From Vietnam to India (E5)

WARNING: Episode spoilers for PT (Vancouver/Los Angeles Time) viewers.

You know that when Phil makes a point of mentioning restrictions at the beginning of the episode that they're going to come into play for at least one of the teams. This week, he pointed out that teams could not book flights at the ticket counters at the airport. They needed to go through a travel agent to make their arrangements.

Teams left last week's pit stop and headed by taxi for the train station. Of course since they were departing at night, all teams bunched up at the train station, which didn't open until 5am. While on the train, the Cho brothers, 'Bama & Kentucky all decided to continue to working together and shared information on where the closest travel agents were located. The Cho brothers decided to use their fake cell phone to throw Peter off their trail. Unfortunately, it didn't work in their favour. Peter panicked and borrowed the cell phone of another passenger and made reservations with a travel agent while still on the train. He decided to share the information with the Barbies with the agreement that they would help them later on in the race. In the end, the teams booked flights as follows:

Tyler/James & Rob/Kim - 1:35pm through Delhi arriving at 9:20am.
Cho brothers - 7:20pm through Hong Kong & Delhi arriving at 9:20am.
Peter/Sarah, Bama, Kentucky & the Barbies - 8pm through Bangkok arriving at noon.

There were some switching of flights, as usual. Bama & Kentucky got their tickets changed for the 7:20pm flight out with a reservation for the flight from Delhi. Unfortunately for them, there were no seats available when they arrived and they were put on the waiting list. Good news for Bama, bad news for Kentucky - only one team got seats with the others. In Delhi, Peter, Sarah & the Barbies got an earlier flight that got them to their destination at 7:50am.

From the airport teams took taxis to the bus station and boarded buses for Chennai. Once there, teams faced a Detour. Their choices were Wild Things or Wild Rice. In Wild Things, teams traveled 9 miles to a crocodile farm where they had to secure & transport a crocodile to a new pit. In Wild Rice, teams only had to travel 200 yards but they had to fill an intricate pattern with coloured rice. Most teams choose Wild Things. The Cho brothers & Bama checked out the Wild Rice but changed to Wild Things while Kentucky & Tyler/James stuck with it. Next teams were directed back to Chennai, where they ran into a Roadblock. In this week's Roadblock, one team member had to complete a driving test to receive both their next clue & an Indian driver's license. There obviously weren't any major incidents with the driving tests since they didn't show a lot of scenes for it.

From there teams, raced to the Chettinad Palace, the Pit Stop for this leg of the race. Peter & Sarah arrived first and won home gym systems for their effort. Tyler & James, who have been consistently at the front of the pack, were second to last. But it was Kentucky (the coalminer & his wife) that arrived last. Luckily for them it wasn't an elimination leg and they were spared. But in a new twist, as promised by Phil at the beginning of the race, they weren't stripped of their money or possessions in true AR style. They were instead marked for elmination, which means that they have to come in first on the next leg or they will incur a half hour penalty when they reach the mat.

I'm not sure what race the Barbies think they've been running but the "we're not that agressive" comment when they left the pit stop at the beginning of the race was too funny not to be mentioned. If anything, they've been the most aggressive. They're ruthless and annoying. Not a good combination for TV. I especially like that they made the alliance with Peter & Sarah and then promptly turned their backs on them the next chance they got (Delhi airport). Not that Peter & Sarah aren't annoying but at least they don't pretend not to be ruthless. Though, Peter gave me a good chuckle tonight when he pronounced Chennai as "Shania".

But the "best" comment tonight was from Kim, while they were on the bus from the station to Chennai:

I want to go to Europe. I wanna be with the rich folks.

It reminded me of the POW's finacee (S7) that said he was weak because he "quit the army". Rob is rude and Kim is ignorant (another combination not good on TV). Others might find it amusing but I find it disgusting to watch. Especially since they're visitors in another country and are insulting both it and its inhabitants.

This episode finally lived up to previous seasons! Happy to see that not all the travel arrangements will bunch the teams up. It's what makes the show exciting. The challenges were pretty awesome, too. A lot more potential for "fun"! Can't wait for next week.