Preview thanks to puddin and banzai:
AXN newsletter--is this a clue?
No word from Michael McKay this week?
This is a week where the SCREENCAPS tell their own story...
http://forum.realityfanforum.com/index.php/topic,15379.msg360339.html#msg360339We know that Sam and Vince have a 4 hour penalty to be taken at the start of the episode. Will there be an hours of Op as an equalizer?
Apskip has done a great possible Timeframe for us
HERE:
Assume a 12 hour pitstop, that releases teams to start ep. 11, the Finale, at:
Ida/Tania 250am
Geoff/Tisha 300am
Sam/Vince 730am
However, there is an walk camels in the desert task that will take an unknown amount of time to get to and do it. Assume that the total of those is 1 hour.
With a minimum 2.5 hour drive back to the Muscat Airport, the earliest teams can arrive is:
Ida/Tania 620am
Geoff/Tisha 630am
Sam/Vince 1100am
I'm going to say that they may have to be a bit later to the airport as the desert task seems to be occuring in full sunlight...not in early AM light,They all should also be able to catch EK6479 MCT DXB 1335 1440 (there are also equivalent earlier flights) connecting with TG522 DXB BKK 1755 0505+1. It is now Sunday June 8. The flights they can catch are from Bangkok on Sunday are different than the ones for Saturday:
Koh Chang/Trat 09:00 10:05 BKK TDX PG301
Koh Samui PG103 0600 0705 or TG285 0745 0850 or PG123 0815 0920
Phuket TG203 0730 0850 or TG201 0750 0910 or PG271 0810 0930
Clearly teams drive themselves to the desert and have some difficulties as we see both Tania and Geoff attempting to push their stuck vehicles:
The heat will be brutal, esp for S/V if they are 4 hours later than the others:
Roadblock?Lead a camel across the desert...
If Sam's camel bolts--he may lose significant time chasing it down:
Where do they go next?
We have several good indications that this is indeed Thailand:
Neobie and snapon confirmed the boats:
That long-tail boat with the cloth tied to the end... Has got to be southern Thailand?! (The cloth's to appease the sea spirits...)
But where exactly?
My guess after trying to match up the backgrounds would be Koh Samui. MAP:
http://www.samui-maps.com/Both the "palm fringed beaches" and the surrounding silhouettes seem to match well.
I think it is also likely that the actual beaches may be either Bophut or Mae Nam, based on appearances. (thumbnails--click-click)
We also know that some of the Singha beer moments of banter that banzai has shared with us were filmed at the
Santiburi resort, which is also reported to be the "elimination Station"/Sequesterville for the racers. This resort is located on Mae Nam beach, making it the top contender in my mind.
What will they do?
We see Tania/Ida looking unstressed in this Thai boat:
We believe there is another "roadblock"/task done by Vince involving swimmimg and memory:
Remember this from kaad back in early October?? (I think cats should read chickens, 
)
During the race, some of the tasks need to pick one team member to do it alone (which mean Roadblock), they can decide which one to do it based on what the clue had said. Although they have different strength , but it's actually hard to make the decision. "Once, the clue said that it needs to swim, so we chose Vince, but it turned out the task also involved mental part;And another time, the clue said something about cat, I love cat, so i got to do that, but i found out ...the task was requesting to move a bunch of cats.(it said "more than ten", i guess it's about 30-80)",Sam said.
http://forum.realityfanforum.com/index.php/topic,15379.msg355170.html#msg355170
So my guess is that the Roadblock will be right before the Finale Mat... when we see Vince in his bathing suit:
And does that sound like a regret--as in if we had known it was mental we should have chosen Sam?
It appears that Sam and Vince both are carrying flippers here:
so could they have to dive to find a clue first?
And then we see teams kayaking as well--where exactly does this come in?
One of my favorite tasks was the spot the right flag on the beach in TAR 5 --perhaps they will have to do a task requiring memory of where they went in what order? We truly can only guess.
And then who wins?
I have to say that the editing seems to point to G/T.... but could this be a diversion?
At some point in the preview Geoff clearly thinks they are TEAM 1:
They haven't always been the best team in terms of Geoff's behavior both to his partner, other teams, and locals, but they have played a strong and strategic game.
Both Ida/Tania have been an absolute joy and delight to watch every step of the way, and they should be so proud of what they accomplished.
And the same goes for Sam and Vince, who played well, got along well, and remain a team to watch. I have always wondered about the change in their team picture to a friendlier one,
Hmmmm...
someone has a new picture! Friendlier, more approachable...
as well as the fact that they have been allowed to give us those wonderful weekly blogs...so I am not willing to rule them out yet either. The underdog edit can sometimes be a clue as well.
So for me-- I LOVE not knowing who wins right now, and will be looking forward to finally seeing the ep later on!
In the meantime, I'll be here at 8 for any available updates!
