Calvin’s Hub

Woohoo! It’s the beginning of The Amazing Race Asia once again. Something to look forward to on Thursday nights. Just like last season, I will try my best to post recaps on each leg of the race for the benefit of those without AXN and can’t wait for their site to update its episodes.

Here we go.

The first leg of the race took place in Thailand. After a brief introduction by host, Allan Wu, the racers quickly went to their packs for their first clue. If you want to famiiarize yourself with the teams, click here.

A Bug’s Life

The first task is for the racers to make their way to Khao San Road and look for a food stand where they have to finish two bowls of assorted fried bugs, frogs and scorpions.

The first team to finish the task were brother and sister, Henry and Bernie, followed shortly by the Beauty Queens, Pailin and Natalie then by Geoff and Tisha. After a lot of puking, all teams finished with Niroo and Kapil, the father and son tandem being the last.

Car Wash

The next task is to travel by taxi to a Caltex station to do some car washing. Or so the teams thought. First team to arrive at the station were friends Mai (actress) and Oliver and they were surprised to find a huge 2-story passenger bus to wash. Second to arrive were Geoff and Tisha.

Henry and Bernie got lost and became the 7th team to arrive when it was starting to get dark. Luckily, everybody’s still washing and it started to rain too so a huge cheer came from the teams.

Even though being late, Henry and Bernie were still the first team to finish the task. They were followed shortly by Oliver (who did most of the cleaning) and Mai then by Neena and Amit.

Read the Clues Carefully!

After washing, teams must ride a bus right there at the station to Wat Pai Rong Hua. There are only three buses available and each bus will leave once three teams are already boarded (3rd bus will leave when the last 4 are done).

Not reading the instructions carefully, Oliver and Mai hailed a cab to get to their next destination. When they realized their mistake, they went back to the Caltex station only to find out that the first bus had already left with Henry and Bernie, Neena and Amit and the Beauty Queens.

Only a few minutes behind, Bus 2 carried Geoff and Natasha, Oliver and Mai and Ida and Tania.

Buddha Bless You

It was already dark when Bus 1 arrived at the temple where there are lots of Buddha statues. Teams must search the statues for a clue which is kinda hard to do at night. They must find the clue within 20 minutes in order to board the bus that they came with otherwise, they have to board the next available bus.

Bus 2 arrived and teams from Bus 1 were still without their clues. Oliver and Mai were the first team to find a clue and they managed to board the first bus. They were followed shortly by Geoff and Tisha who also managed to get into the first bus before it left. Go Team Philippines!

Henry and Bernie finally found a clue and they were the sole passenger of Bus 2. This left Neena and Amit and the Beauty Queens to wait for the third bus and for every one to finish. It was a long wait for them.

The buses took an 8-hour trip to Chiang Mai Bus Terminal where the teams will find their next clue.

Detour: Race or Rice?

The next task is a detour where teams must choose whether to ride an off-road buggy on an 8-kilometer rough terrain track, or pound rice into paste to make two sticky rice bowls.

Not familiar with the area, Geoff and Tisha just followed Oliver and Mai and they went to board a taxi-jeep to go rice pounding. They had a nice lead from the third team, Henry and Bernie, who also did rice.

The first two teams didn’t have a problem with the task and were able to finish almost at the same time. They boarded the same taxi again to get to their next destination, the Pit Stop.

Pit Stop and the $5,000 rock-paper-scissors

At the pit stop, the teams were greeted by the beautiful Paula Taylor from Season 2. Team Thailand (Oliver and Mai) and Team Philippines arrived at the same time but they had an agreement that the first team will be decided by rocks-paper-scissors. Unfortunately, Tisha lost to Mai so the Thais went first and won $2,500 each.

Oh well, number two on the first leg is not bad. Great job Geoff and Tisha! As expected, Henry and Bernie came in third.

First Fight

After they checked into the Pit Stop, Mai was shown bickering with his teammate, Oliver. She said that she wants to quit the race. It seems that she can’t handle the stress and she’s blaming Oliver for it. Huh? Oliver’s the one doing all the dirty work. I guess Mai’s not really used to doing physical and tiring tasks.

Meanwhile…

Bus 3 arrived and they went on to their tasks. Neena and Amit’s driver got lost going to the race track and that cost them a lot of time. A.D. and Fuzzie gave up pounding rice due to blisters and switched to do the race task instead.

Fourth team to arrive at the Pit Stop were the Beauty Queens followed by Sam and Vince. However, Sam and Vince didn’t pay the taxi before sprinting to the Pit Stop. Allan asked them to go back and pay the taxi before they can check in. Hmm, how did Allan knew that they didn’t pay the fare? Anyway by that time, other teams were able to get past them

Last Team

Last team to arrive at the Pit Stop and was eliminated were Neena and Amit. This really sucks for them since I think they are one of the strongest team this season. They were really unlucky with their taxi driver. After doing the race task, their driver got lost again heading to the Pit Stop and had to stop and ask for directions.

Breaks of the game I guess.

Here’s the placement of each team after the first leg.

1st – Mai and Oliver ($2,500 each)
2nd – Geoff and Tisha
3rd – Henry and Bernie
4th – Natalie and Pailin
5th – Ida and Tania
6th – Isaac and William
7th – Vince and Sam
8th – A.D and Fuzzie
9th – Niroo and Kapil
10th – Neena and Amit (eliminated)

So based on the first leg, who do you think will be the top three teams and who will most likely be eliminated next week?

Tune in next week for the next episode!

You might also be interested in:

• The Amazing Race Asia 2 – Episode 11
• The Amazing Race Asia 2 – Episode 10
• The Amazing Race Asia 2 – Episode 12
• The Amazing Race Asia 2 – Episode 13

Filed under: Amazing Race Asia