The two Indian teams struggled with cab drivers at the end of the first leg, and Neena & Amit were eliminated in The Amazing Race Asia 3 Episode 1.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Mai & Oliver – 10:35PM
Second: Geoff & Tisha – 10:38PM
Third: Henry & Bernie – 10:45PM
Fourth: Pailin & Natalie – 12:18AM
Fifth: Ida & Tania – 12:34AM
Sixth: Isaac & William – 12:41AM
Seventh: Vince & Sam – 12:55AM
Eighth: AD & Fuzzie – 1:20AM
Ninth: Niroo & Kapil – 1:29AM
The first stop is the Flight of the Gibbon, a jungle canopy adventure that will have them 50 meters above the rain forest. Mai assumes they’ll hit hours of operation and is in no rush. For that matter, they don’t even bother. They find a local place to relax for the night. Henry’s trusting his baby sister, reluctantly. Isaac & William hope to be the bumbling and silly guys who don’t know what they’re doing.
When they arrive, it turns out it is an hours of operation (9:30AM-5:00PM), but it’s also first come, first served. Vince & Sam arrive first. AD & Fuzzie are second. Ida & Tania are third. Niroo & Kapil are fourth. Henry & Bernie are fifth. Geoff & Tisha are sixth. Isaac & William are 7th. Pailin & Natalie are eighth. The well rested but not particularly bright Mai & Oliver are last, but at least they still have the home country advantage.
The next stop is a banana plantation. There they must find a backpack while avoiding paintball snipers (which can and will leave bruises) at the road block.
Road block (in order of arrival): Geoff, Mai, Bernie, Kapil, Fuzzie, Tania, William, Sam, Pailin
Teams will be leaving Thailand and heading to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), Vietnam, where they will go to the Saigon Opera House. This flight will remove the home country advantage from any of the teams.
First flight (Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh, 1500km): Tanya & Ida (finished the road block first)
Second flight (to Ho Chi Minh via Siem Reap, Cambodia): Henry & Bernie, Geoff & Tisha, AD & Fuzzie, Kapil & Niroo, Sam & Vince
Third flight (to Bangkok, where they will wait 15 hours for the 9AM connecting flight): William & Isaac, Pailin & Natalie, Mai & Oliver
Natalie has a nice bit of melodrama as she breaks down over having to sleep at the airport (get used to it). She blames Pailin for not supporting her during her “darkest hour.”
At the Saigon Pho Cafe, teams must complete one level of the N-Gage (seriously?) racing game System Rush. After this sponsorship opportunity, they will go to Ben Thanh Market, where they must find a flower stall. It’s a day market, which means hours of operation begin at 6AM (though Ida & Tania and Vince & Sam are misled to believe it’s 7AM). Well ahead of the last three teams, but it gives everybody else time to catch up.
From there, they will go to the Cai Be Bus Terminal, two hours away. Vince & Sam are thrown out of the bus with 6km left, for some unknown reason, but it’s moot since their worst case scenario is sixth place.
The detour is a choice between sampan or some walk. In sampan, teams will fill a traditional wooden boat with fruit and paddle it against strong river currents to a trader. In some walk, teams must collect and deliver 20 chickens using a dangan, and they can expect to run into language difficulty and getting lost.
Some walk: Niroo & Kapil, Henry & Bernie, AD & Fuzzie (switched from sampan), Ida & Tania (switched from sampan), Geoff & Tisha (switched from sampan), Sam & Vince, Isaac & William, Pailin & Natalie, Mai & Oliver
Two teams turn out to have members with chicken phobias, whatever that’s about. Henry & Bernie, one of the first teams to opt to go directly to the some walk task, finish first after a bit of bickering. Geoff & Tisha appear to take Ida & Tania’s basket instead of their own, so they make them turn around and bring it back, which accomplishes nothing but create animosity. Niroo & Kapil finish second, after much complaining by Niroo. Vince & Sam finish quickly despite their relatively late arrival, as the rest of the teams are still in the process of switching from the other seemingly more difficult task. The next three teams finish around the same time as each other. Geoff begins blowing his whistle, which apparently is disrespectful, or so the other teams tells us.
As they’re finishing up, the last three teams, who it’s so obvious have no prayer in this leg (looks like about 6 hours or so), are finally landing. Natalie’s complaining about how she’s being treated like less than human because of the conditions on the race (“being dirty is the lowest form of human existence”). Mai’s heart is not in it any more than this whiner either, although at least Mai’s not acting like a beauty queen for the time being.
The next stop is Thanh Nu Jean Darc Vang Lang Church in Ho Chi Minh City. Their task is to choose a charity and spend $500 on it. The rules seem unclear. Some of the teams go shopping, while some just give the charities cash.
The pit stop for this leg of the race is The Museum of Vietnamese History.
First: Henry & Bernie (win a year’s supply of gas)
Second: AD & Fuzzie
Third: Vince & Sam
Fourth: Niroo & Kapil
Fifth: Geoff & Tisha
Sixth: Ida & Tania
Seventh: Pailin & Natalie
Eighth: Mai & Oliver
Eliminated: Isaac & William
After struggling with the chicken task, Isaac & William are the last team to arrive and have been eliminated from the race.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race Asia 3 episode 3.