Author Topic: Racing report, China Rush 2010, leg 9  (Read 3470 times)

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Offline maf

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Racing report, China Rush 2010, leg 9
« on: October 14, 2010, 04:34:15 PM »
Racing report
Amazing Race China Rush
Season 1, Episode 9

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.

The last leg ended on a pedestrian bridge by Chunxi road. Teams depart from a different location at street level but probably pretty close, in the following order:

 1. Charlie & Rachel     - 07:57
 2. Sarah & Molly        - 08:13 (+0:16)
 3. Rick & Josh           - 09:11 (+1:14)
 4. Lisa & Karen          - 09:39 (+1:42)
 5. Deepak & Naresh  - 10:26 (+2:29)

Teams must now travel to Living Water park (3km 0:07) where they will find their next clue. Teams reach this without problems in the same order they started. The next clue reads "Travel by taxi to Cheng du research base of giant panda breeding. Make your way to giant panda kitchen." (13km 0:27).

Rick & Josh tells in an interview that they are going to take it easy this leg. They are over an hour after the leading teams and have more than an hour back to the last team. So when they arrived at the Living Water park they stopped for a minute to play with the locals.

There is still no change in order as teams reach the giant panda kitchen.

Roadblock: Who wants to feed some pandas

In this roadblock one team member must wash 10 kg of bamboo. Then carry it to the panda feeding area where they must toss them into the panda enclosure. If they drop any leaves to the ground they must go back and start over.

Teams complete the roadblock in the following order (* denotes who performed the road block, and the numbers how many roadblocks they have done in total):
 1. Sarah & Molly*        (4-5)
 2. Rick* & Josh           (5-4)
 3. Lisa & Karen*         (4-5)
 4. Charlie & Rachel*    (4-5)
 5. Deepak & Naresh*  (4-5) (arrives just as Charlie & Rachel are leaving)

Choice quotes:
 "I love bamboo", Rachel on the way to the roadblock
 "Who wants to feed some pandas, I do", Rachel does not give Charlie any chance before taking on the challenge.
 "You are *beep* kidding me, right?", Rachel on getting told she brought the wrong bamboo
 "and she is lugging a forest on her back", Sarah sees Molly doing the challenge
 "Don't spear the panda", Charlie gives some helpful advice to Rick
 "I was thinking more like a little baby bottle with some milk in it and a cute panda in my arms", Karen expected something different than hauling a minor forest around
 "I used to love pandas", Rachel after the roadblock
 "Pandas 1, Rachel 0", Charlie sums it up

Rachel initially picks up the wrong bamboo. In spite of asking a local guy repeatedly if she was right, and only getting yes as result. She drags this box of bamboo, which looks like a lot more than 10kg, all the way to the feeding area. When she gets told that it is wrong and she must return and redo the task she snaps. I think she is physically and mentally exhausted from the race and this was the stick (of bamboo:-) which broke her back. Eventually she is persuaded to go back and start over (she did not have to return the wrong bamboo). From this point on this team looks doomed and it will take a miracle to save them.

Once Rachel gets back with the right bamboo she has been passed by both Molly and Rick. She is in tears by now and Rick does the Australian thing and gives her a big friendly hug. She needed that because then she misses the throw of one of the chutes of bamboo when tossing them into the pandas. So she has to go back again and pick up one new chute. As she does this she is passed by Karen.

Teams must now travel by bus to Du Jiang Yan. One there they must travel to Lidui park (2km 0:04) where they will find their next clue.

Teams reach the Chadianzi bus station (15km 0:22) in the following order:
 1. Sarah & Molly, leaves on a bus a bit before 12:00
 2. Rick & Josh
 3. Lisa & Karen, leaves on a bus around 12:30
 4. Deepak & Naresh
 5. Charlie & Rachel, leaves on a bus at 15:00, apparently they had serious taxi issues

All teams are on separate buses. Sarah & Molly could only buy tickets to a bus which left almost 3 hours later (at 14:40), but some persuasion of uniformed men made them get on a bus leaving at once instead. Good move. The bus trip takes around 50 minutes.

Lisa & Karen arrives in Du Jiang Yan at around 13:20.

Teams arrive at the clue box in the park in the following order:
 1. Sarah & Molly
 2. Rick & Josh, are about 5 minutes behind Sarah & Molly
 3. Lisa & Karen, are about 5 minutes behind Rick & Josh
 4. Deepak & Naresh
 5. Charlie & Rachel

When Rick & Josh runs into Lisa & Karen in the park there are hugs all around. This is just another sign that all remaining teams really like each other. They are still trying to get ahead of each other but they are nice to each other. This makes this show much more enjoyable to watch.

This is where Deepak & Naresh encounters their speed bump "Get ready to sing". They must learn to recite a local song. There is somebody who can tech it to them and they are allowed to make notes. However this might be harder than it sounds since the song is in Chinese. But the roadblock is right next to the clue box and they finish quickly.

Choice Quote:
 "Deep is a horrible singer, I am a good singer.", Naresh lacks modesty (he is right though)

The clue reads: "Travel by taxi to Hongkou primary school where you will find your next clue".

Teams arrive at the school (22km 0:59) in the following order:
 1. Sarah & Molly
 2. Rick & Josh, arrives while Molly & Sarah are performing the detour
 3. Lisa & Karen, arrives while Rick & Josh are performing the detour
 4. Deepak & Naresh, arrives at 16.30 after the earlier teams have left
Then we see all the kids go home and a guard lock the gates. Fortunately they unlock the gates to let the last team in...
 5. Charlie & Rachel

Detour: "Face detection or face detention"

In face detection teams must find one particular student provided only with a cropped picture showing an area around the eyes. They will have to inspect classrooms for their assigned students. Once the team thinks they have found the student in their picture they must take him or her to the headmasters office.

In face detention teams have to copy the same sentence (Chengdu, I love you, Duijanhyan, I love you) in Chinese characters 50 times without errors.

Teams complete the detour in the following order:
 1. Sarah & Molly (detection)
 2. Rick & Josh (started detection, switched to detention and switched back to detection)
 3. Lisa & Karen (detection)
 4. Deepak & Naresh, arrives at 16.30 (detection)
 5. Charlie & Rachel (wanted to do detection, but since all students have left for the day they had to do detention)

Choice quotes:
 "This one will be fun and let's just enjoy", Josh selects detour
 "Wongyeah(sp?) was so sweet", Sarah & Molly took time to learn the name of their assigned kid
 "We double checked every classroom[", Rick & Josh have problems finding their student
 "I'm sorry little one, can you come with us", Lisa is polite to their student
 "We asked all the kids to smile.", Naresh lightens up to mood

Rick & Josh had trouble finding their student so they switched to detention. But after copying the sentence once while timing it. They realized that detention would take more than an hour to complete. So they switched back. This was IMHO good racing.

Once teams complete the detour they get the next clue which reads: "Outside the school there is a shuttle which will take you down the road to Miaoba rafting pier. There you will find your next clue".

Teams are sufficiently separated that none of them end up on the same shuttle so they all arrive at the next clue in the same order. The pier is probably not far away.

At the pier the clue reads: "Put on a wet suit and jump into the raft. The pitstop is at the end of the river".

All teams seem to skip the wet suit since they have their regular clothes on. There is not really much teams can do to screw up this task. There are plenty of people along the banks of the river which shoves the raft back into the current when needed. Except for the last two teams when it seems most of them have left for the day.

Teams reach the pitstop, and are greeted by another face changer, in the following order:
 1. Sarah & Molly, win a trip to Taiwan
 2. Rick & Josh
 3. Lisa & Karen, seemed to be pretty close to Rick & Josh
 4. Deepak & Naresh
 5. Charlie & Rachel, are saved by the third consecutive non-elimination

All in all this leg was a mixed bag. Four teams raced well without any mistakes, while Charlie & Rachel crashed spectacularly. Sarah & Molly got their first, and IMHO well deserved, win.

Next week Rachel will emulate an ox and there will be golf on floating islands. And Lisa & Karen get upset at the Indians.