Leo & Jamal: 1
Colin & Christie: 3
Rachel & Elissa: 3.5
Nicole & Victor: 4
Tyler & Corey: 5
Janelle & Britney: 6.5
Becca & Floyd: 7
Corinne & Eliza: 7.5
Chris & Bret: 7.5
Rupert & Laura: 10 (eliminated in Luang Prabang)
Firstly, I would like you to take these statistics with a pinch of salt because of the fact that there were only a seconds separating the first 2 teams leg, then we had the next 5 teams on the pit stop mat literally within moments of each other. But then again, in TAR, rankings do matter so much as there is no second prize for the team who gets to the pit stop a few seconds after the first team, so let's stick to those statistics for now. So for example, Tyler & Corey came in 7th in this leg but that was after surviving a U-turn and they were on the pit stop mat together with Rachel & Elissa who came in 3rd. So the statistics may suggest that they are in the middle of the pack for now, but they are an incredibly strong team who have performed so well in this leg to stay in the game. Likewise, the same can be said about Becca & Floyd who survived being U-turned. But it is clear from the statistics that the rankings haven't really changed that much since leg 1 apart from Nicole & Victor doing exceptionally well in this leg, so let's look at what happened in Luang Prabang in detail.
TAR has never ever visited the fascinating country of Laos before and it is nice to see them visit somewhere new. This is vital to the programme - to be honest when I first saw that they were going to Tokyo and doing bizarre Japanese game show themed challenges again in leg 1, I was like come on guys, this has been done before. Besides, they had visited Japan 8 times before, Tokyo 5 times before and in those 5 times, they visited Shibuya in Tokyo 4 times - in that one time they didn't go to Shibuya, they went to Shinjuku instead which is only like 4 km / 2.5 miles north of Shibuya. Yeah I know Shibuya is fascinating but Japan is a huge country, don't keep going back to the same place over and over again. That is why it is so refreshing to see them visit a country they have never visited before - Laos. It was pointed out to me by the hardcore fans of TAR that whilst this is a first for TAR USA, TAR Vietnam has visited Luang Prabang in Laos before (TARV S4 E5) but even then, they only went there once despite being a neighbour to Laos. Laos is a beautiful country but also desperately poor after having been ravaged by many years of brutal civil war and has a reclusive communist government. The economy is growing today with many tourists flocking to this country once closed off to the outside world, but it is still a lot less developed than other Asian countries like China, Vietnam or Thailand. Tourism is now very big business in Luang Prabang, so many of the locals there would learn some English to make money from the tourists.
Starting from scratch in leg 2 in Laos
It was frustrating that the teams were all put on the same flight to Laos then housed in a villa overnight, before getting the clues all at the same time - what this means is that there is zero advantage for the teams who did well in leg 1. I note that Leo & Jamal had a lead of 3 hours 43 minutes over Rupert & Laura as they left Tokyo but that meant nothing in the end - is this fair? No, not in the eyes of the TAR hardcore fans because in previous seasons, you were rewarded with a head start in the next leg for doing well in the previous leg. I understand that teams are no longer allowed to make their own travel arrangements to get from one country to the next - but can I at least suggest what they did in TAR China: the teams arrive in the next country but they set off from the airport in the order they finished in the previous leg, with the first team retaining that same head start they had earned in the previous leg, thus keeping it 'fair'. All that drama with Corrine & Eliza blocking the tuk-tuk was really pointless because the teams effectively left the monastery at the same time after giving alms to the monks - there was no 'reward' for arriving there first. Whilst the ceremony was a lovely piece of Laotian culture for the viewers, the race really only started the moment they got their next clue after that. Good grief - note that we were already ten and a half minutes into the programme at that stage! Now that's really poor planning on the part of the production team - the monastery Wat Sensoukharam is actually stunning and it was a shame we didn't see more of it.
Oh yes. Another leg brilliantly run by Leo & Jamal in Luang Prabang - they now have won two legs in a row and probably have a huge target on their backs for any upcoming U-turn. I didn't think they were going to win this leg when they actually were pretty slow in getting to the 'big tree by the Mekong river'. Colin was actually the first to find it and it seemed that it was pretty random who found it first - it wasn't so much a navigation issue, more a matter of luck. They made it to big tree in 4th place but for some reason, were spared the U-turn (more on that later). They blitzed through the BBQ challenge in the food market and were neck and neck with Nicole & Victor racing to the pit stop; once again they tricked Nicole into thinking that their tuk tuk had dropped them off in the wrong place in order to get ahead of them. Yeah a lot of the viewers on social media were furious about that, claiming it was sneaky, dishonest and unethical but so what? It is not a popularity contest people, what they did was allowed within the rules of TAR - Nicole had only herself to blame when she believed Leo & Jamal instead of Victor, that was a very costly mistake of $5,000 which they could have won if they had ignored Leo & Jamal and just ran straight for the boat on the river bank. I say, well played Leo & Jamal - ignore what the haters say, their opinions simply don't matter - this is not a popularity contest people, they don't have to be polite or nice. You have to do whatever it takes to win TAR and right now, I say they're really the strongest team in this season.
The bizarre double U-turn by the big tree
Why did Rachel & Elissa U-turn Becca & Floyd? It made little sense - they could have U-turned anyone, why not U-turn the strongest team so far, Leo & Jamal? It seemed to be because of what happened earlier in the leg in Tokyo: Becca & Floyd had initially said they would work with Rachel & Elissa to find the travel agent but then they ran off with Nicole & Victor right after Rachel & Elissa said to the camera "we're team fun 2.0". That seemed to have been enough to want them to U-turn them despite the fact that Becca & Floyd came in 5th on the previous leg - they don't actually stand out as the strongest team to U-turn at all. Either Rachel & Elissa were basing their judgment on what Becca & Floyd did back in S29 when they finish 5th (but did win two legs) or most probably they were simply still pissed off with what happened in Tokyo. Or perhaps, let's give them the benefit of the doubt for a moment: could it be that Becca & Floyd were the right choice to U-turn because it is a wasted U-turn if the team you U-turn survives the leg? U-turning a super strong team like Colin & Christie or Leo & Jamal may send them to the back of the pack but they would probably still survive and you've made a mortal enemy with a super strong team - that's a bad outcome. So perhaps trying to get rid of a team in the middle of the pack like Becca & Floyd or Nicole & Victor or even Corinne & Eliza would make more sense as it would allow the weakest team Rupert & Laura to survive yet another leg - remember, you want to take the weakest team(s) with you as far as possible towards the final. So, Rachel & Elissa's U-turn didn't work and now they have made a big enemy.
It is very unusual to have a U-turn this early in the season - this certainly took the teams by surprise. What did upset some fans though is the fact that the U-turn came before the detour - now this is not the first time it has happened, it has happened before during TAR S30 E6 in Prague. Back then, the teams had to race out of the airport, jump into a taxi to get to central Prague where they encountered the U-turn board and the team that got to the U-turn first was determined by the taxi driver they got. It didn't seem fair and in Luang Prabang, Rachel & Elissa didn't really earn the right to U-turn another team - they merely made the good decision to follow Colin & Christie (who are a super strong team) and somehow they ran to the U-turn board first despite the fact that it was Colin who led them there every step of the way. Is this fair? I don't think so and I'm sure many of the fans will agree with me: we would expect the team who excelled at the detour to earn the right to U-turn someone else by actually first completing the detour. Rachel & Elissa didn't do that - they made some mistakes with the BBQ food preparation task by not securing the fish properly to the skewers and fell behind. Thus if U-turn had been placed after the detour, there was no way Rachel & Elissa would have been able to do the U-turn and it would have been Tyler & Korey instead as they were the ones who completed the Lao alphabet task really quickly. The notion of 'fairness' is important so this was another poor decision on the part of the production team.
Goodbye to Rupert & Laura
Sure enough, Rupert & Laura were eliminated in this leg as I had predicted. So let's retrace their steps in Luang Prabang and see what went wrong. Remember the teams all left the monastery at the same time after giving alms, but three teams found the U-turn very quickly whilst others were getting somewhat lost and were losing precious time in the process. We see Rupert & Laura arriving at the Ecole Maternelle Louang Prabang (yes that's French - Laos used to be a French colony, hence the use of French) last so we can only assume that it was navigation errors again which dropped them to last place. Whilst the other teams were either already busy preparing the barbecue skewers or learning the Lao alphabet, Rupert & Laura lost precious time finding their way from the U-turn to the school. Ironically, they didn't seem to struggle with the challenge at all, they did rather well - in fact we see them leaving the school when Becca & Floyd were still stuck there, which had put them ahead of the two teams that had been U-turned going into the last challenge. But somehow, when they got to the Elephant Village, they managed to slip back into last place - now that's just pure bad luck because when they were traveling from the school to the Elephant Village, they were pretty much reliant on their driver and they must have had a bad driver. But by then, there was elephant traffic jam on the narrow path down to the river, which meant there was hardly any gap between third to ninth place. This was the perfect opportunity for Rupert to catch up but alas, no amount of coaxing and begging could make his elephant move any faster. So really, with both a bad driver and a bad elephant, they had little chance of escaping elimination. Unfortunately this wasn't a non-elimination leg.
Despite the fact that we have teams from Survivor and BB who claim to understand strategy, none of them spotted the fact that Rupert & Laura's greatest weakness was navigation - they were pretty efficient when it came to the challenges. Rupert could scale that slippery Mt Fuji slope in Tokyo very quickly on the first attempt and they had no problems with the ABC Lao alphabet challenge in this leg - their only weakness is navigation and somehow, they always take much longer than any other team to find their way around. They are not weak, they most certainly are not stupid - they are just fail when it comes to navigation and this probably reflects the fact that they are not as well traveled as some of the other teams and thus are totally out of their comfort zone when in a foreign country. If I was one of the stronger teams, I would offer an alliance with Rupert & Laura and guide them every step of the way (the same way Colin & Christie led two other teams right to the U-turn board in this leg). That would ensure that Rupert & Laura would not get eliminated over navigational issues whilst stronger teams get eliminated along the way. And then in the final, you would just say, "sorry guys, no hard feelings, this is the final and I just can't help you this time." Remember, you want to take the much weaker teams with you into the final, not the stronger teams and so far, we've seen two weak teams eliminated already - as far as strategy goes, that's merely natural selection at work rather than any kind of clever strategy on the part of the racers.
Who will be the next team eliminated?
Looking at the statistics, it would be either Chris & Bret or Corinne & Eliza. Based on their performance in the first two legs, I would say it would be Chris & Bret simply because Corinne & Eliza did appear to be trying a lot harder in leg 2 even though a lot of their efforts were in vain. For example, they strategically blocked the tuk tuk that Rupert & Laura and Leo & Jamal were in - did it work? Yes it did, but did it earn them any kind of advantage? No it didn't, not at all - they simply made an enemy of Leo & Jamal who were clearly very pissed off over what happened. But Corinne & Eliza were in first place for a while during this leg and they are clearly very determined, so I have faith in them. In TAR , you can't just muddle along, following the others and whilst hoping for another team to make a mistake - you need to be proactive and Corinne & Eliza certainly are just that. Another team that could be in danger is Janelle & Britney if they run into some bad luck in the next leg, but I am going to go out on a limb and predict that Chris & Bret would be eliminated next. I am so sorry guys, nothing personal, just statistics. However, I also do remember Floyd collapsing from heat exhaustion in Vietnam in TAR S29 E10 and that's where we're headed in the next episode: Ho Chi Minh City where it is very hot, humid and tropical. Mind you, Floyd seemed to be coping fine in Luang Prabang (which isn't that far from Vietnam at all) so hopefully he would have had a few days to have acclimatized to the unforgiving tropical heat in South-East Asia. When it is that hot, you want to be lying by the pool or the beach with a nice cool drink and not trying to do a road block!
Looking at the performance so far, Leo & Jamal are in a league of their own and are the clear favourites to win every leg this season season. I also think that Colin & Christie are an incredibly strong team and statistically, they are the second strongest team so far despite a less than brilliant performance in Luang Prabang. But let's not forget the two teams that were U-turned and survived - that goes to show how incredibly strong they are too. But what about Nicole & Victor who performed so well in this leg only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when Nicole naively believed Leo & Jamal just as they were sprinting for the boat that would take them to the pit stop? By her own admission, she had never traveled outside the US before and that could be a crucial factor - okay, Victor is a lot more well traveled and had lived abroad in Italy so as a team, he could compensate for her lack of experience abroad but what if there was a road block which Nicole had to complete on her own without Victor's help? I'm not sure - that could be their undoing, but let's see if she learns quickly. Sorry but none of the other teams are any match for Leo & Jamal and they're probably going to win the next leg in Ho Chi Minh City (and the whole season) given how awesome they have been in these two legs. They're not my favourite team (now that has got to be Tyler & Corey - yes I am playing favourites already) but they're clearly the best.
And before I finish today, I would like to answer some of the questions that have been sent to me via social media.
Q: Have you ever taken part in TAR? Or have you ever applied to take part?
A: No, because I am just not eligible. To take part in TAR USA, you have to be an American citizen. To take part in TAR Canada, you need to be a Canadian citizen. You get the idea. I am British. The only passport I have is a British passport which means I am simply not eligible according to TAR's rules. I can only hope for TAR to eventually do a British version (however unlikely) or for a similar programme to come to the UK then I would be eligible. And if given the opportunity, yeah of course I would. I really love the format, I enjoy reality TV and would love to be a part of a programme like that.
A: I love recreating scenes out of TAR when I go traveling. It started when I first got hold of a TAR envelop, I thought hey I'm in Hong Kong, let's pose with the envelop at some of the places they visited on various previous episodes of TAR and I was hooked ever since, I would even go as far as to recreate certain challenges for my Instagram videos. The thing is we only see these places for a few minutes in the programme and of course, sometimes they are quite different in real life. But of course, a lot of the time, special activities are organized as part of the challenges which are not there when I got there - so for example, you may remember in Malta S25 E8, one of the detours involved trying to run up a slippery greasy pole to grab flags in Birgu harbour. Well I got to the harbour in the middle of December, it was cold and deserted - there was literally no one there and of course no locals running up greasy poles as that was an activity associated with special occasions rather than on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. So sometimes, it can be a bit of a let down. But other times, the programme doesn't even do the place justice - staying with episode in Malta, the teams rushed in and out of the Blue Grotto and I took the time to hike out to it. I have a photo of me literally sitting on the edge of it, dangling my feet over the edge; it was breathtaking in a way that the episode didn't even capture. Most of the time we're so focused on what the racers are doing rather than the incredible beauty of these locations - TAR is not your regular travel programme on TV.
Q: Can you buy TAR merchandise like the envelops you pose with on Instagram?
A: There is actually a lot of TAR merchandise (clothing, mugs, coasters, pit stop mat, notebooks, fridge magnets, mobile phone cases, even cushions) on the CBS website for all of you hardcore fans of TAR. However, I do not see any envelops on sale there - in the early seasons, the racers were able to hold on to them as the producers weren't really that fussed about the racers having a souvenir. But I have read that in recent seasons, they have been quite careful about taking stuff like that off the racers after the race. Thus if you want an envelop, you have to know someone in production.
Oh yes. I have watched every American, Canadian, Asian and Australian seasons of TAR. And because I speak French, I've seen that one French season. And because I speak Portuguese and Spanish, I've seen every single Latin American (all 5) and Brazilian (both) season. I have even seen that one the Ukrainian TAR version Великі Перегони - I speak Russian but not Ukrainian, but since the languages are quite similar and several of the racers speak Russian amongst themselves, I understood enough to get by. And of course, as I speak Mandarin, I have watched every season of TAR China Rush (with both international and local teams racing around China only) and TAR China (only Chinese teams but racing around the world). TAR China casts only celebrities, so it sucks. I've yet to see the Norwegian, Israeli, Filipino and Vietnamese versions because of the language barrier - alas, I have yet to learn Norsk, Hebrew, Tagalog and tiếng Việt.
I can suggest the animation The Ridonculous Race which is a parody of TAR, it is a lot of fun and absolutely hilarious. As for other reality TV programmes, I recommend 'The Mole' which is a huge franchise that has been done in the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, the US, Australia and Spain. It is truly brilliant. Unfortunately, it is no longer active in the English speaking world but you can watch both the Dutch and the Belgian versions (recorded in Dutch as well) with English subtitles because the show has such a cult following that there are some kind Dutch and Belgian people who are willing to subtitle the show to allow non-Dutch speaking fans of the show to enjoy it. I speak some Dutch too of course (you'll soon realize that I speak like 20 languages) and don't really need the subtitles but it makes it a lot easier for me especially when they are speaking very quickly. There's also the 2019 BBC show Race Across The World (RATW), but that's a far cry from TAR. I love the competitive nature of TAR with teams running to the pit stop as every second counts - with RATW was too focused on the relationships between the racers, like this father is trying to reconnect with his son after his divorce, so they're doing the race together to try to have special father-son bonding experiences. The winning team took time out to take a cruise down a river to relax as they were getting too stressed and they also chilled by the pool for a day during the race because the old guy had a bad back - and they still won because all the other teams were so utterly terrible and useless. It's like a race where nobody was in a hurry and the cash prize was only £20,000 (about US$26,000) - no wonder the contestants weren't that fussed about winning. You can also try Expedition Impossible - the 2011 show that was cancelled after just one season, it had a good format pretty close to TAR but filmed only in Morocco.
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