spiderbraids

Ep 4:
1. Next stop is a mountain near Lijiang, China, by way of a "required" flight to Kunming in the morning. Kisha/Jen remind us about their little spar against Margie/Luke. Kent/Vyxsin (the Goths) are aiming for a positive mental attitude on today's leg, but considering they have difficulties just getting to their car, I dunno... Sure enough, they get so lost (even more lost than the time they were in Italy last go-round) that they don't get to the airport until well after the "required" flight has left (total driving time: at least 10 hours [!]) and have to take an afternoon flight instead :-O
2. From Kunming, everyone on the "required" flight decides to take a train. Ron/Christina (who speak Chinese, having Chinese roots and all) use their skills to get a train 90 minutes before everyone else, and even have time to get a few dumplings before waiting for the 8:00am bus to the mountain... which the contestants from the other train also catch, so yeah. Later, the Goths take a plane straight to Lijiang that gets them in at 8:15am... but not before Kent threatens to shoot Vyxsin over forgetting her passport at the ticket counter :-D
3. There's a task involving riding a yak. Not much to write about, so next is a ride up a gondola to a spruce forest, where we see everyone comment about the altitude (Margie, from Colorado, says that the altitude is kicking her butt). Forest has a Roadblock, to look for charms corresponding to the signs of the Chinese Zodiac and tie them to windchimes in order. Apparently, they're doing a zodiac task because the order was determined by a race. We see one of the cowboys making rooster noises at a random passerby, and one of the 'Trotters asking a yak :-D We see that Christina knows their names in Chinese (!) More importantly, Zev and Vyxsin take a lot of time finding their charms, while Kent tells Justin that they had car trouble. Zev finds his charms and randomly hangs them on the windchimes and then spins them :-D, before finally getting that he's supposed to put them in order.
4. Next is a marked bus to the old town for a task involving writing a wish and drop it into a slot corresponding to the contestant's Chinese zodiac sign. Ron/Christina manage to take the wrong kind of vehicle, and end up intercepting, throwing a rock (?) at, and getting on a marked bus with the 'Trotters (with Christina jumping right off their vehicle while it's still moving!) Zodiac task proves quick for everyone, other than the 'Trotters, who struggle to identify their sign (funny that the task "judge" seems to know :-D) After that is a Detour between hitting peanut candies and leading a procession with a horn. Amusingly, Ron continues to try to get some snacks, like tiny fish on a pan or even the peanut candy they're making :-D
5. "Pit stop" at the Eternal Tower sees Margie/Luke take 1st, and get a trip to Aruba for later... and a new clue for now, because we're getting an unprecedented 2nd TBC leg this season, which might just be what Z/J and K/V need, as they're in the last two spots. In a rather cinematic move, we're shown a split screen of K/V finishing the Roadblock and other teams "checking in" (Cowboys: "Sweet") Incredibly, K/V manage to leave their fanny pack (passports and money) behind in the gondola (!!)

Ep 5:
1. We find out that there's a Double U-Turn coming up, and that they're heading back to Kunming by train, which won't be until 7pm (which Margie/Luke find out at noon), thus giving the 'Trotters time to shoot some hoops with the cowboys and Kisha/Jen next to the train station :-) (Seriously, they brought a basketball with them. Wasteful much?) More importantly, this gives the Goths time to head back to the gondola, get their fanny pack back from lost and found, and catch up. Incidentally, we find out that they're getting a half-hour penalty at the next pit stop for the flight issue. They understandably choose not to tell anyone about it. (Note on incidental music: This page says that the game is accompanied with Sweet Georgia Brown, the 'Trotters theme; but over here, we have a generic dance beat over the game. Once again, I guess the rights for the song only covered North American telecasts...)
2. After Zev/Justin's discussion on the trains about triple-layer bunk beds (you're less likely to get murdered in the top beds ;-)), they're in Kunming, and everyone heads to a flower market, where they're then told to go to the Golden Arches, in this case, a local monument. Hilariously, a few teams manage to go to a different kind of Golden Arches :-D There is a Detour between installing solar panels and memorizing people in traditional outfits, the latter of which has a few amusing moments of racers trying to describe the outfits (such as the 'Trotters calling two outfits "mop" and "skunk" :-))
3. Next stop is the Yunnan Province Cultural Center, and the U-Turn. We see Jamie/Cara complaining about stopping for gas like in Hawaii, and Ron/Christina (and other teams that were taking advantage of their linguistic advantage :-D) managing to stop by the wrong cultural center. More importatly, the Goths U-Turn Jamie/Cara right in their faces (mentioning their U-Turn mistake from their last go-round), with Jamie/Cara U-Turning the 'Trotters immediately afterwards. This has prompted some discussion over whether they were supposed to do the other task first, but as you'll see, it won't matter much.
4. Next stop, Stone Forest for a dinosaur skeleton building roadblock. Gary/Mallory use the Express Pass, putting them in 1st briefly. Cord keeps looking at the diagram repeatedly, and ends up being the first to finish building his dinosaur, while we see Kent falling off his stool while putting his dino together.
5. Pit stop is at some park back in Kunming. Gary/Mallory get lost, while the Cowboys win the leg and $5000 each, prompting Cord to throw his hat in the air :-D The Goths' penalty only ends up dropping them from 4th to 5th, while 'Trotters (who don't even need the stool ;-)) manage to finish before Jamie/Cara ("Double U-Turn this!")... and so do Zev/Justin. This time, the Cheerleaders are right about finishing last, so all Phil has to do is eliminate them.

Ep 6:
1. Everyone's kind of disappointed that they're staying in China for some tea at a tea shop. We see Ron ask the tea guy about the tea, having Chinese roots and all, and it's papaya-mango. It's not indicated in the clue, but this will be important. Thankfully, everyone then gets a clue to fly to ~~Calcutta~~Kolkata, India. One plane ride later, it's a crazy nighttime taxi race to the town hall... which won't open until 10am, but that doesn't stop the 'Trotters from tricking Mallory into running further down the road :-D before she comes back to (playfully!) slap them :-D
2. Next morning, it's a tea-drinking Roadblock, where everyone carries a papaya and mango to a tea auctioneer ('Trotter: "Here you go, homey" 8-O), and find a cup of the same-flavored tea they drunk in China. I'll give you one guess as to who gets it first :-) (To be fair, a few other teams also go with the smelling strategy.) The next clue is in a form of a bottle with the clue under the cap (for a specific tea stall in a certain part of town). This flummoxes Kisha/Jen, who incredibly manage to get to the right part of town before figuring out to open the bottle :-D :-D We also see Kent make a comment about where Vyxsin's carrying her bottle :-D The lagging teams just seem to be drinking at random, and at one point Zev (who according to Justin is wearing his "tea-drinking pajamas" :-D) even drops a cup in frustration :-\ We see a 'Trotters flashback to the penalty that eliminated them their last go-round, and they mention that they would not take a penalty again. Just as well, since they end up finishing ahead of Luke, who ends up crying like a baby (how pathetic) and ultimately having to take several cups at a time before he gets his clue. Once again, it's been discussed if that should have been allowed. Anyways, we see lots of cheering for Luke after he's done, but whatever... moving on.
3. Tea shop, and we have a Detour between delivering tons of books to a school in a small "school van" (think zoo cage crossed with rickshaw), and painting and clothing a Ganesh statue. The former task has Gary/Mallory comparing riding in the van to being a monkey in a parade, Zev/Justin complaining about their driver's Boston hat :-D and the cowboys helping to scoot their van along :-)
4. The latter task has a loud traditional Indian band playing, prompting Ron to take out his earplugs :-D, and later comment that he'd like to disco but he's too busy painting :-) The Goths really like this task, because it involves drawing eyebrows and pink :-) At one point, we see the 'Trotters accidentally spill brown paint over their Ganesh while they're dressing it up, which makes their race against Margie/Luke a bit too close for comfort.
5. Pit stop is some big park, where Gary/Mallory get first place... and get to taste some special limited edition papaya mango Snapple tea (!) Oh, there's also a little pit stop party with Indian dancing and $20,000 for them too. We see the Cowboys, Ron/Christina and Zev/Justin stuck in traffic for a while (during which the Cowboys look at a bus saying "India is great" and concurring), before finishing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, in that order, and even the Cowboys get confused when the Goths join them in 5th, as they tell them they're in 4th before being corrected :-D :-D Kisha/Jen are 6th, and after plenty of suspenseful editing, 'Trotters are 7th, edging Margie/Luke out of the race. Luke "interviews" that he never thought he'd be on the race in a million years (not said/signed: much less twice). Current note: All 4 teams that have been eliminated so far are all from season 14 (!)