On the seventh leg of the race, the six remaining teams go bananas looking for a gorilla statue, giving their partners a ride in a rickshaw and performing stunts with elephants. But while the intense heat causes one player to faint, a team incurs not one but two penalties at the finish line. Read on to follow the action.
Teams leave Jaipur, "the jewel of northwestern India", and fly almost 2,000 miles in 14 hours for their next destination: Phuket, Thailand. Tammy and Victor are the first to leave, but all teams boarded the same flight and arrive together. I'm still not sure how Mark and Michael surged ahead of everyone upon landing but they were able to maintain their lead until reaching the Pit Stop.
On the way to the travel agency, Cara and Jaime, most likely recalling Christie and Jodi's bad luck, wisely think to check how full the cab driver's gas tank is. Kisha, a middle school youth program coordinator, draws a crowd of kids when they see she has cash to hand out. While her heart was in the right place, this is an awkward move.
Early interviews revealed Tammy had summered previously with her family in Thailand, but she was overly protected and wasn't even allowed to go to the beach. Being the boy in the family apparently allowed Victor to do as he pleased. Margie admits she needs a break from the constant hand-signing conversations with Luke. Having raised him, I'm not sure why this is suddenly problematic.
The teams are handed a photograph and have to locate the statue of a gorilla somewhere in the city. After some scrambling, everyone heads to the Phuket Zoo except Mel and Mike. Thinking the rest are lost, they ride with their driver to Patong Beach. I'm not sure why they dismiss the first local that told them to go to the zoo, but by the time they listen to an insistent man, they suddenly have a lot of time to make up.
There was no official Roadblock this week, so both team members, under the guidance of the one-armed tiger handler, have their picture taken with Esso the tiger. (Though the tiger was magnificent, wouldn't the fact that the handler was missing an arm have made you just a little nervous?) I'm not one for name-calling but I had to chuckle when during the photo shoot, Kisha gets in the first jab at the stuntmen saying the little guys "are bite-size". And later, Cara and Jaime nickname the brothers the Tweedles, as in Tweedledee and Tweedledum from Alice in Wonderland.
The second part of the non-roadblock has everyone lying on the ground with elephants walking and squatting over them. Luckily it appeared that none of the elephants had eaten lunch before squatting. Having recently seen a disturbing documentary on the mistreatment of dolphins that included using them for our entertainment, I was hesitant to laugh, but couldn't resist smiling at the cycling elephant on the cart.
At the oldest herb shop in Old Phuket Town, teams have to find their next clue inside the 99 drawers. Jaime must expect the world to speak her language because not only is she frustrated with the cab driver, but she screams at the herb store owner who didn't "speak a lick of English." Her actions are properly punctuated when a jovial Mike says: "I actually like everybody on the Race except for Jaime — she's kind of a mean girl." Her yelling doesn't help because while she and Cara are the first team in the store, they are the last to leave — except for Mel and Mike.
The Detour offers a choice of physically exerting activities. Most teams performed "2 Miles," which sees one partner pull their partner along in a rickshaw for two miles to a park. Tire pumps were provided in the event of a flat tire. With the brothers first on the scene, I'm not sure why the editors felt the need to show Michael scratching his butt. Perhaps his head was raw.
Mark fills his tire with air then puts all of the pumps in a crate hoping to slow down the others. They then have the cab driver lead them to the end of the Detour. These actions turned out to be big no-nos. And I won't even mention them making fun of the language. (Oops, I guess I just did.) During their run we see Victor turning down an offer to follow someone to the park. He properly asks to be shown on the map. Was is just me or did some of the other tires appear flat and no one chose to use a pump?
When the brothers meet up with a "pretty girl" and Phil Keoghan at Wat Thep Nimit Temple for the Pit Stop, they are the first team to arrive. However, they incurred two 30-minutes penalties. Mark and Michael were cited with tampering with the tire pumps by putting them away, and then "breaking the rules" asking for guidance along the route while pulling the rickshaw. They could apparently ask for directions but not follow anyone.
With less than four minutes to go on the penalty, Tammy and Victor are the second team to arrive and take over first place. Margie ran hard with the rickshaw and though she was moving along well enough, she began to lose steam. Red flags go off when she says "running in this heat I got the chills." At the Pit Stop right — where Phil calls her the Bionic Woman — Margie begins to faint. Luke needs help holding her and Phil is right there to catch her. That was worrisome. Refusing an ambulance, Margie says she's fine.
Only Kisha and Jen and Mel and Mike perform "100 Barrels," which forces teams to prepare a fishing ship for 10 days at sea by filling 47 barrels with drinking water and moving 53 empty fish barrels from the bottom deck to the roof. Mike double-times it, lifting two barrels at once, adding a little pressure on the sisters. As both teams get i their cabs on the way to the Pit Stop — calling out to God — I suddenly heard an unidentifiable noise coming from the screen. Initially thinking it was the test-sound of the Emergency Broadcast System, I realized that Kisha is sneezing.
Mel and Mike are the last team to arrive and pretty good sports about it. Their parting comments included Mel saying: "I had aches and pains and groans and groins." And Mike commented that while they always had a parent-child relationship it was the first time they were teammates.
Return Trips
• Mike: "Do you speak any Thai, dad?" Mel: "Yeah, Mai Tai."
• If you've only seen it in print or were not listening properly, the city is pronounced Poo-ket, unlike Mark who repeatedly pronounced it Foo-ket.
• Here are the two most unbelievable comments of the night. Tammy: "I should have gone on a diet." Victor: "I don't like saying this but my sister is a little heavy."
• It was coincidental that I was wondering if a Fast Forward would show up soon and then read that one went unaired in this episode. If true, I'm guessing it's because no one performed the task. Have you read this anywhere other than Wikipedia?
• Did the brothers deserve a 30-minute penalty for putting the pumps in the box?
• Program note: since the Academy of Country Music Awards airs next Sunday The Amazing Race will return in two weeks.
Order of Finish:
1. Tammy and Victor
2. Cara and Jaime
3. Mark and Michael
4. Margie and Luke
5. Kisha and Jen
6. Mel and Mike
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On the seventh leg of the race, the six remaining teams go bananas looking for a gorilla statue, giving their partners a ride in a rickshaw and performing stunts with elephants. But while the intense heat causes one player to faint, a team incurs not one but two penalties at the finish line. Read on to follow the action.
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