Author Topic: Racing report, China Rush 2010, leg 11  (Read 3220 times)

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Offline maf

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Racing report, China Rush 2010, leg 11
« on: October 28, 2010, 01:25:16 PM »
Racing report
Amazing Race China Rush
Season 1, Episode 11

I have tried to estimate distances and driving times every now and then. This data, from Google, is an approximation at best and the driving times assumes no traffic.

Teams depart from the pit stop in Teng Chong in the following order:
 1. Rick & Josh            - 08:34
 2. Lisa & Karen          - 10:40 (+2:06)
 3. Deepak & Naresh  - 10:42 (+2:08)
 4. Charlie & Rachel    - 10:44 (+2:10)

Teams must now travel by plane and bus to Zhaoqing. Apparently the producers wanted teams to spend 10+ hours on a bus getting to Teng Chong, but now when they are leaving they are allowed to fly from the newly opened local airport. All teams make the same flight which leaves at 12:20 and, with a stop in Kunming, arrives in Guangzhou.

From Guangzhou teams travel by bus to Zhaoqing. All teams barely make the 19.00 bus.

Choice quotes:
 "Somebody is going to be really disappointed", Karen about the fact that only three teams will make it to the final
 "We are on a mission today", Rachel wants to do better than the last legs

Once the bus arrives in Zhaoqing teams must travel to the Longchuan Seafood Restaurant. Teams arrive at the restaurant in the following order:
 1. Lisa & Karen
 2. Deepak & Naresh
 3. Charlie & Rachel
 4. Rick & Josh

Choice quotes:
 "I'm starving right now", Lisa hopes this will make the coming eating challenge go faster

The clue reads: "Take a seat and indulge in one of Zhaoqing's most notorious dishes, fried cockroaches". Each team member must eat 10 of the crispy critters. The roaches are not very big and teams are apparently allowed to remove the legs and the shell. So there is much picking and sorting through the "food".

Choice comments:
 "Even if I see a dead one I have my son do it", Karen does not like cockroaches
 "So disgusting", Karen makes sure we get the message
 "They delicious?, Rick asks Charlie and Rachel when he arrives
 "They are disgusting", the food does not become Charlie either
 "How sick are we going to get for doing this?", Karen wonders
 "These are farmed, they are clean, just like the escargots we eat", Lisa tries to reassure herself
 "Very tasty", Josh still has a sense of humor when he is done
 "His parents are going to watch it and never let him inside the home", Naresh about Deepak
 "All I see are intestines of a cockroach", Karen is not happy
 "It can't get any worse than the sleeper train and the cockroaches", Karen shows her priorities

Teams complete this challenge in the following order:
 1. Charlie & Rachel
 2. Rick & Josh
 3. Deepak & Naresh
 4. Lisa & Karen

Teams must now make their way to the old city wall where they must check in with a master calligrapher who will write their departure time for tomorrow morning. There is only one open entrance to the wall. Teams reach the master and get departure times in the following order:
 1. Charlie & Rachel    departs 09.30 (got there seconds before team #2)
 2. Rick & Josh           departs 09.45
 3. Deepak & Naresh  departs 10.00
 4. Lisa & Karen         departs 10.15

Teams now get a good nights sleep. At least Charlie and Rachel do, the others can fret about not being first. Next morning teams depart at their designated times from the same city wall citadel where they got their departure times.

The clue tells teams to go to Licha Bagua village (30km 0:40). Once there they must haul water form a well just outside the village, through the confusing small alleys to the village center (~100m) where they will have to fill a container marked with their team picture. Once the container is full they must light a string of firecrackers in order to get their next clue.

The village turns out to be a hard place to find (and I agree, it was quite hard to find via google). None of the teams manage to find a taxi who knows where it is. Most teams eventually find somebody local who writes it down or explains to their driver how to get there. That is all teams but Rick and Josh who gets told they can take a bus there, which they do. Rick & Josh are here severely hindered by the fact that they don't really understand Chinese.

Choice quotes:
 "We should get there and in our minds think they are 1 minute behind us", Rachel does not want to take it easy just because they are in the lead

It takes about 1h to reach the village by taxi. Teams arrive in the following order:
 1. Charlie & Rachel
 2. Deepak & Naresh, arrives as Charlie & Rachel are leaving
 3. Lisa & Karen
 4. Rick & Josh

Choice quotes:
 "Today we are getting strength from our children", Lisa & Karen show their signed shirts
 "I love you Devon and Veran, mommy misses you a lot", Lisa is homesick
 "Have you seen any foreigners?", Rick knows how teams stand out form the locals

All teams must make at least two trips from the well. The task is physically demanding and the narrow alleys are confusing.

Choice quotes:
 "Just follow the water, that's our route" Deepak & Naresh
 "This doesn't work, the bucket is plastic", Josh has not learned the trick to get water from the well
 "Can I show you how to do it?", Lisa does not want to wait so she shows them the trick
 "We are running against five strapping young men in their twenties. And here I am 40 odd years old, clearly they are going to be able to surpass us", Karen explains why they lost time at the task

Teams complete the task in the following order:
 1. Charlie & Rachel, spent around 20 minutes on the task
 2. Deepak & Naresh
 3. Rick & Josh
 4. Lisa & Karen, finish 10 minutes after Rick & Josh

The next clue can be found by the world's largest inkstone on the top of Dinghu mountain (39km 0:48). This place is easier to find. But Rick & Josh do not have a taxi, and it turns out to be hard to find one by the village. So they have to take the bus again. Teams reach the clue box by the inkstone in the following order:
 1. Charlie & Rachel
 2. Deepak & Naresh
 3. Lisa & Karen
 4. Rick & Josh

Choice quotes:
 "Hello, sorry guys", Charlie cuts in among some people getting their picture taken by the clue box

Teams must now make their way to a pavilion on the top of the flying water pool.

Roadblock: "Who is ready to get wet". In this roadblock one team member bust rappel down a waterfall. Once they reach the bottom they should swim to a nearby platform where the next clue awaits.

Teams complete the roadblock in the following order (* denotes team member performing the road block, and the numbers how many roadblocks each team member have performed):
 1. Charlie* & Rachel    (6-5)
 2. Deepak & Naresh*  (5-6)
 3. Lisa* & Karen         (5-6)
 4. Rick & Josh*           (5-6), arrive as Lisa & Karen are leaving

Choice quotes:
 "Don't say we are lost when I'm going to take you there in 3 minutes", Charlie thinks he know where he is (and he does)
 "Charlie is basically like born in the water", Rachel why Charlie did the rappel
 "To be in second place is a great thing", Naresh is happy to be in front
 "We take the lead now, that's it", Naresh can smell first place
 "Before the race we said that anything to do with Heights and/or swimming will be Karen's tasks", Lisa realize that plans change
 "She really hates heights", Karen looking on while Lisa is rappeling
 "Good pace mate", Rick encourages Josh who quickly rappels down

Teams must now head to 7 star crags park (18km 0:23). They reach the clue box here in the following order:
 1. Charlie & Rachel
 2. Deepak & Naresh
 3. Lisa & Karen
 4. Rick & Josh

Detour: "Crags or Cranes"

In "Crags" teams must head to Long Yen Dong (?). Inside this cave, which is filled with inscriptions and statues, are six stone tablets inscribed with characters and numbers. The characters point racers to Louhan island, which lies nearby, where 500 numbered Buddha statues can be found. The numbers points to which statue holds the next clue (4, 1 and 1).

In "Cranes" teams will head to Hu Dah (?), an island and sanctuary for red crowned cranes inside the park. Provided with protective gear (gloves and glasses) and red flags teams must herd 7 cranes into a pen. If handled without care the birds will not only ignore directions but also turn confrontational.

All the locations are within a couple of kilometers from each other.

Teams complete the detour in the following order:
 1. Charlie & Rachel (cranes)
 2. Deepak & Naresh (start cranes but switches to crags after 5-6 minutes)
 3. Rick & Josh (cranes)
 4. Lisa & Karen (start cranes but switches to crags after 20 minutes)

Choice quotes:
 "Lets do the cranes, cranes will be fun", Charlie
 "Can you get hurt?", Rachel is worried, "Yes you can", and Charlie gives her the truth
 "I tried to act like a giant crane, like I am the master here", Charlie has a good strategy
 "I get it, you don't want to", Rachel decides to herd another crane
 "This guy is crazy", Charlie found a feisty crane
 "We saw that they were so pissed off", Deepak & Naresh got to the cranes after Charlie & Rachel had been there
 "They are crazy let's find the other thing", Deepak & Naresh decides to switch detour
 "They will try to bit us, and charge us if they feel provoked", Rick reads from the clue, "Awesome", Josh comments
 "Oh my gosh, why are cranes so mean", Karen wonders
 "They were not happy to see us", Karen summarizes the crane experience
 "Okay mate, we need teamwork here", Josh is chasing cranes
 "He is chasing us", Rick & Josh realize that the crane is chasing them, not the other way around
 "That doesn't look good, it looks like an attacking pose", Rick & Josh are not in control
 "We are going to kill each other", Lisa & Karen are feeling the pressure
 "Can we hug this out", Lisa & Karen calm down in the taxi

I think Charlie & Rachel had an advantage here insofar that the cranes were calm when they arrived, and they could pick the most cooperative cranes. the other teams had to contend with aggravated cranes where the calmer ones had been weeded out. There are a loot of beep's in the soundtrack of the teams at the cranes, including one from a cameraman getting attacked.

Lisa & Karen solicited help from a group of tourists to find the last character in the cave.

Teams may now head for the pit stop, which is located at Yuh Yang Lou (?). Teams arrive in the following order:
 1. Charlie & Rachel, win round trip airfare tickets to ten destinations
 2. Deepak & Naresh
 3. Rick & Josh
 4. Lisa & Karen, are eliminated

Choice quotes:
 "I still think we are first", Rachel in the taxi to the pit stop.
 "We can't be last", Rachel discloses their strategy
 "Best moment in the race", Deepak in the taxi to the pit stop
 "Finally we come up on the second place, it is a huge thing, Naresh is happy for their best placement yet
 "We know Charlie & Rae are ahead of us, we know the Indian boys are ahead of us, it is just a question about where the momshells are", Josh on the way to the pit stop
 "I am hoping we are third, but I am thinking we are last", Karen
 "Ooh, slow tone. Don't like that one.", Rick when Allan greets them
 "We didn't dare think we were anything better than fourth place", Josh about how they felt walking up to Allan
 "I'm exhausted, this is a long journey, but it was a lot of fun", Karen sums it up
 "I think the best thing about this experience is that I know how I want to raise my kids", Lisa, and I fear for her kids

Actually Lisa's comment about her kids was that she want them to be resourceful and know more than just how to order stuff from the room service. Which IMHO is a good thing.