A gap in flights created a three way battle for last in The Amazing Race Asia 3 Episode 2, and Isaac & William were eliminated from the race. Mai & Oliver gave up their first place lead with a short-sighted decision for comfort that caused them to drop to the bottom of the pack, while Natalie whined about how life’s so difficult when you’re a drama queen.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Henry & Bernie – 5:00AM
Second: AD & Fuzzie – 5:35AM
Third: Vince & Sam – 5:40AM
Fourth: Niroo & Kapil – 6:02AM
Fifth: Geoff & Tisha – 6:35AM
Sixth: Ida & Tania – 7:08AM
Seventh: Pailin & Natalie – 11:30AM
Eighth: Mai & Oliver – 11:38AM
We’re still seeing the sizeable gap left over for the last two teams, one big enough to not be easily erased unless they get lucky at an airport or hours of operations.
From Ho Chi Minh, teams will head by bus to Hue, which at one time was the capitol of Vietnam. This 1000km trip will take about 25 hours.
Bernie believes it’s a 25 minute trip. She’s in for a surprise, as are Niroo & Kapil who believe it’s 90 minutes. It’ll seem even longer for those teams opting for a cheaper, non-air conditioned bus.
First bus (arrives first): Henry & Bernie, Niroo & Kapil
Second Bus (arrives third): AD & Fuzzie, Vince & Sam, Geoff & Tisha
Third Bus (arrives second): Ida & Tania
Fourth Bus (arrives way last): Pailin & Natalie, Mai & Oliver
When they finally arrive in Hue, teams must make their way on foot to Caltex. It’s an hours of operations of 9:30, which will eat away at about 3 hours of the lead over the last two teams.
Natalie’s not happy she’s not on Top Model. She claims she didn’t sleep on the bus, but Oliver says she’s a liar. She also says she didn’t sign up to race around the world, apparently. To make matters worse, neither of the last place teams is particularly happy that they’ve been walking around aimlessly for about an hour trying to find the Caltex. But the good news, except for Natalie who wants to be eliminated, is that their bus was apparently fast enough that the other teams aren’t that far ahead any more.
Once Caltex opens, they must replace the tires and change the oil on a marked Jeep. The women all complain they don’t know what they’re doing, but most of them are troopers and get through it. With the exception of Mai (who lets Oliver do the work, which he’s fine with since he does this kind of thing at home) and Natalie (who flat out refuses to help her partner for the most part, even though she really could use it).
When their work is approved by the driver, they will drive to Khai Dinh Tomb. Henry & Bernie, who finished the task third, break down on the way to their destination, so they could be in trouble. Meanwhile, Geoff & Tisha are generating the wrath of Ida & Tania (and vice versa).
The road block for this leg is to travel to the tomb of Emperor Minh Mang, where they will gather 7 coins representing the 7 emperors of the Nyuen dynasty. The grounds are 28 hectares (69 acres) and could prove difficult to search. They must make sure to note who the coin represents because if they get it wrong they will need to go back to the other tomb so they can get the correct answers and try again.
Road block (in order of arrival): Niroo, Vince, Ida, Henry, Geoff, AD, Oliver, Natalie
Geoff & Tisha know they’ve made a mistake since it would have been better to have her do this. Mai doesn’t even consider doing it. Natalie for some reason volunteers (sabotage?).
While Geoff’s doing the road block, Tania and Bernie take the opportunity to confront Tisha about him. She wants them to talk to him and work things out. They don’t care or want to. I think it’s safe to say they’re bringing this on themselves.
Henry is the first to finish the road block, and he agrees to help Vince to an extent, though he screws over Niroo and tells Vince to help Ida next. So Niroo goes around begging (aka annoying) everybody trying to get them to help him, first Ida, then Geoff, before finally realizing he should just go back and try to figure it out himself. Oddly enough, though, Vince left his coins in the right order when he left to help whoever happened to look (nobody in particular apparently). Ida, meanwhile, received AD’s pile in order, though she mixed it up. When Ida does figure it out, she says that Niroo should have just waited for her to finish so that he could get some assistance. Oliver finishes the task but says he can’t do anything more afterward because he’s too dehydrated, which would essentially make his team useless. Niroo finally finishes, and still nobody has noticed that Vince left the answers. Natalie can’t figure it out. She goes into the corner and pouts for a while, then decides, without consulting her partner, that she will quit and take the 4 hour penalty, which she rationalizes by saying at least she’ll get some extra sleep. She really doesn’t care. Pailin’s supportive, rather than smacking her upside the head (which I’d like to see).
The detour is a choce between sticks and stocks. In sticks, teams must make 10 incense sticks, which may look deceptively simple. In stocks teams must thresh rice stocks into kernels to fill two baskets, which will be physically draining.
Sticks (in order of arrival): Henry & Bernie, Vince & Sam, AD & Fuzzie, Ida & Tania, Mai & Oliver, Niroo & Kapil, Pailin & Natalie
Stocks: Geoff & Tisha (switched from sticks)
The next destination is Quoc Hoc Park where they will get their clue from a cyclo. Henry & Bernie, who finished the detour first, are having more car trouble, but only one team manages to pass them. They’d better hope they don’t need that Jeep for too much longer.
Once they arrive at the park and figure out that the clue is on a cyclo and not in a box, the teams must ride the cyclos to the next pitstop. The cyclos are dangerous and difficult to control.
First: Henry & Bernie (win HD Handycam camcorders)
Second: Vince & Sam
Third: Ida & Tania
Fourth: AD & Fuzzie
Fifth: Geoff & Tisha
Sixth: Mai & Oliver
Seventh: Niroo & Kapil
Eliminated: Pailin & Natalie
I liked Pailin, but good riddance to Natalie. She checked out of this race days ago. Pailin should have never agreed to let her do the road block, although if Pailin did it, she would have just been delaying the inevitable. Pailin’s disappointed. Natalie’s mostly just relieved that she’s done suffering.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race Asia 3 episode 4, and don’t forget the live blogs of The Amazing Race 13.