The Amazing Race 14: Eps 6 and 7
Apr. 9th, 2009 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsIn which the race stops by its favorite Asian destinations.
Ep 6:
1. Next stop, The Pink City (Jaipur) in India. We see stuntmen Mark/Michael run in different directions while trying to get a cab :-) and Mike White's dad Mel quip about getting his tix from a ticketing booth saying Kacca :-) Anyways, everyone gets the same flight, and once we get to Jaipur we spend a couple minutes with the racers commenting on how poor India is. Yeah, we get it, so on to the actual race.
2. Cheerleaders Jamie/Cara make sure their cabbie has gas to go to some random big tree, while flight attendants Christie/Jodi end up with a cabbie who takes his sweet time filling up before the trip. Remember that for later. The random big tree is probably the most surreal route marker ever: You've got this huge tree in the middle of a field, and there are a couple guys sitting next to telephones, with instructions to call to get the next clue. Lawyer sibs Tammy/Victor spot the phones immediately, while the next grouping (everyone else besides C/J) take a while to find them.
3. Next stop, Roadblock at the Amber Fort: "Who's ready to be the maharajah's caretaker?" Task entails carrying water and hay using the tools provided. Interestingly, Mel's doing the Roadblock, and he's doing the water portion real slow (replete with a local telling him to go faster), because a) he's old, b) he's got a groin injury. But his breakthrough comes when he notices a couple big baskets, and uses them to carry the hay while other teams use the water pail, or in athletic sibs Kisha/Jen's case, her shirt :-) and ends up making up so much time he finishes the Roadblock in 2nd (behind the lawyers, who have long finished and are busy appreciating a random elephant on the street). Another amusing moment in editing: We're shown a guy falling over after getting kicked by a camel. A few moments later, we're shown Tammy falling over randomly :-) Not so amusing? Cara asking some of the caretakers if anyone speaks English.
4. Next stop is the Detour and Speed Bump. Detour is between Movers (move a bunch of hay on bikes and search for an elephant pendant in the hay) and Shakers (dance for 200 rupees). Interestingly, after quipping about getting a forehead dot in India, the stuntmen end up the only ones who don't get a forehead dot, as they're doing the hay, while everyone else does the dancing. C/J's Speed Bump involves decorating an elephant.
5. After we get a brief vignette with Luke talking about how hard it is to dance to the music when you're deaf, it's basically down to a race between the stuntmen doing an almost literal "needle in the haystack" task, and C/J dancing. C/J finish the Detour ahead of the stuntmen, and get their clue for the Pit Stop at Jaigarh Fort. The lawyers win yet another leg, and mind you this isn't even the first time a sibling pair has dominated the race: last season was won by a pair of sibs who won several legs in the process. Meanwhile, the stuntmen make up enough time on C/J to make the girls' fuel stop fatal and finish a few minutes ahead of them.
Ep 7:
1. Next stop, the race swings by my home country of Thailand again. This time they're heading to Phuket, where they've been given a picture of a gorilla statue to look for. After a few ask-arounds, most racers figure out that it's at Phuket Zoo, but it takes the Whites (who only know Mai Tai, though that has nothing to do with it) a trip to Patong Beach (quite a bit out of the way, according to Google) and several ask arounds before they finally get the message. The lawyers find themselves amused that their cabbie is named Bandit (it means "teacher"), and the cheerleaders have one named Sak, which they pronounce "Sack" :-)
2. Task: Get a photo with a tiger (with a one-armed trainer), then "let the wild side walk on them" by participating in an elephant show thing, which at one point involves the elephant squatting directly over one of the racers. My mom was wondering about the one-armed trainer guy and also if the elephant would poo on the racers :-) The racers all get off crap-free, though, before heading to some herbal medicine shop in Phuket Town.
3. On their way to the shop, we get a short confessional of the cheerleaders calling the stuntmen the Tweedles, as in Tweedledee and Tweedledum, while Mel quips about getting a Thai massage. Herbal medicine shop, and basically, it's a smaller "needle in the haystack" task where the racers have the propietor open drawers (there are 99) at random until they find one with a clue. Good chance for change placement, and the cheerleaders find a couple teams getting ahead of them.
4. Next up is the Detour, between stacking barrels on a boat and pulling a rickshaw to park. The stuntmen take the rickshaw, and decide to hide the pumping equipment in a box after they're done pumping, and then get their cabbie to lead them to the park. Remember those for later. Most of the teams that have initially picked the barrels end up switching to the rickshaws because they can't find the boats.
5. The Tweedles' little trick means no one else pumps up their rather squishy tires before rolling off, so while the stuntmen get a relatively easy pull, for everyone else it's not exactly a walk in (to?) the park, especially for one team in particular, but we'll get to them later. Stuntmen get their clue for the Pit Stop at Wat Thep Nimit, but upon arrival get slapped with a one-hour penalty for "tampering with equipment" (putting the pumps in the box) and getting their cabbie to lead them to the park.
6. Both the lawyers and the cheerleaders get to the pitstop in the last 5 minutes of the stuntmen's penalty, prompting them to grumble about it their post-leg confessional, while the lawyers get a trip to Oahu. Margie is so exhausted after the flat-tired rickshaw pull, "The Bionic Woman" (Phil's words) ends up collapsing from overheating at the pit stop and has to get some serious H2O. Incidentally, in the 7 legs so far, they've only finished in 1st and 4th places.
7. The race to avoid elimination is between Kisha/Jen and the Whites at the fishboats. The Whites have the bright idea of putting barrels on the roof and filling barrels with water at the same time, something the sisters never thought of doing, plus the sisters get taxied to the wrong temple at first once they're done. K/J still finish ahead of the Whites, so Mel will have quite some time to recover from those groin injuries. The race takes a break next week for the Country Music Awards in the US.
Ep 6:
1. Next stop, The Pink City (Jaipur) in India. We see stuntmen Mark/Michael run in different directions while trying to get a cab :-) and Mike White's dad Mel quip about getting his tix from a ticketing booth saying Kacca :-) Anyways, everyone gets the same flight, and once we get to Jaipur we spend a couple minutes with the racers commenting on how poor India is. Yeah, we get it, so on to the actual race.
2. Cheerleaders Jamie/Cara make sure their cabbie has gas to go to some random big tree, while flight attendants Christie/Jodi end up with a cabbie who takes his sweet time filling up before the trip. Remember that for later. The random big tree is probably the most surreal route marker ever: You've got this huge tree in the middle of a field, and there are a couple guys sitting next to telephones, with instructions to call to get the next clue. Lawyer sibs Tammy/Victor spot the phones immediately, while the next grouping (everyone else besides C/J) take a while to find them.
3. Next stop, Roadblock at the Amber Fort: "Who's ready to be the maharajah's caretaker?" Task entails carrying water and hay using the tools provided. Interestingly, Mel's doing the Roadblock, and he's doing the water portion real slow (replete with a local telling him to go faster), because a) he's old, b) he's got a groin injury. But his breakthrough comes when he notices a couple big baskets, and uses them to carry the hay while other teams use the water pail, or in athletic sibs Kisha/Jen's case, her shirt :-) and ends up making up so much time he finishes the Roadblock in 2nd (behind the lawyers, who have long finished and are busy appreciating a random elephant on the street). Another amusing moment in editing: We're shown a guy falling over after getting kicked by a camel. A few moments later, we're shown Tammy falling over randomly :-) Not so amusing? Cara asking some of the caretakers if anyone speaks English.
4. Next stop is the Detour and Speed Bump. Detour is between Movers (move a bunch of hay on bikes and search for an elephant pendant in the hay) and Shakers (dance for 200 rupees). Interestingly, after quipping about getting a forehead dot in India, the stuntmen end up the only ones who don't get a forehead dot, as they're doing the hay, while everyone else does the dancing. C/J's Speed Bump involves decorating an elephant.
5. After we get a brief vignette with Luke talking about how hard it is to dance to the music when you're deaf, it's basically down to a race between the stuntmen doing an almost literal "needle in the haystack" task, and C/J dancing. C/J finish the Detour ahead of the stuntmen, and get their clue for the Pit Stop at Jaigarh Fort. The lawyers win yet another leg, and mind you this isn't even the first time a sibling pair has dominated the race: last season was won by a pair of sibs who won several legs in the process. Meanwhile, the stuntmen make up enough time on C/J to make the girls' fuel stop fatal and finish a few minutes ahead of them.
Ep 7:
1. Next stop, the race swings by my home country of Thailand again. This time they're heading to Phuket, where they've been given a picture of a gorilla statue to look for. After a few ask-arounds, most racers figure out that it's at Phuket Zoo, but it takes the Whites (who only know Mai Tai, though that has nothing to do with it) a trip to Patong Beach (quite a bit out of the way, according to Google) and several ask arounds before they finally get the message. The lawyers find themselves amused that their cabbie is named Bandit (it means "teacher"), and the cheerleaders have one named Sak, which they pronounce "Sack" :-)
2. Task: Get a photo with a tiger (with a one-armed trainer), then "let the wild side walk on them" by participating in an elephant show thing, which at one point involves the elephant squatting directly over one of the racers. My mom was wondering about the one-armed trainer guy and also if the elephant would poo on the racers :-) The racers all get off crap-free, though, before heading to some herbal medicine shop in Phuket Town.
3. On their way to the shop, we get a short confessional of the cheerleaders calling the stuntmen the Tweedles, as in Tweedledee and Tweedledum, while Mel quips about getting a Thai massage. Herbal medicine shop, and basically, it's a smaller "needle in the haystack" task where the racers have the propietor open drawers (there are 99) at random until they find one with a clue. Good chance for change placement, and the cheerleaders find a couple teams getting ahead of them.
4. Next up is the Detour, between stacking barrels on a boat and pulling a rickshaw to park. The stuntmen take the rickshaw, and decide to hide the pumping equipment in a box after they're done pumping, and then get their cabbie to lead them to the park. Remember those for later. Most of the teams that have initially picked the barrels end up switching to the rickshaws because they can't find the boats.
5. The Tweedles' little trick means no one else pumps up their rather squishy tires before rolling off, so while the stuntmen get a relatively easy pull, for everyone else it's not exactly a walk in (to?) the park, especially for one team in particular, but we'll get to them later. Stuntmen get their clue for the Pit Stop at Wat Thep Nimit, but upon arrival get slapped with a one-hour penalty for "tampering with equipment" (putting the pumps in the box) and getting their cabbie to lead them to the park.
6. Both the lawyers and the cheerleaders get to the pitstop in the last 5 minutes of the stuntmen's penalty, prompting them to grumble about it their post-leg confessional, while the lawyers get a trip to Oahu. Margie is so exhausted after the flat-tired rickshaw pull, "The Bionic Woman" (Phil's words) ends up collapsing from overheating at the pit stop and has to get some serious H2O. Incidentally, in the 7 legs so far, they've only finished in 1st and 4th places.
7. The race to avoid elimination is between Kisha/Jen and the Whites at the fishboats. The Whites have the bright idea of putting barrels on the roof and filling barrels with water at the same time, something the sisters never thought of doing, plus the sisters get taxied to the wrong temple at first once they're done. K/J still finish ahead of the Whites, so Mel will have quite some time to recover from those groin injuries. The race takes a break next week for the Country Music Awards in the US.
