/Corey lead to the hotel :-) Over at Stand, Annaleigh is freaked at the living seafood they have to pickup to fill their stand, and quips: "We love seafood but not this kind" :-) Texans have two bins switched at first check and eventually switch them, but there's also the matter of eels in a bowl below the bins that are missing that they take a bit to notice
- Deliver has Todd quipping "Beep beep, we're the Roadrunner" :-D, while Stand has Greg/John singing while handling fish LOL. Weird cut with Joe/Ian dropping a mattress (almost right into a incoming motorbike!), to a bird eye shot of street, to them picking it up and carrying it differently, probably resulting from the 60 minute edit :-\ Anyways, Texans are first with their stand, getting a clue to head to Ong Pagoda, make a wish and have it hung to get the next clue... Of course they wish for 1st place, and their next stop will be the Hùng King Temple (really, it's called that, that's why I included the accent)... Joel/Garrett are expecting most to wish for 1st so they decide to wish for health for their families... It also turns out their kids snuck letters into their race bags, telling them to open on a good day, and decide today's such a day :-)
- Texans remain first arriving at the temple, and a Roadblock: Who wants to play matchmaker? In this case, it's to match a given picture to a single unique red tile out of thousands, then check in at mat... Turns out there are tiles that only subtly differ in minor details, like 2 hairs/antennae vs 3, or the way the head is facing... Also turns out most of the teams don't actually wish for first at Ong Pagoda: Todd wants to see one new country every year of his life, Rob/Corey wish for world peace, and Liam/Yeremi just want to race to the end :-)
- Chelsea (starting the RB in 4th or whereabouts) has been training for this kind of RB w/ daughter... and ends up winning the leg for Robbin/Chelsea, along with a trip to Madrid: Flamenco! Real Madrid Stadium! Cooking! Tapas and wine! Joining them on the mat in order are the Texans, Todd/Ash, Joe/Ian, and Rob/Corey; why they felt like having all these first 5 teams on the mat at once is beyond me :-\
- Back at Ong Pagoda, Philly are last place, and making a wish to win the leg, little late for that LOL... and then at the RB, Philly repeat their part 1 performance by jumping from last to 7th LOL! though they only get their placement announced when they're on the mat alongside Liam/Yeremi (6th) and Greg/John (8th) Mat is empty again for the Beards finishing in 9th... and in a race to avoid elimination between the winner of the first two legs and the team that got the Express Pass, Morgan/Lena get 10th, so that leaves Jo/Vic to be eliminated, making it the first first-to-last at such an early stage in quite a while, and even if one was willing to claim it was over two episodes, they were only two minutes ahead of last at the start of part 2 :-\ Vic blames his performance at the RB, but it's really more a function of effectively starting the leg in 5th, and then having trouble getting to and from the rice paper factory in part 1, since they stayed no higher than 10th afterwards :-\
Ep 1
- Phil Keoghan introduces the monumental (his words) 35th season of TAR from the Hollywood sign (celebrating its 100th anniversary) before revealing to the teams that they're keeping eliminations on all legs like last season, and that there's an Express Pass, and a mandatory vote U-Turn... and the first sign of what's going on with this season's broadcast is a somewhat shorter montage of contestants in their cars jazzed up for the race, and the title sequence being truncated out, even in ep 1 :-\ Of course we get the intro packages during the course of racing, for example, Rob and Corey are father-son, and Corey is a Child Of Deaf Adult (CODA for short, just like the Oscar-winning movie), Liam and Yeremi are siblings from divorced parents, while best friends Joel and Garrett (and one of them has a really long beard LOL) fell in love with the race since it was airing on the Armed Forces Network, which got them through their 18 months in Iraq :-) And as mentioned in my first post for 36, there are 3 parent-child teams :-)
- After Philly friends Andrea/Malaina quip about not getting to record themselves being at the Hollywood sign and having terrible memory to remember it (followed of course by their intro package), first stop is the Biltmore hotel, for a stateside Roadblock called "Who wants to be above it all?": Walk tightrope across a building gap, and then solve a fill-in-the blanks with given letters puzzle on a billboard... Joe/Ian are talking of how the adrenaline rush is making his mind blank, and I be like "Hey, I'm here and I can't figure this out either" Anyways, thanks to the long gap between "last" season and shooting this one, this season can incorporate S34's events, so teams will get the clue from Derek and Claire, winners of S34 :-) Sibs Alexandra/Sheridan take forever to decide who takes the RB LOL.
- Texan father Steve is describing his daughter Annaleigh as a spider-monkey as she's climbing across the tightrope... We'll later learn in their intro package that Steve considers Annaleigh the son he never had, and she's learned the stuff that sons normally would learn, like shooting a gun :-) Anyways, brothers/computer programmers Greg/John are first to get the answer: "City of Angels" along with a clue to fly to the other City of Angels, AKA Bangkok, Thailand, marking a return to East Asia for the first time since the pandemic, and even more so as a first leg... Corey is next to get it (with help from a local interpreter), while the rest of the contestants are logjammed at the billboard, with Joe(/Ian, only engaged team this season) here for 50 minutes, before eventually the jam eventually clears up with teams passing the answer to each other in exchange for being earlier in line to answer :-)
- At LAX, Greg/John reveal they've also practiced ASL online, and get a small convo with Rob/Corey going :-) And just like old times, teams have been split into two flights :-) First 6 get to ride China Airlines, 90 minutes ahead of the rest on EVA Air :-) First stop in Bangkok is a clue pickup at Paknam Temple on the west side of the river, with a tall golden Buddha statue that Phil claims you can't miss on the skyline (which turns out to be the one I've featured in a recent Spidersnaps, having seen it on an alternate route :-)) Asian couple Jocelyn/Victor are riding the cab, and Vic even speaks Thai to the cabbie :-) Turns out the temple is where teams can attempt to get the Express Pass... by eating one plate of bugs (each!) Sisters Morgan/Lena get down to eating bugs, and the Philly friends look into it and be like no way, LOL. By the time anyone else is looking into it, Morgan/Lena are already done :-)
- A trip to another temple via longboat to pick up the clue for the Detour, between Spa Day and Sword Play, the former of which involves enduring 30 minutes of really painful massage at this particular massage joint without asking them to stop, and the latter involves learning a sword dancing routine at "Sarom Park" (Philly friends Andrea/Malaina are the first team to do Sword Play, quipping that they're doing it because they're sore today :-)) Asian-looking couple Jocelyn/Victor are doing massage, quipping that it's easier than giving birth in a bathroom (how specific :-)) while deaf dad Rob mugs for the camera :-D Jo/Vic later even quip about "serving pretzels" while being bent really hard LOL. Joel/Garrett have a quip about longboats: "This boat is long, is that why they call 'em longboats?" "If not, then it's a good nickname" :-) At massage, couple Todd/Ashley fall foul of the "no stopping" rule and get roughly 45 minutes instead of just 30, which is just as well since Todd says he's pretty stiff at the start of attempt #1 :-)
- Pitstop is at this temple, which turns out to be pretty far from either Detour :-\ First leg winner is Jocelyn/Victor, getting an Expedia trip to Patagonia: Biking in Punta Arenas! Penguins! Torres del Paine! Followed closely by Rob/Corey, with father making his heartfelt statement via ASL :-)
- Swords: Philly practice with bamboo sticks at first, but it turns out the swords for the actual performance are like 15-20 lbs heavier than the sticks (their claims), so they fail the task pretty quickly... Their names get shown after they fail and decide to switch, which feels like perhaps this was coming out of a commercial originally? (Given the show's apparently been cut down by about 30%, I'm somewhat more attuned to look for hints of edits beyond jumps in the BGM cues...) They arrive at the massage parlor and get going, and we also learn when mother-daughter Elizabeth/Iliana arrive at the parlor (after getting directions in Chinatown) that there are only 5 masseuses available, forcing them to wait :-\ Meanwhile Alexandra/Sheridan and Joe/Ian are doing swords :-)
- Coming up to the business end, Elizabeth/Iliana and Alexandra/Sheridan are duking it out for the last spot in the next leg, with mom/daughter doing spa, and sibs doing swords... While noticing the sibs' attempt count get to 7, my mom thought that the adjucators should be a bit more lenient considering that the contestants are foreigners, but considering that Joe/Ian nailed it first go, I wouldn't really agree with that :-\ Sibs get it done at 9 attempts, a bit after mom/daughter finish with the massage, and this segment, as aired by local broadcaster, seems to really show up the snipping that clearly needed to be done: After Joe/Ian get their pitstop clue, there's a few seconds of Bangkok scenery before showing the sibs' first attempt, and after cutting away to watch the other team getting massaged, it just jumps from the sibs' first attempt to #7 :-\ Then when Elizabeth/Iliana arrive at the pitstop with worried expressions, Phil Keoghan is immediately heard to say "...because you're not the last team to arrive", and Iliana's comments about Phil's poker face (her words) don't seem to read as well since it seems it's hardly been left in :-\ Anyways, with Elizabeth/Iliana scraping through, that means Alexandra/Sheridan are the first boot, and as short as it was, they're thankful for getting to participate in a show they've been fans of since they were young :-) Meanwhile, local broadcaster has restored Jerry Bruckheimer's credit to before the last commercial :-)
Ep 2:
- We're staying in Thailand, but the action moves west to Salaya, in Bangkok's western neighboring province of Nakhon Pathom, with cabs aplenty :-) First stop is Suwanaram Temple for a Roadblock for lotus flower arrangement caled "Who has a green thumb?" requiring contestants to ride a boat to the working area, go into a lake and grab lotuses and then arrange them into proper bouquet... as well as requiring the other contestant to remain at the temple, resulting in contestants await returning boats to see who's just completed the task... The adjugator is rather finicky with her requirements such that Jocelyn takes 12 attempts to get the right kind of flowers, arrange them properly, put the lotus leaf around the flowers properly, and tie up the bamboo rope properly, such that she feels she's a shame on Victor's family, since they've been doing it for generations... and yet after all that she's still in 1st (!) Texan Steve also takes 12 attempts, while Ashlie gets it on their 15th attempt (Meanwhile, Greg/John's arrival at the temple is delayed by going to the wrong temple at first :-\)
- Next stop is a clue pick up at Rai Khing Temple for a Detour between Stock Up and Scoop Up: Former is one of those local language shopping tasks, replete with a phonetic item list, at the Donwai Temple market; latter involves rowing a boat along waterways to scoop pomelos into the boat to fill five large baskets... Phil Keoghan notes that the locals of the nearby town of Nakhon Pathom nickname their town the "sweet pomelo town" :-) Jo/Vic have a secret weapon for the shopping task: Vic is from Laos, whose language is similar to north Thai accent, and he's been selling most of the stuff on his list since he was a teen (!) They pretty thoroughly ace the task to get a clue for the Pitstop at Suan Sampran, while Rob/Corey finish the pomelos in 2nd place, so it's going to come down to a cab race, and Jo/Vic hope to give Phil a sweaty hug LOL!
- Jo/Vic proudly proclaim they love Thailand, though thankfully sparing Phil the sweaty hug :-) as they claim first and $2000 each, with Rob/Corey in 2nd... Meanwhile, Greg/John are doing the pomelos, and Garrett get the lotuses done after 6 attempts, but mid-cabride to the next clue pickup they realize that Joel's left the fanny pack behind and have to double back to get it, prompting them to quip "Show doesnt create drama, we created it ourselves" :-) Morgan/Lena also join G/J for pomelos, and they compare the boat ride to a nice ride at Disney... while G/J fall into the water LOL.
- The final two contestants at the Roadblock are Malaine from Philly, getting the lotuses done after 11, followed by Robbin(/Chelsea, friends) taking 16 goes... Todd/Ashley take the shopping task, and naturally, the team gets to butcher the Thai words, like pronouncing the word for duck egg as "kai buh-pet" and coconut sugar as "Nam tan ma fro" :-) One that really trips them up is "Brawk koe lee", which turns out to be exactly what they initially assume it is: broccoli, and they call it a "pumpfake" :-) (Another list item is "Look ka noon", or jackfruit, which while Thais have been eating it for centuries, Americans have only recently discovered it as a pulled pork substitute for, say, vegan sliders :-)) Over at pomelos, some waterpaths have tons of fruit floating in the streamway, and teams lucky enough to find one think they've come upon a mother lode... Steve/Annaleigh stock up on one of these, and end up sinking after taking on too many pomelo LOL. Next we see of them, they're already delivering 3 of their 5 baskets, potentially another casualty of the 60 minute edit :-\
- During a break in the show, I saw a local broadcaster promo showing Phil Keoghan calling the race "bigger than ever", but I'm pretty sure he was referring to the expanded runtime, which since they're showing a 60 minute edit, doesn't make sense to leave in :-\ Anyways, Philly is doing shopping, and Elizabeth/Iliana find themselves dropped off at the market, so end up doing that as well... Eventually, Elizabeth/Iliana are missing one item at the check, and have to go through the whole list to determine which one it is (it's "Look thu rian", i.e. durian) At one point they remove the coconut sugar thinking it's peanut butter (That said, the semblance is similar, but it seems like nothing comes of the removal, at least in the 60 minute edit) Meanwhile, Philly get it done first go :-)
- After a quip in which Joel/Garrett refer to Suan Sampran as San Juan Sampran LOL before finishing 9th, it comes down to Robbin/Chelsea, who have moved up to 11th after pomelos, and Elizabeth/Iliana, who get their clue in last after having to get the durian... Robbin/Chelsea edge the mother/daughter out of the race, and in their exit interview Elizabeth calls Iliana a "Mini me" adding that it "p!sses me off sometimes" LOL.
Ep 3
- Next stop, Vietnam, and first a stop at a travel agency to get tix to Ho Chi Minh (Dad noticed a Bangkok bus in the footage and said it looked like one of "our" buses, LOL because it is :-)) Unlike the last few seasons, teams have to arrange their own tix, resulting in teams split up on 3 flights, at 1:50, 3:00 (actually was originally about the same time, but was delayed to 3), and 7:50pm, prompting racers to comment that this is old school TAR :-) The travel agent is actually skeptical of some teams' ability to make the 1:50 flights, as it's roughly 9-10am as they're getting tickets :-\
- Dad commented at this point that they wouldn't be able to do anything with a night flight; sure enough, the flights are followed by a bus ride to Can Tho (Joe/Ian and Joel/Garrett ride fancy sleeper buses there LOL), and a run to a nearby pier, where teams are then split into three groups separated by 15 minutes starting 5:45... The biggest coup is the Texans Steve/Annaleigh finding a 5:45 departure in the box that otherwise appears to be all 6:00 departures, much to Jo/Vic's frustration, since they arrived before the Texans and thought there were only 6am's :-\
- First task is at a water market: Deliver fruit to three marked boats (dragon fruit, tangerine, melons) and get a piece of the picture of the next clue pickup :-) Todd gets to quip about his basketball skills while passing the fruit along to the vendors, while Liam/Yeremi have eaten dragon fruit before :-) The real issue is that there are limited spots, like 2, to deliver for each boat, resulting in teams having to wait in line for their turn to deliver their loads, or in the case of Joe/Ian, to receive their clue piece after forgetting to take it after their delivery :-\ (Meanwhile, Morgan/Lena use the Express Pass)
- The clue pick up is some guy waiting at the pier with the clues in a tackle box :-) It's a Detour between Paper and Plastic (LOL!) Paper actually involves making rice paper, aka "Hu Tieu", while Plastic involves wrapping a piece of a motorcycle body in vinyl wrap, both of which are near each other, and of course accompanied by demonstrations :-) Morgan/Lena are comparing the vinyl wrap to saran wrap (and end up having to do it over a few times :-\), while Joel/Garrett are watching the rice paper procedure, comparing it to making a crepe and calling the part where they have to use a big wooden cylinder to take it off a cool technique :-) Texans quip they might move to 'Nam and sell rice paper LOL, while over at Vinyl, one of Joe/Ian has done vinyl wrap with his dad, while one of Liam/Yeremi always wanted to do a car wrap :-)
- Texans are first to get the clue, and the next pitstop is Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery... This I had to Google, and a quick Google of the signage at the "Paper" side of the Detour reveals they were doing this task here... At the task there are 5 stoves, first come first served, so Philly will have to wait until someone finishes or switches over to plastic, and they decide to watch the demo (meanwhile, Todd/Ashlie use a small piece of paper to assist with taking the rice paper off the oven)
- Texans are 1st, and it turns out to be a follow-on leg, where the next clue pick up is at a cafe, with 5500 VND added to their coffers... which is actually less than a quarter :-\ Back at Detours, Liam/Yeremi quip they'll spit shine their work with their sweat LOL, and Philly get to work on the rice paper, making extra just in case (good idea :-)) and end up from jumping last to 7th (!) Robbin/Chelsea get a nice following shot for their 5th place check-in, while Morgan/Lena were already in 5th after finishing with "Plastic", and at the monastery, they're stunned to finish in 6th, since they expected to get higher after the Express Pass :-\ At the back end, Jo/Vic are in 10th, but Phil considers they can still keep their record of finishing first in the first two legs because of the follow-on, while L/Y literally arrive seconds later, and also get the next clue instead of elimination (yep, an old-style two-ep megaleg, with both parts originally 90 minutes [!])
Ep 4
- Still in Can Tho, where the cafe is a pickup for a Detour clue: Stand (set up a seafood stand to match the finished example) or Deliver (four mattresses to a hotel room) Todd/Ash have moved house a lot, so are doing Deliver, and Joel/Garrett (aka the Beard Bros, tm the Texans) are doing Deliver as well, and help Todd/Ash and Rob/Corey lead to the hotel :-) Over at Stand, Annaleigh is freaked at the living seafood they have to pickup to fill their stand, and quips: "We love seafood but not this kind" :-) Texans have two bins switched at first check and eventually switch them, but there's also the matter of eels in a bowl below the bins that are missing that they take a bit to notice
- Deliver has Todd quipping "Beep beep, we're the Roadrunner" :-D, while Stand has Greg/John singing while handling fish LOL. Weird cut with Joe/Ian dropping a mattress (almost right into a incoming motorbike!), to a bird eye shot of street, to them picking it up and carrying it differently, probably resulting from the 60 minute edit :-\ Anyways, Texans are first with their stand, getting a clue to head to Ong Pagoda, make a wish and have it hung to get the next clue... Of course they wish for 1st place, and their next stop will be the Hùng King Temple (really, it's called that, that's why I included the accent)... Joel/Garrett are expecting most to wish for 1st so they decide to wish for health for their families... It also turns out their kids snuck letters into their race bags, telling them to open on a good day, and decide today's such a day :-)
- Texans remain first arriving at the temple, and a Roadblock: Who wants to play matchmaker? In this case, it's to match a given picture to a single unique red tile out of thousands, then check in at mat... Turns out there are tiles that only subtly differ in minor details, like 2 hairs/antennae vs 3, or the way the head is facing... Also turns out most of the teams don't actually wish for first at Ong Pagoda: Todd wants to see one new country every year of his life, Rob/Corey wish for world peace, and Liam/Yeremi just want to race to the end :-)
- Chelsea (starting the RB in 4th or whereabouts) has been training for this kind of RB w/ daughter... and ends up winning the leg for Robbin/Chelsea, along with a trip to Madrid: Flamenco! Real Madrid Stadium! Cooking! Tapas and wine! Joining them on the mat in order are the Texans, Todd/Ash, Joe/Ian, and Rob/Corey; why they felt like having all these first 5 teams on the mat at once is beyond me :-\
- Back at Ong Pagoda, Philly are last place, and making a wish to win the leg, little late for that LOL... and then at the RB, Philly repeat their part 1 performance by jumping from last to 7th LOL! though they only get their placement announced when they're on the mat alongside Liam/Yeremi (6th) and Greg/John (8th) Mat is empty again for the Beards finishing in 9th... and in a race to avoid elimination between the winner of the first two legs and the team that got the Express Pass, Morgan/Lena get 10th, so that leaves Jo/Vic to be eliminated, making it the first first-to-last at such an early stage in quite a while, and even if one was willing to claim it was over two episodes, they were only two minutes ahead of last at the start of part 2 :-\ Vic blames his performance at the RB, but it's really more a function of effectively starting the leg in 5th, and then having trouble getting to and from the rice paper factory in part 1, since they stayed no higher than 10th afterwards :-\