Author Topic: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****  (Read 14341 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline apskip

  • Geographer Extraordinaire
  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6189
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #25 on: October 09, 2008, 10:08:31 PM »
I have this feeling that teams should be careful with those medals and possibly also their toys. The final challenge before the Finish Line can be questions relating to such things.

Online georgiapeach

  • Amazing Race Admin
  • RFF Administrator
  • I Live at RFF
  • *****
  • Posts: 54196
  • TAR Detective
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #26 on: October 09, 2008, 10:10:50 PM »
No movie making,  lol?

I can't believe that yet another team gave up. How frustrating!!   (:;)









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: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #27 on: October 09, 2008, 10:24:49 PM »
This is not just an episode 5 issue although this was rampant in today's episode. I refer to hiring taxis to follow. The amount of money teams had did not allow them to spend 1100 to 1200 New Taiwanese Dollars (@30NTD/USD from May 2008 = 36.7 to 40 USD) to get to Shengkeng. However, what they had was sufficient to allow taxi following all over Taipei. I detest seeing it, as it distorts the intent of finding places on their own and is bad for viewers. I am still waiting for both Bertram van Munster and Michael McKay to either ban this practice or make sure team do not have enough money to do it.

Offline calv_10

  • RFF Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 54
    • Calvin's Hub
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #28 on: October 09, 2008, 10:45:14 PM »
This is not just an episode 5 issue although this was rampant in today's episode. I refer to hiring taxis to follow. The amount of money teams had did not allow them to spend 1100 to 1200 New Taiwanese Dollars (@30NTD/USD from May 2008 = 36.7 to 40 USD) to get to Shengkeng. However, what they had was sufficient to allow taxi following all over Taipei. I detest seeing it, as it distorts the intent of finding places on their own and is bad for viewers. I am still waiting for both Bertram van Munster and Michael McKay to either ban this practice or make sure team do not have enough money to do it.

i agree with you on this one. everybody's resulting to just hiring taxis to follow that it's getting kinda boring. it would be nice if TARA could just provide them identical maps that can take them to their destinations whenever visiting a new country. those with good navigation skills will do well.

thanks for the analysis on the discs. geoff and tisha were really lucky. checking for fingerprints was a good call.
Read my recaps on The Amazing Race Asia after each episode.

Offline banzai

  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1175
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #29 on: October 09, 2008, 10:56:29 PM »

http://www.alivenotdead.com/allanwu

Allan Wu gave us some clues but we didn't get it. That photo was one of the Detour.

Maybe "Back to Taiwan" also means back to Taipei. Two pitstops in the same city.  :duno:

Oh, and it took me about 50 seconds to load, play, and unload a DVD. That's 1000 minutes for 1000 discs. Hmm.  :groan: (:;)


Offline apskip

  • Geographer Extraordinaire
  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6189
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #30 on: October 10, 2008, 08:14:34 AM »
banzai, that is of course 6 times my estimate. With the area they were testing in totally isolated away from the public, Michael McKay could have brought in units that open/close and play much quicker than one a minute, knowing that watching teams run CDs is about the most boring task possible. Mine took slightly over 10 seconds from a CD on a spindle. If you run the numbers, the slowest team performance was at a rate about three times as fast as your esimate.

Online georgiapeach

  • Amazing Race Admin
  • RFF Administrator
  • I Live at RFF
  • *****
  • Posts: 54196
  • TAR Detective
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #31 on: October 10, 2008, 03:29:01 PM »

http://www.alivenotdead.com/allanwu

Allan Wu gave us some clues but we didn't get it. That photo was one of the Detour.



I know banzai!! How did we miss these? :pull

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 banzai

  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1175

Offline bangun

  • RFF Not So Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 6
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #33 on: October 11, 2008, 10:07:30 AM »
An ok episode. I'm not that much of a fan of those pure luck challenges, as they are, as someone else wrote, not that interesting to watch and in the worst case can litereally take all day (as we could see with Mai and Oliver). And this leg even had 2 challenges that had a strong luck components, the dig for the souvenir one was way too alike to the BR-Disc one.
I can understand the need to cram as much as product placement into it, and challenges are a "natural" way to do it (hey, they haven't even used those obnoxious stickers in the provided car's windows they had in season 2), but if it's a "make or break" challenge early in the race (leg-wise) I regard it as a little unfair. They simply could've not used 1000 but maybe 100 or 200, which would've shortened the maximum time needed for the challenge.

I also regard tatooing as a rather unfair challenge, as it obviously stays for you after the race, and it wasn't even logically put in. It was done way better in TAR 12, where the clue read something about "local art" and the tattoo were two F's for fast forward. No clue how true the local art thing is, but it provided a tie to the location (as do the "local delicatessen" challenges which are often used for the fast forward). Here it was just: Go tattoo yourself, mentioned already in the clue, so there was no real elemet of surprise. It's clear that the producers don't want the "eat 1kg of bugs" or "take a bungee jump" challenges as fast foward, as they've been used too often, but tattooing s just taking it too far for me. I don't know what they could use as "extreme" challenges otherwise, maybe just some intense labor task or something like that (I personally would like to see a "spend 2mins with a martial artist in the ring" challenge, but it looks like we'll get to see that in TAR 13 Ep 3 :meow:)

It's going to be interesting how the next leg will be, seeing that Sam&Vince seem to be like 10hours+ in front. I guess there will be a delay the start the next leg when they wait for an airplane etc, seeing that Taiwan is probably not big enough to warrant 2 legs (but then, I haven't looked at the spoiler thread, and there wasn't a preview broadcasted either)
« Last Edit: October 11, 2008, 10:12:01 AM by bangun »

Offline banzai

  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1175
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #34 on: October 11, 2008, 12:03:37 PM »


#1: Taipei City Hall: http://wikimapia.org/26537/Taipei-City-Hall
Taipei 101: http://wikimapia.org/1549/Taipei-101
#2: SOGO-Fuxing branch (thanks to puddin)
#3: Kevin's Tattoo in Ximending district: http://wikimapia.org/167455/cn/刺青街
#4: Coal mine: http://wikimapia.org/3685722/cn/嶺腳車站
#5:
#6: Taiwan Astronomical Museum: http://wikimapia.org/36765/Taiwan-Astronomical-Museum


I can't find Grand Tong temple.  :groan: (:;)


Offline apskip

  • Geographer Extraordinaire
  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6189
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #35 on: October 11, 2008, 12:17:42 PM »
Flights from Taipei to Hong Kong start at about 630am. Vince and Sam would be released at 4am and would make that first flight CX463 0625 0800. The other teams would be released between about noon and 2pm and could be on any of these flights:

CX511 1315 1500
CI679 1330 1575
BR855 1400 1540
CX565 1410 1555
CI673 1425 1510
KA481 1445 1630

That gives Vince and Sam a 7 hour lead on the next closest team. There must be a major hours of operation that stops them at maybe 5pm to 7pm and allows all the other teams to catch.


















Offline apskip

  • Geographer Extraordinaire
  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6189
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #36 on: October 11, 2008, 12:18:22 PM »
Banzai, may I be the first to congratulate you on reaching the milestone of 1000 posts.
« Last Edit: October 11, 2008, 12:30:28 PM by apskip »

Offline banzai

  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1175
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #37 on: October 11, 2008, 01:36:15 PM »
Thanks apskip.  :beer:
I guess I don't talk much. I surf here since TAR6.  :jam:

Offline apskip

  • Geographer Extraordinaire
  • TAR Detectives
  • RFF Frantic Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6189
Re: TARA 3 - Episode 5 Discussion Thread ****HOT spoilers--beware!****
« Reply #38 on: October 11, 2008, 02:29:18 PM »
banzai, that may be but your posts are never content-free so I always look forward to them.