Topic: TAR Wishlist - locations, routes, twists, teams, tasks & dreams!**NO SPOILERS**

[TARAsia Fan]

I wish no team was actually eliminated, thats not asking too much is it? I'm such a dork! I DO care about these people 

The show wouldn't be a success without elimination though.

Speaking of elimination - don't these racers ever take bathroom breaks? I thought this was reality TV - lets see some reality!
Maybe the real reason Brad and Victoria missed their flight is because someone had to make a "pitstop" in the airport? I want to know if that's the case!

Sounds like the age old question about Jack Bauer in 24. Does Jack ever go to the bathroom? Does he ever eat? Does he ever drink?

[Neobie]

If I put this on Wiki maybe someone *please, CBS* will fall for it?

[cba]

If I put this on Wiki maybe someone *please, CBS* fall for it?

WOW. Krakatoa AND Easter Island, where the application form and an American I can marry to be eligible for the race? 

And did you get a call from CBS yet? Their loss if you don't! 

[puddin]

If I put this on Wiki maybe someone *please, CBS* fall for it?

  If you do put it on wiki be sure to hide your IP Neobie!

[Jobby]

If I put this on Wiki maybe someone *please, CBS* fall for it?

  If you do put it on wiki be sure to hide your IP Neobie!

I want to do that race. And i hell better survive to the Easter Island leg.

[apskip]

That's an impressive list of places you have for AR15, Neobie. however, you can away it's lack of authenticity when you have Krakatoa on the list. It's part of an Indonesian national park, but nobody lives there for obvious reasons. If you take off Krakatoa and substitute something believable, then you have a viable race.

Do you plan on getting to Easter Island from Australia via the western route(shorter and quicker) or the eastern route?

[Neobie]

Nah, Krakatoa's just a Pit Stop - planning to have most of the leg in Jakarta (shoe factories, Dutch schooners, spice trade...), then have teams take a bus to Merak for the Pit Stop on a boat. And I remember that LAN Sydney-Santiago flight that connects to Easter Island!

Oh God I'm so totally overthinking this.

[apskip]

Neobie,
You can get there either west to east or east to west, but your thoughts on using the former are the more logical. I haven't made any actual measurements but since we know that it's about 5000 miles from Santiago to Auckland and say 2500 miles from Santiago to Easter island.  From Sydney to Johannesburg is about 7000 miles, from Joahnnesburg to Buenos Aires is about 6000 miles and from Buenos Aires to Santiago is about 1000 miles. That is a total of approximately 17,000 miles going east to west. Going west to east it's one of those "you can't get there form here" exercises. Flying to Easter Island form Sydney requires either stopping in Santiago or stopping in Los Angeles. The good news is that it's less than 10,000 miles to do so, over 7000 miles less than the east to west route.

[Dånooky]

I wish no team was actually eliminated, thats not asking too much is it? I'm such a dork! I DO care about these people 

The show wouldn't be a success without elimination though.

Speaking of elimination - don't these racers ever take bathroom breaks? I thought this was reality TV - lets see some reality!
Maybe the real reason Brad and Victoria missed their flight is because someone had to make a "pitstop" in the airport? I want to know if that's the case!

Sounds like the age old question about Jack Bauer in 24. Does Jack ever go to the bathroom? Does he ever eat? Does he ever drink?

From what I remember, in TARA1 they showed a 5 minute scene with Syeon complaining of having diarrhea and wanting to go to the bathroom

[Moo]

Just bringing this thread alive!

Would the Producers and BvM consider this for the next few seasons (even just a leg!)?   

4 CONTINENTS, 9 COUNTRIES, MORE THAN 40,000 MILES

1 USA to Milan - Como/Brunate -Trieste, Italy (North Italy looks good!)

2 Trieste, Italy to Ljubljana - Bled, Slovenia (New Place!)

3 Bled, Slovenia to Thessaloniki, Greece (Greece is worth visiting again!)

4 Thessaloniki, Greece to Istanbul, Turkey (I know this has been done, but Istanbul's so big, I don't mind them having another leg there)

5 Istanbul, Turkey to Cesme - Selcuk - Sirince, Turkey (At first sight of Sirince in the net, I fell in love with the place! - I know many would too!)

6 Sirince, Turkey to Bangalore, India (India's a seasonal pilgrimage of TAR... so why not this place?)

7 Bangalore, India to Werribee-Melbourne Australia (One city I like to see visited by the Race!)

8 Werribee-Melbourne, Australia to Devonport - Launceston - Forth, Tasmania, Australia (The Island's already great just by looking at the net, what can I say more?)

9 Forth, Tasmania, Australia to Yogyakarta-Prambanan, Indonesia (Visiting Borobudur Temple or Lara Jonggrang in Candi would be such a sight!)

10 Yogyakarta-Prambanan, Indonesia to Ubud, Bali, Indonesia (Specifically the Elephant Caves and the Culture, Don't forget visiting the Bombing Memorial!)

11 Ubud, Bali Indonesia to Fukuoka - Kitakyushu - Okayama, Japan (Japan via Train! Woohoo!)

12 Return to the United States

[Coutzy]

Yes! Send the racers to Werribee! And while your at it, let me know when so I can get down there and pretend to know where stuff is (the guy giving the bad directions ALWAYS gets on TV.) And i'll tell them I know, but the route is complicated so I'd have to come in the car with them (Another TV spot.)

[Dånooky]

I'll just say it again:

TAR + TARA intersection!

[Neobie]

Once TPTB decides to chill out about secrecy and allows teams to take public transport, here's one suggestion that allows for some strategy:

1. Impose a monetary quota for travel/reliance on taxis. This doesn't have to be shown to the audience.
"You have $200 for this leg of the race. Of this, you may spend no more than $50 on taxis."

2. Journeys that require taxi travel (for example, to out-of-the-way locations) does not count towards the quota. Again, this can be hidden from the audience.

3. Taxi travel/following thus acts as a Fast Forward. Taxis competing with buses competing with trains = lower costs + chances of natural bunching + local interaction + good TV.

4. Decisions to take public transport can be simplified through editing into "we don't have enough for taxis" or "we want to save money".


Speaking of secrecy, TPTB is way up their asses trying to avoid spoilers. At least four reports of rude production staff (Moscow, Bangkok-Phuket, Guilin, Beijing-Tokyo), fake task set-ups (Gypsy villages, Macau dragon boat associations), chasing the public and staff out of public areas, over-reliance on taxis... It's not like we can't dig up the spoilers anyway, OK? Disappointing. *angry thumbs down*

[Hooky]

Yeah, I agree. Authentic tasks are far better than ones made up just for the race. If people don't want the show spoiled, they don't have to read the spoilers. Even knowing the spoilers it is still fun to watch!

[apskip]

Neobie,

I see a much easier way to get the results you desire and me too. Simply edict that no teams may ever follow a taxi on foot or in their own vehicle or in some other type of vehicle. The other thing I desperately wish for is the end of all begging. Teams stock up on cash early in the race by begging and then can hire whatever they need later. This has distorted the race to give the beggars the edge. There should be no begging.

[Coutzy]

I think they could improve the race by putting a Fast Forward and a U-Turn/Yield on every leg of the race (except the first)

Then it might actually come down to a decision about when it would be most advantageous, as opposed to only getting one and therefore having this consideration taken away.

My biggest tip would have to be to use both Yields and U-Turns interchangeably, but have them both under the same "courtesy of" sticker (Get rid of the Blind U-Turn, it didn't do it for me)

[Dånooky]

My biggest tip would have to be to use both Yields and U-Turns interchangeably, but have them both under the same "courtesy of" sticker (Get rid of the Blind U-Turn, it didn't do it for me)

I'd say that both had their own sticker like in TARA3, also IMO the Blind twist was good, think about it, most people were afraid to use theYield/U-Turn to avoid being targeted, this way it might be easier for it to be used.

For the Fast Forward I'd suggest to put the task right next to the cluebox but make it really hard. Since most of the time teams don't attempt the fast forward because they're all afraid someone else might have done it, the Fast Forward has turned into an undesirable task. Just make it easier for teams to know if it was already taken or not

[apskip]

My biggest tip would have to be to use both Yields and U-Turns interchangeably, but have them both under the same "courtesy of" sticker (Get rid of the Blind U-Turn, it didn't do it for me)

I'd say that both had their own sticker like in TARA3, also IMO the Blind twist was good, think about it, most people were afraid to use theYield/U-Turn to avoid being targeted, this way it might be easier for it to be used.

For the Fast Forward I'd suggest to put the task right next to the cluebox but make it really hard. Since most of the time teams don't attempt the fast forward because they're all afraid someone else might have done it, the Fast Forward has turned into an undesirable task. Just make it easier for teams to know if it was already taken or not

The FAST FORWARD has become much less desirable than it was in the say first 10 seasons of the Amazing Race. The reason is that sometimes the tasks are onerous (tattoos, eating challenges) and the advantage gained has been drastically reduced.

[Snooky]

My biggest tip would have to be to use both Yields and U-Turns interchangeably, but have them both under the same "courtesy of" sticker (Get rid of the Blind U-Turn, it didn't do it for me)

I'd say that both had their own sticker like in TARA3, also IMO the Blind twist was good, think about it, most people were afraid to use theYield/U-Turn to avoid being targeted, this way it might be easier for it to be used.

For the Fast Forward I'd suggest to put the task right next to the cluebox but make it really hard. Since most of the time teams don't attempt the fast forward because they're all afraid someone else might have done it, the Fast Forward has turned into an undesirable task. Just make it easier for teams to know if it was already taken or not

The FAST FORWARD has become much less desirable than it was in the say first 10 seasons of the Amazing Race. The reason is that sometimes the tasks are onerous (tattoos, eating challenges) and the advantage gained has been drastically reduced.

It also seemed desirable in all stars.  It seemed to change in season twelve for me...
BTW, Neobie great map!

[apskip]

Neobie,

I am not saying the FAST FORWARD isn't still desirable, just that it's less desirable. Intersected Uchenna/Joyce and Oswald/Danny won the 2 tower step count in Krakow for a gain of 64 minutes (not counting the 4 hour bus differential which preceded the FAST FORWARD). Oswald/Danny won only a 102 minute finish over Dustin/Kandice in Hong Kong after their Kai Tak airport stunt. Nicolas/Donald won 104 minutes over Nathan/Jennifer in Empoli. Ken/Tina for 136 over Terence/Sarah  for the Auckland Tower climb.Nick/Starr get only 86 minutes for their Kazakh feast. The two unused Fast Forwards that I can remember (Trakai Castle in Lithuania and in Phuket) have no relevance except that they underscore how teams are perceiving moer risk and less reward in going for a FAST FORWARD.

[TARAsia Fan]

For me, an all-Communist and former Eastern Bloc TAR following the multiple leg in one country theory.

Start - Spokane, WA
Pyongyang, North Korea
Kaesong, North Korea
Fuzhou, China
Guanzhou, China
Da Nang, Vietnam
Hanoi, Vietnam
Vientienne, Laos
Savannakhet, Laos
Tirana, Albania
Bucharest, Romania
Tallin, Estonia
Havana, Cuba
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Finish - Providence, RI

Based on this wishlist, I will do another for the worst despots in history.

Start - Chicago, IL (some say the late Richard Daley was a despot)
Leg 1 - Port-au-Prince, Haiti (for Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier)
Leg 2 - Santiago, Chile (for Augusto Pinochet)
Leg 3 - Nairobi, Kenya (for "Big Daddy" Idi Amin)
Leg 4 - Soweto, South Africa (for P.W. Botha)
Leg 5 - Buchraest, Romania (for Nicolae Ceausescu)
Leg 6 - Zagreb, Croatia (for Josef Tito of the former Republic of Yugoslavia)
Leg 7 - Volgograd, Russia (formerly Stalingrad for Joseph Stalin)
Leg 8 - Phnom Penh, Cambodia (for Pol Pot)
Leg 9 - Manila, Philippines (for Ferdinand Marcos)
Leg 10 - Taipei, Taiwan (for Chiang Kai-shek, the Butcher of Taiwan)
Leg 11 - New York, NY (for Boss Tweed)

[TARAsia Fan]

By the way, in each leg, the racers will have to visit memorials in each city for the thousands and in some cases, millions who died at the hands of these dictators.

In NYC, they'll visit the 9/11 Memorial.

[Moo]

Based on this wishlist, I will do another for the worst despots in history.

Leg 9 - Manila, Philippines (for Ferdinand Marcos)

Ferdinand Marcos' hometown is actually in Ilocos, Philippines, but I don't know where there. But the place is nice! They could actually go to his mausoleum!  Or even have a roadblock involving finding the one shoe among thousands of Imelda Marcos' shoes! 

[bag]

And wasn't Idi Amin Ugandan as well?

[apskip]

You bet and he wasn't Kenyan although Idi Amin Dada did spell a bit of time (I guess in exile) in Kenya. He is clearly Ugandan, so Ken needs to either substitute Kampala for Nairobi or find a suitable Kenyan dictator (I considered several but none has been bad enough to make this cut).