With the new information from episode 4 and the ep.5 preview, it is time to redo the ARA3 TIMELINE:
UPDATED ARA3 TIMELINE (modified October 4)
I now show 9 legs through Oman, so there are two more left to identify.
May 20 leg 1 begins; teams spotted late afternoon at Khao San Road in Bangkok
overnight tranportation to Chiang Mai is by one of 3 chartered buses
May 21 task in Chiang Mai, then pitstop;
leg 2 begins with pitstop release starting in the 10pm time frame
May 22 teams have tasks in the morning and then get to Chiang Mai airport in the afternoon for flight to Saigon
The first may be too early at 1225 1330. Any team that gets that will make an excellent connection TG614 BKK SGN 1540 1710. However, few teams will be able to do that. Most teams will be on TG111 1440 1550 CNX BKK. Their best connection option is TG686 1815 1945 BKK SGN. Only for teams that are not able to get bookings on that will it be necessary to take the flight through Siem Reap to Saigon. Teams do not go directly from CNX to REP as there are no schedules for that time frame. However VN848 has one stop in Siem Reap and is BKK SGN 1740 2125. As for Natalie and Pailin and others, they apparently do not make reasonable flights out of either CNX or BKK and are stuck overnight in Bangkok. For theCNX BKK segment, they will have many chocies and may take TG117 1915 2025 or TG127 2100 2210. In Bangkok the next morning their best bet is BKK SGN TG680 0900 1030.
May 23
So teams will arrive at Saigon airport from evening through late morning and then do tasks there starting at 6am to early afternoon
This includes tasks away from Saigon in the Vietnam countryside, but the pitstop is back in Saigon afternoon through late evening
May 24 teams on release from pitstop start leg 3 with a 25 hour bus ride from Saigon to Hue.
May 25 teams arrive late morning to early afternoon and do fairly short tasks around Hue. The start the pitstop late afternoon to early evening.
May 26 teams are released from pitstop in a range of morning times.
As leg 4 begins they fly Hue to Taipei via Saigon(Ho Chi Minh City) on
HUI SGN VN251 0910 1030 connecting with BR392 1255 1730 to get to Taipei
or possiblywait for SGN TPE CI686 1720 2145. Better flights through Hanoi to get to Taipei were not taken for unknown reasons.
The teams will be able to complete tasks before the pitstop.
May 27 Taipei leg 5 begins; more tasks; I think this will be NEL.
Extended 36 hour pitstop starts before midnight
May 28 extended pitstop
May 29 begin leg 6 Taipei to Hong Kong
There is an average of three 100 minute flights every hour from 6am to 6pm. My guess is they fly out around noon and arrive before 2pm.
tasks in Hong Kong
May 30 complete tasks in Hong Kong; likely to be TBC which starts leg 7 in late afternoon or early evening;
travel to Macau after taking hydrofoil in under 1 hour tasks;
May 31 tasks, then regular pitstop
June 1 begin leg 8; return to Hong Kong Airport by hydrofoil; fly to Singapore;
most probable flights are CX717 0855 1230 or SQ857 1030 1410 or CX739 1120 1505
then connect on to Cochin SilkAir468 SIN COK 2020 2215
June 2 Cochin area tasks, then pitstop in the evening
June 3 begin leg 9; fly Cochin to Muscat, Oman with choices of:
OmanAir 828 0715 0915 COK MCT
IndianAir973 1940 2140 COK MCT
COK to DBX Emirates 531 1030 1245 connecting in Dubai with Emirates 6478 DBX MCT 1810 1910
COK to BOM JetAirways 406 0830 1015 connecting in Mumbai with Jet Airways 808 BOM MCT 1730 1830
June 4 Oman tasks; pitstop
June 5 leg 10; fly Oman to UNKNOWN, possibly in Africa or Europe
June 6 tasks at UNKNOWN; pitstop
June 7 final leg begins; fly to UNKNOWN ASIAN CITY(which may require until June 8 to cross time zones by air) and Finish Line(maybe on June