TAR US and Asia: Eps 9 and 10
Dec. 7th, 2010 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsA bit late, but here we go anyway...
Asia
Ep 9:
1. Next destination is Lombok, Indonesia, by way of flying to Bali and signing up for one of two ferries. Jess/Lani get there first and even check in to a hotel for the night. Ethan/Khairie and the Richards meet at a police station and decide to go together on the 2nd ferry, until Ethan/Khairie discover they're only leaving 30 minutes apart. Of course this tees the Richards off, even refusing their offer to let them take the 1st ferry instead. The other teams sleep at the ferry port, while Jess/Lani brag about avoiding the drama because they were sleeping in a proper bed :-)
2. Next morning, and everyone searches for their next clue all over the fishing town. It turns out to be in a bunch of fishing nets in a boat on the beach. This still gives us an amusing visual of Ethan/Khairie being scared of cows :-) Clue sends them to some temple. They're supposed to take taxis, but the Richards somehow manage to hitch a ride in some guy's car (which has been shown to be against the rules in a previous season), before realising their error at the temple, forcing them to take a cab back to the beach to tag the boat (and even then, he takes the scenic route, if you know what I mean).
3. Temple clue sends them to yet another temple, where teams get pelted with rice and other stuff at a rice-throwing festival. Here, there's a clue for the Detour: Find some random guy's grave at a Chinese cemetary, or go to a market and carry baskets of groceries on your head to a stall. Ethan/Khairie think that head balancing isn't for them (especially since they're not allowed to hold the basket), and spend time at the cemetary. This proves to be a grave mistake (well, AXN did use this same pun to promote the ep, so yeah), because it's a pretty big cemetary, and asking around with the name of the random guy produces no results. They take so much time that it allows the Richards to catch up. And they eventually do the head balancing task like everyone else anyway. Both teams note the irony that after the ferry fracas of the previous night, they're now competing against each other to avoid the cut.
4. Next task is a Roadblock to retrieve a briefcase of money from the sea, before riding to some cafe by horse and trolley, and counting the money in the briefcase and inputting the result into a product-placed Sony Vaio (rolls eyes). It's 3,084,000 Indonesian rupiahs, which is worth much less than it sounds (US$345, according to xe.com). Pit stop is at some beach, once again by horse and trolley. Jess/Lani edge out Natasha/Hussein for the win (and US$5000 worth of Caltex gas), while the Richards edge out Ethan/Khairie to avoid elimination.
Ep 10:
1. Next stop is Pohang, South Korea, where everyone "needs a hand" to find the next clue. Richards think it's a casino :-) but it turns out to be a pair of hand sculptures (as in, sculptures of hands). Next destination is the Girimsa temple for a tedious "personality quiz" task. One racer puts up his/her answers to questions like, "Whose relationship do you envy", "Who would you backstab first", and "Who doesn't deserve to get to the final?" Then the other tries to match the answers until they've gotten all of them right. Pretty tedious, considering that some of the racers don't have any real answers to some of the questions but have to pick one anyway :-\
2. Pretty much the biggest challenge for everyone on this leg is just getting to the destinations, since the people they're asking don't speak English (and neither do the maps some of teams find themselves looking at). Natasha/Hussein and Michelle/Claire are having cabs lead them to their destinations (which, unlike the Jill/Thomas incident in Oman, is allowed here), and at one point, Natasha/Hussein see the Richards following them and their cab, and decide to make the Richards share the cab fare :-) Jess/Lani opt for having a local ride with them to the Girimsa temple, prompting an amusing reaction from the local :-)
3. Next stop is to ring a large bell at another temple, before heading to the Hwa Rang Education Center for a Detour between shooting arrows at a picture of a team of their choice, or stacking rocks to a certain height. Mom saw that the arrow shooting was tricky and thought that everyone would eventually finish the rocks, but ultimately only Claire/Michelle finish this. Jess/Lani go to the wrong Hwa Rang school before heading to the right one. And then Jess/Lani shoot at a photo of themselves :-D
4. Roadblock involves cracking a warrior's code. Actually, it involves running through a series of doors and remembering which door is the right one before reaching the "army general" to receive the next clue. We see the Richards finish ahead of Natasha/Hussein, before honoring their end of their deal and giving Natasha/Hussein 10,000 won... which is less than $10 :-D However, Natasha/Hussein (with their cab) finish ahead of the Richards and get a Maldives vacation from Hilton. Claire/Michelle finish 3rd, and point out that they've finished 3rd in 6 legs (!) while Jess/Lani are eliminated.
America
Ep 9:
1. Next stop is Dhaka, Bangladesh (we see Brooke/Claire trying to pronounce it correctly, followed by a shot of their cabbie giving them the thumbs up :-)), which calls for a bit of working the airport ticket counters. Long story short, Jill/Thomas get a 5am landing, Nick/Vicki get 8:30am, and everyone else gets 12 noon (and we see Chad/Steph having a burger and a Blizzard, partially to fill up on carbs, and partially because they weren't expect anyone to get a better flight). First stop is a sugar cane juice stand: Make sugar cane juice, and have one person drink it. My mom told me that drinking sugar cane juice fast can be bad for your tummy, and there's also the issue of a certain diabetic doctor (who wisely doesn't drink the juice).
2. Next, a Detour between delivering tiffin carriers to a boat and carrying bricks in a basket on your head. Unlike the similar task in the Asia leg, racers are allowed to use their hands to hold the baskets, presumably because this load is heavier. Jill/Thomas are the only ones to take this one voluntarily (more on that later), and notice that the locals are carrying more bricks than they are :-) Later, we see that Nat/Kat have brought straps along, which are coming in quite handy for the tiffin task :-)
3. Following the Detour is not just an ordinary U-Turn, but a Double U-Turn, in which two teams get to U-Turn another team, and force them to do the other task. Jill/Thomas U-Turn Brooke/Claire, while Brooke/Claire are still waiting for their connecting flight to Dhaka. Nick/Vicki briefly consider using it on Chad/Steph, but eventually decide against it (your mileage may vary on whether that was a good idea), so it's essentially a race between the three remaining teams for the other U-Turn, ending with Nat/Kat, after being surprised that they haven't been U-Turned themselves, U-Turning Chad/Steph (who themselves had been considering using it on Nat/Kat).
4. Next stop is a garage for a cycle rickshaw assembly Roadblock. At least two of the teams miss the chain the first time, while Nat/Kat don't miss the chain but rather the wheel nuts. We see Brooke/Claire saying they'll charge through it like a spider monkey :-D, Steph kicking the rear seat into place, Nat/Kat comparing assembling the rickshaw with assembling Ikea furniture, and Chad heckling them. Eventually, Jill/Thomas win the leg (and $7500 each in Discover cards) long before the other three teams have gotten far in Dhaka, and after sunset, we see the freshly engaged Chad/Steph get edged out the race by Brooke/Claire. So yeah, their ice cream stop wasn't quite worth it ;-)
Ep 10:
1. Next stop is Hong Kong, and everyone's getting the same flight. At the airport, we see Jill/Thomas have a little confrontation with Brooke/Claire over the U-Turn, where Jill/Thomas try to spin it as praise for their solid racing (though they do actually have a point). Hong Kong, and everyone rides a ferry to some island to pick up their next route marker at a cave. Nick/Vicki fall behind by 30 minutes after missing the first ferry because Vicki's asthma has acted up a very bad time, and Nick yells at her for that. Even though the asthmatic Vicki was in no position to catch the ferry. Keep this in mind for later. Anyways, the route marker sends them back to a Chinese restaurant by another ferry (in a cute moment, we see Brooke/Claire "hugging it out" on the ferry :-)), with a Roadblock involving finding fake food among a buffet, with the added caveat that the contestant has to eat any actual food s/he picks. This Roadblock takes place in the middle of a party-like atmosphere with karaoke and stuff, so we see Brooke playing around with the crowd.
2. We also see Claire complaining about getting the tougher Roadblocks, with the melon incident in the UK and the rappelling in Sweden being cited as examples. This one proves to be another example as, somewhat amusingly, she runs into the bathroom to throw up :-D She's not alone in this, as we later see Vicki throwing up and Nick starting to consider taking a penalty instead. Vicki ultimately perseveres and finds her fake food, but keep this in mind for later as well.
3. Next stop is a clue pick up at the Bruce Lee statue in Kowloon. It's a Detour between riding a tram and finding signs for the next pit stop, and delivering birds to a boat with a given registration. Jill/Thomas try the former, and it proves to be an utter nightmare since there are, like, thousands of signs, so they switch to delivering birds like everyone else. They start quite a bit after Nat/Kat, but actually finish the task before the doctors. Somehow, though, Nat/Kat manage to get a cab before Jill/Thomas, eventually taking the win and a trip to Rio.
4. Nick/Vicki's turn at bird delivery is rather frustrating, with Nick lying down on the sampan and leaving Vicki to search for their boat alone. Compare to Nick yelling at Vicki for slowing down because of an asthma attack while trying to catch a ferry. Hypocritical much? At one point, Nick even considers throwing the birds overboard :-O Eventually, Nick/Vicki decide to take a 6 hour penalty instead, and somewhere out there, Nancy and Emily (season 1... been watching for a long time, people!) probably threw stuff at their screen. But Nick/Vicki are still in it since this is a non-elimination. Ouch.
Asia
Ep 9:
1. Next destination is Lombok, Indonesia, by way of flying to Bali and signing up for one of two ferries. Jess/Lani get there first and even check in to a hotel for the night. Ethan/Khairie and the Richards meet at a police station and decide to go together on the 2nd ferry, until Ethan/Khairie discover they're only leaving 30 minutes apart. Of course this tees the Richards off, even refusing their offer to let them take the 1st ferry instead. The other teams sleep at the ferry port, while Jess/Lani brag about avoiding the drama because they were sleeping in a proper bed :-)
2. Next morning, and everyone searches for their next clue all over the fishing town. It turns out to be in a bunch of fishing nets in a boat on the beach. This still gives us an amusing visual of Ethan/Khairie being scared of cows :-) Clue sends them to some temple. They're supposed to take taxis, but the Richards somehow manage to hitch a ride in some guy's car (which has been shown to be against the rules in a previous season), before realising their error at the temple, forcing them to take a cab back to the beach to tag the boat (and even then, he takes the scenic route, if you know what I mean).
3. Temple clue sends them to yet another temple, where teams get pelted with rice and other stuff at a rice-throwing festival. Here, there's a clue for the Detour: Find some random guy's grave at a Chinese cemetary, or go to a market and carry baskets of groceries on your head to a stall. Ethan/Khairie think that head balancing isn't for them (especially since they're not allowed to hold the basket), and spend time at the cemetary. This proves to be a grave mistake (well, AXN did use this same pun to promote the ep, so yeah), because it's a pretty big cemetary, and asking around with the name of the random guy produces no results. They take so much time that it allows the Richards to catch up. And they eventually do the head balancing task like everyone else anyway. Both teams note the irony that after the ferry fracas of the previous night, they're now competing against each other to avoid the cut.
4. Next task is a Roadblock to retrieve a briefcase of money from the sea, before riding to some cafe by horse and trolley, and counting the money in the briefcase and inputting the result into a product-placed Sony Vaio (rolls eyes). It's 3,084,000 Indonesian rupiahs, which is worth much less than it sounds (US$345, according to xe.com). Pit stop is at some beach, once again by horse and trolley. Jess/Lani edge out Natasha/Hussein for the win (and US$5000 worth of Caltex gas), while the Richards edge out Ethan/Khairie to avoid elimination.
Ep 10:
1. Next stop is Pohang, South Korea, where everyone "needs a hand" to find the next clue. Richards think it's a casino :-) but it turns out to be a pair of hand sculptures (as in, sculptures of hands). Next destination is the Girimsa temple for a tedious "personality quiz" task. One racer puts up his/her answers to questions like, "Whose relationship do you envy", "Who would you backstab first", and "Who doesn't deserve to get to the final?" Then the other tries to match the answers until they've gotten all of them right. Pretty tedious, considering that some of the racers don't have any real answers to some of the questions but have to pick one anyway :-\
2. Pretty much the biggest challenge for everyone on this leg is just getting to the destinations, since the people they're asking don't speak English (and neither do the maps some of teams find themselves looking at). Natasha/Hussein and Michelle/Claire are having cabs lead them to their destinations (which, unlike the Jill/Thomas incident in Oman, is allowed here), and at one point, Natasha/Hussein see the Richards following them and their cab, and decide to make the Richards share the cab fare :-) Jess/Lani opt for having a local ride with them to the Girimsa temple, prompting an amusing reaction from the local :-)
3. Next stop is to ring a large bell at another temple, before heading to the Hwa Rang Education Center for a Detour between shooting arrows at a picture of a team of their choice, or stacking rocks to a certain height. Mom saw that the arrow shooting was tricky and thought that everyone would eventually finish the rocks, but ultimately only Claire/Michelle finish this. Jess/Lani go to the wrong Hwa Rang school before heading to the right one. And then Jess/Lani shoot at a photo of themselves :-D
4. Roadblock involves cracking a warrior's code. Actually, it involves running through a series of doors and remembering which door is the right one before reaching the "army general" to receive the next clue. We see the Richards finish ahead of Natasha/Hussein, before honoring their end of their deal and giving Natasha/Hussein 10,000 won... which is less than $10 :-D However, Natasha/Hussein (with their cab) finish ahead of the Richards and get a Maldives vacation from Hilton. Claire/Michelle finish 3rd, and point out that they've finished 3rd in 6 legs (!) while Jess/Lani are eliminated.
America
Ep 9:
1. Next stop is Dhaka, Bangladesh (we see Brooke/Claire trying to pronounce it correctly, followed by a shot of their cabbie giving them the thumbs up :-)), which calls for a bit of working the airport ticket counters. Long story short, Jill/Thomas get a 5am landing, Nick/Vicki get 8:30am, and everyone else gets 12 noon (and we see Chad/Steph having a burger and a Blizzard, partially to fill up on carbs, and partially because they weren't expect anyone to get a better flight). First stop is a sugar cane juice stand: Make sugar cane juice, and have one person drink it. My mom told me that drinking sugar cane juice fast can be bad for your tummy, and there's also the issue of a certain diabetic doctor (who wisely doesn't drink the juice).
2. Next, a Detour between delivering tiffin carriers to a boat and carrying bricks in a basket on your head. Unlike the similar task in the Asia leg, racers are allowed to use their hands to hold the baskets, presumably because this load is heavier. Jill/Thomas are the only ones to take this one voluntarily (more on that later), and notice that the locals are carrying more bricks than they are :-) Later, we see that Nat/Kat have brought straps along, which are coming in quite handy for the tiffin task :-)
3. Following the Detour is not just an ordinary U-Turn, but a Double U-Turn, in which two teams get to U-Turn another team, and force them to do the other task. Jill/Thomas U-Turn Brooke/Claire, while Brooke/Claire are still waiting for their connecting flight to Dhaka. Nick/Vicki briefly consider using it on Chad/Steph, but eventually decide against it (your mileage may vary on whether that was a good idea), so it's essentially a race between the three remaining teams for the other U-Turn, ending with Nat/Kat, after being surprised that they haven't been U-Turned themselves, U-Turning Chad/Steph (who themselves had been considering using it on Nat/Kat).
4. Next stop is a garage for a cycle rickshaw assembly Roadblock. At least two of the teams miss the chain the first time, while Nat/Kat don't miss the chain but rather the wheel nuts. We see Brooke/Claire saying they'll charge through it like a spider monkey :-D, Steph kicking the rear seat into place, Nat/Kat comparing assembling the rickshaw with assembling Ikea furniture, and Chad heckling them. Eventually, Jill/Thomas win the leg (and $7500 each in Discover cards) long before the other three teams have gotten far in Dhaka, and after sunset, we see the freshly engaged Chad/Steph get edged out the race by Brooke/Claire. So yeah, their ice cream stop wasn't quite worth it ;-)
Ep 10:
1. Next stop is Hong Kong, and everyone's getting the same flight. At the airport, we see Jill/Thomas have a little confrontation with Brooke/Claire over the U-Turn, where Jill/Thomas try to spin it as praise for their solid racing (though they do actually have a point). Hong Kong, and everyone rides a ferry to some island to pick up their next route marker at a cave. Nick/Vicki fall behind by 30 minutes after missing the first ferry because Vicki's asthma has acted up a very bad time, and Nick yells at her for that. Even though the asthmatic Vicki was in no position to catch the ferry. Keep this in mind for later. Anyways, the route marker sends them back to a Chinese restaurant by another ferry (in a cute moment, we see Brooke/Claire "hugging it out" on the ferry :-)), with a Roadblock involving finding fake food among a buffet, with the added caveat that the contestant has to eat any actual food s/he picks. This Roadblock takes place in the middle of a party-like atmosphere with karaoke and stuff, so we see Brooke playing around with the crowd.
2. We also see Claire complaining about getting the tougher Roadblocks, with the melon incident in the UK and the rappelling in Sweden being cited as examples. This one proves to be another example as, somewhat amusingly, she runs into the bathroom to throw up :-D She's not alone in this, as we later see Vicki throwing up and Nick starting to consider taking a penalty instead. Vicki ultimately perseveres and finds her fake food, but keep this in mind for later as well.
3. Next stop is a clue pick up at the Bruce Lee statue in Kowloon. It's a Detour between riding a tram and finding signs for the next pit stop, and delivering birds to a boat with a given registration. Jill/Thomas try the former, and it proves to be an utter nightmare since there are, like, thousands of signs, so they switch to delivering birds like everyone else. They start quite a bit after Nat/Kat, but actually finish the task before the doctors. Somehow, though, Nat/Kat manage to get a cab before Jill/Thomas, eventually taking the win and a trip to Rio.
4. Nick/Vicki's turn at bird delivery is rather frustrating, with Nick lying down on the sampan and leaving Vicki to search for their boat alone. Compare to Nick yelling at Vicki for slowing down because of an asthma attack while trying to catch a ferry. Hypocritical much? At one point, Nick even considers throwing the birds overboard :-O Eventually, Nick/Vicki decide to take a 6 hour penalty instead, and somewhere out there, Nancy and Emily (season 1... been watching for a long time, people!) probably threw stuff at their screen. But Nick/Vicki are still in it since this is a non-elimination. Ouch.
