Author Topic: "Around the World for Free!"  (Read 26215 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline apskip

  • Geographer Extraordinaire
  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6189
Re: "Around the World for Free!"
« Reply #50 on: May 26, 2009, 08:06:15 AM »
Well, Peach, it is now clear how important "Around the World for Free" is to WGN. It is so important that after a late baseball game finish they elected to show 30 minutes of Chicago area news and delayed the broadcast of AWTFF by those 30 minutes. My VCR cut off the last 30 minutes of the show, which I may have to wait for another marathon to watch if I can't see if I can't get it thursday night at 9pm EDT or Sunday morning at 11am EDT.

Offline apskip

  • Geographer Extraordinaire
  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6189
Re: "Around the World for Free!"
« Reply #51 on: May 26, 2009, 08:14:35 AM »
Due to missing it in its earlier showing, I had to wait until yewsterday's ATWFF marathon to see Episode 2:

Christie is hosting Alex and Zsolt on St. John. She takes them on a tour of the island, feeds them, and houses them. Her only request is that Alex gives a talk to her Methodist Church Sunday School class. Alex and Zsolt also appear to enthusiastically get into the swing of things with the high-energy, rhythmic church service. The St. John island tour includes a trip from Cruz Bay to Coral Bay on Centerline Road. Christie arranges for them to travel onward on the boat of a friend to take them to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The trip starts at Cool Bay and passes two uninhabited USVI bird sanctuaries.

Alex first goes to a hotel in Road Town, capital of Tortola. He is then picked up there and driven to meet professional motivational speaker DW, who is one of the most high-energy individuals ever to make it onto a television screen. I expect Alex himself to be very good as a motivational speaker.  DW wants Alex to give a series of motivational speeches for compensation. At the college where Alex gives the first one, he is introduced to his hostess, Debbie. She too has an agenda and it is for Alex to give additional motivational speeches at Cedar School and Alfreda Scotliff Primary School. Alex performs as requested. Alex and Zsolt go on a boat trip to Virgin Gorda, one of the other British Virgin Islands. They also visit the party place on Tortola, the Bomba Shack. They are find a network member in Dominica willing to help them. To get there they fly from Tortola to San Juan and then San Juan to Dominica. Zsolt, who has money, eats while Alex with none to spare does not.

This is not hardship duty for Alex. He finds Dominica to be lush with tropical rainforest as well as having have many other interesting features. On the way from the airport to their host’s home in his vehicle, it breaks so when this happens so Jay Gribner brings out a picnic basket so Alex will not starve in the interim. Jay takes them to a Carib Indian show. They go on an expedition with a company that Jay’s friend owns and rappel backwards down small waterfalls. They went to the Valley of Desolation with some boiling water (265 degrees) in the middle of a flowing cool river. If you venture into the boiling section you will get incredibly serious burns. They stop at a stand  where the proprietor is selling  an aphrodisiac made by combining tree bark with a combination of herbs, leaves, roots and spices into liquors and maybe adding fish, honey, wine and rum. They visit Serra’s Hot Wet Sulfur Spa.

Alex meets the Venezuelan ambassador, who encourages him to visit Venezuela and gives contact information for his nephew Eduardo there.

The Kairi FM radio station takes up the cause of Alex traveling south to ultimately reach South America. A travel agency hears that message and responds with a plane ticket to Trinidad, an island just north of Venezuela. They fly out at 345pm and after landing on Trinidad are unexpectedly met by another individual who were the Kairi FM message. He takes them to Richard’s bake and shark joint so they can eat the specialty of the house there. Later he takes them to his home in Maracas on the north coast of Trinidad.



Offline georgiapeach

  • Amazing Race Admin
  • RFF Administrator
  • I Live at RFF
  • *****
  • Posts: 54196
  • TAR Detective
Re: "Around the World for Free!"
« Reply #52 on: May 26, 2009, 08:50:12 AM »
I loved the Dominica leg!!   Made me want to go.....
RFF's Golden Rule:
Have RESPECT for each other, regardless of opinion. This of course includes no flaming/insulting other users and/or their posts.

Offline apskip

  • Geographer Extraordinaire
  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6189
Re: "Around the World for Free!"
« Reply #53 on: May 26, 2009, 09:19:36 AM »
So, here is the first half of episode 7, the South Africa to Tanzania segment of ATWFF:

Alex finds it is time for some payback and he is the rescue guide on a rafting trip down a local river that was the highlight for an outing of a group of Lo's colleagues and their families. The river is swift and it flows the individual rafts into low-hanging tree limbs and to leaves. Two of the rafts with girls on them either overturn or lost their occupant, so Alex is busy in his assigned role. It turns out that these colleagues are from Vodocom, an international phone company. As a reward Alex is taken with Lo's family to Kruger National Park, using the Numbi Gate. They get a tour in an open truck safari vehicle with a guide. They see hippos (which are not supposed to be there but who is going to stop them?), a rhino, reed buck and several other of the park's 147 different mammals. Alex gets to work again on Lo's banana plantation. He carries 110 pound loads of bananas (the entire output of one tree) to the washing/classifying station. He also discovers that there are black mamba and blood spitting cobras on the plantation. This is another braai for Alex, with grilled liver and huge steaks on the menu. He learns that Zulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa, with Afrikaans second. I believe Robert Hutchings would be proud of the safari and related activities Alex did for him in Hazyview.

Alex's next task is to find a way north. He learns that a friend of a friend, Freddy, lives in Arusha Tanzania so he targets DarEsSalaam as their next stop. Getting a donated plane ticket or ride north proves to be difficult. Lo finally gets his colleagues to buy Alex one. Plus Lo gives him $20 for taxi fare downtown, as he knows something that he does not share with Alex. Alex and Zsolt land at DarEsSalaam, capital of Tanzania and observe complete chaos and a complete lack of buses to get downtown cheaply. The chaos is due to the cancellation of a flight for the Moslem hajj, leaving hundreds of pilgrims stranded in DarEsSalaam airport. Alex tries for alternatives, but finally he gets a call from Lo that one of his colleagues will put them up for the night, but Alex must get to a specific unnamed downtwon hotel. This unnamed colleague picks them up there and takes them to his home, which is in a gated compound and has a huge swimming pool. Alex and Zsolt chat briefly with this man and his wife, but the guy decides to take Alex and Lo out to party. They talk to a local at a bar, then switch to a club where two bands are performing and Alex plays billiards with a local.

It was 1am at this point and my VCR cut the second half of this episode. I will fix that as soon as I can.

Here is a map of Kruger National Park. Hazyview is about due west of Numbi Gate in the southwest section of the park.

« Last Edit: May 26, 2009, 10:38:25 AM by apskip »

Offline georgiapeach

  • Amazing Race Admin
  • RFF Administrator
  • I Live at RFF
  • *****
  • Posts: 54196
  • TAR Detective
Re: "Around the World for Free!"
« Reply #54 on: May 26, 2009, 09:34:34 AM »
In live time, seeing them cope with their live emails/phone calls/etc was one of the most intriguing things. The thought that you could actually "phone a friend" and send Alex some help, and then see it all play out was truly innovative. The technology here was (or seemed to me) groundbreaking and made the show really fun to watch.
RFF's Golden Rule:
Have RESPECT for each other, regardless of opinion. This of course includes no flaming/insulting other users and/or their posts.


Offline georgiapeach

  • Amazing Race Admin
  • RFF Administrator
  • I Live at RFF
  • *****
  • Posts: 54196
  • TAR Detective
Re: "Around the World for Free!"
« Reply #55 on: May 26, 2009, 11:54:19 AM »
I think even if you are not a Facebook user, that you may be able to see this page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Around-the-World-For-Free-Official-Page/64314428405

Quote
A special note about MUSIC on ATWFF - find the list of featured tracks under "Discussions". We tip our hat to the gracious musicians who have provided their works to underscore this journey. Much more unforgettable music coming up in the Final Four episodes! There is no published music compilation as of yet, but support independent music by following these great artists - they're easy to find! - Zsolt

A dedicated viewer has been listing the music iin the discussion thread.
RFF's Golden Rule:
Have RESPECT for each other, regardless of opinion. This of course includes no flaming/insulting other users and/or their posts.