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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 !
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