Of Quitters and Diggers

Episode 3 - Bali, Indonesia.

In an almost impossible task, you need to ask yourself: “at which point will quitting while you’re ahead actually give you an advantage?” or “how long do I continue trying before I actually lose out?”

Salute goes to the Malaysian girls, Zabrina and Joe Jer. Last to quit, at which they arrived at the next destination during closing hours and had to wait for other teams to catch up and even out. They must be kicking themselves about quitting by then. And then, after a long hard race, they arrived at the destination FIRST, but losing out to the “best friends” due to the 4 hour penalty. They must be kicking themselves again (even harder) for quitting this time! I’ll bet my money that they’ll not quit any other tasks again!

First team to arrive, but did not hear "You are team number... (long awkward pause) ... ONE"

One also has to wonder why Sharon an dMelody, the Singaporeans, exclaim “Oh Beaaachh!!” when they saw the beach on the way to the pit stop. Wouldn’t you see enough of the ocean when living on a tiny tiny island? Ok, so maybe the beaches there are blaahh. But won’t you be afraid of even looking at a pile of sand after digging on a beach for half a day? I love the Beeaacchhh!

Goodbye finally to Aubrey and Jaq, the Phillipino models (I’m sure all the guys out there knows what kind of models they really are). I guess they’ve bribed enough taxi drivers with their kisses. What makes them think that being sexy will take them far? Oh yeah, they are already famous for being sexy and bimbo-ish. Hey, I also just realised that now all the Phillipinos teams are gone! Wonder who’ll they support next week? Aspiring blondes, Aubrey and Jaq

Congrats goes to the "best friends" from Sri Lanka, Sahran and Howard. Though I'm sure many people out there are wondering if they're more than that. If you're not, then look at this: This is how "best friends" hug

And I can't resist putting in this funny shot of them reacting to Allan's (boring) exclamation that they've just won this leg of the race. "You are team number... (wait for it) ... ONE!"

Episode 2 - Jakarta

Episode 2. Teams fly to Jakarta, Indonesia (by Air Asia, of course!)

Obviously the M&Ms got the home ground advantage. And good for them, they came in 2nd. And that’s because one other team beat them with a FastForward – the Indian models. All braun, but yet to prove they have brains. If they were indeed brainy, why would they proceed to get to the FastForward even though another went ahead first? Anyway, they were extremely lucky for the other team got lost. Ignorance is bliss eh? And what about the damn easy tasks? Dancing? If they were picky enough, then ALL participants would fail or take ages to complete the dancing task. But the way it was, even a monkey holding 2 plates would have passed the task and handed the next clue (and I’m surprised that not one team dropped a plate!). At least the other Bakso task was a little bit better.

Any monkey could do this

The snake task was just as mild. Only, as usual, snakes would cause some Asians so spasm in fear. But then again, those are non-poisonous snakes. And they’ve probably been overfed at the zoo and are too lazy to move anyway. You could step on them to get the clue, and still come out safe. Now compare this task to the US version – where the clue was hanging in a corner of a crocodile pit! Now that’s what we call a ROAD BLOCK!

Becareful, crocs rule!

All those mild and easy tasks put all teams ahead. Therefore, the team who got lost couldn’t catch up. Unlike the real TAR, where if teams got really lost, they’d arrive at the pit stop late at night (poor Phil have to stay up and wait for them). Unfortunately, the first team to be eliminated for the race are the fittest couple and the favourites to win the race. (I’d much rather see Beef and beauty go. Or at least feel a bit more satisfied if they were out first before this team)

Ernie and Jeena: Don't tell me Beef was here first?!

Online Amazing Race

Oh... what a good marketing ploy! Offer a little bit of cash (US$ 2,000) and a "chance" to win some of the sponsor prizes, and you could get a few thousand people watching the show. At least the pilot episode (and hopefully, they'll already get hooked by then!).

The race is divided into 2 parts. And teams consists of 2 people. All need to sign up as AXN's member (another good ploy to get members). For the first part, there are roughly 12 clues. You need to find the clues in sponsor websites (another good ploy to expose the sponsors to more people), answer a few questions on TAR. At first, it seems that the 20 fastest teams will be qualified for the race. That said, a few teams created bogus teams just to see what lies ahead and practice racing. Well, for my team, we just browsed the forum (where stupid people post up the answers) and try finding the clues before we actually start the race. Well, all that effort was put to waste... since ALL teams who finished this part qualified for the final part. Cheh...

About 2000 teams qualified for the final part. And all are expected to sign on AT THE SAME TIME. Guess what? It was jammed up! I pity those that have dial-up connections. Anyway, we thought that it was gonna be like part 1. So, we went to a cybercafe, and sit side-by-side to make it easier. It was also required to answer questions based on the pilot episode (see, contestants MUST watch the show). Dissapointingly, only one easy question was asked, and then it brough you into a new window to play a game. The game was similar to "snake and ladders". All you need to do is to press a button to spin the dice. "Ladders" were replaced by FastForwards, and "snakes" was replaced by Yields (where if you land on them, you cannot roll the dice for a few seconds). First person to reach "Pit Stop" wins.

So, obviously.. only one VERY VERY LUCKY team will win. Although we were leading when we reached the game window... after finishing the game, we took a long long time to "update" our status (no doubt due to the high traffic flow). So, we ended up getting 142nd.

Congrats, Jsquare... you lucky fellas! (Tell me if you ACTUALLY got the cash prize!)

By the way, there were suppose to be some consolation prizes from the sponsors (Sony, Air Asia, Caltex). But was never specified what the prizes were, how many prizes there were, nor who got those prizes! (Whoever got any of those prizes, I'd like to know who you are)

Oh, and did I mention what a brilliant marketing gimmick this Online Race was?

Amazing Race Asia - Pilot (Episode 1) - Kuala Lumpur

Flag off!

From Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur

10 teams

US$ 100,000 prize

Here we go. Episode 1. Local teams get the home ground advantage. Not only do they know the language and destinations, but they also get the advantages of knowing how to haggle with taxi drivers, driving on the “correct-side” of the road, and performing tasks which they are familiar with. On the other hand, it will be a big embarrassment if they don’t do well or worse, get lost! From the first task itself, it is obvious that we Asians are being treated like little kids. Tasks are much much milder than the US counterpart. Take the abseiling for example. Seems like child’s play. However, there could still be contestants who are soooo afraid of heights, like Sahran. I just can’t believe he didn’t wet his pants. Why’d he even applied for the race if he has this fear? In fact, why was his team cast? I suppose it could be because his “best friend” is white. Makes good tv if there’s white folks in it.

Sahran crying like a baby on his first task

This brings me to another white couple, who supposedly represent Thailand. I wonder if the Thais are supporting them? They are SUPER boring by the way. And by reading this, I’m sure you’ll have a hard time picturing their faces, which is why I’ll display their pic here:

Laura and Andy. "Thais".

I still doubt you'll remember them anyway, unless you look out for them in the next episodes. They probably got picked because they're the only team who dare kiss infront of the camera. And here’s their audition video (If anyone manages to sit through the entire 3 minutes with FULL attention, please say “aye” in the comments. I’d like to meet these people and see if the classified sections can give them more excitement): So, anyway, this episode is such disappointment. It’s a non-elimination race. Why would they do that so darn early in the race?! Come on, who’d miss this couple if they were out? In fact, who’d wanna see this beauty and the beast? Actually, I really mean "beef"… his muscles look all beefed up, plus he always wear that superduper ugly tank top. Yikes.

Beauty and the Beef. "Honkies".

The Amazing Race Reaches Asia!

Finally, a race around the world (or half of it) just for us! The Amazing Race has reached our shores.

Hosted by Allan Wu from Singapore.

Watch AXN every Thursday 9pm (Malaysia).