the usual suspect - Amazing Race Asia!!!

For the second leg in a row, it seems from almost the very beginning we could obviously pick the loser of this part of the race....

The contestants had to fly from Hue to Ho Chi Minh and then onto the country of Taiwan for their next set of tasks and the next pitstop. It was pretty disappointing as the airport in Hue was closed for the night therefore no outgoing flights were on course. Most of the contestants were on the same plane towards the Ho Chi Minh and then Taipei as the airport opened only at a certain time of day.

The minute they set foot on Taiwan, there were marked cars waiting for them outside the airport. Tisha was so happy the gears were on automatic LOL. They then had to drive to the capital city, Taipei, for their next set of tasks. Trouble sets in for the Indian team of Niroo and Kapil as they find themselves stuck with vehicular trouble as the keys to their car got stuck inside the ignition key. Tantrums arose as arguments over directions ensued. The father and son tandem threatened to just quit it right then and there but grudgingly trudged through the whole race ironically.

The rest of the teams found themselves facing a Detour. It is a point where they have to choose one among two tasks to make it through to the next destination. The two tasks are called, "Shoot it or Shape it." In "Shoot it" they need to take a picture of the Amazing Race Asia card inside a miniature museum. The catch is the card has also been miniaturized haha! So this is quite a task for those who do not want to strain their eye looking for the clue. "Shape it" is a task they have to do in the middle of the Rao He Street market where they have to make four forms out of pieces of a Chinese puzzle. Most of the teams opt for the Shoot It task while only A.D. and Fuzzie chose the Shape it task.

The teams after completing the task, had to go to the Institute of the Blind to decode their next clue. In Braille!!! The Braille system is a series of dots placed strategically together to indicate letters of the English alphabet. Surprisingly, most of the teams breeze through the task which is totally astounding to me! I suppose the Braille system would be better learned by people with sight rather than blind people??? LOL

After picking up the next clue, the Malaysian team of Ida and Tania are first on this part of the race to get to the Chinese restaurant where a Roadblock awaits them. This Roadblock designates only one teammate to accomplish the task. One of them has to eat a big bowl of a tofu dish. Seems easy enough except that this recipe has duck blood, fermented tofu and vegetables inside it. And the stink is overwhelming.

As Ida volunteers to sit down and feast on the dish LOL, she makes a fatal error of eating slowly whereas digesting the food faster would have been the easier route. The result is a tear-stricken, vomitting and agonized Ida after a coupla minutes plowing through the horrid dish! If there was a most genuine episode of suffering during the whole race it would have been this moment where Ida is just crying because of the foulness of what she was trying to consume and Tania was encouraging and motivating her companion to finish the whole disgusting bowl! The Chinese team from Hong Kong breezes through the whole task exclaiming that they weren't Chinese if they could not eat anything at all hahahaha Damn right!!! Almost a coupla hours later, Niroo and Kapil never finished the bowl and opted for the 4-hour penalty.

Not surprisingly and most well-deserved, Ida and Tania where the first to race to the pit-stop where their host Allan Wu and a pretty Chinese thing waited to greet them there. Sam and Vince are in next place with Mai and Oliver in third place. The last team as expected is Niroo and Kapil as they did not accomplish the Stinking Tofu task and therefore incurred the time penalty. Father is very quick to defend his son saying he is unable to compete mentally anymore.

Oh well even if Team Philippines finished second to the last, I hope they make it better in the next round!!!! Go Team Singapore and Thailand!!!