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.