Natalie proved to be one of the poorest casting choices ever in The Amazing Race Asia 3 Episode 3. After whining nonstop and apparently sabotaging their stay on the show on purpose, she was finally put out of her misery and was eliminated alongside her actually useful partner Pailin. Natalie’s efforts (or lack thereof) once again allowed Niroo & Kapil to hang on by the skin of their teeth. On the opposite end of things, Henry & Bernie managed to win another leg.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Henry & Bernie – 2:04AM
Second: Vince & Sam – 2:05AM
Third: Ida & Tania – 2:08AM
Fourth: AD & Fuzzie – 2:10AM
Fifth: Geoff & Tisha – 2:14AM
Sixth: Mai & Oliver – 2:19AM
Seventh: Niroo & Kapil – 3:00AM
Kapil tells us that people are now reacting to their position (that would be last) because they’ve seen how they can impact the others.
They will be flying to Taipei, Taiwan. Nobody has the hometown advantage, but Vince & Sam have the language barrier under control. They’ll have to kill 6 hours at the airport first. Ida & Tania opt to return to the hotel instead, which proves wise since there’s just one flight, and they’re rested and well fed. The journey of only around 3000km will take all day.
The detour is a choice between shoot it or shape it. In shoot it, teams must find their clue in the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan and photograph it. The museum contains countless lifelike miniature displays. In shape it, teams must make their way to a night market and create shapes out of an ancient Chinese puzzle called tangrams. The two-sided game is also called 7 boards of cunning. Neither option sounds particularly appealing. Either search for something, which could take hours, or try to solve a puzzle, which could take hours.
Shoot it (in order of arrival): Mai & Oliver (with the assistance of a local), Geoff & Tisha, Vince & Sam, Henry & Bernie, Niroo & Kapil
Shape it: AD & Fuzzie (switched from shoot it after having been told the museum’s closed)
Mai & Oliver have clearly seen a season or two of The Amazing Race. After getting a taxi to drive so they could follow him, they kidnap a local off the street to give them directions.
Henry & Bernie have difficulty with the traffic nightmare of being unable to make a simple left turn and are pulled over by a cop in the process. For their part, Niroo & Kapil have a nervous breakdown over, well, I’m not quite clear. Their keys get stuck in the ignition. Just leave it there and ask for a replacement. It’s not like it’s their car.
When they arrive at the museum, Mai suggests they all team up and work together and show each other when they find “it,” whatever “it” may be. As they all struggle to find their clue, AD & Fuzzie fly through the puzzle, which I’d have passed by as the more difficult detour. Having proposed working together, Mai & Oliver are the first to finish the camera detour, after which they pretend they can’t do it and are changing tasks. After some convincing, the others believe they have’t found it, but they’re still not happy with them because it looks like they quit for no apparent reason. Oliver says he doesn’t want to help Geoff anyway. The next person to find the clue is Sam, who inadvertently yells out “Ah!” and gives away the location, which allows Ida & Tania, Geoff & Tisha, and Henry & Bernie to complete the task.
While all this is going on, Niroo & Kapil say they quit and want to go back home. Huh? Kapil finally talks some sense into his father and tells him that they can just leave the car where it is, which is entirely true, as even if it does get stolen, it’s still not like it’s their car. Because of their delay, though, they don’t have anyone else’s assistance at the detour, and they’re on their own.
The next stop is the Institute for the Blind, where they must read a clue in Braille. One person is blindfolded and doing the reading, while the other person assists with the letters and writing. They can only communicate verbally, which Tisha has to keep a leash on Geoff about. Henry says he thinks Mai & Oliver already got the clue. Sam & Vince receive the clue that lets them present a check for $20,000 to the owers of the institute. Most teams blow right through this task, but Bernie struggles.
On this leg, there’s an awful lot of the paying a taxi to lead them going on. Most teams are picking up on the difficulty of driving around Taipei. Ironically, it backfires on Mai & Oliver on their way to the next clue, though, as their cab driver gets lost, which causes Oliver to lose it, but Mai remains calm.
The Braille clue tells them to go to Shenken, a small town in Taipei that’s popular for its enormous variety of food and drinks. Yeah, this pretty well sounds like bad news. It’s a gross eating challenge. In this road block, one person must eat one large bowl of stinky tofu, which contains duck blood, fermented tofu, spices, and vegetables. Let the vomiting and crying begin. This challenge seems particularly difficult for the women since not only is the food difficult to eat, but the amount of food is pretty substantial.
Road block (in order of arrival): Ida, Oliver, Vince, AD, Henry, Tisha, Kapil
Their earlier quitting looked to be for show, but this is a much larger gesture they can’t handle the race. Kapil takes one look at the bowl and doesn’t even make an effort, instead opting for the 4 hour penalty.
The pitstop for this leg of the race is City Hall Square in Taipei. Tania gets a police escort to take them there.
First: Ida & Tania (win N96 Nokia phones)
Second: Vince & Sam
Third: Mai & Oliver
Fourth: Henry & Bernie
Fifth: AD & Fuzzie
Sixth: Geoff & Tisha
Eliminated: Niroo & Kapil
With everybody else arriving around 2 in the morning, when Niroo & Kapil show up when the sun comes up, it becomes obvious just how far behind they’ve managed to get. That’s a moot point, though, as they have been eliminated. This is the second week in a row where the team already checked out of the race before they were ever eliminated.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race Asia 3 episode 5, and don’t forget the live blogs of The Amazing Race 13.