Amazing Race 14

Episode Eight:
Routing Around in People’s Mouths Could Be Unpleasant

Previously on the Amazing Race, six teams raced from Jaipur, India to Phuket, Thailand…pictures with ‘Esso’ the tiger…herb store drawers…broken rules…two penalties…overheated Margie…and in the end, Mel and Mike could not overcome their choice of taxis and the bad start to their day in Phuket…

Rather than saying that six teams raced from Jaipur, the more correct description is that six teams travelled from the pit stop in Jaipur, India to the airport in Phuket, Thailand where the order exiting the plane controlled who started in first place for this leg of the Race.

In reviewing the pit stop, Phil does tell us that Phuket island rises out of the Andaman sea, and the island has been inhabited since 100 BC. He also acknowledges that Phuket has rebuilt itself since the tsunami in Dec. 2004, and finally describes the ornate Wat Thep Nimit Buddhist Temple, which was the seventh pit stop in a Race around the world.

It looks like the Phuket pit stop was a ‘normal’ twelve-hour pit stop with Tammy and Victor arriving first at 9:27 AM and leaving at 9:27 PM. Jaime and Cara departed at 12:31 AM and despite their penalties, Mark and Michael departed at 12:46 AM. Margie and Luke, were the fourth team to depart at 12:53 AM and Kisha and Jen, depart 3:38 after Tammy and Victor at 1:05 AM. The teams get $53 for this leg of the Race.

Route Info: Bangkok Thailand

Phil tells us that teams must now fly over 400 Phil miles to the city of Bangkok, and then travel by taxi to the outskirts of town to find a boat yard. Once there they will search the grounds for their next clue. We are told that the first plane out in the morning from Phuket to Bangkok is at 7:25 AM, and the gate sign reads:

THAI 07:25
TG 226
Suvamabhumi

And sure enough, Expedia.com lists Thai Air International flight 226 as leaving Phuket (HKT) for Bangkok (BKK) at 7:25 AM, arriving 1:25 later at 8:50 AM. The flight covers 424 miles and costs $201.60 for two passengers.

By the way, the Brothers got a question asking why sometimes the summary quotes per passenger and sometimes for two passengers? Well I wish there was a good reason but the answer is that sometimes I forget to toggle the number of passengers control on the Web site to two people, and I am too lazy to go back and correct it later. Just do the math.

I was a little thrown by ‘Suvamabhumi’ on the gate flight board, but it is actually the name of the Bangkok Airport, so this would be the same as a flight board in the US listing JFK instead of New York.

This map shows the Andaman sea, Phuket, the Phuket airport and the Bangkok (Suvamabhumi) airport.


View AR_14_26_Andaman_Sea_Bangkok in a larger map

The Bangkok Tourist Web site has some background information about Bangkok. Thailand for Visitors offers this about Bangkok:

“The official Thai name of Bangkok is in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest place name in the world. If you want to impress your friends, try memorizing this:
Krungthep Mahanakorn Boworn Rattanakosin Mahintharayuttha Mahadilokpop Noparatratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniveymahasathan Amornpiman Avatransathit Sakkathattiay-avisnukarmprasit.”

“What it means: ‘Great city of angels; the repository of divine gems; the great land unconquerable; the grand and prominent realm; the royal and delightful capital full of nine noble gems; the highest royal dwelling and grand palace; the divine shelter and living place of reincarnated spirits’.”

Once the teams arrive in Bangkok it is hard to determine where the boat yard is as there are few markings at the site, other than the race flag high on a concrete light pole. It seems to be in a less developed area on the banks of the river as the teams have to make their way across a very narrow gang plank and I-beam through the brush to the actual dock and river.

This week it seems as if the camera men went out of their way to not catch any signs or markers in Bangkok, which makes it very hard to determine any sort of route. So at the boat yard we never actually see any business sign or other identifying marks. I  think they were sent to a place where the Long Tail boats are maintained versus a place where tourists board them for tours of the river and canals.

Roadblock: Who’s Ready to Propel Their Team Forward.

Phil tells us that one person has to tap into their mechanical abilities and attach a propeller to the drive shaft of one of the most common modes of transport in Bangkok: the Long Tail Boat.

This doesn’t appear particularly hard, although there are a couple of parts, including a spring, that likely have to be attached in a certain order before tightening the bolt. Once the propeller has been tested, the teams receive their next clue.

Route Info: Proceed to Peninsula Pier

Margie and Luke are the first team to complete the Roadblock, and when Margie opens the clue she reads: “Journey On...”

Teams must now use the map in their clue, to search through a maze of routes to get to the Peninsula Pier to get their next clue. The canals of Bangkok make it the Venice of Asia, and touring them is quite popular.

I am guessing that the Peninsula pier is at the Peninsula Hotel in Bangkok, and not on some random peninsula on the river. Using the scenes showing the teams in the boats there are some landmarks, such as temples, that make it appear that the teams were travelling from the north to the south.

Again navigating the canals doesn’t appear too hard, the drivers seem to know where to go, but the real issue and a lot of this episode’s time revolves around whether it was a smart decision to leave the Roadblock without one’s bags.

In the case of the Sisters, there is no defending their decision because if you are a real fan of the show, you know that you never let your passport out of your sight. And it is just reckless to be heading out anywhere on the Race barefoot.

As to the Stuntmen, I guess there was some chance that they would return here at some point in the race, and it was a pretty remote spot so finding a cab again would be difficult; but in general, I think that you have to be constantly keeping in mind that you take everything with you all the time. Particularly if the clue begins with ‘Journey on…’

We don’t know how the team’s negotiate with the taxi drivers, but generally, cabs charge one rate for driving, and a lesser rate when waiting. So all the time that they have a driver wait is slowing burning through their limited cash.

Detour: Broken Teeth or Broken Record

In this detour teams have to choose between what Phil claims are two very routine activities people of Bangkok have made very unusual.

In ‘Broken Teeth’, teams make their way to ‘The Street of Happy Smiles’ where they will find a stall where there are 50 sets of dentures. The team must find dentures that are a match for five patients, which leads to the episode's title as Phil states the obvious: “…routing around in people’s mouths could be unpleasant…”

In ‘Broken Record’, teams must travel to a street where there are ‘Party Taxis’, and after selecting a taxi, the team will sing karaoke while the cab completes a five mile route. We know that the parking lot is in Chinatown, and is near a Wat or temple, but the sign for the Temple is unreadable.

But we are treated to some interesting scenes of Bangkok, including flooded streets, and it seems that ‘Broken Record’ was the wiser choice at this detour, evidenced by watching Margie and Luke complete the denture detour.

Route Info: Phya Thai Palace

Teams now have to make there way to the next pit stop at the Phya Thai Palace.

This time we actually see a second piece of paper, titled 'Additional Information Sheet.'

It appears to read:

…direct your taxi drivers to (a place but not the palace).
…(a place but not the palace) get out of your taxi and search for the Phya Thai Palace.
…your taxi before entering gate 5.
…failure to settle your bill with your taxi driver may result in a penalty.

So this is where I get frustrated with CSI and all those other shows that imply that you can take a bad image like this:

Additional Information Sheet

And make it clear as a bell, cause the Brothers have some pretty sophisticated software on their computers, and when you start with a bad image there really isn’t a lot you can do with it. Even going frame-by-frame through video for the brief amount of time this sheet was shown I can sometimes get one or two words to become clearer. But in this case my summary above is as much as I could decipher.

So back to the things we can research. The Thailand Travel Guide site has some information about the palace, as does Wikipedia.

Margie and Luke are the first team to arrive at the pit stop, and they win a trip for two to the Intercontinental Spa and Resort in San Juan Puerto Rico.

We see that the Sisters, who are still barefoot in Bangkok, have run out of money, but at least they are up front with the taxi drivers, telling them they have no money. Eventually a driver decides to take them to the pit stop for free.

Jaime and Cara are the second team to arrive at the pit stop.

Jen and Kisha and Tammy and Victor arrive at the pit stop simultaneously, but because the Sisters abandoned their packs and their travel documents at the boat yard, Phil tells them he cannot check them in until they have the documents they need to leave Thailand for the next destination. This makes Tammy and Victor team number three.

The Sisters head back to the boat yard to gather their gear, and it becomes a race between the Sisters and the Stuntmen, who decided at the Detour to retrieve their packs. When Mark and Michael arrive as team number four, Phil tells them that they have broken the rules twice, by paying for a cab with their personal possessions. And as a consequence, they have two, two hour penalties, meaning it will be four hours before Phil can check them in.

This is a bit confusing to me, because we have seen teams fail to pay cab drivers in the past, which I always thought should have resulted in a penalty. I mean in some ways it is bad enough that we use their country as a game board, but to do so and not pay for services like cabs seems inappropriate. Therefore battering seems better than just walking away and stiffing the driver.

The Brother’s thought long and hard about this and think the rules could simply be that stiffing a driver means you forfeit the Race, because if you run out of money, you cannot continue.

Begging for money is similarly banned (and it would seem the producers agree with this because they have replaced begging with the speed bump). And finally, bartering for services, if done in advance of using the service should be permissible. Bartering at the end of the service, is forcing the driver to accept the offered goods or nothing is penalized. But the Brothers do not control the rules.

In the end, the Sisters return with their bags and passports, and Phil checks them in as team number four. He also checks in the Stuntmen, telling them this was a non-elimination leg, they will have to complete a speed bump on the next leg, and the approximately 3:10 left of their four hour penalty will be added to their departure time from the pit stop.

Finally this map shows the locations in Bangkok that I could locate from the information provided in this episode.


View AR_14_27_Bangkok in a larger map

Next Week: Are we there yet, are we there yet…

…like a long hot road trip with children it looks like the squabbles break out between the teams and I half expect to see Phil turn around and say “Don’t make me stop this Race cause I will…”