The Amazing Race International Versions > TAR Asia

TARA3: Sam & Vince (Hong Kong)

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TARAsia Fan:
Thanks for getting these, banzai.  :tup: :tup: :yourock: :yourock:

Alan:
Kudos to them for being very interactive with fans on Facebook. I believe they will be more popular as the show goes on.

Here is what Sam Wu had to say about Ep4:

As Ep 4 revealed, the first 5 teams to the placemat for Hue (ep 3) were actually very close to each other. We were mere minutes away from each other. And so, when we started off, we were all able to work together to get air tickets to Taipei. When we arrived at the airport, we were surprised it was closed. All teams except Ida and Tania wanted to save money... we could've taken a taxi back to the hotel lobby to rest (like they did), but Taipei is an expensive city, and we were given less than US$40 for the entire leg!! We had no idea what we needed to do in Taipei, so we decided to tough out the 6-hour wait and save the money.

At the airport, Mai & Oliver started bonding with us... we never had an opportunity to talk to them much throughout the first 3 legs due to our different placings and timings. We were never at the same place at the same time, and this was the very first time, and it was nice bonding with them.

Thus, when Mai approached us to collaborate with us, we were quite willing to do so. I mean, working with other teams to solve "needle in a haystack" tasks have been successful, based on our experience. So, when we found out eventually (during the tofu challenge) that they took off after finding the clue first, even saying that they were going to do the other task, it was disappointing, and it made it harder to accept that they would do this to us. I have to admit.

Having said that, we could understand why they did that. I mean, it was a race, and they wanted to win no matter what it took. That was their race strategy, which was okay. We had a different mantra from theirs: our race mottos, Vince and I, were - 1) play a clean, fair game, and 2) enjoy ourselves no matter what - laugh thru the pain. Maybe it's not always shown that we are completely loving the experience (even though we keep declaring it in our interviews), but I think it is clear to audiences and other teams present that we believed in racing a race that we were proud of, without having to compromise on our principles... be a trustworthy team that raced hard and smart (well, as much as possible! lol). We were, after all, not just representing ourselves, but our friends, families, HK and most importantly, God.

Don't get me wrong. Mai and Oliver are still our friends, and we are dying to see them again! In fact, we did not harbour any ill feeling towards them even when we saw them, and we wished them well. We were just 2 teams with differing race strategies. But it was good we knew about their strategy early on in the game. And it was unfortunate for Mai & Oliver, because of their early reveal about their race strategy, the other teams knew about what they did, and it would be hard for Mai & Oliver to regain trust from the other teams.

Now - many have asked me about my inadvertent yell of exasperation when i finally found that damn miniature clue. hahahaha! yeah.... audience may have some idea that we were in there for a long time, and the 4 teams there (that's 8 people btw) were walking around hopelessly trying to find the elusive "IT". So, once i saw how blind and stupid we were for walking past it countless time, I gave the eureka cry, which i regretted. ALL the teams heard it and they were there in SECONDS.

Of course, everyone had a good laugh, and the other teams thanked me for my accidental "yelp". hahaha! I had no time to be angry at myself for my own foolishness. I shook it off, and it was time for Braille challenge.

We got lost on the way to Shenkeng!!! Vince refused to allow me to get a cab to lead us there cos he wanted to save money. So I had to run out of the car every other part of the way to ask for directions!! WASTE OF TIME!!! When we finally got there, we had no idea that Ida and Tania and Oliver and Mai had finished. It was just Henry and Bernie. Vince and I developed a system to describe the dots and position, so we breezed through it very quickly - apparently, we were one of the fastest teams. And the bonus was - we got to present that cheque to the School of the Blind.

And finally, as you saw, we arrived at stinky tofu with Ida crying and barfing, and Ollie barfing too. I'm really glad that Vince did this roadblock because he has a larger stomach than me. Meaning, he can scarf down much more things than me... I'm smaller-built, so my appetite is smaller than Vince's. Our pre-race strategy was for Vince to do all the eating challenges because he could complete it faster than me. So, thank God, it was the right person for the Roadblock. KUDOS TO VINCE for completing it so quickly!! As you could see, Ida and Oliver were more than halfway through, but Vince made up for the lost time very quickly.

It was 3 teams racing towards the pitstop - we left that place 3rd, after Ida & Tans, and Ollie and Mai. We were getting horribly lost cos we missed the exits at the highway, so thank God we found a local and convinced him to come with us to bring us to the pitstop. We were convinced that we would be 3rd, so when Allan told us we were 2nd, I was completely surprised and happy. You don't see the surprise and elation on our faces BECAUSE WE WERE SO FREAKIN' TIRED!!! It was waaaay past 2 in the morning by the time we hit the pitstop. and kudos to Ida and Tania for coming in first. You rock, ladies!!! We love them.

TARA 3 was quickly shaping up to live up to its tagline of "TOUGHEST RACE EVER". The remaining 6 teams were starting to feel the effects of being pushed so hard, physically, mentally and emotionally. A lot of times, you don't really feel it's tough if you're just sitting at home watching us do these tasks. But the reality is - everyone is tired from all the travelling, and with fewer teams left in the race, the pressure was on to stay in the lead. It truly was not easy.

Vince and I have been in the top 3 for the last 3 legs, and twice coming in second place. The other teams are now seeing our strengths as a team, and every team is now kicking it up a notch. The race is now and truly ON.

What will happen next week? Stay tuned.

apskip:
Alan, thank you for providing the insights that this article by Sam Wu offers. This is real inside stuff that helps us understand what one team was thinking as they went about episode 4 and what other teams were doing then.

snap-on:
Episode 4

We live another week …  HK HK HK

Fly to Taipei Taiwan

Taiwan here we come….. ohh baby I LOVE TAIWAN…. “ Hao Bung”   Wo Ai Tai Mei …..hahaha… all teams flew to Taiwan on the same flight from Hue.  It was a long journey because we had to connect via Ho Chi Minh.  When we got there we had to drive ourselves to look for the clue at the Red Pavilion.  I drove because I’m used to driving on the left hand side anyway originally being from Canada and all... The roads were confusing but luckily Sam knew how to speak Mandarin so if we got lost we could ask for directions..

Detour

The clue at the Red Pavilion was a detour.  Shoot or Shape   We decided to “shoot” because we didn’t know how difficult the Tangrams puzzle was going to be and the  market was quite far.  We got lost on the way to the miniature museum… even though Sam spoke Mandarin… the roads and VERY confusing… and not easy to navigate.  When we finally got there we had no idea what we had to look for.  We had to look for “IT” and that was frustrating.  We decided to team up with  Geoff and Tish and Oliver and Mai to look for the clue.  We were all searching back and forth many times.  We were there for hours  … and none of us could find it. After awhile … Mai and Oliver told us that they were going to try the other task…. But little did we know that they actually found it and then … took off…. GRRRR….   
We were actually going to  quit too but we continued to search around the whole place when suddenly I hear.. “ AHHHH”  and with that all the teams converged like Bees to Honey and found IT… Sam was tired and frustrated and when he saw the clue he just reacted… AIYA… We had been there so long but all the teams caught up with us…

School for the Blind 

When we printed out the clue and it told us to go to the School for the Blind to translate a  phrase using Braille.  In the car Sam was upset with himself because he had given away the clue to the others but I told him to shake it off.  I had made a similar mistake the leg before so I knew how he was feeling.  No one wants to let their team down… we’ll just have to learn from our mistakes.  We got lost on the way to the School for the Blind and by the time that we got there Mai and Oliver and Tania and Ida had left.  Bernie and Henry were working away at their task but  were having communcation problems.  We worked very fast and we were able to translate the message quickly.  As an added honour we presented the school with a cheque from Standard Charter Bank.

Stinky Tofu

Our clue directed us to go to the  old street in another district Shen-keng in Taiwan… it was quite late and we had not eaten so we grabbed some food from good ol’ 7-11 … man … do they have quite a cool selection of bites in Taiwan….
When we got there the clue said “ Who NOSE a good challenge when they smell one……”  I decided to do it because I thought that I have quite a good sense of smell… but little know that I would have to FINISH A HUGE BOWL OF STINKY TOFU  WITH ALL THE FIXINGS AND THE SOUP…. I had just eaten too... AIYA
Yes it was stinky, the soup was vinegary and there was a lot of it.  Ida was crying while eating and Oliver was having trouble too… I didn’t like it but I just toughed it out and ate as fast as I could.
I had to plug my ears because both of them were barfing and the sounds were making me want to barf.   I finished the bowl quickly but Ida and Oliver started much earlier and had finished before me.

Pit Stop

Our next clue directed us to the pit stop at City Hall.  We got into our car and peeled outta there… but again we got lost.  Sam wanted pay a taxi to escort us but I wanted to save money and work through it because we were able to communicate with the local people.  However we missed our exits a few times and had to double back and forth again.  We ended up stopping at a petrol station and convinced this dude to accompany us and direct us to the right spot. We gave him money to take a taxi back.  We parked the car at the designated place and searched the square for Alan. We were very surprised when we placed 2nd because we had circled around lost for at least an hour and there were at least two teams that had left the tofu place before us.
TEAM HK 2nd place …  tune in to AXN next Thursday to see what happens next!!

alivenotdead.com/vincechung

snap-on:
A quick note about our tattoos

Hey all,
I was going to write a note about the ep a little later, but I thought I'd just write something about our tattoos first.

First up, I just wanted to thank people for their well-wishes, and we share your excitement and joy in us reaching the first place.

2nd, i had mentioned that it was against my beliefs - personal and religious - to get a tattoo. I mean, I've never ever had one, and never wanted to get one. I have nothing against tattoos - I've loads of friends with tats; it was a personal choice. I'm a Christian, so from young, I've always been ingrained with the idea that our body is the temple of God, and that we shouldn't defile it. I've always taken this teaching very literally, so I've no body piercings, or anything like that. Of course, I'm not a Christian fanatic, and that was something I felt when I was younger. I don't want people to debate about this. I haven't gotten a tattoo previously primarily because of a personal choice, and I'm SCARED OF THE NEEDLE!!! (i've never even donated blood before!) It's really more because of these reasons.

But this being a race, Vince and I spoke about it (Vince is Christian too), and we felt that it wasn't going to be a religious thing (because in the Bible, God never said you can't get a tattoo), so it was a matter of interpretation. So, it boiled down to whether I could overcome my mental hesitation. I decided that this was THE AMAZING RACE ASIA, and this is a once in a life-time thing, so I sucked it up, and decided to go for the tattoo.

I hope fans can understand this.

The tattoo hurt, and for the subsequent leg (Leg 6), there was a nagging pain in our backs due to the fresh tats.

Meanwhile, people have asked if the tat is still there. YES IT IS. =) It was hard keeping it from friends, and one or two of them (PAM!!! THAT'S YOU!) did notice I had a tattoo, and they were like "Sam!! You had a tattoo?! Since when!", and of course I had to create a stupid story to explain it. Now, they know... lol

Will post the pictures of our tats in due time. And yes, Vince's tattoo is nicer than mine. BAH!!! ;)

(Sam's facebook)

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