Amazing Race: Elephants!

What we learned in this leg, besides that it was extremely confusing once everyone got to Bangkok, was that the twins love elephants so freaking much that they even love elephant poop. Sadly, the show decided to not to play “One Night in Bangkok” even once during the episode, so I have made a link to it to listen to instead.

The teams stayed in Thailand for this leg of the race. They started off riding some elephants through part of a jungle to a guy playing a flute above a pool of very dirty water. The teams reached a road block at that point where one team member had to find the next clue in the dirty water while the guy played the flute. I’m not sure what the flute guy had to do with anything since once the team member found the clue in the water, they were back on their elephants and heading out of the jungle.

Elephant Poop

This didn’t really cause much of a challenge for most teams. They came out of the jungle in the same order they left the pit stop and didn’t really gain or lose any time. This was the area for the speed bump for the twins. They had to clean up the elephant’s poop and then wash them. They were extremely excited about doing this since elephants are their favorite animal. They had a ball doing it all, even cleaning up the poop. Even though they were last, they didn’t seem too far behind since the farmers came out of the jungle on their elephant right around the time the twins were finishing up with the elephants.

After finishing with elephants, teams had to go disassemble a spirit house. Immediately, some teams figured out that the race could not be that simple. They couldn’t just break down something and just take it somewhere. They would have to put it back together again eventually. I was actually surprised how many teams figured this out and took notes, but of course, a few teams just disassembled it and took off.

No Disassemble

The snowboarders took mental notes on each side of the temple, but when they got to the next part of the clue, which was a second road block, it said that only one team member (the one that didn’t do the previous road block) would have to put it back together. Tommy had to do the task, but he only knew one side of the spirit house. He tried to get the other side done, but Andy was the one that knew that part and he couldn’t help. Tommy had to jump back into the cab and head back to the spirit houses to see how they were put together before going back to the temple. It wasted a bit of time, but still kept them in the lead.

As a side note, the snowboarders both said they were Christian, which I had no issue with. What I found off putting was how Tommy said that it was interesting being around the Buddhist temples, but he knew that “God is definitely greater than the temples.” Separately, Andy was saying that he knew there was only “one true God.” Wow! I used to like the snowboarders, but not anymore since they are disrespectful of other religions. On the other hand, Jennifer said that even though it was not the same religion as her own, it still warranted the same amount of respect. I am now liking the brother/sister team. Amazing!

After the snowboarders and brother/sister team finished assembling the spirit houses, the father/son and dating divorcees arrived at the task. The dating couple took notes while Laurence told Zac that they didn’t need to take notes but just take it apart. Zac wanted to take notes but listened to his father. After they found out they had to put it back together and Zac was the one to do it, Laurence put on his asshat and said, “Don’t blame me. You are responsible.” Now I no longer like Laurence. Zac had to go back to check out the house again before putting it back together.

The same thing happened with the NFL team and Control Freak team. NFL took notes and Ernie didn’t want to take any notes, even though Cathy did. Ernie was the one stuck trying to remember and had to go back while Cathy looked highly disappointed, but she didn’ t have a breakdown. Even with some teams not taking notes, it only put them slightly behind and no teams got ahead of other ones. Everyone kept their same positions. Later on, the farmers and twins took notes and finished the task. The twins took notes! I was so proud since I didn’t expect them to be a team to do that.

Crazy, Confusing Bus Schedules

After the spirit houses, the teams had to take a 13 hour bus ride to Bangkok and then find the Bangkok Noi Canal to feed some crazy hungry fish. The snowboarders, brother/sister, and dating divorcees were on one bus that left at 4:30pm. Laurence and Zac got on another bus that left at the same time. Zac commented that their bus was a first class bus and that violated the race rules. Possibly feeling bad about being an ass earlier, Laurence agreed with his son and they jumped off their bus. They ran back three miles and got on another bus. The NFL and farmers left on a bus at 5:30pm.

The Control Freak team were trying to get on a 5:30 pm bus but they did not exchange enough of their money into Thai money and they did not have enough money to pay the taxi driver. They kept trying to pay for their taxi ride with US dollars but the cab driver wasn’t having it. The Control Freak team freaked out that they were going to miss their bus. To make matters worse, some random lady came to the aid of the taxi driver and offered to call the police on Control Freak team since they weren’t paying the driver. Wacky! They ended up making a 5:30 pm bus but it was a different one than the one that NFL and farmers were on. All the teams that left at 5:30pm did get to see Laurence and Zac walk up to the bus terminal as they were leaving. The father/son team caught the next bus leaving, which was at 8pm.

The twins were nowhere to be seen by the time Laurence and Zac left so they were very far behind. They caught a much later bus. The twins ran out of the money though. They didn’t have enough for the taxi driver. They bought their bus ticket and tried to give the rest of their money to the taxi driver, but it wasn’t enough. He wouldn’t take their US dollars either. The bus left without them. They didn’t know what to do. Then we saw the first glimpse of blond Americans having advantages. The taxi driver agreed to take their money, the bus stopped for them to catch up and the taxi driver drove them for free to catch the bus where it had stopped up the road. Wow!

Big, Hungry Fish

Now is the time when things started to get crazy and confusing. It turned out some buses were express buses that just went straight to Bangkok with no stops while some other buses stopped along the way dropping people off. Even though some teams left hours before other ones, they showed up much later in Bangkok. The Control Freak team ended up being the first team to show up in Bangkok to feed the fish. Even though the bus with the snowboarders, brother/sister and boring divorce couple on it arrived next, and before the bus with the NFL team and farmers on it, they were not lucky with traffic. While they were stuck in horrendous traffic that moved one block in 20 minutes, the NFL team and farmers got to the fish at the same time in second place since their drivers knew a short cut. Control Freak, NFL and farmers had no idea they had all moved up to the front of the pack.

Laurence and Zac arrived in Bangkok and headed towards the fish with the twins following up in a later bus. The twins got directions for the canal and started walking since they had no money left. They were told it wasn’t very far, but after a while, they learned that it would take about 5 hours to walk there. This is when they remembered they were blonde American twins. They started asking if taxi drivers would drive them places for free and they did! I did give them credit for them not begging people for money. That was very nice of them. They were willing to walk if the cab drivers didn’t drive them for free and they weren’t all flirty with them either. They just straight out said they didn’t have any money.

After feeding the fish, the teams were given the clue for the pit stop. Control Freak found the horrible traffic that other teams had experienced and got fed up with it at one point. They got out and started walking, even though they regretted that decision at some point. They had no idea they were in first. They ended up getting passed by the NFL team and farmers on the way to the pit stop. The snowboarders had to ask for directions at a school from a teacher who took their clue and said she would be right back with directions. While waiting forever, some other teacher came by and said the first one was teaching a class and they would have to wait. Oh, I think instant karma got them back for their rude comments earlier! The teacher did eventually come back with a map and directions and they were on their way.

Pit Stop

At the pit stop, the NFL team and farmers arrived around the same time but the NFL team checked in first. They were really surprised and excited. They had no idea they were first. They won a trip to Bali. The farmers were in second, but I think they were more excited for Amani and Marcus coming in first. The Control freaks got there in third place with a look on their faces that they might be last, so they were also excited to be in third.

While the snowboarders and boring dating couple fed the fish just before Justin and Jennifer, they both got rid of their taxis at the canal. The snowboarders had gone off on foot and got stuck at the school asking for directions and the boring dating couple had to find another taxi. The brother/sister team jumped right back into their taxi and checked into the pit stop in fourth place. Justin did say they were hoping for first place, which I guess they thought that their bus had arrived before the other ones since they left first, proving that no one really knows what the other teams are doing some times. The snowboarders finally got a cab after their school incident and checked into the pit stop in fifth place. The father/son team showed up at the pit stop at the same time as the snowboarders to check in for sixth place. Then Phil made them feel worse by letting them know the first class rule only applies to air so they could have stayed on their original bus.

The boring dating couple got out of their cab when their driver was stopping to ask for directions and someone else said it was in walking distance. Then they found out it was still 30 minutes away so they grabbed another cab. They were sure they were in last place and they were close! They checked into the pit stop in seventh place, but are still in the race to continue to be unmemorable. The twins did check into the pit stop in last place and were really eliminated this time around.

Questions

  1. What did you think of the snowboarders comments about Christianity compared to Buddhism? What about Jennifer’s comments about religion?
  2. Were you as confused as Zac and Laurence over the first class rules?
  3. Were you sad to see the twins go? Would you have rather seen another team leave instead, like the boring dating team?

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