Topic: TAR 19 Speculation and Discussion *of SPOILERS*

[dojima]

Any chance they could be heading to somewhere else in Taiwan other than Taipei? They arrive at nighttime, meaning they may do the whole stay-over-night-and-take-a-train. I'm betting on possibly Kaohsiung in south Taiwan:



It's in a middle of a huge modern day makeover and has a huge port that could be used for challenges.



or Hualien (known for its beautiful East coast and Taroko Gorge).

[Prophet]

So that original Temple Tweet I found was real?

[Cocoa]

Oh, so the rumored leaked list of tasks in Taiwan (e.g. the dragon boat) is true? There's only one way to find out... by waiting!

As usual, good job detectives.

[Prophet]

If they don't use that it will be one of the oddest coincidences ever. 

Big congrats to whoever dug that up a few weeks ago! 

[eddiethejet]

Correct me if i am wrong, but this is the first time in a long time that we start in Asia first.  i am so accustomed to asia being near the end of the race! this is awesome.

[AmazingRace]

Correct me if i am wrong, but this is the first time in a long time that we start in Asia first.  i am so accustomed to asia being near the end of the race! this is awesome.

The last time was in Season 15 (Japan).

[kenchan]

Correct me if i am wrong, but this is the first time in a long time that we start in Asia first.  i am so accustomed to asia being near the end of the race! this is awesome.

Let's see, west bound starts include:

* TAR10: Seattle --> Beijing
* TAR15: LA --> Tokyo (on the Wasabi Tour)
* TAR18: LA --> Sydney

and now this.

There are a handful of south bound starts:
* TAR2: Brazil
* TAR3: Mexico
* TAR5: Uruguay
* TAR7: Peru
* TAR9: Brazil
* TAR11: Ecuador
* TAR13: Brazil
* TAR16: Chile

I personally think going west bound is the easiest from the jet lag point of view - as long as you can sleep on an airplane. Especially with this flight that is in the air right now, they get their sleep, they land, and it's morning.


And by the way, GREAT WORK, Chateau! 

(and at least I can say that I participated in the "process of elimination" - no pun intended!  )

[kenchan]

So, let's see - Phil, his camera man, and Barry the sound guy are presumably on one of the flights with the teams, correct? When they land, I presume that Phil will shoot the explanations at the locations in a different order than how the clues are written?  (I remember reading somewhere in the past that the logistics of these locations are chosen such that Phil and his crew get a time advantage.)

[apskip]

So, let's see - Phil, his camera man, and Barry the sound guy are presumably on one of the flights with the teams, correct? When they land, I presume that Phil will shoot the explanations at the locations in a different order than how the clues are written?  (I remember reading somewhere in the past that the logistics of these locations are chosen such that Phil and his crew get a time advantage.)

I believe Phil and Barry did get an advantage and were not on any of the 3 flights. To do that Barry and Phil had to get:

BR11 LAX TPE 1715 2200+1
or
UA697 LAX SFO 2200 2359 connecting with CI003 SFO TPE 0105+1 0530+1

[theschnauzers]

Regarding that person whose tweet stated that the tweeter was headed to Vietnam- Do we know if all of the flights are non-stop to Teipei? It could be that if there's a stop along the way, that tweeter changes flights at the connection hub, and our teams continue on their own flights.  That would eliminate any confusion. Also IIRC, the last time teams were in Taiwan, the teams then went on to Vietnam as the next country after finishing in Taiwan.

[Prophet]

I though so too but the three flights they are believed to be on are non stop from LAX to TPE.

[tdeathgem]

I'll speculate. NOTE: THIS IS JUST AN EDUCATED HUNCH BASED ON SPOILERS NOW GIVEN, DO NOT CONSIDER THIS AS A REAL SPOILER.

FIRST TASK: Drive to Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple (of course, teams will be shocked that they thought the race is in US)
- It will be much more fun if they are only given a picture for reference. But that would be too sadistic.

SECOND TASK: The Hsi Lai Temple is affiliated with one of _______ (country) largest religious orgs. That country will be your first destination.
- I wish there is a get a departure time task in the Hsi Lai Temple.

THIRD TASK: Drive yourselves to LAX and fly to Taiwan!

Your list looks right from the information we have. One thing that bothers me is why they had a big flashy attention attracting bus that says
                                                          AMAZING RACE
in front of the Hsi Lai Temple when the teams drove themselves from the starting location to the temple. They apparently didn't use the bus to move the teams except maybe to the start location. So why attract attention by having it at the site of the first task? It doesn't make sense to me.

Easy way to move a lot of production people?

Could be, but would they take the chance of having a couple of teams arrive ahead of the production people? I'd think they would have one crew at Pt. Mugu while another crew would be at the Temple getting ready. Perhaps keeping costs down made one crew necessary.

Maybe they are trying to through us off as far as locations...

[Mug Costanza]

Regarding that person whose tweet stated that the tweeter was headed to Vietnam- Do we know if all of the flights are non-stop to Teipei? It could be that if there's a stop along the way, that tweeter changes flights at the connection hub, and our teams continue on their own flights.  That would eliminate any confusion. Also IIRC, the last time teams were in Taiwan, the teams then went on to Vietnam as the next country after finishing in Taiwan.

I believe teams went actually to Japan.

It was TAR 12, and they went from Japan to Taiwan to the USA. Taiwan was the F4 elimination point (Nate & Jen).

[Kiwi Jay]

I really want to know who this 11th team to arrive was...

[Kacper]

I really want to know who this 11th team to arrive was...

Me too. I hope they are not out already and that they are the "small people"

[georgiapeach]

I really want to know who this 11th team to arrive was...

Me too. I hope they are not out already and that they are the "small people"

Oh please. Small people were from the totally false Jared spoilers.

[Prophet]

I ain't too happy with this Jared kid right now.

[kenchan]

So, let's see - Phil, his camera man, and Barry the sound guy are presumably on one of the flights with the teams, correct? When they land, I presume that Phil will shoot the explanations at the locations in a different order than how the clues are written?  (I remember reading somewhere in the past that the logistics of these locations are chosen such that Phil and his crew get a time advantage.)

I believe Phil and Barry did get an advantage and were not on any of the 3 flights. To do that Barry and Phil had to get:

BR11 LAX TPE 1715 2200+1
or
UA697 LAX SFO 2200 2359 connecting with CI003 0105+1 0530+1

I think you read my mind - it would really be cool to get live sightings of Phil during the race...!  Has that ever happened before?  I am wondering if Chateau's pictures of Phil doing his sequence was one of the first? Or did coutzy manage that feat in TAR18?

[theschnauzers]

I went back and checked, and I was thinking of TAR 15. When the teams went to Japan, there was speculation that they would then go to Taiwan, and then Vietnam, and there was some research that showed that there were flights from Taiwan to Vietnam. It didn't materialize, but my point today was that the one tweeter could legitimately be headed to Vietnam, and be on a flight with this season's new Racers.

That said, Phil has been spotted during the Race a few times, including at pitstops, during these last couple of seasons (Sydney, for one), but one spotting of Phil outside a pit stop that I can think of offhand was in the Penang airport in TAR 16. As I recall, that tipped off the Penang and Singapore legs during filming, as the Race had dropped out of sight. (Seychelles, anyone?)

[mjriches2005]

I ain't too happy with this Jared kid right now.

He had me fooled too.  But he was very good, maybe production hired him to keep us off the trail. 

[mjriches2005]

Could it be possibly after Taiwan, the race would visit Palau on Leg 2.  I really like to see a new Pacific Island nation visited.  China Airlines flies there and looking online at their site, There is one flight leaving Taipei for Palau at 1:00pm (Taiwan Time) and arrives in Palau at 6:00pm (Palau Time) on the 21st which is Tuesday (Monday 20th here in the US) China Airlines Flight#0028.  But this is my own speculation and theory due to Palau being in that certain area, especially almost being near the Philippines and Taiwan after all.   

[Drake]

Could it be possibly after Taiwan, the race would visit Palau on Leg 2.  I really like to see a new Pacific Island nation visited.  China Airlines flies there and looking online at their site, There is one flight leaving Taipei for Palau at 1:00pm (Taiwan Time) and arrives in Palau at 6:00pm (Palau Time) on the 21st which is Tuesday (Monday 20th here in the US) China Airlines Flight#0028.  But this is my own speculation and theory due to Palau being in that certain area, especially almost being near the Philippines and Taiwan after all.   

Palau - good idea.
I like to see teams in Palau or Vanuatu 

[Prophet]

So if the following are considered the easiest flight options, some speculation:

Hong kong, maybe but it is the rainy season
Japan, no way
Malaysia, I think this is the best choice here
Vietnam, seems over used
the Philippines, they never go there
Singapore, wouldn't mind seeing it again (mostly because half of RFF lives there )


Of course I would love somewhere off the beaten path Probably have to connect thru HKG to get anywhere different though.

[Mandoli]

Assuming teams are headed of the country next leg that means they would likely leave around the morning of June 21. By doing a quick search a majority of flights will head to either Hong kong, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines or Singapore. There are a couple of flights to Rome but I doubt they would do a huge jump.

Speculation: You're going to get at least two or three legs in Asia before they move westward to Europe or Africa.

Question: Where's the winter temperature-like location going to be? I know it's a summer route, but they seem to always find a place that's cold in the northern hemisphere summer (and vice versa in a winter taping).

[Heliox]

@RyanStorms had these two tweets

So ask me why I was at the gas station & I was filmed for the #AmazingRace they asked me how to get to LAX #LookForMeOnTV haha
58 minutes ago

So #TheLife gets crazier so after being randomly filmed for the amazing race I see that one of them dropped there passport!!
13 minutes ago

I don't know where to bring this up, but does this possible sighting still hold water given the timeline to LAX now? Anyone able trying to confirm any more information?
The dropped passport seems almost too extreme and probably make-believe by somebody. But at the same time isn't there a team missing from the airport pictures? Maybe they were backtracking to find their passport and arrived late?

also an editorial note, this site is much easier to read with the new formating of the quotes. THANK YOU