Having ambled their way through the race, AD & Fuzzie were finally eliminated in The Amazing Race Asia 3 Episode 10. That leaves us with a final three of Geoff Rodriguez & Tisha Silang from the Philippines, Ida Nerina & Tania Khan from Malaysia, and Sam Wu & Vince Chung from Hong Kong.
Vince & Sam have had an excellent run, placing in the top three in 8 of the last 9 legs, although they did have a couple close calls (the bad flight where Henry & Bernie were eliminated instead, and the 4 hour penalty last time). Geoff & Tisha were a middle of the road team that didn’t really come on strong until the last half of the season, where they’ve proved to be one of the top teams. Ida & Tania have had a mixed run, including being saved by non-elimination legs twice following a 7 hour gap the leaders opened up on them. All three teams have had their share of success, splitting all of the last 7 first place finishes between them.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Ida & Tania – 5:42AM
Second: Geoff & Tisha – 5:54AM
Third: Vince & Sam – 10:04aM
Teams will drive themselves to the Governorate of Muscat office, about an hour and a half away. The hours of operation is 8AM, which will allow Vince & Sam to make up about half an hour.
From there, they will head to Said’s Camel Farm in Al Abyad to transfer 10 camels to a holding pit. Geoff & Tisha had planned to follow Ida & Tania, but they don’t want to stop for breakfast like Ida & Tania do, so they just apparently get lost instead. And then they get stuck in the sand. Geoff manages to get them out and decides to do the driving in the sand. All the girls think the camels are cute, but Geoff just doesn’t want to be spit on. The camels don’t seem too fond of him either. As Geoff & Tisha are heading to the road block, they pass Vince & Sam going the other way.
The road block is to drive to Hubra Sands and use a metal detector to find a key buried (fortunately not very deep) in the sand. Only 7 of the 70+ keys will actually open the clue box, and teams will be digging with temperatures well over 100F degrees.
Road block (in order of arrival): Tania, Tisha, Sam
As Ida & Tania are leaving the road block (and stuck in the sand), they see Geoff & Tisha (who get stuck in the sand again). Both teams manage to get free. Then Ida & Tania get stuck again. Geoff & Tisha finish the road block, which gives them the lead. One of the locals gets Ida & Tania free. Both teams pass Vince & Sam as they’re leaving. Vince warns Sam not to stop in sand, but he doesn’t listen and gets stuck, too.
Once they finish the road block, teams will fly to their final destination Phuket, Thailand. Given the time they’re leaving, the distance they’ll be travelling, and where they’re travelling from (there are likely to be few flights, all of which will include potentially lengthy layovers), the airport could be a great equalizer or could just simply put one team out of reach. Vince & Sam manage to catch up and get the same flight as Geoff & Tisha. It’s unclear why Ida & Tania did not, as they’re opting to go via Singapore rather than Bangkok.
First flight (Muscat to Dubai to Bangkok to Phuket for a total of 6160km): Geoff & Tisha, Vince & Sam
Second flight (to Dubai, where they will try their luck): Ida & Tania
When Ida & Tania arrive in Dubai, the service they receive from the ticket agents is poor, and they miss the flight they’d hoped to get to Singapore. After some begging, they manage to get a later flight to Phuket via Singapore, for a total of 6400km. When the other two teams land, there’s daylight, an indication that Ida & Tania’s hopes of winning are gone.
If teams thought the road block was too hot, they now get to go to an ice factory to dig through a barrel of ice shavings for an ice cube. Geoff & Tisha have the lead out of the airport, but they get a cab driver who doesn’t have a clue, whereas Vince & Sam get a cab driver who has a rough idea.
From there, they will go to the Lam Hin Pier. Vince & Sam catch another break. Their cab driver came to pick them up with an empty gas tank, but his friend was behind them, so they just switch cabs. As for Geoff & Tisha, their cab driver at least knows where this place is. The task here is to take a traditional longtail Thai fishing boat to search for a fisherman.
The detour is a choice between pull or plunge. In pull, teams must pull up as many as 900 oyster lines until they find the marked oyster shell. In plunge, teams must search the sea floor for a giant clam shell that contains a pearl. It looks like the entire race hinges on this detour, unless Vince & Sam have managed to get an insurmountable lead.
Pull: Vince & Sam (switched from plunge), Geoff & Tisha
Plunge: Ida & Tania
As they’re heading to the detour (and not getting anywhere because they can’t figure out how to row), Geoff & Tisha see that Vince & Sam have finished.
The last task for the race is to dig through a marked area and find a buried treasure chest containing $100,000. The question now becomes just how difficult this digging task is. We’ve seen in the past where digging tasks have cost teams the race (The Amazing Race 5 and The Amazing Race Asia 1) because they couldn’t find anything for hours. It will presumably still be between Vince & Sam and Geoff & Tisha, unless it’s so difficult that somehow Ida & Tania can manage to catch up.
Both teams have found their treasure chests. Now they just need to dig them out.
First: Vince & Sam
Second: Geoff & Tisha
Third: Ida & Tania
The Amazing Race 3 winners are Vince & Sam. I’d suggest it’s a bit tainted by the fact that they quit a task just one leg ago and would have been eliminated if AD & Fuzzie weren’t still in the race, but that notwithstanding, they have run perhaps the best race of any of the teams.
Given the continued ratings success of The Amazing Race Asia, it’s safe to assume we will see The Amazing Race Asia 4 this time next year. In the meantime, stick around for live recaps of the US version, currently The Amazing Race 13.