Amazing Race: No Mr. Happy Pants

Amazing Race
I Hate Chinese Food

I know when the show started, teams used to hang out at the pit stops. At the beginning of the episode, Jill & Thomas commented that they didn’t see any of the other teams once they landed in India and they still hadn’t seen them. They didn’t know who was eliminated or who was still in the race. I guess that means they keep everyone separated during the pit stops. Interesting….

Leaving the Pit Stop

Jill & Thomas who arrived to the pit stop in the last leg way before anyone else, were the first team to leave at 8:25 am.When they read their clue, they decided to go find a travel agency to get some plane tickets.

Clue: Teams had to fly to Hong Kong. Once there, teams had to take a bus and then a ferry to Cheung Chau Island to search for Cheung Po Tsai Cave.

Once at the travel agency, they found out that the earliest flight leaving to Hong Kong wouldn’t leave until 11:55 pm that night. Everyone would be on the same flight. So much for having that huge lead!

The tattoo couple were the second team to leave the pit stop at 1:59 pm. Wow, they were 5.5 hours behind the first team. They took off for the airport. The doctors left the pit stop in third place at 4:05 pm. They also headed to the airport. The home shopping queens were the last team to leave the pit stop at 5:15 pm. They couldn’t wait to see Thomas at the airport to see that even though they were u-turned, they were still in the race. I guess Jill had nothing to do with it, it was only Thomas.

At the airport, the home shopping queens asked Jill & Thomas why they were picked. He said they saw them as the most competition. The ladies pointed out the doctors had come in first more times than them. Thomas said the doctors had also been almost eliminated a few times too so they should take it as a compliment that they viewed them as their top competition. The home shopping queens kept saying Thomas so many times, that he said, “Why just me? What about Jill?” They said they knew who the mastermind in the group really was. And they didn’t even hear Jill going on about not knowing what extremities were in the previous leg!

Running & Yelling

When they landed, it appeared that Jill & Thomas were the first team to get on a bus to the ferry. The rest of the teams were on the second bus to leave. None of them saw Jill & Thomas, but they were pretty sure they were on the bus that was pulling away when they all found out where the buses picked people up. Jill & Thomas were on the ferry, but they had to wait a bit for it to take off. They wondered if the other teams would make it on at the same time.

The doctors and home shopping queens were purchasing tickets for the ferry while the tattoo team was still looking for the ticket counter. They were being slowed down by Vicki’s asthma kicking in. She was having a hard time breathing and Nick was quite frustrated by it. When they got to the ticket counter, the first ferry was leaving with the other teams already on it. Vicki apologized since she knew  her asthma is what made them miss it. The next ferry wouldn’t leave for another half hour. Nick said, “I’m sick of your sorry.” Nice dude. Then he said he wouldn’t wait for her next time and she had to “suck it up.” I think someone needs a kick in the head.

While the first three teams got off the ferry, they started jogging. They knew the tattoo couple would be sprinting once they got off the ferry. Not if Vicki’s asthma was still acting up. Everyone had no issues with running and/or jogging except Claire. She was having  a hard time catching her breath so Brook had to stop and wait for her. Around the time that the tattoo couple got off the ferry, the first three teams found the clue box right outside the cave.

Clue: Teams had to travel by ferry back to Hong Kong.  Once there, they had to find the Majesty Chinese Restaurant.

Now, the teams had to run back to the ferry to leave the island! I hope they enjoyed the scenery. Claire was not thrilled about having to run back to the ferry. Brook was not her usual perky self. She was not pleased that Claire wanted to walk quickly compared to running like the other two teams. Claire said she had to go at her own pace and Brook commented, “Heaven forbid, you go at any other pace.” Snap! They did barely make it onto the same ferry as Jill & Thomas and the doctors. When they got on board, Brook turned to Claire and said, “Let’s hug it out.” Claire misheard her,  looked at the camera and said, “We did suck it out.” Then Brook let her know she said hug instead of suck. Little bit different!

Meanwhile, on the other ferry, Nick was continuing to be Mr. Happy Pants by saying that he wished he never came since he never had so much stress in his life. Vicki was trying to get him to think positive and not fight, but he wasn’t having it. Their ferry landed on the island around the time the first three teams were getting off their ferry back on the mainland. Those teams all jumped into taxis to the restaurant.

Singing & Dancing

The doctors were the first team inside the restaurant. When they found their clue box, they also saw a stage where some people were singing karaoke to the people dining. When they opened up the clue, they found a road block.

Road Block: It asked, “Who is feeling peckish?” Using chopsticks, one team member had to go through a buffet of food to find the fake Chinese food that is normally used in display cases. There were only five fake items and they had to find one.  Any real food the team picked up, they had to eat.

Nat decided to do it. She picked up one item, but it was real so she ate it. She said it was pretty good. Jill & Thomas arrived at the restaurant. Thomas decided to do it. He started to look around at the huge spread of food when the home shopping queens arrived. Thomas picked up what looked like a mussel and said he thought it was one of them. It was real. Nat said she had eaten one already. Brook came running into the restaurant VERY excited. Claire decided to do it. They thought it might be karaoke, but it wasn’t! The other team members had to hang out on the side of the karaoke stage. As soon as Brook got on the stage, she started dancing while cheering Claire on.  Claire said she was very picky so she was freaking out a bit at all the food. She wondered how she could tell if it was fake or not. If she can’t tell food is real, then I wonder what kind of food she eats on her own time!

Brook was running around the restaurant, trying to get all the diners to cheer Claire on. Nat thought she found a piece of fish that was fake. She brought it over to the judge and she was correct. She got the next clue.

Clue: Teams had to make their way to Avenue of the Stars and figure out they are searching for a Bruce Lee statue. The clue said something about “Enter the Dragon”.

While they jumped into a cab to the Avenue of the Stars, the tattoo couple were getting back on their ferry. Nat thought that the road block could have taken a lot longer. Thomas was trying to look very carefully at the food on the table since he knew he couldn’t eat everything on it. I think he had eaten quite a bit at that point though.

Birds & Signs

The doctors found the statue almost as soon as they got out of the taxi. The next clue was a detour.

Detour: In Ding Ding, teams had to board a 100-year old tram system known as the Ding Ding. They had to ride along a particular portion of the route and look among the hundreds of neon signs for three that would tell them the location of the pit stop. The three signs would be “Pit Stop” “Statue” “Square”, but they would have to figure that out on their own. The signs were at least in English. If they thought they figured it out, they could leave the tram and head on to the pit stop. If they didn’t see the signs, they would have to make  a return trip and start the ride over. In Sampan, teams had to pick up a wooden cage with two parakeets and board a sampan, a traditional vessel used for trade. They would have to head out into Aberdeen Harbor and search among hundreds of boats, searching for a registration number matching the one on their bird cage. When they found the boat, they could trade the birds for the location to the next pit stop.

The doctors decided to do the bird one. Back at the road block, Jill was telling Thomas to just eat more. He did find the fake shrimp and got the next clue. That left Claire who had her face inches from all the food. The tattoo couple got off the ferry and started to head to the restaurant.

The doctors arrived at the place to pick up their parakeets. They then went out to pick out their boat. They picked the lady driver. They started searching among the boats. They found the registration numbers were all over the place on the boats. Some were on the side, some on the back and some on the front.

Jill & Thomas arrived at the Bruce Lee statue and got the detour clue. Thomas wanted to do the Ding Ding task. The tattoo couple arrived at the restaurant. Vicki decided to do it. Nick perked up when he saw a team was still there. Brook was dying a bit since Claire was supposed to be on a diet for her wedding. She said she probably had about 2-3 plates of food. She can make it up in running!

The doctors were still looking through boats and also trying to keep the birds entertained with a provided bird whistle. Kat did not think the birds cared about the whistle. They were pretty mellow. Jill & Thomas jumped onto a Ding Ding and started looking for signs. Thomas was saying it was going to be something distinct that stood out as they passed the sign that said “Pit Stop”. They completely missed it. They passed by the other two signs too and didn’t notice them.

Back at the roadblock, Claire was still stuffing her face with whatever she thought was fake before picking it up. Vicki was saying she couldn’t eat any of it. Claire started to feel sick since she was so full. She thought she might puke. Nick was laughing at her almost puking. She almost did puke in the restaurant but ran to the bathroom. Thankfully, the camera followed her into the bathroom. You could have waited outside camera man! We didn’t need to hear that. Brook ran in there to see if she was okay. Claire could not believe how much she puked. Probably everything she just ate. Claire said she might have to keep doing that to finish the task. Brook told her that was okay! The random diners, who were excited about everything, cheered when Claire came back to the buffet. Nick was still laughing and saying, “Puke #1!” Soon after that, Claire found the fake food item so she was done!  That left Vicki to find one of two pieces of fake food left on the table. Nick was no longer laughing.

The doctors were still searching for the right boat, but not finding it. Jill & Thomas were still searching for their signs, but not seeing them. They decided they should just get off and go to the other detour. Thomas asked Jill if she wanted to try again, but she didn’t. They went to pick up their parakeet and got on their boat. They ran into the doctors and were relieved to see another team there. They asked if they had found their boat yet. The doctors told them they hadn’t. Jill told them they had just left the other detour and it was horrible. Nat told them this detour was horrible too. Jill was glad to hear it. Jill told Thomas to look on the right side and she would look on the left. They barely started looking when Jill found the numbers. That was fast! They got a piece of paper that said, “Pit Stop Statue Square.”

Clue: Teams had to make their way to the center of Hong Kong to find Statue Square, which was the pit stop for the leg of the race.

They headed back to the harbor. The doctors finally found their boat too so they got the pit stop clue and headed back to the harbor. Jill & Thomas got off their boat and tried to get a taxi. They weren’t having much luck. The doctors got off their boat and found a taxi right away. Jill & Thomas were not very far away while they were asking a taxi driver if he could find out where the pit stop was located. It seems like the doctor’s taxi driver was going to help them out, but the doctors told them to keep going and not help since they were racing the other team. Jill was yelling at Thomas to get in the car since she saw it was the doctors in the taxi that just left for the pit stop.

The home shopping queens had decided to do the bird task when they found the detour clue so they picked up their parakeets. They were scaring their parakeets with their bird whistling so they stopped it and just started looking for the boat. Back at the road block, Vicki was saying she hated Chinese food. Nick was telling her to not even chew, but to just swallow. The pieces were so big that sounded like a recipe for choking.

Pit Stop


The doctors and Jill & Thomas got out of their cabs near the pit stop around the same time. The doctors got to Phil first though. As the winners of this leg, they won a trip to Rio de Janeiro. Jill & Thomas checked in with Phil for second place.

The home shopping queens were searching through boats and Vicki was bringing up what she thought was fake food to the judge. He told her it was real so she had to eat it. Nick was telling her again to not chew but just shallow it. Vicki ran to bathroom to throw up. Nick followed her in there and asked if she wanted to take the 4-hour penalty and move on. Nick said the race was supposed to be fun, but it wasn’t fun anymore. Vicki didn’t want to quit so she refused to give up. She came back and found the fake item! They moved onto the Bruce Lee statue.

The home shopping queens were not having any luck finding the right boat. The tattoo couple got the detour clue and decided to do the bird one too. They picked up their parakeet and got on their boat. The home shopping queens finally found their boat. They gave him the birds for their clue. They headed back to the harbor. Meanwhile, Nick turned into Mr. Happy Pants again saying he couldn’t find the boat, he wanted to choke someone and throw the birds overboard. While he was complaining, he wasn’t really looking for the boat while Vicki was actually looking.

The home shopping queens found a taxi when they were back in the harbor. They didn’t know where the tattoo couple was so they wanted to get to the pit stop as fast as they could. On the boat, Vicki was saying she didn’t want to give up, especially after everything they went through already. Well, I would say what she went through since Nick just whined. He decided the best thing to do was to just give up and lay down on the boat for a nap while Vicki looked. Maybe she could push him overboard instead?

The home shopping queens checked in with Phil for third place. They were super happy. At the detour, Vicki was very tired, but she still kept looking for boats while Nick slept. He woke up and berated her for continuing to look. He just wanted to give up and convinced her to give up too. They decided to take a 6-hour penalty and give up on the detour. They got the pit stop clue and headed to Phil. He checked them into the pit stop and said it was a non-elimination leg. They were not out of the race, but they would have a six-hour penalty the next day and they had a speed bump to complete in the next leg of the race. Nick really didn’t look relieved to still be racing.

Order of arrival at the pit stop:

  1. Nat & Kat – doctors
  2. Jill & Thomas – dating
  3. Brook & Claire – home shopping queens
  4. Nick & Vicki – tattoo couple

Questions

  1. Would you have allowed Nick to talk you into quitting the detour? Or would you have yelled at him to shut up if he wasn’t going to help?
  2. Could you have eaten all the weird food on the Chinese buffet table?
  3. Having teams interact during the pit stops could create alliances more or cause drama. Do you think  it is good that they don’t allow them to interact at the pit stops like they used to or should they let them all hang out?
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