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| This is what people will remember this episode for. |
Treasuri and Louisa's 3 in a row hat trick!
Once again, Treasuri and Louisa have triumphed in HCMC after having carefully decided to reject the fast forward. Now this is a highly risky strategy to take actually as most of the time, those who attempt the fast forward do succeed and get an easy win. But they are right - attempting the fast forward can backfire. It reminds me of the time Justin and Diana in TAR US S27 E1 nearly got eliminated after they tried to go for the fast forward, but due the adverse weather conditions, it wasn't safe for them to attempt the hang glider challenge. So they had no choice but to play catch up and eventually finished 9th out of 11th on that leg. Despite a slow start at the prawn fishing challenge, Treasuri and Louisa gambled on the badminton detour and it paid off, for they completed it a lot faster than the flower market challenge. Treasuri began to give in to the stress during the roadblock at the Vietnamese restaurant and started crying uncontrollably but they were so far ahead by than that they were still able to finish ahead of Yvonne and Chloe. Three first place finishes in a row is incredible but that now they have a huge target on their backs.
Hello, where are your manners?
I know it is a race but can you guys be polite to your taxi drivers? Every team seemed to be quite demanding with their taxi drivers - now there is definitely a huge language barrier in Vietnam and taxi drivers are unlikely to speak much (if any) English, even in a big city like HCMC. Hardly anyone made any effort to speak any Vietnamese apart from Yvonne and Chloe and they managed no more than "xin chào" (hello) and cám ơn (thank you). But perhaps I am underestimating just how frustrating it can be in Vietnam - having been there myself, I realized how difficult it is dealing with the locals. Unless they work in the tourism industry (say in a 5-star hotel), they will not speak any other language. The staff that the racers encounter on each location are probably chosen for their ability to speak English but they have no control over which taxi drivers they get. Nonetheless, I doubt being pushy and demanding is going to help.
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| Get ready for the language barrier.in Vietnam |
Was the fast forward simply impossible?
Oh poor Will and Alex suffered at the fast forward, poor guys, you had to feel for them after seeing the way they threw up. They must have eaten a ridiculous amount of rice there before giving up. I guess you had to strike a balance with the fast forward: you can't make it too simple otherwise it's no challenge at all. On the other hand, take a look at your stomach and calculate just how many of those Vietnamese rice cakes you could fit into your stomach. Oh boy, I did think that they made the task too difficult (well, they could have reduced the size of each rice cake to make it a bit more forgiving). I like fast forwards which involve an element of skill - the classic example was when Adam and Bethany won the surfing fast forward at the Sentosa Wave House in Singapore during TAR US S25 E9. Now that took a lot of skill and the cyclists Kym and Alli got eliminated in Singapore because they lost out on that fast forward. How much skill is there in eating vast quantities of rice until you throw up? It was just pure dumb luck, no skill required - you just kept eating (and throwing up) until you found the one rice cake containing the coin.
But wait, statistically, it could have been possible if...
I paused the screen as Allan Wu introduced the challenge and counted approximately 130 clay bowls. There may have been a few more and I couldn't count all of them but 130 seems like a pretty accurate estimate (Allan said, "hundreds of" - he didn't give a specific number). Tom and Anita soon realized how impossible it was and gave up after a few, leaving Will and Alex an impossible amount of rice cakes to eat between the two of them. But say all 7 teams went to do the fast forward. That's 14 racers trying to eat 130 rice cakes: that's about 9.3 rice cakes each. Suddenly the odds look a lot better because you know that someone is probably going to find that one rice cake with the coin before everyone had to eat 9.3 rice cakes. Even with 4 racers, that's 32.5 rice cakes each but when it was just Will and Alex, that's 65 rice cakes each. Also, if there were say at least 3 or 4 teams trying the fast forward, then you know that the moment the fast forward was won, you won't be the last team lagging behind - there would still be at least one other team in the same position as yourself. But the moment Anita and Tom gave up, Will and Alex were doomed as their chances of success became ridiculously slim at that stage. It's all about statistics baby, we use that to calculate our odds of success. According to the statistics, they really should have left the moment Anita and Tom decided to give up.
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| Use statistics to work out your odds of success. |
Are you feeling lucky in Saigon?
So the fast forward boiled down to luck - Will and Alex simply did not get lucky unfortunately. The prawn fishing challenge was again down to luck. Perhaps any of you anglers out there can advice me about fishing for prawns, but it just seemed to be totally random when the prawns were caught. Perhaps this was the only time that Treasuri and Louisa slipped behind the rest of the racers because things were simply out of their control and no amount of planning or skill could help them catch the prawns any faster. Is it fair to have luck play such a big role in one leg? I don't think so and besides, I'm sure there were far more interesting things to show the viewers about HCMC than that prawn pool outside a restaurant - what were the producers thinking? Who was your location manager in HCMC?
Detour: Skill vs Labour again
I'm surprised that only one team picked the badminton side of the detour when badminton is an incredibly popular sport in SE Asia. If you had decent badminton skills, you could breeze through the badminton challenge a lot faster than the flower market challenge which clearly took a lot longer. Treasuri and Louisa gambled on their badminton skills and it paid off - enabling them to finish the detour a lot faster and climbing back into first place. Some of the other teams look quite strong too - why didn't they try the badminton detour? I like the sports challenges in TAR because they depend on skill and not just luck. So many TAR challenges have featured sports, in TAR US S21 E1, the teams had to play table tennis against a local junior champion and had to score just one point. In TAR China S3 E10, the teams had to play a professional local footvolley team - the contestants were allowed to use their hands whilst the footvolley pros were not. TAR has presented us with some pretty awesome sports-related roadblocks over the years.
Actually the flower market challenge wasn't that easy - there were just so many mopeds weaving through the crowded market. Anyone who has been to Vietnam will know how hazardous walking down the street in any Vietnamese city can be. There are mopeds everywhere. It drove me nuts in Hanoi - I recall how I thought I was safe enough on the pavement and then the mopeds came charging down the pavement right beside me at breakneck speed. Those crazy mopeds certainly increased the difficulty of the task and just for that, I would have definitely picked the badminton detour instead. At least you didn't have to worry about a moped charging through the middle of the badminton court!
Why did Rona do the eating challenge and not Eric?
Now one moment of the episode that left me somewhat surprised was when Rona jumped in to do the eating challenge at the Vietnamese restaurant despite the fact that her husband Eric was such a big guy. I asked Rona why she did it and she told me, "Eric's range of palette only consists of chicken & beef. Hahaha I am more of a brave eater. Plus it's a strategy, we know that it will only get tougher, so were saving his roadblock to things that I cannot do." So Eric is a fussy eater? Rona certainly stepped up and rose to the challenge, even encouraging Treasuri along the way as Treasuri broke down and sobbed uncontrollably as she finished her roast lizard. Making TAR contestants eat gross things is nothing new - but a five course meal? Isn't that just a little too evil? Surely one bat would suffice - why two?
Oh the list is very long, let's see what I can recall off the top of my head, Balut has been featured a number of times whenever TAR makes a visit to the Philippines. Edible insects has been featured in TAR legs Thailand, Canada, China and Mexico. Century eggs in Thailand. There was live octopus in South Korea. Cow lips in Madagascar. One of the worst ones was in TAR China Rush S2 E10 when the contestants had to eat two live sea cucumbers fresh from the tank. Now I like my sashimi but that was taking it way too far. But I think there is some shock value in making the racers eat something that most viewers would find gross - fair enough, what I don't like is when they force them to eat so much that they throw up. That's just cruel. Oh poor Will and Alex, I wanna give them a hug.
How did Chloe and Yvonne overtake Eric and Rona for 2nd place?
Despite leaving the Vietnamese restaurant in second place, somehow Eric and Rona arrived at the pit stop in third place, allowing Chloe and Yvonne to finish 2nd. I asked Rona what happened and she told me, "Our taxi driver drove super slow." Damn, this was completely not their fault - now if you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know that Eric and Rona are by far my favourite team. I know that they are big fans of the race and Rona has described doing TAR as an item on her bucket list. I really want to see them do well and with the next leg coming up in Manila, Philippines.
The one person who seemed to actually enjoy the five-course Vietnamese horror meal was JK who didn't actually say anything stupid in this episode - either that, or the producers felt that enough as enough and decided not to show him say or do anything stupid in the final edit unlike in previous episodes. JK breezed through the challenge, even complimenting the chef on the flavours used in the dishes. Don't get me wrong, I love Vietnamese food so much. I practically lived on Vietnamese food when I was a poor university student in Paris back in the 1990s and I had such amazing food when I visited Vietnam but that five-course meal was pretty gross even by my standards. JK's ability to eat that meal with ease propelled his team to 5th place in HCMC, their best finish in a while.
Finally Treasuri and Louisa get a prize!
For coming in first in this leg, they get return tickets on any Garuda destination - that's pretty neat. I recommend London of course, because that's where I live (and it is the furthest destination they currently fly to). But otherwise, why not try Amsterdam - it gets you into continental Europe and you can easily get the train to so many other lovely cities like Brussels or even go to Paris from there. But well done ladies, this prize is long overdue - you have truly earned it!
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| London is Garuda's furthest long-haul destination. |
Goodbye Will and Alex, I'll miss you.
Damn there goes my eye candy for the race. They took a gamble and it didn't pay off - what can you do? Such is the Amazing Race. They were not the strongest or brightest team but certainly the best to look at. The only eye candy left is now Eric - no offence to Tom and Mike, but have you seen his muscles? Ooh la la.
Statistics: the teams' average position after 5 legs
Treasuri & Louisa: 1.6
Yvonne & Chloe: 4
Eric & Rona: 4.2
Tom & Anita: 4.4
Parul & Maggie: 5
JK & Mike: 6
Little has changed after this leg in Vietnam - it is still resoundingly clear that Treasuri & Louisa are by far the strongest team by a long way. There's very little difference between the next three teams and I must say, take these statistics with a pinch of salt - Eric and Rona lost a foot race by seconds in Penang costing them one position and they just got damn unlikely with the taxi driver in HCMC. I know what the statistics say but they still come across as a stronger and more well prepared team than Yvonne and Chloe. JK and Mike are still the weakest and my pick to be eliminated next.
Tough one. Treasuri and Lousia seem like the obvious choice after having just won three legs in a row but we're off to Manila next and we have two Pinoy teams. Surely the home ground advantage would be enough to help Eric and Rona or even Parul and Maggie finally win a leg? However, did the home ground advantage help Tom and Anita in Phuket or did it help any of the Malaysian teams in Penang? No, it clearly didn't. I note that Treasuri and Louisa didn't win a leg in their native Indonesia at all, they only started their winning after they arrived in Malaysia - so perhaps this race is designed not to give the teams too much of an advantage when racing through their home countries? But if there is a U-turn coming up, surely Treasuri and Louisa have a huge target on their backs by now? Will teams conspire to try to get rid of Treasuri and Louisa? Let's see what awaits the teams in Manila. As for me, I will be working in Germany for much of this coming week but I shall endeavour to get my review out for you on the next episode by next weekend. So, what do you guys think of the race so far? Many thanks for reading guys - cám ơn rất nhiều!
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