Sawadee-khab. Hello again and our second leg this season in Thailand certainly didn't disappoint. Firstly, a huge congratulations to Jocelyn & Victor for winning two legs in a row - I know people have made this comparison on social media but the last time an Asian-American team pulled off his hat trick of winning the first two legs in a row were Hung & Chee from S32 but notably, they did not go on to win that season (they finished a very credible second) so whilst I am sure we are all very impressed by Jocelyn & Victor so far, I don't think it is a forgone conclusion that they will win this season yet. After all Victor has had an advantage in being the only racer on this season to speak some Thai but first, here are the average ranking statistics after leg 2 in Salaya to give you an idea of how the teams have performed so far.
Average rankings after leg 2 in Salaya, Thailand
- Jocelyn & Victor = 1
- Rob & Corey = 2
- Greg & John = 3
- Morgan & Lena = 4
- Todd & Ashlie = 5
- Steve & Anna Leigh = 6
- Joel & Garrett = 8
- Liam & Yeremi = 8
- Joe & Ian = 8
- Andrea & Malaina = 10
- Robbin & Chelsea = 11
- Elizabeth & Iliana = 12 (eliminated in Suan Sampran)
No surprises on this leg despite a really difficult roadblock.
Note that all but three teams actually kept their rankings from the first leg, that's because the teams left in the order they finished in the first leg. So the first team set off at 8:26 am and the last team set off at 11:09 am, thus Jocelyn & Victor had a head start of 1 hour 43 minutes over Elizabeth & Iliana and whilst it was impressive how well they did in this leg, it did take Jocelyn 12 attempts to get through the lotus flower bouquet roadblock, that was quite slow but given the lead they had over the other teams, it was still enough of a buffer to keep them at the front of the pack and win this leg. Given how much attention to detail was required in the lotus flower task, I thought the order would be well and truly mixed up after that roadblock but that really wasn't the case. That task itself was hard enough for the racers but the added level of difficulty was to make them wade out into the muddy lotus pond to harvest the flowers and leaves on top of having to prepare the bouquets. One can only imagine how muddy that pond was and a few of the racers even lost a shoe in the mud. That was just sadistic. In the recently concluded season of TAR Canada S9, in E6 the teams had to assemble three bouquets of flowers as part of a detour - but it was a far cry from this very messy, muddy roadblock here in Salaya, Thailand as the Canadian teams got to do their detour in a squeaky clean factory. I had to feel for Rob as the racers doing this roadblock did get some feedback in English when their bouquets were rejected, we weren't shown anyone from production doing the translation into ASL for Rob who is deaf and obviously cannot hear (though he probably can lip read). It is always an added level of difficulty for him, but he still came out very strong on this task and indeed, Rob & Corey finished 2nd again. I swear TAR is a lot more fun when your two favourite teams finished first and second, but let's look at how some of the other teams have narrowly managed to dodge disaster on this leg when things didn't go to plan.
How costly were the taxi drivers' errors?
Two teams, Greg & John and Liam & Yeremi, got driven to the wrong location: apparently there are two temples with a very similar name. Instead of going to Wat Suwannaram in Salaya, they ended up in a temple with the same name but in South Bangkok. Bear in mind that Bangkok is a massive city, so these two teams travelled about 17.1 km (10.6 miles) due south instead of going 26.2 km (16.3 miles) due south-west, so it wasn't a complete disaster. Yes they did go to the wrong place but at least they didn't head off in the opposite direction. They travelled due south instead of south-west, it was unfortunate of course as racers are in the hands of their taxi drivers but they were lucky not to have been even further away. It really just meant that they didn't take the most direct route to the lotus farm. The other disaster that was averted was Joel & Garrett's mishap with the fanny pack: they left the roadblock in 7th place but some time later, they then realized that they were missing a fanny pack and had to go back to retrieve it. I watched that sequence again and it seems they only dropped one place from 7th to 8th - that means it really wasn't that much of a disaster as they didn't waste that much time. I feel bad for them as I did the same thing last night, I left my phone in the gym and I had left at closing time. I had walked for about 5 minutes down the road before I realized and ran back to the gym, only to find it totally locked and the lights were off. I spent a sleepless night worrying what might happen to the phone and it was a terrible feeling to be without my phone for that long (about 10.5 hours) when I am so dependent on it for everything. So I got up early the next day and was back at the gym at 8:30 am when they opened their doors, sure enough my phone was right where I had left it and it still had 74% on the battery. I have been going to the gym for so many years but had never left my phone there before, I still don't know why or how I forgot but I suppose that is the very essence of human error. That's why I feel bad for Joel & Garrett's mistake as that's just the same kind of human error that we're all prone to.
My prediction from last week were half right.
I was totally wrong in terms of which teams would win this leg. I didn't take into account of the lead that the teams would keep going into this leg and I guessed wrongly from the previews that this leg would be very physical - well, it was, in parts. Wading into the muddy pond to gather the lotus flowers and leaves was indeed physical, but it wasn't a straight forward physical task as assembling the bouquet required for more attention to detail. At the detour, there was a choice: those who went for 'scoop up' picked the more physical side of the detour but the teams that did 'stock up' got to avoid anything too physically demanding. The two teams that I predicted would win what I perceived to be a physical leg were Joe & Ian and Greg & John - both teams did did okay, but just not well enough to win the leg. I was right though about the elimination of Elizabeth & Iliana, starting in last place, they had to run a perfect leg to avoid elimination and things were going pretty well actually for them at the roadblock, the last three teams were tied for last place going into that final detour. It was simply not knowing what a durian was that caused them the delay - to be fair, they were completely relying on the locals in the market for help at that point. Unless you're South-East Asian or if you've watched loads of Youtube videos on exotic fruits, you're unlikely to know what a durian is - it is a spiky fruit with the reputation to be the world's smelliest fruit. Don't rush out to try it, it's overrated and you probably won't like it. I can get it in London Chinatown but I think it might have been two decades or more since I've last had it. Elizabeth & Iliana were clearly not a strong team to begin with so it didn't take a huge mistake to lead to their elimination. So from now on, I'm going to predict just one team to win or lose for the next leg, as picking more than one team seem wrong: the worst case scenario, I get it totally wrong.
Which detour was easier?
I think the 'stock up' was definitely easier given that 'scoop up' was a physically demanding task in the tropical heat. At least in the market, the teams had a trolley to push their baskets around whilst in the pomelo plantation, the teams had to pick the fruit out of the water by hand and then load five massive baskets of the fruit. I am certainly not fond of hard labour in the hot weather, so I would have picked 'stock up' by default and both tasks weren't that hard - two teams made a mistake in 'stock up' (Jocelyn gave Victor the wrong quantity for the coconut sugar and Elizabeth & Iliana messed up on the durian), but those mistakes were easily rectified. Some teams fell into the water at 'scoop up' and got very dirty indeed, I hope they gave their taxi drivers a big tip - can you imagine picking up a passenger who had just fallen into that muddy water? I did wonder which location was more convenient to get to, given that the pomelo farm did look like it was in the middle of nowhere whilst the big Don Wai market was at least in town, but unfortunately, I couldn't locate 'Ton Somo Farm 3' on Google maps or any other local maps no matter how hard I tried - so either the location is so remote the name is only known to the locals, the address may be incomplete or maybe it was incorrectly translated into English.
What is a pomelo and is it heavy?
Well as Phil described, it is the biggest citrus fruit and the colour of the flesh can range from light yellow (like a lemon) to dark pink (like a grapefruit) - in terms of taste, it closely resembles that of a grapefruit, though the better pomelos can be quite sweet and fragrant whilst the cheaper ones can be either bland or even slightly bitter. It was a fruit that I grew eating a lot (I am Asian after all) but I have not actually had one in years given that I think it is overrated. It can be quite heavy if you get a massive one - the ones the teams encountered on this leg did look bigger than your average pomelo.
Who will win the next leg?
Aha, now this next leg is going to be a lot less predictable. The teams are traveling to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on two different flights and the first flight is delayed an hour, so those on the second flight are automatically bumped up to first and second - we see a conversation between Joel & Garrett and Joe & Ian discussing just that. This would mean that these are the two teams most likely to win this next leg and between them and I think the stronger of the two teams would be Joe & Ian, so that is my prediction. I would expect the order of the teams to be very mixed up on this next leg.
Who will be eliminated next?
We see Jocelyn & Victor struggle with a cooking task - I think it looks like they are preparing bánh cuốn - that's a delicious, savoury crepe made from rice flour and water. It is simple enough, it is like a very thin rice pancake which you can then stuff with meat, mushrooms, vegetables or whatever you like but it can be tricky to make as it is very thin and falls apart easily. I think it look s like bánh cuốn but I can't be 100% sure. Victor says, "we're the last team here" and Jocelyn says, "it's over". I find that hard to believe for two reasons: firstly, I find it hard to believe that an Asian-American team can get eliminated over an Asian cooking challenge, sorry I am guilty of ethnic stereotypes here. If they struggled, then the others would too. Secondly, it would be rare to give away a spoiler like that in the trailer for the next episode. Look what they did with the Joel & Garrett fanny pack mishap in this episode, it was something nice to include in a trailer but it was by no means a spoiler as it really didn't affect the outcome of the leg. I predict that Jocelyn & Victor will struggle in this leg but still find a way to survive whilst the weakest team statistically right now are Robbin & Chelsea, I am going to predict that it will be Robbin & Chelsea eliminated next - sorry guys, nothing personal, it is just the statistics speaking.
Did we like this leg?
I was satisfied with it. It did showcase some interesting aspects of the local culture, though I did think there were too many taxi rides on this leg. If a team gets eliminated because they messed up on a task, the viewers will think, fair enough that's your fault. But if a team gets eliminated because their taxi driver makes a mistake, then I think that feels unfair. I understand teams will have to get from A to B but I would prefer it if they were reliant on public transport and were given clear instructions like, "walk to this train station, take the train to this station". The outcome of the leg really shouldn't dependent on the skills of the taxi driver as that's just pure chance and luck. I do feel that the first two legs were really a mega-leg with a rest period, as the teams at the back never had much of a chance to make up for the time deficit that was carried over from the first leg, so then this could have been structured as a mega-leg or keep on racing instead.
Oh the ignorant, ugly American emerges.
Greg was being rude and ignorant when first tried to do a fist bump with the Thai judge at the lotus flower roadblock and then when the judge handed over the clue he said, "not gonna do the fist pump" but then just walked away instead of acknowledging the fact that the judge had bowed - it is the local Thai custom to bow and clasp one's hands together in both greeting someone and when departing. You shouldn't be the ignorant American who flies halfway around the world and then be shocked when you encounter a different culture in a place like Thailand. Sure most younger Thai people will know what a fist bump is, given that grew in popularity during the pandemic as an alternative to the handshake (there's far less contact even though some contact is made) and we did see some famous people like President Obama use it. But if an elderly Thai person greets you in that traditional way, simply running away and saying "not gonna do the fist bump" does come across as both ignorant and rude. We have seen many other racers on this leg simply observe what the locals do and replicate that gesture - it really isn't rocket science to be a little more respectful and observant when in another country. If you don't speak the language, we don't expect you to (even I don't speak Thai - it is just one of those languages that's not popularly picked up as a foreign language), but at the very least, please try to be polite to the locals.
Thai people really don't speak much English, do they?
Well, it depends and can vary. If you're in central Bangkok, then English is widely spoken as most people would have to deal with the millions of tourists who pass through Bangkok. English is the default foreign and second language of Thailand, so if a Japanese tourist shows up in Thailand, they would use English to communicate. I was amazed at how I was able to buy a train ticket in Bangkok with ease as the lady behind the counter at the station spoke English really well. However, the moment you get out of Bangkok and into the countryside, it is a completely different story. Thailand is very homogenous - that means virtually everyone in that Don Wai market where they did the detour would be Thai and speak Thai, thus there wouldn't even be the need for signs in English. Like most countries, generally, it would be the younger, more well educated Thai people who would speak English well but when it comes to the older generation, it would be highly unlikely that they would know more than a few words. On the issue of taxi drivers though, that is entirely down to luck. Some have taught themselves some English in order to pick up tourists and earn more money, but the quality of their English can vary widely given that it is often self-taught - after all, the taxi drivers don't earn much in Thailand, so these are not rich Thai people who have university degrees where they got to study English at college. But the motivation to earn more money is often enough for many of these Thai people who deal with tourists to learn more English for work.
Is it unfair that Victor spoke some Thai?
I've stumbled upon this on social media and this got me angry - this is why I don't interact with people on social media as there are so many stupid idiots out there and I'd rather have my own platform to voice my opinions here. Firstly, Victor spoke some Thai - he is Laotian-American and the Laotian language is in the same family as Thai but that's like a Spanish speaker trying to speak Italian or a German speaker trying to understand Dutch. It is by no means easy, that's why Victor only speaks a little Thai - please don't assume that all South-East Asian people speak the same language, we usually default to English to understand each other! Secondly, we have encountered this situation in past seasons before whereby some of the teams do speak the local language and the onus is then on the production team to make sure that such teams do not get tasks that would be massively to their advantage. So this did happen in TAR S14 where Chinese-American siblings Victor & Tammy (who went on to win that season) encountered not one but two tasks that required knowledge of Chinese, so I did roll my eyes at that point - I don't blame the casting director but more the production team who came up with the tasks in China on S14. So in the market, sure Victor was able to speak a bit of Thai but they still made a mistake and more to the point, the other teams who attempted that detour weren't at a huge disadvantage. In any case if the teams encountered a very physically demanding task (such as the pomelo side of the detour) the teams with older racers can complain, "hey that's not fair, that is clearly a task that will favour the younger racers, like how am I supposed to compete with someone half my age doing something that physical?" Given TAR's commitment to diversity when it comes to casting, it is inevitable that you're going to find some teams who will have an advantage in some tasks from time to time - this goes way beyond just being able to speak a language, some tasks require huge attention to detail and so for example, if you have to learn a dance routine (as they did in leg 1 in Bangkok), racers who have had experience taking dance classes would pick up those steps a lot more quickly: so would that be also unfair to the other racers who have never taken a dance class before? Hence this apparent 'unfairness' is simply part of the format of TAR.
So what other cool reality TV programmes have I been watching in 2023?
If you love TAR the way I do, here's a few other programmes that I have been enjoying. Firstly, there's the Traitors - it's quite different from TAR but it is a great format. I recommend Traitors New Zealand 2023 as they picked an awesome cast whilst Traitors Australia 2023 was awful due to the poor casting choices. It is always tough with a new programme as people go into season 1 not quite knowing how to play the game to win, but the the producers in New Zealand probably gave the contestants plenty of coaching to make sure they knew what to expect and would come up with some kind of intelligent strategy for the game whereas in Australia S2, most were completely clueless. The Traitors is now all over the English speaking world: UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand so check it out. I also like The Mole, which has been revamped on Netflix in America, though the original seasons from the Netherlands and Belgium are better, though those are in Dutch. English subtitles are available for the Netherlands version but not the Belgium version. There was one season of Rush in Australia, which was similar to TAR in many ways as it features teams racing through exotic, beautiful countries like Brazil, Jordan and India to win prize money but at the end of each leg, one person from the losing team gets eliminated until the grand final, when three people race to win the grand prize. It was actually really good but it got axed after just one season this year. I don't know why - I loved it. Then from the BBC in the UK, we have Race Across The World (RATW) which is not very good to be honest, but it is watchable. The problem with RATW is that it is way too focused on the actual relationships between the teams and the casting is disappointing to say the least, it comes across far more as a travel programme rather than a competition. There was Race To Survive Alaska which is like TAR but confined to the wilderness in Alaska, I am fascinated with the landscape there so I enjoyed that. And then there is Jet Lag: look it is like a low-budget version of TAR featuring some young American Youtubers, I was slightly cynical at first but I am truly hooked because of the high production quality and the main characters behind Jet Lag Sam, Ben and Adam are awesome people. They actually have a decent budget and they do go to awesome places from Japan to France to Singapore to New Zealand for their games and they have inspired many copycat versions of their format on Youtube as well, they say plagiarism is the highest form of flattery. Don't forget, there's also TAR Canada (recently completed) and TAR Australia (just started) available as well - so that is a great list and plenty for your viewing pleasure!
Okay and so that's it from me guys on this leg, once again, please leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.
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