Archive > The Amazing Race 16 Spoilers/Speculation

TAR 16 Timeline Thread

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apskip:
Puerto Vallarta Mexico is in the Central Time Zone Daylight Savings now, but Standard time in December, UTC/GMT - 6 in Dec. 2009 Penang was UTC/GMT +8 hours year-round for 2009 and 2010.

This shows why Neobie's calculation of a 14 hours time zone differential is correct for Dec. 2009.

So 4pm Penang time was = 2am same day Puerto Vallarta time.

Neobie:
Very interesting... Did TPTB gamble on all (surviving) teams checking into the Penang Pit Stop within three hours of each other, or is there going to be some equalizing factor at the beginning of the next leg? Given that teams arrive in the morning (shadows upon arrival point northwest), here's the train I believe the teams took:
Butterworth to Kuala Lumpur (1000-1730, I think this train no longer runs on weekdays)
Kuala Lumpur to Singapore (2135-0810)

There's a direct, leaving three hours earlier, that gets into Singapore at 2130 the same evening. An hours-of-operation can fix things up here for a team that gets ahead, but a team that misses the 10.00am train will not be able to get into Singapore until 4.05pm the next day, 8h behind everyone else.

Is TPTB going to herd everyone onto the 10.00am without allowing anyone on the 7.00am train, and if so, how? The first ferry from Penang to Butterworth leaves at 5.30am, so that's not going to cause teams to miss the earlier train...

Edited to add: Please note that 8.10am is not indicative of when teams actually arrive in Singapore. Malaysian trains are frequently always late, and it's not unusual for them to be running up to three hours behind.

apskip:
Neobie,
Last time I looked at the map there was the 13.5 km Penang Bridge running from Penang island to the mainland. Why is the question of the first ferry even an issue? There is public transportation by bus available: "Butterworth railway station is conveniently located next to the bus and ferry terminal, south of the town centre." and "the much-loved Penang ferry departs regularly from the Butterworth Ferry Terminal for George Town. The ferry terminal is conveniently connected with the railway station and bus terminal via covered walkways." I am certain that a taxi can be taken from any place on Penang Island to the Butterworth railway station.

Although it was not ready for the visit of AR16, for future visits to Penang "Penang Sentral" is a future inter-modal transportation hub and a commercial development currently under construction in Penang. Construction of the transportation hub will start in Q1 2009 and expected to complete by 2011.

Neobie:
Good point, Apskip. I was just mentioning that TPTB cannot hope to use the ferry as a bunching mechanism, as teams can still be split onto the 7.00am and 10.00am trains (and arrive 11h apart) nevertheless.

apskip:
We don't really know exactly when teams were released from the Singapore pit stop or whether it was a 12 hours pit stop. My thinking is that their release from the Singapore pit stop could have been as early as the evening of Dec. 16 after a less than 12 hour pitstop to sometime Dec. 17 (to be determined by what I show below). The screencap posted earlier today by puddin on the ep. 10 thread clearly showed arrival at Shanghai's Pudong Airport (code PVG) at gate 10. That is in Terminal 1 and the only flights into PVG either nonstop from Shanghai or from Hong Kong (where teams could have connected from Singapore) are by China Eastern Airlines. They were:

Dec. 17 SIN PVG -
MU544 actual dep. SIN 0111 (8 minutes late), arrival unknown (but probably around 0602)
MU564 actual dep. SIN unknown (scheduled 1010), arrival PVG unknown (scheduled 1510)


Dec. 17 HKG PVG arriving Terminal 1 and showing only the China Eastern flight number although most had codeshares -
MU726 actual dep. HKG 0827 arrival PVG unknown (scheduled 1040)
MU502 actual dep. HKG 1225 (55 minutes late) arrival PVG unknown (but probably around 1440)
MU702 actual dep. HKG 1425 (1hour 45 min. late) arrival PVG unknown (but probably around 1640)
MU608 actual dep. HKG 1601 (26 minutes late) arrival PVG unknown (but probably around 1811)
MU508 actual dep. HKG 1825 (50 minutes late) arrival PVG unknown (but probably around 2100)
MU212 actual dep. HKG 2114 (1 hour 29 min. late) arrival PVG unknown but probably around 0034+1)

Dec. 16 SIN HKG - not feasible unless pit stop less than 8 hours and only maybe for Dan/Jordan, so ignore it
Dec. 17 SIN HKG - range of departures from 0653 to 1858, with arrivals from 1030 to 2240. Last one won't connect for Dec. 17 departure from HKG to PVG.

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