Calvin’s Hub

It was nice winning a championship basketball game and coming home in time to watch the replay of Amazing Race Asia even though it started 30 minutes late.

It’s a sad episode though as Paula and Natasha were finally eliminated. Not even the help of Team Philippines could save them (more on that later). As suspected, Adrian & Collin had a comfortable lead and came in first again with the help of a Fast Forward. Marc & Rovilson are still at 2nd followed by Pam & Van then the mothers.

First task is to drive to Budapest and search for a princess statue by the river. Team Singapore went to a hotel to ask questions and directions. Marc & Rovilson who were behind by around 30 minutes had the same idea and even used an internet to search for a picture of it.

Adrian & Collin went past by the statue and made a u-turn that allowed Marc & Rovilson to catch up. Both teams met up at the clue box and tried the Fast Forward.

Fast Forward

Fast Forward are tasks that only one team can accomplish. Once accomplished, they can proceed to the next pit stop immediately while the other teams have to go through everything. It was a gamble for Mark & Rovilson to also do the Fast Forward task even though another team is already doing it.

The task is to count the number of struts (vertical railings) off a bridge in Budapest. At the end of the bridge is a safe where you key in the correct answer to get the clue that would lead them directly to the next pit stop.

This task is very difficult because there’s a whole lot of counting to be done. Rovilson even put some markings on the handrail to track count. Team Singapore had the same idea but used chinese characters instead to prevent Team Philippines from benefiting. Marc had the ingenious idea to use his belt to count faster where the length of his belt constitutes 8 struts.

Both teams weren’t able to get the correct answer after two tries. After their second try, Marc & Rovilson acted as if they opened the safe and got the clue already to maybe scare the Singaporeans into thinking that the task has already been accomplished. They didn’t budge and got the correct answer on their third attempt. Kudos to them!! They are now hours ahead of the other team.

Marc & Rovilson were so disappointed that they lost an hour doing that task and quickly proceed to the normal course of the race. Meanwhile, Pam & Van also went to the bridge to try the Fast Forward but they just wasted their time going there when they saw that the task has already been accomplished.

Around this time, Paula & Natasha had just left the last pit stop trailing the other teams by about 3 hours.

It’s time for a road block tomb raider style

On the next task, a member of the team has to search a labyrinth for a treasure chest with the clues in it. However, there are many treasure chests placed in different locations of the labyrinth and only one has the clues. Team Philippines accomplished the task first followed by Pam and Van with the moms trailing closely behind.

On the next task, teams must get to Margaret Island (Rabbits Island) located in central Budapest and ride some sort of a pedicab/bicycle and search for the place where the daughter of the King Bela IV once called home. They then need to retrieve a stuffed bunny to exchange for their next clue.

Marc & Rovilson searched at the wrong place that allowed the moms to catch up with them. Luckily for them, the moms stopped and searched the place too when they’re just about to leave. Pam & Van got stuck in traffic and arrived at the island at 4th place.

Team Philippines eventually got the bunny and were off to the next task. Pamela & Vanessa were able to head straight to the correct place to search and eventually got back to third place.

Detour

On the Detour, team must make their way to Heroes Square and choose between completing a Rubik’s cube (one side at a time) or pronouncing the names of 12 historic persons of Budapest correctly. Teams also have the option to yield another team for this task.

Marc & Rovilson got their first and chose to yield the moms to help Paula & Natasha catch up. Rovilson explained that they’re just little soldiers following orders. Hehehe. They chose to do the Rubik’s cube and had no difficulty completing it. They’re also amusing to watch doing the task, you should see it. “Ze communist red… compliitt!”

Pam & Van did the pronunciation thing with the help of the locals and tourist. The moms finally arrived but have to wait for the yield time to end before they can proceed with the task. They tried the “say it” task first but didn’t think of asking help from the locals so they switched to completing the Rubik’s cube instead.

Next task is the pit stop where the Hungarian chick waiting with Alan gave Rovilson a greeting kiss. Nothing exciting happened as the teams made their way to the pit stop.

Bye Paula & Natasha, you did well in the race and it was nice watching you guys race.

All in all, it was a sad and unexciting episode save for the boys racing to complete the Fast Forward. Hopefully, the next episode will have tasks that would allow the teams to catch up with Adrian & Collin. Like a plane or train ride maybe. Or maybe a place where the teams have to wait for it to open.

I really hope that Marc & Rovilson would win it all. Go Team Philippines!!

Till the next episode!

• The Amazing Race Asia 2 - Episode 10
• The Amazing Race Asia 2 - Episode 12
• The Amazing Race Asia 2 - Episode 9
• The Amazing Race Asia 2 - Episode 13

Filed under: Amazing Race