Author Topic: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**  (Read 36390 times)

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Offline apskip

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #150 on: October 24, 2011, 09:17:56 AM »

WHAT??? 100 USD and the driver doesn't want?? 4500 baht..

Now the driver takes 150 USD?

Omg. The driver's apparently WRONG!

Note exactly. As long as 4500 baht was the approximately correct fare for the combination of lengthy trips in the Phuket area, then by today's exchange rate 4500 baht = $145

Even more telling is that on June 28 2011 (closest date on which I have a currency exchange rate, 31 baht/USD would have resulted in 4500 baht = $143. It looks to me like that old lady haggling on behalf of the taxi driver was in fact correct!

Offline Prophet

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #151 on: October 24, 2011, 09:19:10 AM »
She may have had her calculations correct, BUT did the taxi ride warrant that much expense?
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Offline apskip

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #152 on: October 24, 2011, 09:22:37 AM »
Ernie and Cindy got the EXPRESS BUS. Omg. They're in first is it?

sO Ernie and Cindy got the EXPRESS BUS... i'm sure they're allowed to take the Express Bus right?

It must be because they have the Express Pass. :lol:
Maybe. That certainly sounds good! However, I think knowing the rules and being more aggressive in checking bus options or maybe just plain luck had something to do with it.

Offline apskip

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #153 on: October 24, 2011, 10:13:56 AM »
It's because of Liz and Marie we see all the nice thai people who're willing to help Americans in troubles... I wonder how many minutes they're behind Jeremy and Sandy.

Do you mean how many hours behind? They started at the Bangkok Bus terminal with Laurence/Zac, who finished ahead of Jeremy/Sandy. However, Liz/Marie had severe money troubles, so they must have wasted a lot of time walking.

I don't know precisely how far it was from the Southern Bus Terminal (in Thornburi) to the Bangkok Noi Canal (also in Thornburi). What I do remember is visiting that canal (known to the Thai as a Klong) and watching the floating feast come by of every conceivable type of food prepared on boats and offered for sale from those.

The Royal Barge Museum is also on the banks of Klong Bangkok Noi. I wanted to attach a map of the Thornburi district which shows the Klong and that museum, but it was slightly too large for RFF guidelines. If you want to see it, go to http://wikitravel.org/en/Bangkok/Thonburi and it is on what would be the bottom right of the first page if there were pages.  It is unknown where the "feed the fishes" task was along the banks of the Klong.


Just remember that World Race Productions or CBS editors are sneaky and want you to think it's a tight finish when it really isn't.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2011, 10:51:01 AM by apskip »

Offline apskip

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #154 on: October 24, 2011, 10:25:12 AM »
I didn't like how easy both Roadblocks were, it was so pointless to have 2 easy Roadblocks in a leg? I believe they intended to go to Phuket since the last leg was pretty well structured? But this Bangkok leg.. it's bad!

Since the "Bangkok leg" you refer to had all of its significant tasks in the Phuket area, I don't think calling it "Bangkok leg...it's bad!" is warranted. Leg 5 was predominantly a second Phuket area leg. There was only 2 taxi rides and throwing fish food in the water in Bangkok.


Offline apskip

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #155 on: October 24, 2011, 10:39:58 AM »

The RB really had nothing to do with the culture of Thailand.. except with the scenery.. which wasn't even great.. they were focusing on the muddy water in the "lake" instead.

And... going to Bangkok all the way just so that they wouldn't have "2 legs" in Phuket? Come on WRP, we're not dumbs, we know that all the tasks in this leg took place in Phuket. Teams merely travelled to Bangkok to check-in. :res:

I'm not going to say Liz and Marie would have survived with a badly planned leg.. but with a leg like this, I thought it would have been better for the last leg to be a TBC, anyone with me?

There are 3 separate concepts above.

On the first one, southern Thailand (which I have not been to) is known for its water-based beauty. The other sights are not beautiful. I think you have to go to northern Thailand (which I have been to) for beautiful landscapes.

I think the reason teams were sent to Bangkok was cost-saving. Flights connecting to Malawi from Bangkok could be cheaper and are certainly fewer miles flown. The cost of 550 miles bus travel in Thailand is miniscule in comparison. It was easy to put teams on the long-distance buses. They are abundant and cheap in Thailand (I did it up to Chiang Mai from Bangkok), but the main advantage was immediate assurance that there was ample capacity for all teams.

On the third one, I do agree with you, Joab. It should have been a TBC.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2011, 11:03:25 AM by apskip »

Offline apskip

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #156 on: October 24, 2011, 10:48:49 AM »
Money management was key on these two legs. How much to exchange and when to do is very important.

Wise teams save as much as possible for the unknown from leg to leg.

Something happened so that L/M ran short in Phuket, as per the inside video from last leg, although we never know what and they don't either.

But I doubt production expected such high rip-off taxi fees for the first part of this leg, it seems to have left everyone short.

Without the money issues, I think they might have survived.
Peach:

Just look at the arrival times at the Phuket Bus Terminal for the answer. Liz/Marie were extremely lucky to make the 830pm bus. Every other team except Laurence/Zac was at least 2.5 hours ahead of them, although some time may have been lost in the heavy Bangkok morning rush hour that the earlier teams hit and presumably Laurence/Zac and Liz/Marie did not. Liz/Marie were effectively competing against Laurence/Zac in that trip from Thornburi Bus terminal to the fish feeding task on the Bangkok Noi Canal. It was only the very poor performance of Jeremy/Sandy that got them behind Laurence/Zac. The walking in Bangkok and depending on finding free taxi rides cost Liz/Marie a lot of time and caused their elimination.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2011, 10:52:22 AM by apskip »

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #157 on: October 24, 2011, 11:09:46 AM »



 It is unknown where the "feed the fishes" task was along the banks of the Klong.



It was at Wat Srisudaram...
 
I think this is the place?
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13697435
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Offline lovetherace

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #158 on: October 26, 2011, 12:02:46 PM »
An interesting comment posted on Twop by NooN, who appears to be in Thailand:

Quote
About the songthaew (taxi), those drivers are criticized very harshly on several Thai webboards as we speak. 4500 baht is enough for an airplane ticket from Phuket to Bangkok, round trip.

Offline Prophet

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Re: EP 5 East Coast SHOW updates and commentary **please read the rules**
« Reply #159 on: October 26, 2011, 12:19:23 PM »
An interesting comment posted on Twop by NooN, who appears to be in Thailand:

Quote
About the songthaew (taxi), those drivers are criticized very harshly on several Thai webboards as we speak. 4500 baht is enough for an airplane ticket from Phuket to Bangkok, round trip.

That's what I thought...they were WAY overcharging, just because they saw a camera crew or because they were American.
Physics alone is not enough.

Those who forget history are sure to repeat it.