The Amazing Race Summary Part 2 - Season 22

Okay, in this post I will discuss about The Amazing Race Season 22. Again, this post is based on my perspective, for the unbiased summary please click the following Wikipedia or Wikia page.

The Amazing Race 22

The Amazing Race 22 Route

In this season I started to favor some teams, and the route of this race is also one of my favorite routes in this show. My first favorite team is Pam & Winnie who are best friends from L.A., they are both pretty, smart and considered as one of strong and competitive woman teams, and also representing the Asian-American in this race (I'm truly Asian, of course this matters hehe...). My second favorite team is Max and Katie who are newlyweds from Buffalo, they are highly competitive & intelligent (esp. Katie) and newlyweds who dream to have a memorable honeymoon experience by joining this race, what an unforgettable one in a lifetime honeymoon isn't it?

First challenge in Bora-Bora

The route of this race is also somehow fascinating for me. Starting from U.S. (L.A.)-French Polynesia (Bora-Bora)-New Zealand-Indonesia-Vietnam-Botswana-Switzerland-Germany-Scotland-Northern Ireland-U.S. (Washington D.C.). This was the first time race to visit Bora-Bora, an exotic tropical paradise located in the south Pacific Ocean, made this spot listed as one of my favorite destinations for honeymoon. In this leg of the race teams were challenged to do tandem skydive from helicopter at the height of 3000 m above the ground. This was a fantastic challenge, encountering an expensive experience by overlooking the lagoon of Bora-Bora. The following task was looking for your next clue inside one of 400 sandcastles at the beach. This task relied on luck and passion. Performed at noon, looking for the clue while digging the hot sand not only tested your physical, but also your mental strength. In this leg, the smart Katie made her move by persuading the last three teams including her to give up the challenge and receive the four hours penalty in order to save their time in the following leg from painstakingly digging the sandcastles. This proved as good decision where in the following leg the race was slightly reset due to hour of operation of the water taxi in Bora-Bora. Further, Katie proved again her intelligence in Bora-Bora by choosing the easier detour challenges to perform and save their position. Her suggestion for choosing the later detours also help her team to move up in the later legs.

Contrary results. (Left) Dave & Connor were able to race even with crutches after receiving express pass from Jessica & John. (Right) Jessica & John got eliminated without cleverly used their express pass to help them during the detour/roadblock challenge

In the second leg in Bora-Bora one team (Dave & Connor), father and son who are both cancer survivors, got some accident of tearing his (Dave) achilles tendon while racing the other team (Bates & Anthony) to the pit stop in order to secure the first place in that leg. Fortunately, because the already made some alliance and pact with the other team (Jessica & John), they received an express pass which won by Jessica & John in the first leg and needed to be given to the other team. By using this express pass Dave and Connor were still able to continue the race while Dave using crutches to help him move. Moreover, they are greatly benefited from the express pass which help them to secure the first position (together with some prizes) in the next two legs in New Zealand and Indonesia, before finally withdrawing their participation from the race to get some surgery for Dave. However, the opposite thing happened to Jessica & John, while they struggled to perform a detour during the leg in Bali, Indonesia, John insisted not to use their express pass to save it for the later leg if somehow they get U-Turned by other teams. This decision proved to prevent them from winning US$ 1 million after they got eliminated in the 4th leg, and marked the history of The Amazing Race as the first team who have express pass but not able to escape from elimination.

Talking about intelligence, luck and patience in this race, I thought they all have same proportion for this race. Let me get some examples. During the leg in New Zealand, only Max and Katie team who reserved the flight from New Zealand to Bali before going to the airport, helped them to secure their seat for the first flight scheduled to arrive at Bali. In the leg in Vietnam, they were also the team who initiated to look over an internet for help them to solve the clue before going to the travel agent (actually they are second in chronological order after Pam & Winnie who departed first). This leg showed me that both team were the smartest one among others. However, both teams met their bad luck in Botswana and resulted the elimination of Pam and Winnie in Botswana. During the leg in Botswana, Pam and Winnie already chosen the appropriate detour challenge but their donkey couldn't moved at all, pushed them to switch easier detour but required high accuracy. They were doing the both detour challenges inaccurately and made them to come in last position for elimination. For Max & Katie, during the road trip in Botswana Katie already noticed the speed limit but unfortunately Max still drove to fast and made them caught in speed trap by local police. This speed ticket consumed their valuable time and almost cost their position (however they were saved by Pam & Winnie struggling with detours). Talking about luck, the other team (Chuck & Wynona) were the luckiest team in this race. As one of the weakest teams and came as the last team to check in the pit stop twice in New Zealand and Vietnam, they were still saved by their good luck, where in New Zealand they encountered a double-length leg and in Vietnam Dave & Connor withdrawal from the race made them the actual second last team and saved their position. Their luck made them able to race until third-quarter of the total journey, before getting eliminated in 8th leg.

Tidal Basin where Max & Katie got stuck

The race continued from Botswana to Germany, and here I found a new twist about The Amazing Race namely the curse of three consecutive first positions. It stated by Bates & Anthony who won the three consecutive legs, but got some bump in the following leg. Since that I observed the behavior of the winner of each pit stop. Later I found that in season 16 Louie & Michael, season 13 Ken & Tina were two teams I found encountered this curse. Due to their competitive and intelligence skill, Max & Katie succeeded to climb from the underdog team to top three teams who race for the final. It was shown clearly that in the 4 last legs, their intelligence helped them to solved the challenges faster than the other teams and made them won 3 consecutive prizes by finishing first in 4 last legs. However, the curse stated by Bates & Anthony came to reality. In the 4th leg after three consecutive wins, which was now the final leg in D.C., Max & Katie still surpassed the other teams by going to the right places referred by the clues. But, when they encountered the roadblock in the Tidal Basin Max met his bad luck without finding the right "secret service" among hundreds of secret services spread around107 acres of Tidal Basin. This was only luck matter, because Anthony quickly met his secret service only after meeting several secret services. This hampered Max & Katie which later turned out they were placed 2nd after Bates & Anthony in the finish line. This was really disappointing because it was well known that Max & Katie were superior team  until luck took place in the race. I hope they will get some second chance, something like The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business.

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The Amazing Race Summary Part 1 - Season 16

Yep, my post again is about The Amazing Race. I've been watching this show continuously for 2 weeks and completed 4 seasons so far (13,14,16,22). So, I will briefly summarize the race in those 4 seasons in chronological order as I watched them started from season 16. Of course this summary will be based on my perspective. If you want to read the unbiased summary of the race, you can click the link in title below which will direct you to Wikipedia page of related season or click this wikia link.

The Amazing Race 16

The Amazing Race 16 Route

This is the first season I watched in my past two weeks. In this season I didn't really have favorite team, but I had some teams that I didn't want them to be the winner and I admired the pretty Caite Upton despite of her past "sin" hehe...

Challenges in Germany. (Left) Eating a plate of sauerkraut. (Right) Sharing a boot of beer

In this race they start from U.S.(L.A.)-Chile-Argentina-Germany-France-Seychelles-Malaysia-Singapore-China-U.S.(San Francisco), made this season's route to be one of my favorite routes in this show. Chile and Argentina challenges weren't too fascinating for me, I already mentioned some challenges performed in Chile and Argentina in my previous post. However, starting from Germany leg the race become more fascinating. In Germany they had to bungee jump, choose between playing football or eating sauerkraut (non-spicy-German version of kimchi), which I believed is very sour and not delicious hehe... The next challenge was sharing a boot of beer (approx. 1.2 L). The next leg was held at France which had classic and wine theme. In the wine theme, the challenges included looking for a marked bottle of wine inside a wine warehouse and choosing between harvesting the marked grapes over one square kilometer farm or constructing a pyramid of champagne coupes and pour champagne from the top of pyramid without breaking the coupes.

Praslin Island in Seychelles (Photo by Paradise Sun Hotel)

The next leg was continued to Seychelles, which was the first time I heard about it when I watched this season. Apparently it is one of tropical paradise located in Indian Ocean near to Africa, and soon be listed in my ideal honeymoon destination. After that the race went to 2 countries in South East Asia (Malaysia and Singapore), which I believed if I had joined the race I would have benefited, since I came from Indonesia hehe... In this South East Asia countries they performed the challenges related to the local Chinese people's tradition. One amazing thing happened during the race in Malaysia, where the runner up of this season (Jet & Cord) started from the last place, completed a speed bump and finished first and the end of the leg, leaving Steve & Allie who started first in the beginning of the leg to finish last at the end of leg resulted in their elimination. This was marked as the first to happen during The Amazing Race's history and also referred to a passage in the NIV Bible,  Matthew 20:16, So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

In Singapore challenge, the tension between two teams (Brent & Caite with Carol & Brandy) got intense. Their problem initially sparked since the first leg by the involvement of the actual winner of the season (Dan & Jordan) who first made fun of Caite because of her "sin" in their conversation with Carol & Brandy. Carol & Brandy who were slightly arrogant, ever since always made fun of Caite and underestimated her, resulted in not so good relation between two teams. Finally, in the Singapore leg Brent and Caite got chance to U-Turn Carol & Brandy which later eliminated Carol & Brandy from the race after finishing last on the leg. This matter disappointed Carol & Brandy and they never forgave Caite and it continued until the finish line, where they confronted Caite because of her decision to U-Turned them, making this finish line one of the memorable finish lines in The Amazing Race. Actually I was happy when Carol & Brandy were eliminated, because in my opinion both of them are arrogant b*tches (sorry, this is only my opinion after observing their move during the race).

Challenges in China. (Left) Making la mian noodle. (Right) Solving giant puzzles.

Departing from Singapore the race continued to China. This is one my favorite The Amazing Race destination (the others are Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and New Zealand). In China they had challenge to make 1 kg of la mian noodles under cold weather and had opportunity to meet the the "extreme" two men from China, He Pingping world shortest man and Bao Xishun world tallest man. The la mian noodles was an extremely difficult task, knowing that since then I appreciate every noodle that I eat. This episode was also dedicated to He Pingping, since he passed away several months after the race and  before the episode was aired. May he rest in peace. The other challenge including solving a giant puzzle. After solving the puzzle, they distributed they 96 pieces of puzzle into 96 people who later flipped the puzzle and revealed their next clue.

Challenge in last leg in LDAC

The final leg, the top 3 teams flew from Shanghai to San Francisco. At Shanghai airport, initially the first two teams who came were Brent & Caite followed by Jet & Cord. However, while waiting for the ticket counter to open, Dan & Jordan came and put their backpacks between Brent & Caite and Jet & Cord backpacks without known by Jet & Cord, because they were sleeping while waiting in front of the ticket counter. It made Dan & Jordan to be the second team to get the airplane ticket. It actually pissed Jet & Cord, but due to their good personality they didn't confront Dan & Jordan. Moreover, during the flight Dan & Jordan played some dirty trick by persuading the flight attendant to promote them into the first class for free so they had better access from the airplane exit. Later this gave Dan & Jordan advantage during the final leg and made them the actual winner of this season. Honestly, I hate them to be the winner, since they were the dirtiest player in this season, started by igniting the heat between Carol & Brandy and Brent & Caite, followed by the tricks they played during the final leg. Since those things weren't prohibited by The Amazing Race's rules, they were still the legitimate winner of this race. Fortunately, this made Jet & Cord to have one more chance by participating in The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business. In this final leg, team had a memorable task which was experiencing to produce an visual effect animation in Letterman Digital Art Center (LDAC), which previously produced Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Cool right, isn't it?

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The Amazing Race - Introduction

Hufht... It's been a while since my last post. I was occupied by many other things which distracted me from writing post in this blog. I have yet to finish my previous post series, even though it's already July (almost August) not May anymore. Hufht... time flies so fast...

In the weekend of July 27th-28th 2013 I spent my time "ineffectively", which was watching Youtube channels. I started with videos from my favorite Youtube channel, yep it is Wongfu Productions. Then I jumped to the neighboring channel, which was KevJumba where I saw one of his video playlists showing his most amazing adventure with his own father. Then, it suddenly struck my mind, I haven't watched again one of my favorite U.S. reality TV series for a couple of years now. Can you guess what is it?

The Amazing Race U.S. Edition Logo (New logo started from season 14 according to its Wikipedia page)

yep, it is The Amazing Race, one of the most greatest reality TV shows which featuring 11 teams of 2 persons race each others around the world competing for the grand prize of US$ 1 million.

After watching KevJumba's playlist, I started googling for The Amazing Race. The first result from Google was unfortunately not available in my location. It was The Amazing Race official Youtube channel, where you can view the episode from any season of The Amazing Race U.S. Editions. Disappointed at first, but then I saw the third result which was a playlist of complete episode of The Amazing Race Season 16. Thanks to hensug03 who kindly uploaded the complete season 16 to Youtube (and later I realized he also uploaded season 13-22, The Amazing Guy). Supported by my "procrastination" ability (hehehe...) I watched the entire 12 episodes of season 16 within 18 hours (I promise I will not procrastinate like this again hehehe...). So, in this opportunity I will review and introduce The Amazing Race program generally, and maybe some of specific details example related to this show will be referred particularly to season 16, which is still fresh in my memory.

The Amazing Race, started back at 2001 by CBS is one of the most consistent reality TV shows which is aired consecutively until the most recent 22th season in the period of 13 years. This most competitive show gives opportunity for 11 lucky teams in each season to travel across the globe, visit the exotic places and sometimes even most remote places on earth, finish some challenges which test not only physically but also emotionally, in order to compete for the grand prize in the finish line for US$ 1,000,000. Each season consists of 12 episodes, where almost in each episodes each team which finishes last in the Pit Stop may be eliminated. However, there are some non-elimination leg during the race to ensure the number of team competing in the final leg is around 3 teams. But of course this non-elimination leg doesn't come without any cost, in the next leg the non-eliminated team will do an extra task to be completed only by them before catch up again in the race with the other team. This is called as Speed Bump. This speed bump may sometimes be a bottleneck if you can't complete it and it can danger your position in the following leg. But if you can finish it and catch up the race, you may still compete with the other teams. In season 16, one team who started last from the leg start, got speed bumped, finished first in the end of the leg. So, anything can happen in this race.

Tightrope Walking in The Amazing Race Season 16

In my opinion, in this race anything can happen, so anyone has equal chance to win the race. To join this race, as I summarize, each team needs to have good physical strength, good emotional stability, strong passion, good persistence, not easily giving up, to be smart, good personality, social interaction and collaboration, good adaptability, good communication and persuasion skill, good map reading and driving skill, good running, cycling and swimming skill, and the last but not least is to have good luck. The good physical strength and emotional stability is required because in each leg, all the team will face challenges in form of Road Block and Detour which will not only examine them physically, but also mentally. In season 16, the first road block is walk across a tightrope the length of a football field (360 ft or 110 m) suspended 120 feet (37 m) above the ground. If you doesn't have good strength to maintain the walk on the rope and can't overcome the fear of height, you'll be easily lose in the challenge. In addition, if you are in race with the other team in the same road block, you need to have strong passion, good persistence and not easily giving up, in order your maintain your position not to be overtaken by the other team or crawling to better position. If you give up during the challenge, then you'll get penalty of 4 hours which will be killing you in the race.

U-Turn Symbol in The Amazing Race

To be smart is required, especially when you're in a detour. Smart enough to choose which challenge to take, and smart enough to choose who to do the challenge. If you choose the wrong challenge, you can either give up or take the other challenge in the detour, but again it will take your time, so be smart is important. But, if during detour you get U-Turn by the other team who are ahead of your position, then you must finish both challenges in detour. That's why here you need to have good personality and social interaction. Because in this race, you will interact socially with other team and if you have good personality you may have chance not to be U-turn by the other team. In season 16, one team got U-turn solely based on personal matter toward the other team, so this is good example to maintain good personality and social interaction. The good collaboration will need to be performed especially when you get in Intersection, where two teams will join forces to complete the challenges.

I mentioned good adaptability, because this is a race around the world, so you will move to approximately 5 different continents and 10 countries for the course of 3-4 weeks. So you will not stay in one place for very long time, you need to adapt easily with the environment, and then move again and adapt again. Sometimes moving can be from the hot tropical weather to the freezing cold weather because we travel to different part of the world. If you can't well adapt, get sick and need to be hospitalized, it will slow you down in the race. Because visiting different countries, you will face the communication is not easy. Not all country use English as their official language, and not all people can speak English. In fact, according to Wikipedia page, English is only the third most common native language after Chinese and Spanish. So, my advice before participating in this competition, you need to learn a little bit of Chinese and Spanish. In this race you'll need to buy transportation ticket, either airplane, bus, train, or ship, and if you have good communication and persuasion skill you will have some advantage to persuade the ticketing sales to give you better position in the transportation and will help you during the course of the race.

Good map reading and driving skill is obviously needed, since during the course of the race you'll be required to drive yourself using the car provided by the show organizer. This car is not always automatic, sometimes it is manual handling, and the traffic condition can be different from each country depends on which hand-side driving traffic policy they use (check this page to view the right- or left-hand traffic policy around the world). While driving the car, your partner in the team need to figure out the way to go by using map (GPS is prohibited and not provided) thus you need to be able to read map or you may get lost and holding you up during the race. Since this is race, you'll do a lot of running. Make sure you practice to run both sprint and marathon before participating. Of course swimming sometimes is required, both in calm water like lake or in the wavy water like in the open ocean, you need either to be able to swim or get drown. One more thing is cycling, you won't want anyone beat you because you can ride a bicycle.

The last important thing to have is a good luck. This is also important, because if you're leading the race but in the middle you have a bad luck, you may get eliminated also. Some examples, in the opening leg of season 16, actually the first 3 teams arrived at the LAX would be able to take the first flight. But since the airplane got some maintenance and took some times, the first three teams finally departed together with the rest of the other teams. In most of the challenges that required looking for something, some teams may got lucky by finding it first than the other team, this is obvious the role of good luck. The last one, in the final leg of season 16, the bad luck of choosing the right taxi cab eliminated their chance in winning US$ 1 million.

Bora-Bora Skydiving Experience

This race is truly amazing, it gives the competing team to visit the most exotic place in Earth such as Bora-Bora and Seychelles Island. Opportunity to do extreme things you've never thought of, such as skydiving and viewing the lagoon of Bora-Bora from 3000 m height, riding a helicopter, motorboat, jet ski, etc. Also because of traveling around the world, you'll be able to experience the local life in each country expressed by either Road Block or Detour challenge you take in each leg. As example, in season 16 when they visited Chile they experienced how to dress a llama. In Argentina, they experience cowboy life of lassoing some target. Tasting some boot of beer and sauerkraut in Germany, tasting champagne in France, and even making your own lamian noodle in China. This race totally gives an unforgettable one in a lifetime experience.

Last, some additional tips is trying not to be eliminated in each leg. It is okay if you can't be the first team to finish in every leg, but the important one is to keep racing and get to final leg to have chance to win the grand prize of US$ 1 million. Sometimes, due to the transportation availability, your position may all be reset in each leg, so you can try to finish first in the following leg. The good thing about finishing first in a leg that you will receive an additional reward such as holiday trip, money prize, HD TV, etc. This prize will be worth, even in the end you don't have the grand prize, at least you saved one. You can get more information in the Wikipedia page of The Amazing Race. Hufht... I hope someday I can join The Amazing Race.

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