Racing report
Amazing Race AU Season 4, Episode 5
The last pit stop was on the Bái Đinh Temple grounds in Ninh Binh, Vietnam. Teams are released from somewhere in a Vietnamese city. I would guess they are in Hanoi.
The first clue tells them to fly to Mongolia. Once they arrive in Ulaanbaatar then need to make their way to the top of Zaisan hill.
Teams get 165 USD for this leg of the race.
All teams are on the same flight from Hanoi via Shenzhen and Beijing to Ulaanbaatar.
There is something fishy about the arrival in Mongolia. Teams are shown running out of the airport but in the next shot they are on the streets in central Ulaanbaatar looking for taxis. My guess is that they landed later in the afternoon, spent the night in the city and then they were released the following morning.
The Zaisan war memorial sits on a high hill and it is 300 steps from the upper car park to the memorial at the top of the hill. And the climb is not made easier by the fact that Ulaanbaatar sits 1,350m above sea level to begin with.
Teams probably reach the clues at the Zaisan war memorial in the following order:
1. Jasmin & Jerome
2. Chris & Adrienne
3. Viv & Joey
4. Femi & Nick
5. Tom & Tyler
6. Tim & Rod
7. Hayley & Mikayla
8. Sid & Ash
The last two teams seem to have to get new taxis. They make their way down to street level and call for taxis. Hayley & Mikayla grabs the first taxi which arrives. Sid & Ash think the girls stole their cab and are not happy about it.
ROUTE INFO
Make your way to
Janraisig temple in
Gandan Monastery and
spin the prayer wheels
as you count them. Give
the correct number to a
monk to receive your
next clue.
Janraisig temple claims to be home to the worlds biggest indoor statue and it is surrounded by lots of prayer wheels.
Teams must count all the wheels and once they think they have the correct count, 287, they have to show it to a specific monk to receive their next clue. As an added twist the monk in question is hard to locate, he is one of a bunch of monks walking around on an upper level but teams do not know which monk it is. And it seems they only let a limited number of teams go up to the monks at any one time so there is a line.
Chris & Adrienne have a hard time with the counting, they get very stressed and confused about their numbers. And as usual they do not work well together when stressed.
Tom & Tyler give the correct answer to Hayley & Mikayla.
Teams present the right number to the right monk in the following order:
1(+0) Jasmin & Jerome
2(+3) Tom & Tyler
3(+1) Femi & Nick
4(-1) Viv & Joey
5(+2) Hayley & Mikayla
6(+0) Tim & Rod
7(+1) Sid & Ash
8(-6) Chris & Adrienne
[/quote]
ROUTE INFO
Catch a bus to the sand
dunes of Mongol Els!
Once there, make your way
on foot to a nearby ger and
be welcomed by a local
family in the traditional
Mongolian way.
[/quote]
Teams must make their way to the Dragon bus station and enter one of three buses, there are limited number of seats on each bus. Teams reach the buses in the following order:
Bus #1:
1(+0) Jasmin & Jerome
2(+1) Femi & Nick
3(+1) Viv & Joey
Bus #2:
4(-2) Tom & Tyler
5(+2) Hayley & Mikayla
Bus #3:
?(+?) Sid & Ash
?(+?) Tim & Rod
?(+?) Chris & Adrienne
The three teams on the first bus are stoked to be in the lead, and the fact that Tom & Tyler are not among them makes it even better.
The second bus has different feel on it. According to Tom, Tyler has a crush on Hayley (actually seems to be both of them). Anyway both those teams are good friends.
"
Yeah, now we've got a good alliance", Tom & Tyler to the girls
"
Ohhh, big word", The girls (in unison) are not quite ready for that
The last bus has an altogether more subdued mood. The short clip we get to see shows everybody being silent and probably contemplating that they will have to fight it out for last with the other two teams on the bus.
Once the bus stops teams run over the hill to see a bunch of marked ger's. Inside each tent teams will be welcomed by a local couple with some crackers and a big bowl of fermented horse milk. Once they have drunk all their milk they will get their next clue. This is easier said than done because the milk is hard to swallow. And while they struggle with that team also feel compelled to be polite to their hosts.
Teams manage to drink all their milk in the following order:
1(+1) Femi & Nick
2(+1) Viv & Joey
3(-2) Jasmin & Jerome
4(+0) Tom & Tyler
5(+0) Hayley & Mikayla
6(+?) Tim & Rod
7(+?) Sid & Ash
8(+?) Chris & Adrienne
Detour: "Milk The Best"
or "Herd The Rest"
Milk The Best: Perform
the daily nomadic task of
milking the family goats
to receive your next clue.
Herd The Rest: Wrangle
4 goats, or sheep, the
Mongolian way and mark
them for the family to
receive your next clue.
The goats about to be milked are tied to a fence and teams must fill a container to a marked line. They only have to fill the bottom part of a fairly tall container so there is not much risk of spilling, which is unusual for the race.
For the goat wrangling each team is given a stick with a lasso on the end. This makes it slightly easier to catch the goats. But they are still quick little buggers. Once caught teams have to put some paint on the horn or the back of the caught animal.
Jasmin & Jerome start with milking but after 1 hour two teams have left the wrangling and they have not even gotten half the milk they need. They decide to switch.
"
How do you milk a goat?", Tim
"
Can you milk a goat?", Rod
It turns out that they boys did not even know you could milk a goat. But they give it a go and have no trouble finishing the task.
Chris & Adrienne are alpaca farmers so they know their way around animals so they have no trouble at all wrangling some goats.
Teams complete this detour in the following order:
1(+0) Femi & Nick, wrangle
2(+2) Tom & Tyler, wrangle
3(-1) Viv & Joey, wrangle
4(-1) Jasmin & Jerome, start milking but switched to wrangle
5(+0) Hayley & Mikayla, wrangle
6(+2) Chris & Adrienne, wrangle
7(-1) Tim & Rod, milk
8(-1) Sid & Ash, wrangle
Route info: Travel by camel into the sand dunes and use a compass to find Beau at your next pit stop.
In this task one team member has to ride the camel while the other leads it. They are given a compass and the additional info says they should head due west for approximately 1 to 1.5 kilometers. For safety a local on a horse follows the team all the way.
Femi & Nick do not know how to use a compass so they take off in the wrong direction. After a while they notice that the other teams are not following them. They realize they are heading south rather than west so they turn around and manage to get their camel to run.
Meanwhile Tom & Tyler are having camel issues. They have named him Stu but he still wants to stop and eat every five seconds. Then they look around and see some of the other teams gaining ground as they have gotten their camel to run.
The fight for first place in this leg turns into a camel race. Femi & Nick are coming from behind very strongly and are about to pass the other teams when Femi falls. They might very well have won if he had stayed on his feet.
Tom is the first one to step on the mat as he is leading their camel. But Jasmin & Jerome know that you must have all four feet on the mat to count. Jerome is just behind Tom and Jasmin is very quick to get down from her camel so there is a photo finish.
A bit further back Viv & Joey have gone in a slightly wrong direction so they miss the pit stop on their first go.
Chris has trouble getting onto his camel and falls down at least once as the camel rises.
When riding the camel most teams make the person leading the camel carry both of their packs. The only exceptions are Chris & Adrienne and Sid & Ash where the person on the camel rides with his bag. Both Chris & Sid are big guys with significant packs, which I imagine does not please the camels.
Chris & Adrienne has is ahead of some teams but those behind them are running and closing in fast. So we are all set for an exciting race to avoid elimination. But the disaster strikes. It seems as if Adrienne is handing her backpack to Chris, who is riding on the camel. To me it seems to be a combination of Chris holding an extra backpack on one side and the camel suddenly moving a bit and the end effect is that Chris falls off it. And it is a bad fall. He tries but can not get up.
While all of this action was taking place we conveniently forgot that Viv & Joey are also still out there looking for the pit stop. And unless Chris had had his accident they would been last.
It turns out that Chris has broken a couple of ribs so there will be no more racing for him. They get transported back to one of the gers where they get to wait until production can arrange transportation to the nearest hospital. While they are waiting Beau comes by inquires how they are and eliminated them.
Teams check in to the mat in the following order:
1(+3) Jasmin & Jerome
2(-0) Tom & Tyler, about 0.1s after #1
3(-2) Femi & Nick
4(+4) Sid & Ash
5(+2) Tim & Rod
6(-1) Hayley & Mikayla
7(-4) Viv & Joey
8(-2) Chris & Adrienne, are eliminated without reaching the mat
"
We loved doing the race, it was so much fun", Adrienne
