The Amazing Race recap - Final Leg

And now it's over. The Amazing Race 14 is behind us ... and I can't wait for the 15th edition ! (will supposedly be filmed during the Summer).

But what about the season finale ?

So we left the final three teams in Beijing, China. The very first clue of the final leg asked them to fly to Maui, Hawaï ... and that would bring them back to the US.

As it happened a lot during this season, all the teams were on the same flight so they were starting even again as they landed in Hawaï.

First task on the island was to prepare a pig for a traditionnal Hawaian recipe ... season it, move the beast and carry it on the beach, and finally cover it in some sort of charcoal and sand heap. That animal really looked heavy seeing how hard it was to carry it on the beach. Margie & Luke were definitively the best team on this task, I think they had a way better technique than the others. Speaking of other teams, they both started to be frustrated and stressed ... I felt like they started to see the finish line and realize how important it was and how loosing any second can make a difference.

Once the pig was ready for cooking, they rush to another beach for a jet ski ride. Teams had to find their next clue in a buoy field. The clue was imerged in water, below a buoy ... that's really have something to do with luck, choosing the right buoy fast or not.

Margie & Luke were the first to get out of the water and run to their next task, which was the final roadblock. For this detour, one member of the team had to build a fence made out of 11 surfboards, each one having a picture related to one of the previous legs ... and they had to arrange the surfboards in the right order (same order as the legs). The right surfboards were to be found amongst huge piles of surfboards ... and of course most of them had pictures with no relation to the previous legs.

Luke made the roadblock and he showed an impressive memory ... the first 9 boards were found in no time. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to find the 2 last ones ... got frustrated ... and it was even worse. In the meanwhile, the 2 other teams arrived and started the tasks. Tammy & Victor lost some time on the road as the were stuck behind a slow car ..... but Jaime & Cara lost even more time because their taxi got lost, riding them to the wrong place ... So, that's not only about locals or foreign language ... those two really have problems to get understood, even in their own country, even in their own language.

If Luke had a very good start in the roadblock, Victor was almost as fast ... and was able to find all the 11 boards ... so Tammy & Victor left in first position to the last pit stop, to the finish line.

Jaime almost finished the roadblock while Luke was still trying to find his last boards (and was more and more frustrated) ... Margie suggested that they work together to finish the task, what they did and both teams were so able to complete their fence. Jaime and Cara left right before Margie & Luke ... and this time no one got stuck, lost or anything.

So, the winners are Tammy & Victor, followed by Jaime & Cara, themselves followed by Margie & Luke.

Everybody seemed happy of their respective race and happy to be back home. Of course Jaime&Cara and Margie&Luke were a little disappointed, which is understandable but it wasn't a bitter disappointement (at least it didn't seemed to be). Luke seemed more disappointed than the others ... actually he felt guilty for the last roadblock. However, I think he did incredibly well on the whole race and he probably reached his goal more than expected regarding his will to show that deaf people can do incredible things like this race, and are able to do this like anyone else.

Now I have to find what to watch Sunday night !

Pekin Express on TV5

Earlier this week, I watched the show "Pekin Express" on TV5, they're now broadcasting season 3 (subtitled "La route des Incas") while M6 (the French which originally produce the show) just started to broadcast season 4 (subtitled "La route des dragons").

Pekin Express is a little similar to The Amazing Race in the idea but, in the same time, has a lot of differences.

What's similar ...

A dozen of teams of 2 racing and facing elimination at the end of the leg.

What's different ...

- They covers a smaller territory and teams knows in advance where they go. For instance, in season 3, the race takes place in South America, starting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Teams race trough Brazil, Bolivia and the finish line will be in Lima, Peru. Teams didn't know the itinerary before they started but it was roughly revealed at the starting point of the race. Details are given at the start of each leg.

- Teams have 3 days to cover each leg.

- Teams travel on a very short budget : 1 euro per person, per day ! Money can be used only to eat. However, locals can give them money. Teams can also ask locals food for free.

- Teams travels mainly by road and they have to hitchhike to find transportation. They are forbidden to pay for transportation. However, they are allowed to exchange their belongings to get transportation.

- During the leg, teams must find a place to sleep ... they have sleeping bags so they are allowed to sleep outside but for their comfort, it is highly recommended for them to ask locals for hospitality. They can not continue to race during the night.

- At the end of each leg, winner team earns a medal (sort of) with a money value related ...  but ... only the winner team of the final leg will be allowed to get the money value out of its medals. So they have to collect as much as they can. When a team is eliminated, they have to give their medals to another team ... so you'd better be popular too !

- At some points, teams can get "bonuses" like a roof for the night, a cab ride for one hour, a red flag to stop other teams etc.

- In each leg, there is a special task. Depending on the task, only the 2 or 3 teams can qualify to do the task (based on their position to arrive at the special task checkpoint). The winner team of the special task cannot be eliminated, even if they are last to arrive.

- There are some legs without eliminations. The team which arrive last in those legs will have an additional difficulty for next leg. For instance, carry a box of eggs, carry 60 lbs of sugar in suitcases ...

- Times are not cumulative ... all teams leaves at the same time for each leg.

So, with all this regulations, it makes a race quite different from the Amazing Race but I like that a lot. Pekin Express is really more based on the experience they can get from the exchange with locals, performance of the teams is really depending on their ability to communicate with the locals and to convince them to get help. Imagine how teams like Cara & Jaime from the Amazing Race would be miserable in Pekin Express !!

It's also a very physical race ... they can have very difficult legs. For instance, in this week leg, teams had to walk 30 kms (and spend a night) in a salt desert in Bolivia : cold in night, sun in day, winds, extreme light reflected on the white salt, altitude ... must really not be easy !

Moreover, if teams cannot get help from locals, with their budget, they have access to a very limited amount of food, so they can become weaker and weaker. If they are not able to get hospitality from locals and have to sleep outside, they (most of the time) cannot sleep very well, so they're more tired next day.

I would not say the Amazing Race is easier but the difficulties are not at the same levels ... so that make both shows differents but both interresting.

The Amazing Race recap - we now know the final three

After 2-3 crazy weeks of whatever happened except blogging, I'm back with the Amazing Race recap.

We now already reached almost the end of the journey. Next episode will be the final one for this season. So with this leg we were on our way to discover who will be the final 3 teams.

The previous legs brought the remaining teams to China, were all about the rivalry between 2 teams (Margie & Luke vs Kisha & Jen ... calling each other bitch ... fighting for clue boxes ... supposedly laughting at Luke's condition) and surprisingly ended with a "fake pit stop". Jaime & Cara, who finally arrived first at the mat, discovered Phil waiting for them with another clue for the second part of the leg.

The whole second half of this leg was located in Beijing, where they already had part of the first half.

Teams arrived to the mat (and leaved it) in the following order :

- Jaime & Cara

- Margie & Luke

- Tammy & Victor

- Kisha & Jen ... who were really relieved as they had a very hard time at the last road block, which implied tasks in a pool ... one has a terrible fear of water and they both are terrible swimmers.

So for this part of the leg ....

First task was to find Travelocity gnome in a local store ... gnome was "carrying" a clue and they were required to bring "him" to te mat.

Gnome told the team to reach the area of the Forbidden City where they found electric bicycle they have to ride across Tienanmen Square to a metro station, where the next clue box was.

Once again Jaime & Cara were just unable to communicate with taxi driver, or even to stop one ... so they already lost precious time.

Tienanmen Square clue box revealed a detour. Tasks were "Beijing Opera" or "Chinese Waiter". Most of the team chose "Beijing Opera" (I would have chosen that one too ... really easier) and they had to make up and costume themselves as traditionnal Chinese Opera characters. They had "models" to show them how they should look. Task was a bit tricky for Luke when he had to make up his mother face ... he literally painted her (she described herself as "Alice Cooper")  ... but the judge seemed very tolerant and give them the next clue without any problem.

Jaime & Cara lost more time due to their inability to be understood by locals, and so they were driven to the wrong opera house. 

Tammy & Victor were the only team to choose "Chinese Waiter", what sounded an easy choice for them. The task was to take order from restaurant clients, go ask the cook to prepare the orders and serve them to the clients ... who spoke only mandarin chinese. That sounded easy to Tammy & Victor as they speak chinese themselves (what well serve them during the leg). However they didn't get it at first attempt, but they still were out of the restaurant quite soon.

At the and of the detour, was an opportunity for a "U-Turn" ... Tammy & Victor chose to use the U-Turn and to use it against Kisha & Jen (which means they had to do the other task of the detour). They said they chose them because they can't outrun them in physical portions of legs ... I suspect they chose them in part because of K&J "fight" against M&L ... Tammy and Victor were on the mat with them when they have an "explanation" and seemed very uncomfortable towards K&J's attitude.

While others were still occupied with their opera task, Tammy & Victor went to the next task. It was the Road Block. One team member had to eat typical chinese street fast food ... fried sticks of larvae, grasshoppers, scorpions and starfish .... mmm yummy ;-)

Victor didn't seemed to enjoy the meal but ended in a decent time and they were soon on their way to the (real) pit stop at the "Bird Nest" Olympic Stadium.

In the meanwhile other teams ended their detour, Kisha & Jen discovered the U-Turn and were really not bad at the restaurant orders task. Margie & Luke hit the road block (and arrived 2nd on the mat). While Jaime & Cara were still struggling with their lack of communication skills. Lots of frustration ! Honnestly, I don't get it ... how did it happened ? I mean, except for Tammy & Victor, all teams have the same language barreers ... why are they the only one to have so much trouble to communicate with locals ? That's a total mystery to me. I even found them somewhat aggressive at some points, which surely doesn't help.

Anyway, even with the U-Turn, Kisha & Jen hit the road block before Jaime & Cara, who started to think it was over for them.

Except that ...

Jen was just unable to eat the Chinese delicacies, taking really small bites, drinking a lot of water to help swallowing. On the other hand, Jaime & Cara arrived and I don't know if Cara was starving or if she really enjoyed the meal but she had done with it in no time and so they left the road block just behind Kisha and Jen.

With all the water she had drunk, Jen was unable to reach the mat without a stop to the bathroom ... what costed them their place, for a matter of minutes or even seconds.

So the final three teams for the final leg are : Tammy & Victor, Margie & Luke and Jaime & Cara.

They will run against each other to the finish line in Hawaï.

I'm quite happy with the final three and whoever win, I'll be happy ... even if I have a really slight preference for Tammy & Victor. They didn't play very fair all the time but no one did and I find them friendly. I think Margie & Luke are nice, really nice people but I find that Luke's condition is sometimes too much the center of the attention ... however, it's really nice to see someone like him being able to show that he can take part of this kind of adventure, like anyone else. It must not be easy and sometimes they didn't have a real choice when it comes to detours. Regarding Jaime & Cara, they can be really funny girls and very nice (seing how they are with Luke) but their lack of communication skills with strangers is a big down.

We'll see next time what happen ... and who's the winning team !