Author Topic: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #12 is on page #1  (Read 8317 times)

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Offline maf

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TAR32 Racing reports, episode #12 is on page #1
« on: October 18, 2020, 11:59:21 AM »
And we are back. I could not do these reports without all the work which everybody else here on the board does.
Enjoy...
« Last Edit: January 24, 2021, 09:35:28 AM by maf »

Offline maf

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #1
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2020, 12:00:18 PM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 1, "One million miles"
Film date: 2018-11-09 - 2018-11-11

And we are finally back again. Now in these Corona times we definitely need a bit of escapism and what better than a new version of our favorite race? The title of this premiere episode refers to the fact that after this season the race has traveled more than one million miles total.

This season starts at night in the Hollywood bowl in Los Angeles. The teams are:
  • DeAngelo & Gary - former NFL stars
  • Kaylynn & Haley - sisters, moved out when they were young
  • Leo & Alana - Dating
  • Will & James - Boyfriends, James has applied 9 times
  • Nathan & Cody - Best friends and Noodlers
  • Jerry & Frank - father/son, father was professional coach
  • Michelle & Victoria - sisters
  • Hung & Chee - married parents
  • Riley & Maddison - pro volleyball brothers
  • Eswar & Aparna - siblings and software engineers
  • Kellie & LaVonne - Olympians (110m hurdles)

At the starting line Phil tells them that this race will be 33,000 miles.

The first clue reads: "Fly to the island of Trinidad. When you arrive travel by taxi to the 24 hour fruit stand in St Augustine and search for your next clue."

Once they have read the first clue teams jump into the taxis which just happens to be lined up outside (production may have had a hand in this) and make for the airport. There is no real rush as everybody is booked on the same flight.

 UA1815 LAX-IAH  2018-11-10  05:57 - 10:55  (scheduled 06:00 - 11:00)
 UA1457 IAH-POS  2018-11-10  14:55 - 22:07  (scheduled 14:38 - 22:00)


Once in Trinidad there is a race to the taxis and then on to the fruit stand.

Teams arrive to the fruit stand in the following order:
  1. Riley & Maddison
  2. Hung & Chee
  3. DeAngelo & Gary
  4. Jerry & Frank
  5. Nathan & Cody
  6. Michelle & Victoria
  7. Kaylynn & Haley
  8. Kellie & LaVonne
  9. Leo & Alana
 10. Will & James
 11. Eswar & Aparna

The clue here is a route info which tells teams to pick up a pair of empty oil drums, they must then roll these 1/4 mile to a carnival. Here they must find the midnight robber who will given them their next clue. The clue also says that the first seven teams to arrive will have an advantage over the others.

The midnight robber turns out to be giving out tickets for a flight the following day to Tobago and there are only room for seven teams on the first flight.

It also seems as if the clue tells teams that they must roll the oil drums because nobody tries to carry them (even though they seem to be empty and thus relatively light). Rolling the drum seems to be very uncomfortable for the longer racers.

 "Me and Maddison have these giant backpacks on, we totally over-packed", Riley on why it was hard to roll the drums
 "I thought it was better to kind of lay behind as there was a lot of pushing and showing in front", Eswar, before they realize they are way behind

The carnival is a sight to behold. There is a steel drum band, fire breathers and lots of people in colorful costumes who are dancing. Many of the costumes are also of a minimal nature so there is a lot of blurring on the screen. It seems to be a really good party.

Teams find the midnight robber in the following order:
  1(+2) DeAngelo & Gary
  2(+2) Jerry & Frank
  3(-2) Riley & Maddison
  4(-2) Hung & Chee
  5(+0) Nathan & Cody
  6(+0) Michelle & Victoria
  7(+3) Will & James
  8(+0) Kellie & LaVonne
  9(-2) Kaylynn & Haley
 10(-1) Leo & Alana
 11(+0) Eswar & Aparna

The first seven teams get a clue which reads: "Congratulations, you're flying to Tobago on the first flight."

Teams spend the night in a conference room at the airport and the next morning they fly over to Tobago. Flight #1 is:

  BW1504 POS-TAB 07:46 - 08:17 (07:40 - 08:05)

This carries:
  DeAngelo & Gary
  Jerry & Frank
  Riley & Maddison
  Hung & Chee
  Nathan & Cody
  Michelle & Victoria
  Will & James

The second flight is:

  BW1506 POS-TAB  08:03 - 08:33 (08:10 - 08:35)

This carries:
  Kellie & LaVonne
  Kaylynn & Haley
  Leo & Alana
  Eswar & Aparna

Once teams get to Tobago they must make their way to Swallows beach (5min). Here they will get their next clue from one of the boat captains sitting on the benches.

This clue tells teams to travel by boat to the Nylon pools. Here they will find 125 painted wooden fishes, scattered over an area the size of a football field. Each fish is secured with a combination lock. Attached to their boat is also a fish, and a four digit code. They must search among the fishes for one whose color marking (6 colored lines on the fins) matches the one in their boat. The code will unlock that fish which they can exchange for their next clue. Teams may not remove the fish or the code from their boat.

Many teams have to go back to their boats to look at their fish and/or code again.

Hung & Chee promptly forget their colors so they brute force the task by trying the combination on all locks.

During this task we learn that Kellie is dyslectic.

Teams get their next clue in the following order:
  1. (1st flight) Michelle & Victoria
  2. (1st flight) Riley & Maddison
  3. (1st flight) Jerry & Frank
  4. (1st flight) Will & James, the 31st fish they tried
  5. (1st flight) Hung & Chee, the 55th fish they tried
  6. (1st flight) Nathan & Cody
  7. (1st flight) DeAngelo & Gary
  8. (2nd flight) Kaylynn & Haley
  9. (2nd flight) Eswar & Aparna
 10. (2nd flight) Leo & Alana
 11. (2nd flight) Kellie & LaVonne

The next clue tells them to travel by boat to Pigeon point.

Teams reach this in the following order:
  1(+0) Michelle & Victoria
  2(+0) Riley & Maddison
  3(+1) Will & James
  4(-1) Jerry & Frank
  5(+0) Hung & Chee
  6(+1) DeAngelo & Gary
  7(-1) Nathan & Cody
  8(+1) Eswar & Aparna
  9(+1) Leo & Alana
 10(-2) Kaylynn & Haley
 11(+1) Kellie & LaVonne

Road block: "Who thinks they can steel the show?"

In this road block contestants must learn to play the steel pan. They are given a sheet of numbers (1-8). The sheet looks like:

           "Day O"
     Band Intro
Play 3, 5, 3, 5, 5, 3, 5, 8
     Band plays
Play 3, 5, 3, 5, 5, 3, 5, 8
     ...


The steel drums are marked with the corresponding numbers. All they need to do is play the indicated notes in the correct rhythm and tempo. They will even have the same sheet in front of them when performing so they do not need to memorize the tune. There is only one bad they can perform with so there will be a line.

We learn that Michelle & Victoria have been playing piano since they were five.

 "I need somebody who is smart and pretty, which is all of you", Cody selects an instructor
 "This is so embarrassing right now]/i]", Michelle as Chee is getting it (after she failed her first attempt)
 "He's hitting, it's just no rhythm", DeAngelo about his partner

Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+4)Hung & Chee*        (0-1)On his 1st shown attempt
2(-1)Michelle* & Victoria(1-0)On his 2nd attempt
3(-1)Riley & Maddison*   (0-1)On his 3rd attempt
4(-1)Will* & James       (1-0)On his 5th attempt
5(-1)Jerry & Frank*      (0-1)On his 4tg attempt
6(+3)Leo* & Alana        (1-0)On his 3rd attempt
7(+1)Eswar* & Aparna     (1-0)On his 5th attempt
8(+2)Kaylynn* & Haley    (1-0)On her 7th attempt
9(-3)DeAngelo & Gary*    (0-1)On his 11th attempt
10(+1)Kellie* & LaVonne   (1-0)On her 9th attempt
11(-4)Nathan & Cody*      (0-1)After more than 6 attempt

Route info: "Race with the goats to the very first pit stop at the Buccoo integrated facility."

 "He's Asian, he probably plays the piano", Michelle about Chee
 "I should thank my parents for all those years of piano lessons", Chee after the road block

Teams get back into their boats and are then driven to the pit stop location.

 "I think I would have done better because I play the actual base drum and the piano", Victoria reveals some team dynamics (and I do not think it bodes well for them)

The Buccoo integrated facility turns out to be rigged for goat racing. There is a starting gate and each contestant gets a goat on a rope. The trick is to hold on to the goat until you cross the finish line where Phil awaits.

Holding on to the goats is trickier than it sounds since they are fast and eager to run (at least most of them). Some contestants are forced to let go but all that happens is that you get to try again.

Hung wipes out when she gets to the mat and is a bit slow to release her goat. She crashes into the greeter but quickly composes herself and gives Phil a hug.

Teams reach Phil in the following order:
  1(+0) Hung & Chee, it seems there was no price
  2(+0) Michelle & Victoria
  3(+0) Riley & Maddison
  4(+0) Will & James
  5(+0) Jerry & Frank
  6(+0) Leo & Alana
  7(+0) Eswar & Aparna
  8(+0) Kaylynn & Haley
  9(+1) Kellie & LaVonne
 10(-1) DeAngelo & Gary
 11(+0) Nathan & Cody, are eliminated

Once teams have checked in Phil tells them that they are still racing and gives them their next clue. At least he does that for the first 10 teams. The last team is summarily eliminated instead.

Route info: "Fly to the city of Bogotá in Colombia. You have $232 for this leg of the race."

 "It is still amazing, just to get to this point with my best friend", Nathan


Offline georgiapeach

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #1 is on page #1
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2020, 11:29:24 AM »
Another AMAZING recp! Thanks Maf!

I'll move these to the EPisodes at the end of the season so we preserve them to forever!

:tu
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Have RESPECT for each other, regardless of opinion. This of course includes no flaming/insulting other users and/or their posts.

Offline Marionete

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #1 is on page #1
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2020, 05:35:43 PM »
Thanks for doing these! I love checking here just to see how the teams' placements changed in-between tasks.

Offline maf

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #2
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2020, 06:40:05 AM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 2, "Red Lipstick is Not My Color"
Film date: 2018-11-11 - 2018-11-13 (probably)

This leg was a keep on racing leg. At the pit stop of the first leg Phil give teams their next clue which tells them to fly to Bogotá, Colombia.

 "We're exhausted, but the other teams are too", Chee

Teams jump into taxis and make it to the airport (18min). The flight to Bogotá is pre arranged so all teams are on the same flight. When presenting the destination Phil makes sure to mention that it sits at an elevation of 8,660ft.

It seems as if teams were held in Bogotá airport a bit because the first we see of them is when all of them spill out of the airport like a big messy blob of ketchup escaping the bottle. They all run to a clue box which seems to be placed just outside the airport.

The first clue tells teams to travel by taxi to Mina del sal (Nemocón Salt Mine) (1h36m). Once at the mine they must search the underground tunnels for a 10- or 20-minute hourglass. Then they can sign up for one of two departure times the next morning.

The hourglasses will allow teams to stop another team from racing for the specified time when they encounter a yield during the race. The exact mechanics of how this will work are not explained. My guess is that when teams encounter an unused yield sign they can select to yield another team but putting up the other teams picture and leaving their hourglass. Yield signs will appear every now and then through the race.

Here we have a bit of a strategy choice for teams. Is it worth spending the extra time to get a 20 minute hourglass an potentially end up in the second group leaving the next morning?

Hung & Chee decide to grab the first hourglass they find while DeAngelo & Gary say they will try to get a 20-minute glass (they are shown finding a 10-minute one and searching on).

Teams find hourglasses and sign up for departures in the following order:
6:00am departure
  1. Hung & Chee, 10-minutes
  2. Will & James, 20-minutes
  3. Riley & Maddison, 20-minutes
  4. DeAngelo & Gary, 20-minutes
  5. Eswar & Aparna, 10-minutes

6:30am departure
  6. Leo & Alana, 10-minutes
  7. Kellie & LaVonne, 10-minutes
  ?. Kaylynn & Haley, 20-minutes
  ?. Michelle & Victoria, 20-minutes
 10. Jerry & Frank, 10-minutes

Teams spend the night in a shelter inside the mine (they are given sleeping bags). Many players have a hard time getting any sleep. This is probably a combination of being revved up for the race and the fact that some racers are snoring loudly.

The next morning, at their designated release time, teams get their next clue and get out of the mine as fast as they can (there are lots of stairs to climb).

This clue tells teams to travel on foot to Templo Parraoquial San Fransisco de Asís. Here they must climb the bell tower and and pick up either a small golden raft or an emerald.

Once teams have their raft or emerald they must travel by taxi, through the rush hour traffic, to Plazoleta del Rosario (1h17min with no traffic). Teams with an emerald must deliver it to one of the emerald street brokers on the plaza. The golden raft must be delivered to an archaeology professor in Universidad del Rosario.

The first six teams agree to help each other to find the church, but this seems to be very easy (it is only 400m away) so they get no real advantage. Once they have picked up their item they must travel in one of the marked taxis to Bogotá. It seems as if teams are not allowed to switch taxis, so if they pick a bad one they are stuck with it for the rest of the day.

Also for the rest of the leg we see a lot of black clad men on motorbikes traveling by the taxis. I assume these are security.

Traffic on the way in to Bogotá is horrible.
 "Is this the freeway?", Haley asks their driver as they move at a snails pace
 "In theory, yes", the driver responds

Kellie & LaVonne have bad luck with their taxi. The drivers phone dies on them and he has loaned his charger to another driver. Later in the leg he gets a charging cable so the phone comes back to life but apparently he is also good at ignoring the GPS directions it gives.

The Emerald brokers turn out to be these groups of men huddling together and if you look carefully you see they are holding a paper with race-colored edges. But teams have to search around a bit before they realize this

 "This is a fake.", The "professor" plays with Riley & Maddison (they get their clue anyway)
 
Teams deliver their items in the following order:
  1. Riley & Maddison
  2. Hung & Chee
  3. DeAngelo & Gary
  4. Eswar & Aparna
  5. Will & James
  6. Michelle & Victoria
  7. Leo & Alana
  8. Jerry & Frank
  9. Kellie & LaVonne
 10. Kaylynn & Haley

The next clue tells teams to travel by taxi to Escuela Nacional Circo Para Todos (7 minutes without traffic).

 "We're in the general vicinity of where we need to be, we're just not like a 100% where we need to be", Kellie as they are having a hard time finding the place
 
At the next location teams find a circus tent. In front of it is a clue box with a yield sign. This is one place where teams can use their new yield power.
Teams reach this in the following order:
  1(+2) DeAngelo & Gary
  2(+0) Hung & Chee
  3(-2) Riley & Maddison
  4(+1) Will & James
  5(-1) Eswar & Aparna
  6(+0) Michelle & Victoria
  7(+0) Leo & Alana
  8(+0) Jerry & Frank
  9(+1) Kaylynn & Haley
 10(-1) Kellie & LaVonne

Nobody feels the need to yield any other team today. Although Kaylynn & Haley regret their decision not to yield when they open the clue box and realize they are second to last.

Road block: "Who feels like clowning around?"

In this road block teams must first ride the wheel of death, that is they get strapped into a wheel and then rolled a couple of laps, and then walk a tightrope. They must also balance a tray with a bottle of wine while walking the rope. On their way back two glasses are added. To make this task easier there is a second wire above the racers head and on this is a pulley and a rope which the players can hold on to to help with balancing. Also, the bottle and glasses are made of plastic.

Before contestants can attempt the road block they get some clown clothes and makeup done.
 "Red lipstick is not my color", DeAngelo

This road block is easier than it seems and the only player shown to struggle is Alana who drops her stuff while walking the tightrope, twice.
 "I'm a little scared of heights", Alana as she enters the tightrope platform

Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)DeAngelo* & Gary    (1-1)
2(+0)Hung* & Chee        (1-1)
3(+0)Riley* & Maddison   (1-1)
4(+0)Will* & James       (2-0)
5(+0)Eswar & Aparna*     (1-1)
6(+0)Michelle & Victoria*(1-1)
7(+1)Jerry & Frank*      (0-2)
8(-1)Leo & Alana*        (1-1)On her 3rd attempt
9(+0)Kaylynn & Haley*    (1-2)
10(+0)Kellie & LaVonne*   (1-1)

As DeAngelo & Gary run away from the circus they meet Will & James. They both say "Tightrope" so the latter know what the road block entails.

Route info: "Travel by taxi to Carrera 26 #10-03, Bogotá"

Teams reach the next location (12min) in the following order:
  1(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
  2(+0) Hung & Chee (Hung is still in her circus outfit)
  3(+0) Riley & Maddison
  4(+0) Will & James
  5(+0) Eswar & Aparna
  6(+0) Michelle & Victoria
  7(+0) Jerry & Frank
  8(+0) Leo & Alana
  9(+0) Kaylynn & Haley
 10(+0) Kellie & LaVonne, arrive while there are still 4 other teams doing this task

Quote
ROUTE INFO

Customize a Volqueta
and then hook up its
horn for one of the
locals! If the owner
approves of your work
he will hand you your
next clue.

A volqueta is a small lorry and teams need to decorate it. The decoration includes tassels, and inside there is cloth, stuffed animals and fuzzy dice.

 "Yes, arts and crafts", Will when he reads the clue
 
As he introduces this task Phil points out that most teams will forget to hook up their horns. And true enough, almost all of them do.

We get to see Will & James argue about the clue after the judge has rejected them. James wants to reread the clue while Will wants to straighten up the tassels. When Will later rereads the clue they realize what they have done and they talk loudly about it.
 "I'm glad they said that so loudly", Alana overhears

Leo & Alana are so sure they got it after they did their horn so they put on their backpacks. But no luck, they have also forgotten one set of tassels at the rear.

 "We have no idea what is wrong", LaVonne

Towards the end there are four teams trying to find the problem with their trucks. Leo & Alana are the first to spot their remaining error. As they leave this task they tell Kaylynn & Haley to check their horn. The girls start fixing their horn and the other two remaining teams see this and go for their horns as well. There is only one judge so a lot depends on in which order the different teams yell "Check".

Teams complete this task in the following order:
  1(+1) Hung & Chee
  2(-1) DeAngelo & Gary
  3(+0) Riley & Maddison
  4(+1) Eswar & Aparna
  5(+1) Michelle & Victoria
  6(-2) Will & James
  7(+1) Leo & Alana
  8(+1) Kaylynn & Haley
  9(-2) Jerry & Frank, just after #8
 10(+0) Kellie & LaVonne, just after #9

The next clue tells them to find in Parque Nacional Enrique Olaya Herrera. Teams reach Phil in the park (15min) in the following order:
  1(+0) Hung & Chee, win a trip to Switzerland
  2(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
  3(+0) Riley & Maddison
  4(+0) Eswar & Aparna
  5(+0) Michelle & Victoria
  6(+0) Will & James
  7(+0) Leo & Alana
  8(+0) Kaylynn & Haley
  9(+0) Jerry & Frank
 10(+0) Kellie & LaVonne, are eliminated

 "This definitely made our friendship that much closer", Kellie
 "We even hugged like four times", LaVonne
 "And we never hug", Kellie


Offline maf

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #3
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2020, 10:17:25 AM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 3, "We're making big moves"
Film date: 2018-11-14 - 2018-11-15

In the previous on the race segment Phil highlights the yield hourglasses, the alliance between the first five teams and how Leo & Alana helped Kaylynn & Haley.

This episode then has a strange start. We see teams booking flights for the next leg using the Travelocity app. This is done in daylight, probably right after they checked in after the last leg. Then teams are released in the middle of the night.

At the starting line we get an interview with Will & James where they say they want to knock out Leo & Alana. The "crime" the latter did was to help Kaylynn & Haley in the previous leg.

Teams are released in the following order:
1.Hung & Chee        03:36
2.DeAngelo & Gary    03:58+0:22
3.Riley & Maddison   04:22+0:46
4.Eswar & Aparna     04:29+0:53
5.Michelle & Victoria04:34+0:58
6.Will & James       05:11+1:35
7.Leo & Alana        06:28+2:52
8.Kaylynn & Haley    06:31+2:55
9.Jerry & Frank      06:33+2:57

Teams must now fly to Manaus, Brazil. They get $285 for this leg of
the race.

 "We learned from the last leg that reading your clue is very helpful", Alana
 "We also learned that on the first leg, so hopefully this time the lesson will stick", Leo

At the airport Will & James talk to the other teams of their alliance to really formalize it. They all go for it so we have one alliance made up of Will & James, Riley & Maddison, Hung & Chee, DeAngelo & Gary, Eswar & Aparna.

All teams are on the same flight to Manaus via Sao Paulo with arrival early in the morning on the 15th.

Once in Manaus there is the normal race to the taxis and then on to Mercado Municipal.
 "It's serious when I have my hair in a bun, no matter how sweaty I get it's still gonna look good", Michelle
 "Let's follow them, they might know where they are going", Jerry decide to follow Michelle & Victoria (who do not know where they are going)

Teams are looking for box 13 in the Hortifruti granjeiro at Mercado Municipal, they find it
in the following order:
 1. Eswar & Aparna
 2. Riley & Maddison
 3. DeAngelo & Gary
 4. Will & James
 5. Leo & Alana
 6. Hung & Chee
 7. Kaylynn & Haley
 8. Jerry & Frank
 9. Michelle & Victoria


Route info: "Search the market and purchase all of the items on the enclosed list". The enclosed list reads:

1 kg Macaxeira Com Casca

1 Tipiti located at box 48 in
Mercardo Municipal

2 pares de luvas locate at
box 48 in Mercado
Municipal (NOTE: Make sure
they are not too small)

2 litros garrafa Tucupi

2 Redes

1 sacola de Tucumã
descascado

1 Terċada

1 kg Goma

10 Murupi

2 kg file fresco de
Pirarucu located at box 35
in the Mercado Manaus
Moderna fish market

1 sacola térmica located at
box 35 in the Mercado
Manaus Moderna fish
market


Fun fact; when Phil present the task he shows a slightly different shopping list (3kg of the first item instead of 1kg).

Teams also get a shopping bag to keep all their stuff in. Once done they must show their haul to the dock manager. Once he has confirmed they got everything he will give them their next clue.

The five team alliance comes into play here and they all help each other.
 "The market was pure mayhem", Riley

One of the items on the list is a steel machete and this is sharp and comes with no protection. I wonder if this is the reason we see multiple racers with bandages on their hands later in the episode?

Teams complete their shopping in the following order:
1(+3)Will & James
     Riley & Maddisonmissing one pair of gloves (pares de luvas)
     Eswar & Aparnamissing one pair of gloves and flour
2(+4)Hung & Chee
3(+2)Leo & Alana
4(-1)DeAngelo & Gary
5(+2)Kaylynn & Haley
6(-4)Riley & Maddison
     Eswar & Aparnastill missing the flour
7(-6)Eswar & Aparna
     Jerry & Frankgot a wooden machete instead of the real one they need
8(+1)Michelle & Victoria
9(-1)Jerry & Frank

The next clue is a route info telling teams to travel deeper into the Amazon by boat to the Dessana tribe. The extra info here tells teams to keep their shopped items with them until they are directed to use them.

What follows is even more chaos and confusion. Most of the teams miss the part about keeping their stuff. What happens is:
  Will & James, bring their bag to the boat but forget their machete and the fish
  DeAngelo & Gary, forget their bag but realize it in the boat
  Riley & Maddison, bring their bag
  Hung & Chee, forget their bag but are told that they need it by Riley & Maddison
  Kaylynn & Haley, forget their bag but realize they need it
  Leo & Alana, forget their bag but realize they need it
  Eswar & Aparna, bring their bag
  Michelle & Victoria, forget their bag
  Jerry & Frank, forget their bag

There was much confusion as teams went back to the judging table to collect their stuff. Things got mixed up and items got missing. In the end nobody got penalized but some teams had to go back to the market to buy more of some things.
 "We never got our scarf, but the judge checked it", Chee
 "So that's ours then", Hung, pointing to another scarf
 "No these are ours, we had the checkered green", Gary defends their things

Kaylynn & Haley feel lucky. They spread their stuff on the sand and had the judge to check it there. It therefore did not get mixed with the other teams and was easy to scoop up when they realized their mistake.

Going back to the market to buy more stuff includes climbing a lot of stairs to get up from the beach. And did I mention that it is really hot and very humid?

In the end two teams leave the market in the boats without their shopped goods.
 "Don't tell them that they need their stuff", DeAngelo & Gary when they see Michelle & Victoria about to leave

Eventually Michelle & Victoria's boat catches up with DeAngelo & Gary's. Now the boys feel they have a big enough cushion so they let the girls know that they need their stuff. The girls have to turn around and go back to the dock, which is by now 20-30 minutes behind them.

As the girls are on their way back they pass Jerry & Frank going the other direction. They yell "Did you bring your stuff?", but the boys does not hear what they say.
 "They weren't that far ahead but they are already on their way back so they knocked it out", Jerry

Jerry & Frank do not realize they need their stuff until they arrive at the village and see that the other teams brought theirs. To be certain they also ask the teams already on shore. In the end they have to go back.

The episode does not say how long the boat ride was. But in the extra scenes we see that Jerry & Frank had to stop to refuel on the way. I also found one tour company which said their boats take 90 minutes (no idea if they are faster or slower though).

Teams arrive at the Desana tribe in following order:
 1(+1) Riley & Maddison
 2(-1) Will & James
 3(+4) Eswar & Aparna
 4(+1) Kaylynn & Haley
 5(-3) Hung & Chee
 6(-3) Leo & Alana
 7(-3) DeAngelo & Gary
 8(+0) Michelle & Victoria
 9(+0) Jerry & Frank

Once teams arrive they have to find the chief who will give them their next clue. Finding him is not hard but it turns out that their next clue hangs high up in a tree. The chief takes his blow pipe and shoots down a clue for the teams (we never get to see him miss and the teams sound impressed).

I should probably also mention that the CBS blurrers had to work overtime on this episode. All the Desana women we see are topless (and blurred).

Detour: "Shelter from trees or well done please"

In shelter from trees teams must carry a bunch of palm leaves from the shore up to the chief's new house and then use them to cover a section of his new roof.

In well done please teams must use the items they bought at the market to prepare a meal.

The build task is trickier than it looks. The palm leaves must be tied down in a particular way. Fortunately the judge is nice and he shows teams what they have done wrong.

Riley & Maddison spot the small details at the build and they tell DeAngelo & Gary who did not.
 "We have an alliance with them, we looked at each other like 'Do we help them?' 'yes'", Riley

At the building challenge Eswar & Aparna are having a difficult time.
 "Turns out, coding is very different from putting together a hut", Aparna
 "We're used to his heat and humidity", Maddison is happy they are from Hawaii

 "I can't think of anything better than a cooking challenge because I'm all about it. They don't trust me with knifes but I'm ninja in the kitchen", Michelle
Michelle & Victoria proceed to have a mini meltdown at the cooking challenge where Michelle yells at Victoria for not collecting the juice they got when straining things.

Leo & Alana are not happy about being U-turned but they do not hang around to went their frustration. Instead they immediately head to the build detour.
 "Will & James either see us a real long term threat or they are really dumb", Leo

Leo & Alana make one crucial mistake at the build. They do not realize that the palm leaves must face a certain way. Alana almost breaks down when they have to redo the task. Fortunately Leo keeps his cool and they get through it.

Teams complete the detour in the following order:
1(+1)Will & Jamescook
2(+3)Hung & Cheecook
3(+1)Kaylynn & Haleycook
4(-3)Riley & Maddisonbuild
5(+2)DeAngelo & Garybuild
     Leo & Alanacook
6(+2)Michelle & Victoriacook
7(-4)Eswar & Aparnabuild
8(-2)Leo & Alanabuild
     Jerry & Frankcook
9(+0)Jerry & Frankbuild

The editing shows Jerry & Frank completing the cooking before it shows Leo & Alana getting approved at the build. But we never get to see both teams in the same shot so I am fairly certain that all other teams had left for the pit stop before Jerry & Frank returned to the village with their goods.

The next clue is a route info which tells teams to make their way on foot to the Molokai beach hut. Here they will find a double U-turn and their next clue. The clue also tells them that there will be only two U-turns in this race.

Finding the U-turn board is easy so no placements change on the way there. At the board Will & James U-turn Leo & Alana because they feel more threatened by them than the rest.
 "We're making big moves", Will 7 James get the title

Kaylynn & Haley feel they owe Leo & Alana a service after the help they got in the previous leg so they U-turn Jerry & Frank.

The next clue sits in a urn on the ground next to the U-turn board. This is easy to find for everybody but Michelle & Victoria who spend 34 minutes to look for it. They are passed my Eswar & Aparna while they are searching for the clue down at the beach.

The clue tells teams to travel by riverboat to another boat named Barco Correa Filho where Phil awaits.

Teams reach Phil in the following order:
 1(+0) Will & James, win a trip to Bali
 2(+0) Hung & Chee
 3(+0) Kaylynn & Haley
 4(+0) Riley & Maddison
 5(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 6(+1) Eswar & Aparna
 7(-1) Michelle & Victoria
 8(+0) Leo & Alana
 9(+0) Jerry & Frank, are eliminated

 "You have to make every experience a winning experience and we had a winning experience, I wouldn't trade it for the world", Frank
« Last Edit: November 07, 2020, 08:46:37 AM by maf »

Offline Maanca

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #3 is on page #1
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2020, 10:30:35 AM »
Nice job listing out all the "chaos and confusion" around the bags, maf! Out of 9 teams, only Riley & Maddison and Eswar & Aparna read their clue.

Offline Marionete

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #3 is on page #1
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2020, 08:35:12 AM »
Going to the Pit Stop, Michelle & Victoria drop a placement, while Eswar & Aparna rise.

Offline maf

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #3 is on page #1
« Reply #8 on: November 04, 2020, 01:37:54 AM »
Going to the Pit Stop, Michelle & Victoria drop a placement, while Eswar & Aparna rise.

Fixed.

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #4
« Reply #9 on: November 11, 2020, 01:03:25 AM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 4, "Olé, Olé"
Film date: 2018-11-16 - 2018-11-17

This episode starts on the boat which was the last pit stop. We see Will & James agonize over how Leo & Alana are going to react to having been U-turned in the previous leg. We also get to hear Leo & Alana promise to yield the boys if they get the chance.

Teams are released in the following order:
1.Will & James       23:11
2.Hung & Chee        23:18+0:07
3.Kaylynn & Haley    23:33+0:22
4.Riley & Maddison   23:37+0:26
5.DeAngelo & Gary    23:43+0:32
6.Eswar & Aparna     00:42+1:31
7.Michelle & Victoria00:56+1:45
8.Leo & Alana        01:57+2:46

Everybody will now fly to Asunción, Paraguay. Once they land teams must make their way to Orquesta de Reciclados de Cateura.

We hear that Will & James hope that the alliance from the previous leg will carry over into this leg.
 "Isn't that in Africa?", Victoria when reading the clue

At the airport Will & James do their best to keep the alliance going and print maps which they give to the other teams in the alliance.

The flight is provided so all teams are on the same flight:

G3 1641  MAO-GRU  2018-11-17  03:09 - 09:04 (scheduled 03:00-09:05)
G3 7480  GRU-ASU  2018-11-17  11:53 - 12:56 (scheduled 11:50-12:55)


Once in Asución teams run out to taxis and make their way to the Orquesta de Reciclados de Cateura (or did they? see below). Most taxi drivers say they know where this is but Michelle & Victoria's driver tell them to take another taxi.

A local source told us that teams first went to Costanera de Asuncion (possibly the Asunción sign). And that matches with stuff some teams say which indicates they did a stop on the way.

Anyway the Orquesta de Reciclados de Cateura is located in a run down part of town. So run down that teams feel really uncomfortable.
 "Honestly, this doesn't feel right at all", Kaylynn
 "I find it hard to believe that the orchestra is near this area", Michelle

Kaylynn & Haley freaks out when their drives gets out of the car and asks somebody who lives there. They do not feel safe here.

Teams arrive to the orchestra in the following order:
 1. Riley & Maddison
 2. Eswar & Aparna
 3. Leo & Alana
 4. DeAngelo & Gary
 5. Hung & Chee
 6. Will & James
 7. Michelle & Victoria
 8. Kaylynn & Haley

Road block: "Who is feeling instrumental?"

Another name for Orquesta de Reciclados de Cateura turns out to be The Landfill Harmonica. It is a youth symphonic orchestra where all the instruments are made from trash.

There are two parts to this road block. First contestants must search a pile of rubble for a few items (there is a board showing which items they have to find). Then they bring their things up to an area where they will have to build a cello from the provided parts (note that none of the things they collected in the first part seem to be used).

There is a finished example for teams to look at but no ongoing demonstration.

 "I have some confidence I can do this faster than at least some teams because I play a lot of string instruments", Leo
 "My number one claim to fame is putting IKEA furniture together, with no instructions", DeAngelo (the football career was apparently not that successful ;)

The alliance members try to help each other here by answering questions any of them have. At least that is the way James describes it. We mostly get to see James asking questions of the others.

 "I feel because Victoria and I were in the symphony, I am very familiar with instruments", Michelle

When teams think they are done they bring their cellos to a judge who checks that it looks right and measures that the bridge is at the right location. If approved they can then bring it over to where the kids in the orchestra waits. One of them will accept the cello and then the whole band plays a short tune. This is absolutely adorable.

 "This is like really freaking hard", Kaylynn
 "My engineering background is currently not helping me", Eswar (a software engineer)

Kaylynn struggles a lot with this task. They got there late since their taxi got lost and then she spends way more time here than the others. They leave long after the other teams.
 "I know that if I break like down that is not going to do anything, I'm just getting even more flustered", Kaylynn keeps her cool

Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+3)DeAngelo* & Gary    (2-1)
2(+4)Will & James*       (2-1)
3(+2)Hung & Chee*        (1-2)After more than an hour
4(-1)Leo* & Alana        (2-1)Spent 9 minutes more than #3
5(-4)Riley & Maddison*   (1-2)After 1 hour 43 minutes
6(+1)Michelle* & Victoria(2-1)After at least 1 hour 19 minutes
[/tr
7(-5)Eswar* & Aparna     (2-1)After more than 2 hours
8(+0)Kaylynn* & Haley    (2-1)After 3 hours 57 minutes
1h50


The next clue tells teams to travel by taxi to a Tereré vendor at Mercado 4. The clue also tells them that there is a yield ahead.

Teams reach the Yield box in the same order they left the road block. Nobody uses the yield.

Here teams must make some Tereré, the national drink of Paraguay. This seems to be fairly easy. They need to crush the provided herbs, put them in a cooler and add water. Nobody has any trouble with this.

Detour: Stack your melons or use your melon

This is the first ever double switchback. That is it is a detour where both tasks have occurred before. They both come from leg 3 of season 20. One was a detour an the other a road block.

In stack your melons teams must build a 10 stories high pyramid of water melons. The base is 10x10 and in total the pyramid consists of 385 melons. This is much harder than it sounds, mainly because the melons wary in size so the pyramid gets unstable and parts of it may collapse.

In use your melon both members must complete a choreographed routine while balancing a bottle on their head. This is also very hard, specially since the last move is that they must lie down on their stomachs and then get back up again. Each team has 50 bottles (made from fake glass which breaks very easily) and if they run out they need to switch to the melon task.

In season 20 this was a road block so only one team member had to do it, here both must do it. Another difference is that in S20 the routine ended when they had gotten down on the ground, here they must get back up again.

DeAngelo & Gary struggle with the water melons, Initially it seems as if they focus more on the trowing of the melons from the truck to the person building the pyramid.

 "The other one was dancing and we we don't really wanna dance", Gary

We learn that Will & James did practice this task shortly before they left for the race. We even get to see some footage from them at home doing it. In the extra footage we learn that Leo & Alana also practiced before the race.

 "This is way harder than it looks", Will
 "We'll get this done, well be in first", Gary is optimistic when they have just started the stacking

Hung & Chee spend about 10 minutes at the bottles detour before they decide to switch to the melon stacking. The melon stacking turns out to be very hard as well. There are many melons to stack and if you are not careful you get a melon avalanche as part of your pyramid collapses. And this happens a lot.

Riley & Maddison have a different melon stacking strategy where they build one side of the pyramid instead of going layer by layer.

And we see that Hung & Chee having some communication issues. Hung tells Chee that he needs to talk to her and he agrees and stares at the pyramid while he mutters that he needs to talk more to her. But he does not really say anything more (in the clip we get to see).

Eswar & Aparna arrive to the bottles detour as Leo & Alana are leaving.

 "I'm never eating water melon again", Riley after completing the stacking

DeAngelo & Gary are stuck at the watermelons for a long time. SO long that it gets dark.
 "This sucks so bad" DeAngelo when their pile collapses again

From the placement changes we see that the bottle dance was the better choice. Teams could spend hours at the melon stacking.

Teams complete the detour in the following order:
 1(+1) Will & James, bottles on their 3rd attempt
 2(+4) Michelle & Victoria, bottles on their 3rd attempt
 3(+1) Leo & Alana, bottles on their 5th attempt
 4(+1) Riley & Maddison, stacking
 5(+2) Eswar & Aparna, bottles on their 3rd attempt
 6(-3) Hung & Chee, started bottles but switched to stacking
 7(-6) DeAngelo & Gary, stacking after 3 hours 47 minutes
 8(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, bottles on their 3rd attempt

In the car to the pit stop DeAngelo & Gary talk about the last team they saw was Hung & Chee and how they left the detour 2.5 hours earlier.

 "Today was the hardest day of my life", Haley

The next clue tells teams to race to the pit stop at Plaza Italia. Teams reach Phil at the mat in the following order:
 1(+0) Will & James, win $5,000 each
 2(+0) Michelle & Victoria
 3(+0) Leo & Alana
 4(+0) Riley & Maddison
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna
 6(+0) Hung & Chee
 7(+0) DeAngelo & Gary, are very surprised to not be last
 8(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, are saved by a non elimination

At the mat Michelle & Victoria tell us that they have never been this close
 "I'm so proud of you for the dance thing", Michelle
 "I'm so proud of you for the cello thing", Victoria


Offline maf

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #5
« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2020, 12:47:05 PM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 5, "You don't strike me as a Renaissance man"
Film date: 2018-11-19 - 2018-11-20

The driving times shown here are from Google and assume no traffic. So they should be taken with a big serving of Chantilly cream.

The last leg ended at Plaza Italia in Asunción, Paraguay. This is also where teams are released after what seems as a bit over 24h pit stop. Teams are released in the following order:
1.Will & James       01:41
2.Michelle & Victoria01:55+0:14
3.Leo & Alana        02:35+0:54
4.Riley & Maddison   02:39+0:58
5.Eswar & Aparna     03:11+1:30
6.Hung & Chee        ??:??+?:??
7.DeAngelo & Gary    ??:??+?:??
8.Kaylynn & Haley    ??:??+?:??

Route info: "Fly to Paris, France". Once they land teams must drive themselves to a castle named Domaine de Chantilly in Chantilly, France.
 "I know how to drive a stick", Will looks forward to the self drive
 "I'm basically fluent in stick shift", Riley has lived in Europe

Teams end up on two different flights. Flight #1 is (first leg is unsure):
 AR1261  ASU-EZE  2018-11-19  08:39 - 10:25   (scheduled 08:35-10:25)
 AF229   EZE-CDG  2018-11-19  14:29 - 07:34+1 (scheduled 14:35-07:50+1)
This carries:
  Will & James
  Michelle & Victoria
  Leo & Alana
  Riley & Maddison

Flight #2 is (first leg is unsure):
 LA1317  ASU-GRU  2018-11-19  10:15 - 13:16   (scheduled 10:25-13:30)
 AF457   GRU-CDG  2018-11-19  17:32 - 07:44+1 (scheduled 17:35-08:05+1)
This carries:
  Hung & Chee
  DeAngelo & Gary
  Kaylynn & Haley
  Eswar & Aparna

The flights are supposed to land 15 minutes apart but end up being 10 minutes apart. At the airport teams pick up their cars and find that they are going to be driving stick.

Riley & Maddison are first out of the parking garage. After them come Will & James, or at least they try. ill has a hard time driving so their car gets stuck on the exit ramp, effectively blocking the teams behind.
 "Baby, we need to go", James
And while they are stuck in the airport parking garage we cut over to the Volleyball bros making good progress on the freeway.
 "There's gotta be at least one team that doesn't really know how to drive a stick", Riley

Back in the parking garage Leo jumps out of his car and runs up to Will & James. He jumps into their car and drives them up to the next level and to the side so the teams behind can pass.
 "I hope it gets them eliminated", Leo as he drives past

Will is freaking out but eventually he figures out that he has had the 3rd gear in all the time. And that is not the right gear when you want to start on an uphill ramp.

Another team struggling with the manual gears is Kaylynn & Haley.
 "Kaylynn and I thought that we could drive a stick shift, but we were very wrong", Haley
And that is not all they struggle with, they have an awfully hard time finding the castle. Perhaps because the start off driving towards Paris which means they run into a lot of traffic and also that they are getting farther from the castle as they are driving in the wrong direction.

 "I don't know where I'm going Victoria", Michelle when Leo & Alana took an exit and they did not
 "We asked somebody but only wrote down vague directions", Michelle

Meanwhile James complains that Leo wasn't very nice when he helped them with their car.
 "We used the U-turn but it's like no empathy", James
 
Teams reach the castle (25 minutes) in the following order:
 1. Riley & Maddison
 2. Leo & Alana, arrive as #1 is leaving
 3. Will & James, arrive as #2 are doing the task
 4. Hung & Chee, arrive as #3 are doing the task
 5. Eswar & Aparna, arrive as #4 is leaving
 6. Michelle & Victoria, seconds after #5
 7. DeAngelo & Gary, before Eswar & Aparna have left
 8. Kaylynn & Haley

Road block: Who has an eye for art?

This castle turns out to have a very big collection of antique paintings. In one room there is a party going on, there seems to be about 50 party guests and they are all dressed in period clothing. Nine of them are dressed up as people featured in one of the ~70 paintings in the next room. The players must find one of these nine people and present them together with the name of the artist (the paintings are labeled) to the judge to get their next clue.

Riley's strategy was to concentrate on the few party guests wearing bright colors. Unfortunately he couldn't find any of them in the art gallery, but then he found one guy with facial hair.

Alana hopes that her masters degree in fine arts will help.

While Alana does the road block Leo tells the camera that he hopes that Will & James are still stuck at the airport. Alas his hopes are dashed as right then Will & James arrive through the door behind him.

Hung spots one party guest looking like Jesus and decided to look for him. That turns out to be a successful strategy.

 "I love art", Gary
 "You don't really strike me as a renaissance man", DeAngelo gets the title

Kaylynn & Haley arrive last, and when they do arrive they find their speed bump. They must clean up the riding gear for two horses.
 "I have never used any of these cleaning supplies, and there is also something that stinks", Kaylynn
The editing tries to make it seem as if they arrive to their speed bump as two teams are still doing this road block. That may or may not be true, but all teams have left the road block when they get to the party.

Most racers find a correct guest on their first attempt. They complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)Riley* & Maddison   (2-2)
2(+0)Leo & Alana*        (2-2)
3(+0)Will* & James       (3-1)On his 2n attempt
4(+0)Hung* & Chee        (2-2)
5(+1)Michelle & Victoria*(2-2)
6(+1)DeAngelo & Gary*    (2-2)
7(-2)Eswar & Aparna*     (2-2)On her 16th attempt
8(+0)Kaylynn & Haley*    (2-2)

Teams must now make their way, on foot, to a restaurant called Le Vertugadin in Chantilly (about 1km). There they must hand whip Chantilly Cream. They must prepare two bowls and the cream must be firm enough so hat the bowls can be turned upside down without it falling out. Then they have to put this on four pies.

Teams quickly realize that whipping cream manually is hard work.
 "Let's see your forearms", Maddison to the judge after learning he makes 16 pies a day

The first three teams are all at this task at the same time.

Once done with the pies teams are told to deliver them in the tent outside. In the tent are people pelting the racers with pies. The teams must place their pies on a table at the far end. Nobody drops their pies so we do not get to know if they would have had to redo them in this case.

Riley & Maddison ruin the surprise by telling Will & James and Hung & Chee about the pie throwers. They do this because they have an alliance and later they interview that Gary & DeAngelo are also in the alliance but it is not as strong with them (and they had not arrived to the restaurant yet).

Kaylynn & Haley are last at this task and they feel very last, but are not giving up.
 "We haven't seen anybody in hours", Kaylynn
 
Teams complete this task in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison
 2(+0) Leo & Alana
 3(+0) Will & James
 4(+0) Hung & Chee
 5(+0) Michelle & Victoria
 6(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 7(+0) Eswar & Aparna
 8(+0) Kaylynn & Haley

Teams must now drive back to Paris and find Musée des arts forains. The clue actually tells teams to drive to a parking garage in Bercy (Saemes Parking Bercy Seine) and leave their cars there. This is about a 10 minute walk from the museum).

Michelle & Victoria are having trouble finding the museum. They are shown asking a guy on the street who gives them directions and tells them it is less than 2km away. But they take off in the wrong direction and get lost. Eventually we get a sign on the screen that they have been driving for 6 hours 30 minutes.

At the museum (44 minutes) teams find a yield and a clue box. They arrive in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison
 2(+0) Leo & Alana, just as #1 leave
 3(+1) Hung & Chee, while #2 are at the task
 4(-1) Will & James
 ?(+?) DeAngelo & Gary
 ?(+?) Eswar & Aparna
 7(+1) Kaylynn & Haley
 8(-1) Michelle & Victoria

Nobody uses the yield.

Double roadblock: Who wants to step right up?

This museum holds a big collection of 19th century carnival games and contestants must now win three games to get their next clue. The games they must win are:
- toss three balls into a hole
- roll balls into holes to make you racing horse go
- throw balls at a pyramid of cans
The person who did not do the previous road block must perform this one.
 "This is a weird one", Maddison

Production has filled the halls with clowns, musicians etc dressed in period clothing. There is also a bunch of other people there enjoying the games.

Maddison struggles with tossing balls into the hole and laments that Riley would probably have been good at this as he is very good at darts.

Chee turn out to be better at the carnival games than Leo.
 "Chee, I have been here for a few races", Leo when Chee wins the horse races on his first attempt
 "Hung & Chee are just made of magic and faerie dust", Alana when the former leave

Kaylynn & Haley are happy when they arrive at the museum.
 "We're pretty sure we're last but we're just happy we made it", Haley
 "We haven't seen a team since we pulled out of the airport", Haley
 "I sure hope that we are not last, but that is the slimmest chance", Haley
I must admit that I am impressed by the girls here. They did mess up royally at the start of the leg but they have not given up. And that will pay off because we as viewers know there is a team behind them.

Michelle & Victoria are also not giving up, which s also impressive.
 "Keep hoping, you never know", Michelle

Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)Riley & Maddison*   (2-3)
2(+1)Hung & Chee*        (2-3)
3(-1)Leo* & Alana        (3-2)
4(+0)Will & James*       (3-2)
5(+?)DeAngelo* & Gary    (3-2)
6(+?)Eswar* & Aparna     (3-2)
7(+0)Kaylynn* & Haley    (3-2)
8(+0)Michelle* & Victoria(3-2)

Route info: Race to Ponts des Arts.

This is the pit stop for this leg of the race. Teams travel here by taxi (9 minutes).

Teams reach Phil in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison. win a trip to Vietnam
 2(+0) Hung & Chee
 3(+0) Leo & Alana
 4(+0) Will & James
 5(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 6(+0) Eswar & Aparna
 7(+0) Kaylynn & Haley
 8(+0) Michelle & Victoria, are eliminated

Kaylynn & Haley have a hard time believing Phil when he tells them that they are not last.
 "I never thought somebody could screw up worse than us", Kaylynn

 "We're so thankful for everything", Michelle
We also get to hear that Michelle & Victoria feel very close now, and they were not close at all before the race.

Offline maf

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #6
« Reply #11 on: November 25, 2020, 02:30:42 PM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 6, "I'm not even walking, I'm falling"
Film date: 2018-11-22

The last pit stop was at Ponts des Arts in Paris, France. Teams are released from Place Vendôme after what seems as a 24+ hour pit stop in the following order:
1.Riley & Maddison   00:25
2.Hung & Chee        00:47+0:22
3.Leo & Alana        00:58+0:33
4.Will & James       01:21+0:56
5.DeAngelo & Gary    02:15+1:50
6.Eswar & Aparna     02:25+2:00
7.Kaylynn & Haley    05:15+4:50

Route info: Travel by train to Berlin, Germany.

Once in Berlin teams will find their next clue in a suitcase by the East Side Gallery (a preserved section of the wall).

At the start we get to hear a lot of talk about the alliance.

Everybody is on the same train to Berlin, probably something like:
TGV 9561 from Paris to Frankfurt  07:20 - 11:00
ICE 372 from Frankfurt to Berlin 11:14 - 15:28

We get a shot of all teams running together in a big bunch on the platform in Berlin at 15:50. This implies that they exited the train and the gathered on the platform before starting to race.

From the Hauptbanhof (main train station) teams travel by taxi to the East Side Gallery. Kaylynn & Haley are last out of the station so there are no more taxis. They run around a bit and eventually find one, but are very stressed when they tell the driver to go to the Berlin Wall.
 "Can you relax a little bit and tell me it slow?", The taxi driver
 "The East side gallery", Kaylynn tells it a bit slower
 "Now we are on the way", Now the driver understands whet they are saying
This gives us a glimpse of what it must be like for the taxi drivers who get their cars taken over by frantic teams yelling at them to go to places quickly.
 "I run really slow", Kaylynn on why they got to the taxis last
 "Why you don't run faster? You don't look fat.", The driver

And in the taxi we learn that Chee thinks the wall is from WWII but Hung knows it is from the cold war.

At the East Side Gallery teams run along the river looking for the next clue. They all spot it more or less at the same time so they all descend on it en masse.

This clue is a route info which tells teams to drive a Trabant to the Teledisco. A Trabant is an old East German car, known for being small, difficult to drive and unreliable. We see that teams get a couple of pages titled "Quick Guide for Using a Trabant".
 "This thing is tiny", Gary when trying to get into the Trabant
 "I'm just going to stay in first", Chee is afraid to change gears once he gets the car going

Teledisco is a phone boot re-purposed into a small disco. It is located at 99 Revaler Straße (5 minutes 2.1km). Teams arrive in the following order:
 1. DeAngelo & Gary
 2. Riley & Maddison
 3. Hung & Chee, just after #2
 4. Will & James
 5. Leo & Alana
 6. Eswar & Aparna
 7. Kaylynn & Haley

Phil tries to sell us that this is the latest greatest craze, I'm not sure I buy it. Anyway teams must enter and dance for 3 minutes.

There is one booth and it holds one team so there is no way teams can pass each other. Hung & Che squeeze in together with Riley & Maddison which saves them some time.

After 3 minutes the music stops and the both prints out four bad photos of the racers. On the bottom it says "Drive to Andels hotel and park out front".

Here we see that some teams have not figured out how to make the Trabant go in reverse so they just push them out of the parking spots.

Riley & Maddison and Hung & Chee start by getting directions so when they get back to their cars Will & James are just done with the disco. They agree to drive together but Will & James promptly loose the other teams while they figure out how to release the parking brake.

Will & James soon figure out the parking brake but have lost the others. And when they are halfway to the hotel the clutch throws in the towel. Apparently production gave them a choice, fix the clutch or make their way to the hotel on foot. They select the latter.

Leo & Alana parked at the side of the hotel to look for the correct place. Then when they want to move their car it will not start. Alana offers to push it if Leo steers and thus they arrive at the front of the hotel.

Teams arrive to the front of hotel (11 minutes 3.1km) in the following order:
 1(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 2(+0) Riley & Maddison
 3(+0) Hung & Chee
 4(+0) Will & James
 5(+1) Eswar & Aparna, as Riley & Maddison are leaving
 6(-1) Leo & Alana, a minute or so after #5
 7(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, as #5 and #6 get it

Here teams find a yield, which nobody uses, and a clue box. The clue is a road block: Who wants to feel the wind in their hair?

In this task contestants must climb 15 flights of stairs to the top of the hotel. Then they must do a face first rappel down the building. At the bottom they have to correctly answer a question to receive their next clue. There is also a max weight for racers on this task and as far as we know Gary was the only one exceeding this.

We are told, but the racers are not, that the question will be to unscramble the blinking letters lying on a roof next below. The correct answer is "Sauerkraut". teams may not use pen & paper during this task.

DeAngelo is the first to reach the bottom, but he is dumbfounded when the girl asks him to unscramble the letters.
 "I didn't see any letters, like all I saw was my life flashing before my eyes", DeAngelo
DeAngelo has to go back up and try again. He is walking back up with Hung and offers to help her if she agrees to wait for him at the bottom. She agrees and he tells her that they have to unscramble letters when they can see during the descent.
 "Did you see the letters?", the judge to Maddison who looks like a big question mark (he did not see them)
 "Andel's?", Maddison look up and see the hotel sign (which is not what she is asking for)

 "Have fun", The rigger to Hung as she starts screaming on the way down
 "I'm not even walking, I'm just falling", Hung gets the title
Hung does not appreciate the rappel but she had the presence of mind to look at the letters while she was being hooked up and she manages to figure out the word once she is back on the ground.

Both Aparna and Leo see the letters on their way down and once on the ground they brainstorm together and eventually Leo cracks the word.

Haley arrives to the downstairs rigging while Leo is getting out of his harness. They speak a bit and Leo gives some hints but does not say what the actual word is. Haley realizes this
 "You didn't help me so I won't help you", Haley interviews about Leo
 "It was hard to not help Haley, but we didn't want to be in a race for last", Leo

 "Haley does not like heights", Kaylynn
Poor Haley is absolutely terrified when she does the rappel the first time. She can not figure out the word though so she goes up again and again and so on. Apparently she did upwards of 9 rap ells and while she still could not figure out the word she did seem to get over her fear of the task. Eventually she stop rappelling and enters the hotel lobby to find some locals who can help. One lady is willing and figures out the word.
 
Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+2)Hung* & Chee        (3-3)
2(-1)DeAngelo* & Gary    (4-2)On his 2nd attempt and after getting the answer from Hung
3(+0)Riley & Maddison*   (2-4)On his 2nd attempt and after getting the answer from DeAngelo
4(+0)Will* & James       (4-2)Got the answer from Maddison
5(+1)Leo* & Alana        (4-2)
6(-1)Eswar & Aparna*     (3-3)Just after #5
7(+0)Kaylynn & Haley*    (3-3)After ~9 rappels and asking random people in the hotel

Detour: Belt it out or belch it out

In belt it out teams must perform a classic German song "I wish I was a chicken". They must dress up and learn to sing the song, which is is song in a furious tempo. To make the task easier there are cue cards while performing, so it seems the only things needed is to sing the words quickly enough and more importantly "sell" the performance. This takes place at Ballhaus Berlin (14 minutes, 6km).

In belch it out teams must learn a sequence of beer yoga poses and then teach them to a class. This takes place at Life Artists Creators Hub at 4 Milastrasse (11 minutes, 4.8km).

 "Do you need the car?", A worried James asks Chee who just have read the clue
 "Uh, no. It's taxi", Chee's response makes many teams happy

Hung & Chee hang around and wait for DeAngelo to do his rappel. Then they wait for Maddison as well. All in all they wait for 10 minutes. Riley & Maddison wait for Will while the first two teams look for taxis. Hung & Chee are not happy when DeAngelo take the only taxi they see.
 "DeAngelo & Gary are not helping the alliance, they just bring it up when it is helpful to them", Hung

From racers we learned that the beer used in the beer yoga was non alcoholic. Teams must learn four poses and then demonstrate those for the class. Exactly how you present them turns out to be important as well. The poses they have to learn are:
 Beer salutation
 Beer chair pose
 Beer boat
 Beer dancer

Not shown on the show is the fact that Will & James's teacher did not mention that there would be cue cards so they spent 45 minutes memorizing the lyrics. The other teams got told about the cue cards and could go much faster.
 "Learning the song was tricky", James

Editing makes it seem as if Kaylynn & Haley arrive at the singing detour just as the teams in front are leaving. But we all know that this can be deceiving and we later learn that they were 4 hours behind at the pit stop so they were not even close.

Teams complete the detour in the following order:
 1(+1) DeAngelo & Gary, yoga on their 2nd attempt
 2(-1) Hung & Chee, yoga
 3(+0) Riley & Maddison, yoga on their 2nd attempt
 4(+0) Will & James, sing on their 2nd attempt
 5(+1) Eswar & Aparna, sing on their 2nd attempt
 6(-1) Leo & Alana, sing on their 2nd attempt
 7(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, sing

Route info: "Race to Neukolln and search for Phil on the mat at your next pit stop"

Teams check in with Phil in the following order:
 1(+0) DeAngelo & Gary, win $7,500 each
 2(+1) Riley & Maddison
 3(-1) Hung & Chee
 4(+0) Will & James
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna
 6(+0) Leo & Alana, just after #5
 7(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, are saved by a non-elimination

At the mat Phil berates Hung & Chee for waiting on the other teams. He points out that this probably cost them $15,000.

Fun fact, it was cold and since Kaylynn & Haley were 4 hours behind the production crew retired to somewhere warmer while waiting for them. As they did this somebody seized the opportunity and stole the pit stop mat.

At the virtual mat Phil plays with the Kaylynn & Haley.
 "Your luck might have run out", Phil
 "Yeah, we thought so", Kaylynn & Haley
 "But it hasn't", Phil lets them know this is a non-elimination

Teams spend this pit stop in Hutten Palast, a hotel consisting of small caravans in an indoor space. It looks magical. As it is Thanksgiving they all have a shared Thanksgiving meal. A welcome chance to spend time with the other teams without the stress of the race.

Offline maf

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #7
« Reply #12 on: November 29, 2020, 12:42:30 PM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 7, "Give me a beard bump"
Film date: 2018-11-24 - 2018-11-25

This episode start at the pit stop hotel where teams talk about how the blondes have run out of luck. They are shocked when Kaylynn & Haley step through the door and announce that it was a non-elim.
 "The blonde bandits had the best luck in this race", James

Teams are then released in the following order:
1.DeAngelo & Gary    01:30
2.Riley & Maddison   01:46+0:16
3.Hung & Chee        01:53+0:23
4.Will & James       02:04+0:34
5.Eswar & Aparna     02:13+0:43
6.Leo & Alana        02:14+0:44
7.Kaylynn & Haley    05:32+4:02

The first clue tells teams to fly to Almaty, Kazakstan. Once on the ground they must make their way to Kazakhfilm studio.

It looks like teams buy their own tickets for this trip. But it does not really matter because they all end up on the same flight anyway.

Once teams land they jump into taxis. Leo surprises us by speaking Russian to the driver. It turns out that he speaks Russian and a little bit of Kazakh.

At Kazakhfilm teams gather inside the gate and wait to see what will happen next. I guess somebody or the clue told them to do this.

Suddenly two guys on horses appear. They are both in full gallop and the first guy is also on fire. Both throws satchels on the ground in front of the racers. The first contains the clues for the teams and the second contains Kaylynn & Haley's speed bump.

The girls must go into a nearby makeup studio and apply prosthetic beards to each other. They must then wear these beards for the rest of the leg.

The other teams can go directly to the detour: Great Khan's spy or Knock out guy

In Great Khan's spy teams must watch an action sequence and once it is complete they must correctly answer some questions about it. The scene they get to see starts with some quiet village life which suddenly is interrupted by an attacking force. After a brief fight the attackers are repelled. Once that is done the teams are, one by one, lead up to the great Khan and asked the following questions:
1. How many horses entered the village during the battle? (answer 6)
2. How many warriors in the battle fought with an axe? (answer 1)
3. How many warriors in the battle carried spears? (answer 5)
4. How many times did the great Khan call out to his warriors during the battle? (answer 0)

In Knock out guy teams must learn a choreographed stunt routine. It involves fighting with swords, blocking thrown stones with shields, using sacks of flour to defeat axe wielding opponents and together push a spear guy back before finally jumping down from a ledge. Only four teams can do this task.

Both options require teams to dress up in the provided costumes first.

In the spy task teams get one attempt to answer the questions per performance. They must watch the scene again before they can make another attempt. The clue also apparently forbid teams to share the answers.

Kaylynn and Haley wanted to do the fighting task but arrived there last due to their speed bump so all swords had been taken. When they get to the spy task the second performance is already underway so they have to wait a bit.

Meanwhile Gary feels ready but DeAngelo needs to train more so teams are passing them. Gray seems to be pissed with DeAngelo for this.
 "We air all our grievances right away, and we get over it", Gary
 "We get it out of the way and then we move forward", DeAngelo

Eswar & Aparna fail the fight task twice because they were too quiet so on their 3rd attempt they yell all the time.

Poor Leo & Alana get stuck on this task. They mistakenly think the flags some warriors carry counts as spears (they do have pointy ends) so their count is way off. After a while they start guessing 10, 9, 8 etc spears and finally on their 10th attempt they guess correctly. This whole task took them 3+ hours and there were two tea breaks for the actors.

Teams complete this detour in the following order
 1. Riley & Maddison, fight on their 1st attempt
 2. Hung & Chee, spy on the 2nd attempt
 3. Will & James, fight on their 2nd attempt
 4. DeAngelo & Gary, fight on their 2nd attempt
 5. Eswar & Aparna, fight on their 3rd attempt
 6. Kaylynn & Haley, spy on their 2nd attempt
 7. Leo & Alana, spy on their 10th attempt

The next clue tells team to travel by a marked van to a nomad village in the Karasay district.

The clue also warns that there is a yield ahead and: "There are only a few legs left to use your power of yield, don't waste it!"

We get to hear Will & James talk about how they would like to target Leo & Alana since they are the only non-alliance team which has managed to finish in the top 3.

Nobody has used the yield when Kaylynn & Haley arrive and the girls say they are not planning to use it. But then James and Maddison pop out of their yurts and yell to them to use it since they are next to last.
 "You want this cushion of time, I promise", James
 "You gotta yield them girls", Riley
The girls relent. They realize it makes sense to yield the last team to give themselves a cushion and they do have a 20 minute yield.

James is happy about this since he got another team to use their yield against a team he want eliminated.

The trip to this village apparently took around an hour. Teams arrive to the yield and clue box in the following order:
 1(+1) Hung & Chee
 2(-1) Riley & Maddison
 3(+0) Will & James
 4(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna
 6(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, yields Leo & Alana (20 minutes)
 7(+0) Leo & Alana, arrives while four teams are still at this challenge

Teams must now choose a camel loaded with possessions, lead it to an empty yurt and then arrange the items inside as shown in the finished example. There are lots of intricate details which they must get right. The most challenging thing is probably the cooked lambs head. This is not included in the camel pack but must be collected from a group of ladies who are cooking them nearby.

It turns out that the teams do not have to lead the camel themselves, a local will handle that part which is probably just as well.

This is filmed in the winter so everything is covered in snow and it is very cold inside the yurts teams have to decorate. We get to hear multiple players complain that they can not feel their toes or fingers.

 "Give me a beard bump", Maddison to Kaylynn & Haley (who are still wearing the prosthetic beards), and he gets the title

In interviews after the race we learn that this task was very difficult. There were many small details you had to get right. The big details which we got to see in the telecast was the lambs head. Hun & Chee seem to be the first team to figure out where to get this, and the fact that you had to bring your tray.

 "So sorry guys", Kaylynn & Haley to Leo & Alana when the latter wait at the yield
 "We only hate you a little", Alana

Gary asks Hung & Chee where the skull is and Hung points it out to them. She immediately regrets it. She berates herself for this in the van and asks Chee if he is frustrated. He admits to be a little bit frustrated.
 "You've got 90 seconds to be frustrated and get over it because you're wasting energy", Hung to Chee

Kaylynn & Haley find the ladies with the skulls but they did not bring their tray so they do not get one. They seem to assume it is because the heads are not completely cooked yet so they stand around waiting a bit before they realize they need to bring their own tray.

Even though Leo  Alana spent more than 3 hours at the detour they catch up to the other teams here. There are still two teams decorating their yurts when the yield time runs out.

Teams complete this challenge in the following order:
 1(+2) Will & James
 2(+0) Riley & Maddison
 3(-2) Hung & Chee
 4(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 5(+1) Kaylynn & Haley
 6(-1) Eswar & Aparna
 7(+0) Leo & Alana

Route info: Travel to Zelenyi Bazaar in Almaty and search the meat market for your next clue.

The first team is the only one who have to search for the clue box at the meat market. It is placed on a balcony above the market. When the other teams arrive the vendors point to where the clue box is.

Teams find the clue here in the following order:
 1(+0) Will & James
 2(+0) Riley & Maddison
 3(+0) Hung & Chee
 4(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 5(+0) Kaylynn & Haley
 6(+0) Eswar & Aparna
 7(+0) Leo & Alana

This clue is a route info which tells teams to travel by taxi to the next pit stop in First President Park.

As Will & James run out of the meat market they see Riley & Maddison arrive so they know they are not far ahead.

As usual the editing tries to make it seem close between the last three teams and they do a reasonably good job. But we never see more than one team in the shot so we know it can be any time between them.

Teams find Phil in the following order:
 1(+0) Will & James, win a trip to Las Vegas
 2(+0) Riley & Maddison
 3(+0) Hung & Chee
 4(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 5(+0) Kaylynn & Haley
 6(+0) Eswar & Aparna
 7(+0) Leo & Alana, are eliminated

This pit stop looks very grand. It is located at a typical eastern block big monument and there is a troupe of dancers and musicians to greet the teams.

At the mat Phil tells teams that the next leg will be a mega-leg, that means double the detours, double the road blocks and double the distance.

Leo & Alana arrived to the pit stop 45 minutes after team #6 so the yield did not really affect the outcome of this leg.

 "Running the Amazing Race with Leo was the most extraordinary thing I have ever done.", Alana

Leo & Alana met on Tinder 10 months before the race and this seems to have been a good match because by the time the race aired they were married.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2020, 03:45:27 PM by maf »

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #8
« Reply #13 on: December 08, 2020, 03:57:50 PM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 8, "Are you a Rickshaw?"
Film date: probably 2018-11-26 - 2018-11-28

The last pit stop was at First President Park in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Teams are released from in front of the Royal Tulip hotel in the following order:
1.Will & James       22:15
2.Riley & Maddison   22:28+0:13
3.Hung & Chee        22:50+0:35
4.DeAngelo & Gary    23:24+1:09
5.Kaylynn & Haley    23:40+1:25
6.Eswar & Aparna     23:50+1:35

Route info: "Fly to the cyber city of Hyderabad, in exotic India."

Will & James are very happy with having convinced Kaylynn & Haley to use their yield in the last leg and hope they can use their own yield in this leg. Riley & Maddison tell us that they are used to playing Volleyball all day in tournaments so the mega leg should play to their strengths. Hung & Chee complain over how they have helped DeAngelo & Gary but not received anything in return.
 "I believed our alliance of 5 is still going strong", Gary

This trip seem to be booked by production so all teams are on the same flight. This was probably:
TK 351  ALA-IST  08:00 - 10:57
TK 760  IST-DXB  19:37 - 00:53+1
EK 526  DBX-HYD  03:30 - 08:30


Upon arrival we see the usual chaotic taxi race. The first destination seems to be just off one of the roads. Teams arrive in the following order:
 1. Eswar & Aparna
 2. DeAngelo & Gary
 3. Will & James
 4. Kaylynn & Haley
 5. Riley & Maddison
 6. Hung & Chee

Route info: "Smog test 3 auto rickshaws to receive your next clue from the pollution control technician."

Teams must now flag down three auto-rickshaws and lead them to a testing van (there is one testing van per team). Once there they must enter the vehicle data and put a probe in its tailpipe to measure the emissions. Finally the technician will print a certificate for the driver.

Some teams don't what a rickshaw is.
 "What's a rickshaw?", DeAngelo
 "Are you a rickshaw?', James to the technician (and he gets the title)
Eswar & Aparna is the only team who knows that here they are called just autos, But shouting that probably does not help much in flagging them down. After a while teams realize that it is easier if you pick the empty rickshaws. And you have to be pretty aggressive in getting them as well. And the girls learn that you have to follow them all the way to the van as well, otherwise they will slip away.

The street they are doing this on is as expected crazy. 3-4 packed lanes of traffic. Fortunately the traffic moves fairly slowly. Which is good since the racers rush between the lanes trying to grab the rickshaws.

Riley & Maddison flag down two rickshaws at the same time since this was explicitly allowed in the rules. This causes DeAngelo to protest.

Teams complete this task in the following order:
 1(+0) Eswar & Aparna
 2(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 3(+3) Hung & Chee
 4(-1) Will & James
 5(+0) Riley & Maddison
 6(-2) Kaylynn & Haley

Detour: Food app or number tap

In food app teams must make their way to a Swiggy booth, pick up a bag and complete three deliveries. To make this a bit harder production has disabled the GPS on the phone they have to use so they must rely on directions given by an operator.

In number tap teams must make their way to an office. Here they must play a motion sensor video game catching 1's and 0's. If they catch them all they are presented with a long binary string. Nearby is a decoding table and using that they can decode the binary string and get the message: "You can find the clue in the fourth floor bunker". The bunker turns out to be the name of a conference room.

Teams must travel to their detour choice by the marked taxis which are waiting next to the smog test location. Both detour options are about 5km away.

The number tap takes place in a building named thub. Eswar & Aparna are looking forward to this task as they are software engineers and know binary code. They will later find that this did not help them at all. Instead they struggle with the game. It seems is if in this instance playing video games is more fruitful than learning to program computers.

Kaylynn & Haley have bad taxi luck here. They take one of the marked taxis but the driver promptly gets lost. It takes the a loong time to reach the start of the detour.
 "I think we're lost", Kaylynn
Their driver pulls over and asks for directions many times but he does not really speak to the girls or answer when they try to speak with him.

Riley figures out that the game is much easier to win if you keep your hands close together. After that realization they make quick work of the task.

Hung & Chee struggle at the video game and after 10 attempts they decide to make two more and then switch. They fail these as well so they switch to the food delivery task.
 "I don't think I'm getting any better", Chee after failing the 12th attempt

In the food delivery task teams have to rely on the operator to guide them to their destination. Hung is smart and constantly tells the operator what they see and which landmarks they are passing. The deliveries are a bit unusual, in one case they are told to enter a park and look for a guy in a red hat.

It does not look so in the episode but in interviews after Kaylynn & Haley said that they reached the food delivery detour as Hung & Chee were leaving it. The girls also seem to struggle with understanding the operator and the directions they are given.

Teams complete the detour in the following order:
 1(+3) Will & James, game on their 3rd attempt
 2(+0) DeAngelo & Gary, game on their 2nd attempt
 3(-2) Eswar & Aparna, game on their 8th attempt
 4(+1) Riley & Maddison, game on their 2nd attempt
 5(-2) Hung & Chee, started game but switched to deliver after 12 failed attempts
 6(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, deliver

Route info: "Travel by taxi to the Qutb Shahi tombs and search the area for the mausoleum of Mohamed Quli Qutb Shah for your next clue. Warning, yield ahead. Do not miss the opportunity to use the power of the yield."

In the taxi to the yield Will & James discuss that the safest course of action is to yield the blondes because they have already used their yield so they can not retaliate.

Teams reach the clue box and the yield here in the following order:
 1(+0) Will & James, yields Kaylynn & Haley (20 min)
 2(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 3(+0) Eswar & Aparna, seconds after #2
 4(+0) Riley & Maddison
 5(+0) Hung & Chee
 6(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, arrive ~1h after Will & James completed the road block (they see them leave after their lunch break)

 "We're in timeout", Haley as they wait out their yield
 
Road block: Who's ready to flip their lids?

In this road block contestants must grab tablets which provide an augmented reality view of the ground level of the mausoleum. In this view they can find 18 different kings, each with a distinct turban, standing next to 18 different pillars. They must then go up to the roof and find three people with matching turbans and place them on the markers which are directly above where they appeared below. Everybody does this one person at a time. All contestants use the same set of people so there can be instances where more than one team look for the same guy. Once a person has been placed on the correct spot they remain there and can not be used again.

It seems as if each king only appear if you stand in a fairly small area in front of the pillar.

James struggles with this task. He assumes there is one marker per pillar but it turns out that there is no marker for the first pillar, so he is off by one for a long time. Gary is smarter and looks at landmarks outside the tomb (the sides are open) to see where each pillar is.
 "I have no idea what I'm doing wrong", James
Finally he asks Gary and Eswar what he is doing wrong and learn he has been one off all the time.

Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+3)Riley* & Maddison   (3-4)
2(+0)DeAngelo & Gary*    (4-3)
3(-2)Will & James*       (4-3)
4(+1)Hung & Chee*        (3-4)
?Eswar* & Aparna     (4-3)
?Kaylynn & Haley    (3-3)

In the episode it looks like teams immediately get their clue and race on. But in interviews after the race we learn that there was a 1 hour lunch break here. That is once teams were done with the task they were told to stop racing for 1 hour and there was food available. After 1 hour teams can continue the race.

Route info: "Travel by auto rickshaw to Charminar and search for your next clue."

Production has arranged a bunch of auto rickshaws which teams can choose between.

And this is where this episode ends. Four teams have left the road block, Eswar is doing it and Kaylynn & Haley are waiting out their yield.
« Last Edit: December 08, 2020, 04:11:02 PM by maf »

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #8 is on page #1
« Reply #14 on: December 08, 2020, 06:28:35 PM »
Maf, the leg in Kazakhstan was on November 25, 2018, not November 24. Leg started in the early morning of November 24.

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #8 is on page #1
« Reply #15 on: December 09, 2020, 03:46:24 PM »
Maf, the leg in Kazakhstan was on November 25, 2018, not November 24. Leg started in the early morning of November 24.

Thanks for checking, I have fixed this.

Also I am sorry that I am two episodes behind at the moment. These are strange times unfortunately.

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #9
« Reply #16 on: December 13, 2020, 06:09:42 AM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 9, "This is not payback, this is karma"
Film date: probably 2018-11-28

The last episode ended at the middle of the mega leg. Four teams had completed the first road block. Eswar & Aparna are still doing it and Kaylynn & Haley are waiting out their yield.

Or at least that is what they want us to believe. The shots from when the siblings leave the road block show that the sisters have not yet reached the yield.

Eventually all teams complete the first road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+3)Riley* & Maddison   (3-4)
2(+0)DeAngelo & Gary*    (4-3)
3(-2)Will & James*       (4-3)
4(+1)Hung & Chee*        (3-4)
5(-2)Eswar* & Aparna     (4-3)
6(+0)Kaylynn* & Haley    (4-3)

Route info: "Travel by auto rickshaw to Charminar and search for your next clue."

On the way we get to her Will & James talk about there being two alliances. The Mine 5 and then the true alliance which is just them, Hung & Chee and Riley & Maddison.

 "We can make up time", Kaylynn & Haley are optimistic
 
The Charminar is a beautiful monument and there is a market next to it so there are lots of people around. The clue box is located in the middle of the plaza next to the monument and teams reach it in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison
 2(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 3(+0) Will & James
 4(+0) Hung & Chee
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna, seconds after #4
 6(+0) Kaylynn & Haley

Detour: "This or that?"

The extra information seem to only give the addresses of the two options (they are both in the market so within walking distance).

At the locations teams find new clue envelopes and the clue therein explains both tasks.

In this teams must push a cart filled with bangles to a nearby store and once there they must search through their cart to find seven bangles matching the ones a bride in the shop is wearing.

In that teams must take a mold of a patient's teeth for a set of dentures. Once that is done they need to finish, clean and polish a new set of dentures. Finally they have to fit these into a patient's mouth.

 "This is amazing how difficult it is", Riley at the bangles task

Hung & Chee make their way to 'This' but upon reading the clue they decide to switch to 'That'.
 "Let's do that. That's gross and nobody's gonna do that", Hung wants to do the dentures

The dentures task takes place at a marked dentist next to Hotel Nizam. In the extra scenes we learn that there were two locations. This is good because the places were so small so only one team could do each sub task at any one time. Hung & Chee arrived to the first dentist after Eswar & Aparna, they tried to find the other location but failed so they had to wait for the siblings to complete their cast.

The first part of the dental task is harder than expected, you have to get the consistency of the molding clay just right and then be quick in applying it. There is a judge which tells you if the mold you make is good enough.

Hung has no problem with the dental task. They have three kids so she has seen it all.
 "[i[Being a parent, kids are so disgusting, and one can't even imagine what kind of disgustingness comes out of their little bodies[/i]", Hung
 "So if, like, the patient needed a colonoscopy, I'd do it too.", Hung was prepared to do more if needed

Teams complete this detour in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison, bangles
 2(+0) DeAngelo & Gary, bangles
 3(+0) Will & James, bangles
 4(+1) Eswar & Aparna, dentist
 5(-1) Hung & Chee, dentist
 6(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, dentist

Route info: "Travel by auto rickshaw to Taj Falaknuma palace and search the grounds for your next clue." It also says that this is the last chance to play your power to yield. Use it or lose it.

The clue box at the palace is easy to spot and teams reach it in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison
 2(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 3(+0) Will & James
 4(+0) Eswar & Aparna
 5(+0) Hung & Chee
 6(+0) Kaylynn & Haley

Here is a route info which tells teams to travel by horse and carriage in style to the palace. They must first dress in traditional clothes, pick up a pair of socialites and then travel by horse and buggy to the actual palace.

There isn't really anything they can do to speed this up so they all arrive to the palace in the same order. By the end of the ride they find the last yield of the race. Riley & Maddison yield Kaylynn & Haley (20 minutes). They say they do this because Hung & Chee are struggling and they want to give their allies a chance.

Road block: "Who wants to set things straight?"

In this road block teams must choose a unique place setting and then precisely set it up ten identical times. It seems as if only one team can chose a particular place setting. The judge is also very picky so teams need to use the provided rules to measure that they get everything set up correctly.

The dining table they must set up their places at is 108 feet long and there are red and yellow garlands laid over it to separate the different racers areas.

There is a guy who shows teams how they must fold their napkins (this differs between the different settings.
 "Definitely not easy", Riley

After a while Gary spots the yardstick. He asks the instructor if it is for folding but when it is not he realize they have to measure stuff. He then takes great care to not use it while Gary is in the room.
 "I'm gonna reveal this tip of measuring to James, but not to Gary, if I can help it", Riley

James also finds the ruler and is telling the camera that he wants to keep that detail for himself, just then Riley approaches and tells him about it.

James interviews that the five team alliance is more or less over. Now they focus on the three team alliance with Riley & Maddison and Hung & Chee.

The measuring thing does not make that big of a difference as the judge will also use a yardstick when judging so then it becomes obvious to the contestants what they need to do.

The first five teams are all at this road block at the same time so there is a lot of tension in the air.
 "It's not really my forte, so to say", Gary is not used to setting tables like this

Kaylynn & Haley just laughs when they see that they are yielded again.
 "You're never out until you're out.", Kaylynn keeps her spirits up
 "We're trying not to be bitter about the two yields, but we're bitter", Kaylynn while they are waiting
 "This is not payback, this is karma", Kaylynn realizes that karma has bitten them in the ass, quite hard actually (and gets the title)

All other teams have completed the road block when Kaylynn & Haley are released from their yield.

Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)Riley* & Maddison   (4-4)
2(+1)Will & James*       (4-4)
3(-1)DeAngelo & Gary*    (4-4)
4(+1)Hung* & Chee        (4-4)
5(-1)Eswar & Aparna*     (4-4)
6(+0)Kaylynn & Haley*    (4-4)

Route info: "It is finally time to see Phil. Race to the southeast garden of Taj Falaknuma Palace and find the Pit Stop. Warning: the last team to check in will be eliminated!"

Teams make their way on foot to the put stop. This seems easy to find because nobody is shown getting lost. Teams arrive in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison, win a 7 day Caribbean cruise
 2(+0) Will & James
 3(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 4(+0) Hung & Chee
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna, seconds after #4
 6(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, are eliminated

 "This has just been the most humbling, incredible, eye-opening, magical experience", Kaylynn

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #10
« Reply #17 on: December 29, 2020, 10:51:43 AM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 10, "Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty"
Film date: probably 2018-11-29 - 2018-11-30

The last pit stop was at the Taj Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad, India. Teams are released from a different place, probably the pit stop hotel garden, in the following order:
1.Riley & Maddison   15:25
2.Will & James       15:42+0:17
3.DeAngelo & Gary    15:58+0:33
4.Hung & Chee        16:26+1:01
5.Eswar & Aparna     16:52+1:27

Note that in the last leg Eswar & Aparna arrived at the pit stop just after Hung & Chee. Apparently Hung & Chee got a time credit due to a production issue in the last leg, which is why they are starting earlier.

Route info: "Fly to the city of Siem Reap in Cambodia."

The clue also tells teams that when they land they must take a taxi to Psar Cha Old market where they can find a Tuk Tuk with a gnome in it.
 "The three kids love the Travelocity roaming gnome with all his different accessories", Chee

On the way to the airport we get to hear some U-turn plans. Teams think there may be one this leg and the plan is for the core alliance (Will & James, Riley & Maddison and Hung & Chee) to U-turn DeAngelo & Gary. And then block the board by U-turning the team who did the first U-turn.

The trip is, as usual in this season, already booked so all teams are on the same flight. Which probably is:
 TG 330  HYD-BKG  01:36 - 06:25
 PG 903  BKG-REP  08:29 - 09:36


 "We're getting down to the nitty gritty here", Riley gets the quote

In Siem Reap teams jump into taxis and make it to the market. Some teams have an easier time finding the Tuc Tucs than others. Once they found them there was a task which has mostly been left on the cutting room floor. Apparently teams got a license plate number and given that they had to find the driver and his motorcycle. Then connect it to the Tuc Tuc before they can use it to leave.

The Tuc Tuc also contains a basket with donations which they must keep with them until further notice.

Teams leave in their Tuc Tucs in the following order:
 1. Will & James
 2. Hung & Chee
 3. Riley & Maddison
 4. DeAngelo & Gary
 5. Eswar & Aparna

It seems as if the first three teams leave more or less together and the last two are trailing behind.

Teams must travel with their Tuc Tuc and Gnome to Chong Kneas pier where they will find their next clue.

Teams reach the pier in the following order:
 1(+2) Riley & Maddison
 2(-1) Will & James
 3(-1) Hung & Chee, seconds after #2
 4(+0) DeAngelo & Gary, just a couple of minutes after #3
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna

Teams must now travel by boat to Chong Kneas village and visit a floating Buddhist temple. Here they must donate the basket of everyday items to get their next clue.

There are small life vests for the gnomes.

The clue seems to give detailed instructions about how to behave in the temple. We see Riley & Maddison practice the temple ceremony in the boat on the way there. And as they do this the engine of their boat breaks down. Fortunately their drive soon manages to get i going again but two teams do pass them while it is broken.

Teams reach the temple in the following order:
 1(+2) Hung & Chee
 2(+0) Will & James
 3(-2) Riley & Maddison
 4(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna

Only one team at a time is allowed in the temple so the other teams must wait for their turn.

Detour: Fish or Farm

In fish teams must pull a net, which is more than half a mile long, through a spinning wheel which will separate the fish from the net. After that they must measure 15kg of fish. To do that they need to get the arrow for the scales from the satchel which their gnome is carrying.

In farm teams must complete a small floating garden. They must mix the soil and plant local produce to replicate an example. At the end they must plant the seeds which the gnome is carrying in his satchel.

Hung & Chee ask their driver to take them to the fish detour but when he delivers them to the farm detour they decide to do it instead. The floating gardens are actually small rafts and they do move quite a lot so in the behind the scenes videos we see that teams had problems with seasickness on this task.

Chee turns out to know all of the plants they are planting.
 "This is definitely backbreaking work", Chee on the gardening

We also get the hear more about the plan to U-turn DeAngelo & Gary.

Nobody struggles with the detours. They just take a long time. From the outgoing placements we can see that the farming side was slower, or farther away. But the difference can not have been that big because both teams doing the farm side had left before the U-turned team arrived.

Teams complete the detour in the following order:
 1(+2) Riley & Maddison, fish
 2(+2) DeAngelo & Gary, fish just after #
 -     Eswar & Aparna, fish
 3(-2) Hung & Chee, farm
 4(-2) Will & James, farm
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna, farm

Teams must now travel to a nearby floating restaurant where they will encounter the final U-turn of the race.

On the way to the U-turn Riley & Maddison realize it would be stupid to U-turn DeAngelo & Gary as they are right behind them.
 "If we U-turn DeAngelo & Gary they could U-turn Chee & Hung or the boyfriends", Maddison

It seems as if Riley & Maddison do not want to find the U-turn board first, they search the lower level of the restaurant so that DeAngelo & Gary can pass them. In the end teams reach the U-turn board in the following order:
 1(+1) DeAngelo & Gary, U-turn Eswar & Aparna
 2(-1) Riley & Maddison, U-turn DeAngelo & Gary to burn the board
 -     Eswar & Aparna
 3(+0) Hung & Chee
 4(+0) Will & James
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna

A lot can be said about the strategy here. IMHO DeAngelo & Gary did the strategically right thing here by U-turning a team they knew was behind them. Riley & Madison's blocking of the board shows that they are very committed to their alliance. A IMHO better move would have been to do nothing, this would have allowed Eswar & Aparna to U-turn another strong team wile still letting Riley & Maddison keep their hands clean.
 "That sucks", Aparna's reaction to the U-turn
 "This is so frustrating", James wanted to see DeAngelo & Gary U-turned

Route info: "Travel by boat back to Chong Kneas pier, once there tell your Tuc Tuc driver to take you to the Khmer floor handicraft in Siem Reap to receive your next clue"

Teams arrive to the floor handicraft place in the following order:
 1(+1) Riley & Maddison
 2(-1) DeAngelo & Gary, seconds after #1
 3(+0) Hung & Chee
 4(+0) Will & James
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna

Road block: Who thinks they can fit the mold?

In this road block contestants must make a floor tile. There is a ongoing silent demonstration they can watch. Once they have crafted a tile they can get a key from the satchel their Gnome is carrying. This key unlocks a chest with eighth additional tiles in it. It also has these instructions on the lid:

1. Fit these eight tiles into their
   proper places on the puzzle
   tray.
2. Once you have properly fitted
   the eight tiles into the tray
   your slide puzzle is ready to
   be solved.
3. Solve the slide puzzle you
   have just created.
4. When you think you have
   solved the slid puzzle, place
   your finished decorative tile
   into the open slot to receive
   your next clue.

The pieces in the chest have small pegs on their back and these fits into holes drilled into the slide puzzle pieces. I assume that each tile only fits in one location and in one specific orientation.

To make their tile they place a jig in a form, then fill the various areas of the jig with the correct paints. Then remove the jig and sprinkle cement over the paint. After that they put it in a press, which a local operates. Finally they just need to remove the finished tile from the form.

This all sounds a lot easier than it turns out to be. The tiles keep crumbling when teams try to remove them from the form. The crucial step which they all initially miss is that the form needs to be liberally waxed before being assembled. The whole process for making one tile takes 10-15 minutes.

DeAngelo struggles with this task, his tiles keeps breaking when he tries to remove them from the mold. Gary also struggles to keep quiet as he knows what DeAngelo is missing.
 "All you need to do is watch the guy one full time", Gary talks to himself

 "I think there is something key that I'm missing here", Riley
Riley decides to watch the entire demonstration.

In earlier seasons we have seen teams struggle mightily with tile puzzles but this one is a dud. Nobody seems to struggle with it. Perhaps because it is just 3x3 tiles?

Eswar & Aparna arrive two hours after the first teams got to the road block and by that time the first two teams have left. Eswar is doing the road block while Aparna talks trash at DeAngelo.
 "DeAngelo, if you want to mess up for a few more hours, that would be great, Aparna
 "I'm just hoping you keep on messing up over there",Aparna

Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)Riley* & Maddison   (5-4)On his 6th attempt
2(+2)Will* & James       (5-4)On his 4th attempt
3(+0)Hung & Chee*        (4-5)On his 6th attempt
4(-2)DeAngelo* & Gary    (5-4)On his 12th attempt
5(+0)Eswar* & Aparna     (5-4)On his 4th attempt

Route info: "Race to your next pit stop at Angkor Thom" The clue also warns that the last team to check in will be eliminated.

Teams rush back to their Tuc Tuc drivers and tell them to drive to the east gate of Angkor Thom.

As usual the editing shows the next to last team struggling with everything and the last team flying through all obstacles. For example we get to see DeAngelo & Gary get stopped by a bunch of monks while some workers bring down a tree.

In interviews after we learn that it was not nearly as close as it was made to seem. The last team was about 45 minutes behind the next to last team.

Teams arrive at the mat in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison, win a trip to Bergen, Norway
 2(+0) Will & James
 3(+0) Hung & Chee
 4(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 5(+0) Eswar & Aparna, are eliminated

 "I'm just happy that I got to spend all this time with my brother", Aparna

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #11
« Reply #18 on: January 09, 2021, 05:05:33 AM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 11, "Run on your tippy toes"
Film date: probably 2018-12-01 - 2018-12-02

The last pit stop was at Angkor Thom, Cambodia. Teams are released from somewhere else, probably the pit stop hotel garden, in the following order:
1.Riley & Maddison   14:00
2.Will & James       14:52+0:52
3.Hung & Chee        15:38+1:38
4.DeAngelo & Gary    15:55+1:55

Route info: Fly to Manila in the Philippines.
Once at the Manila airport teams must find a marked jepney which will take them to Phil at Lapu Lapu Circle.

All teams are on the same flight:
 UO 707  REP-HKG  2020-12-01  19:18 - 22:23  (Scheduled 19:15 - 22:55)
 CX 907  HKG-MNL  2020-12-02  09:31 - 11:12


All teams meet up with Phil at the Lapu Lapu circle. He tells them that this leg of the race will be a city sprint. The entire leg will take place in Manila and there are no road blocks or detours. He also tells them that the pit stop will be exactly where they are right now.

He also takes the unusual step of recommending the teams not to work together. By this we can infer that he and production are not happy with the strong alliance which has formed between three of the remaining teams.

Finally he tells them that their first clue is inside on the marked jeepneys parked nearby. After he shoots the starting gun all teams take off. They seem to reach the jeepneys more or less together.

In the jeepney is a clue: "Solve this riddle: To find the marked clue giver keep your eyes peeled while you are on the road. Red means stop Green means go. When it comes to traffic I make it flow. Hold out your hand and grab your clue and then you will find out what is waiting for you."

The answer to the riddle is that teams will get their next clue from a policeman directing traffic. This guy is famous for the dance moves he uses on the job. He has also been featured in the race before (season 25 episode 10).

The jeepney driver know where to go but the racers do not know where the clue will be. Teams quickly realize that traffic in Manila is insane. Once they reach the correct intersection two of the jeepneys make to tight turns so their teams miss the cop. They have to make a U-turn and go back again.

Teams get the clue from the traffic cop in the following order:
 1. Riley & Maddison
 2. DeAngelo & Gary
 3. Will & James, missed the cop on the first pass
 4. Hung & Chee, missed the cop on the first pass

Route info: "Tell your driver to take you to Mall of Asia"

At the mall teams must run a 500m course wearing high heels. This is apparently an annual event here and each team is joined by a bunch of locals.
 "This sucks so bad", DeAngelo is not happy

We learn that Chee has walked around in heels and Will owns a pair of heels. But none of them have done any running in them.

Teams start their races in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison
 2(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 3(+1) Hung & Chee
 4(-1) Will & James, just after #3

Teams complete the race in the following order:
 1(+0) Riley & Maddison
 2(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 3(+1) Will & James
 4(-1) Hung & Chee, just after #3

Route info: Make your way to Binondo. Search the streets for lions. Reach into their bite, they won't put up a fight. You'll get your next clue if you are right."

Teams must now travel by taxi way to Binondo, the Chinatown of Manila. They need to enter through the Arch of Goodwill and must search the streets for lions. The lions are guys in a lion costumes. There is a bunch of them around but the one with the clue is the one dancing next to two musicians.

Teams think they are looking for statues of lions, and there even is one right by the arch. At least two teams look for a clue in the moth of that, but no luck.

Hung & Chee get a bad taxi and their driver does not know where the arch of Goodwill is. He instead drops them off at Binondo Chinatown Arch. This is about 600m away from the arch of Goodwill. They seem to run around quite a bit looking for the place they should be. Extra humor is generated when Hung tries to impersonate a lion statue in front of some police officers. The problem is that they are asking for lion statues, which is not really what they should be looking for. Eventually they do find the right area and the lions.

Teams get the clue from the lion in the following order:
 1(+1) DeAngelo & Gary
 2(+1) Will & James
 3(-2) Riley & Maddison
 4(+0) Hung & Chee

Route info: To the Central post office on foot you must go.

Teams find the clue box at the central post office (~700m) in the following
order:
 1(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 2(+0) Will & James
 3(+0) Riley & Maddison
 4(+0) Hung & Chee

Route info: Go into the square, you will find horses there. Prepare their feed, it's just what they need.

Teams must now search the plaza for marked vendors, each will have one ingredient for the horses feed. The ingredients are: molasses, grain and grass. Teams need to mix the first two with water and serve their horse in order to get their next clue.

DeAngelo & Gary walk past one of the marked vendors multiple times and we get the classic shot where they say they can't find it and the camera pans down to show the marked stall.

Teams feed their horses in the following order:
 1(+1) Will & James
 2(+1) Riley & Maddison
 3(-2) DeAngelo & Gary
 4(+0) Hung & Chee

Route info: Mehan garden is having a rock show, travel here to get your next clue.

The clue also says that they have to make their way on foot.

Teams arrive to Mehan Garden (600m) in the following order:
 1(+0) Will & James
 2(+0) Riley & Maddison
 3(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
 4(+0) Hung & Chee, a bit behind but all teams are still doing the task here

Here teams encounter a difficult memory task. The band is playing a medley of four different songs teams heard on the race. The songs are from the following legs:
* leg 5, France: played by a string quartet at the road block
* leg 2, Colombia, played by a band in the circus tent at the road block
* leg 4, Paraguay, the tune played by the trash band as teams complete the road block
* leg 1, Trinidad & Tobago, the tune they had to play at the road block

There is a truck parked nearby and in it teams must find four cases marked with the flags of the above countries. They must then present the cases to the band manager in the order they heard the songs on the race (which is not the order the band is playing them).

The racers are initially stumped by this task. Two of the songs, the circus tune and Day 0 from leg 1, are simple to recognize but the others are not. And initially all teams miss the fact that the flags should be presented in the order they appeared on the race, not in the order the band play them.
 "We've got to line them up in the order that they play it", Gary has missed one crucial detail

If you have time to think and do not feel stressed, none of which applies to the racers, then this task is fairly easy. Assume you know the flags and recognize two of the songs, both of which the racers seemed to do. Then it is fairly easy to do a brute force attack on the problem as there are only 21 possible flag combinations to try for the remaining flags.

But the racers are stressed and jet legged so they spend lots of time on this task. According to interviews they spent about 3 hours here.

The judge have to come up with many ways to tells teams they are wrong. We get to hear things like:
  "Nope"
  "You'll have to do better than that"
  "It's a big no"
  "Try again"
  "Incorrect"
  "You need to go back to the truck"
  "Still not the right answer"
  "Still not the... not good"

Initially every team work by themselves. It seems as if DeAngelo & Gary ask other teams if they want to work together but there are no takers.

Eventually the core alliance of Will & James, Riley & Maddison and Hung & Chee decide to work together. Riley makes a list of the possible combinations and they decide to try them all. Unfortunately they still haven't realized which order to use so their attempt is doomed.
 "We only need to do about 15 permutations", Riley

 "They're helping each other bro", DeAngelo is not happy when he see what is happening

The alliance test all their permutations and are very surprised when none of them are approved.
 "This is so defeating", Maddison
They decide to start guessing wildly, or at least replace the ones they think they know. This is when Will & James and Hung & Chee both reread their clue.
 "...in the order they were played on the Race", James spot their mistake

The magic of editing makes it look like that is all it took and on the next guess Riley & Maddison get it. Once they get it they rush over and tell the other teams in their alliance.
 "They just told them", Gary is not happy

Once the alliance teams get it and leave the wind goes out of DeAngelo & Gary.
 "There's no point in us trying, we'll take the penalty", DeAngelo
DeAngelo & Gary both lie down to take a nap while they serve their 2h penalty.

Teams complete this challenge in the following order:
 1(+1) Riley & Maddison
 2(-1) Will & James
 3(+1) Hung & Chee
 4(-1) DeAngelo & Gary, gave up and took the 2h penalty

Route info: Make your way to where it's at, back to where you saw Phil, but now there is a mat, it's as easy as that.

Teams must now make their way back to Lapu Lapu circle (1.1km). This is not hard to find so teams check in with Phil in the following order:
  1(+0) Riley & Maddison
  2(+0) Will & James
  3(+0) Hung & Chee
  4(+0) DeAngelo & Gary, are eliminated

At the mat Phil tells the first three teams that the finale will be in New Orleans, and that they will get an upgrade on the flight there.

 "The race sucked, the bad outweighed the good, I'll never come back on the show again", DeAngelo is frank
At least Gary did enjoy the experience. In interviews later we learn that it was Gary who wanted to go on the show and DeAngelo agreed to do it with him. DeAngelo stood by his word but he did not like being confined to the pit stop hotels.

Offline maf

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Re: TAR32 Racing reports, episode #12
« Reply #19 on: January 24, 2021, 09:35:10 AM »
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 12, "Now its about winning"
Film date: probably 2018-12-03 - 2018-12-02

The last pit stop was at Lapu Lapu circle in Manila. Teams are released from the same place in the following order:
1.Riley & Maddison   05:58
2.Will & James       06:01+0:03
3.Hung & Chee        06:03+0:05

The first clue tells them to fly to New Orleans, Louisiana USA.

On the way to the airport Riley & Maddison feel confident since they have won the last three legs.

As usual the final flight is pre-arranged and teams also get an upgrade so they can fly home in comfort. The flight is:
  PR112  MNL-LAX  11:10 - 08:25
  DL2297 LAX-MSY  11:56 - 17:14

Note that as the flight from Manila crosses the international date line it is still the same date when it lands so in some sense it lands before it took off.

The RFF on site team reported that teams were held at the airport for a couple of hours when they landed. Once released teams run out to the taxis and ask to be taken to Louis Armstrong park.

 "It's no longer about survival and just advancing, now it is about winning", Chee gets the title

Riley & Maddison have bad luck with their taxi. The driver thinks that the park is on S Rampart Street so that is where he takes them. Unfortunately the park is on N Rampart Street. Eventually Riley & Maddison say they spot it so they can get out of their taxi.

The clue box is located just outside the park and teams reach it in the following order:
 1. Will & James
 2. Hung & Chee
 3. Riley & Maddison

Route info: "Join the party on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter and collect 50 red and 50 gold beads to receive your next clue."

Teams must now make their way on foot to the intersection of Bourbon Street and Bienville Street (0.6miles). When they arrive they find that there is a party going on. There are bands playing and lots of people. There is no change in order as teams arrive here but it is worth noting that the last team gets here while the other teams are doing the task.

Each team must get up onto a party float and the catch beaded necklaces being thrown from the balconies above. In each float there is a grand marshal wearing examples of acceptable beads to collect. It turns out that there are two sizes of beads being thrown big and small and it is only the big ones which count.

Initially teams collect both big and small beads  but eventually they figure out they can only use the big ones. I do not think anybody lost much time over this mistake.

Teams leave this task in the same order as they arrives, that is:
 1(+0) Will & James
 2(+0) Hung & Chee
 3(+0) Riley & Maddison

Road block: "Who will be left holding the baby?"

Upon reading the clue Will immediately knows what the task will be, or at least he thinks he does. He enthusiastically volunteers to do it.
 "King cake, me, me", Will
 "I'll hold it. It sounds heavy", Chee makes a more literal interpretation of the clue

The inner clue reads: "Find the baby in the King cake. Then eat half a dozen beignets with your partner to receive your next clue. To get to Cafe beignet, both of you must put on a washboard and play with the band all the way there. Have fun with it."

It is a short walk (0.2miles) to Cafe Beignet on Royal Street. Here contestants must search through a bunch of king cakes to find the hidden baby which is baked into one of them. Once they have found the baby both team members must together eat half a dozen beignets.

When contestants arrive they must put on an apron and pick a table which holds 16 king cakes. As they start searching these cakes the staff rolls out two carts with a about 36 cakes on each. So it seems as if each contestant has 88 cakes to search through.

Will has had king cake before so he knows the size of the baby. He starts pressing his cakes and uses flat hands to be sure nothing slips between his fingers.

Will find his baby just as Riley & Maddison arrive to the task. But then there is the eating beignets sub task. And Will, who has tasted the King cakes while looking for the baby, is full. In the end James have to eat four of the beignets.

Will's hands are covered in king cake frosting while he eats the beignets. We then see him, still with dirty hands, tell the judge that they are done. The judge reaches for the clue but when he gives it over Will's hands are clean.

Chee is not happy when he realize that he has searched through all cakes but not found the baby. So he must have missed it and need to go through them all again.

As he is doing that the camera and Hung both spot the baby which lies by the edge of the table.
 "I see Chee's baby, It's on the table", Hung to Riley
Hung knows that she can not help Chee in any way.
 "That was probably one of the most frustrating points on the race", Hung

After about 15 minutes Chee spot the baby and they can move on to the beignets.
 "I just saw the size of the baby and I wasn't expecting it to be that small", Maddison saw the baby
 "More chewing, less talking", Hung as they consume their beignets
 "I'm pre-chewing it with my fingers", Hung on how to quickly eat beignets
Hung asks Chee if he can help her by eating some of her beignets. Before doing so he checks the clue that this is allowed, smart.

In interviews later we learn that Maddison spent about 3 hours looking for the baby.

Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)Will* & James       (6-4)
2(+0)Hung & Chee*        (4-6)
3(+0)Riley & Maddison*   (5-5)

Route info: Travel by taxi to the New Orleans convention center and search near hall H for your next clue.

Nobody has any trouble getting to the convention center and finding the clue box there.

Road block: "Who wants to take a swing at this road block? If you performed the last road block you partner must attempt this one."

In this road block contestants must climb under the Crescent City connection bridge. Then climb out on an enormous beam and finally leap out to catch a hanging clue. They are attached to a rope so after they catch the clue they will swing back and forth a bit before getting winched back up again. This task sounds harder than it is. The "leap" is taken from a sitting position and is nor particularly far so everybody gets the clue on their first attempt.

 "This is not fun", Will is not fond of heights
 "I don't like heights", Hung

Although this is a scary task it is the finale so nobody is going to chicken out.

As Hung & Chee are in the taxi on their way to this task their driver comments that it is a small world. It turns out his friend is waiting for Will & James to come off the bridge.

Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)Will* & James       (6-5)Before the next team arrives
2(+0)Hung* & Chee        (5-6)Before the next team arrives
3(+0)Riley* & Maddison   (6-5)

Route info: "Rappel off the bridge and roll a gigantic ball to Mardi Gras world".

Teams will now rappel down to the ground below and then make their way on foot to Mardi Gras world. On the ground they will find a 10 feet high ball which they have to bring with them.

Inside Mardi Gras world teams find another clue box.

Route info: "Search the warehouse for a trunk with puzzle pieces and attach the pieces to your ball to make a gigantic globe of planet earth."

The clue also tells that the chest is located by a court jester.

The pieces in the chest are long strips of cloth. All teams realize that this puzzle is much easier to solve if you first lay all the strips on the ground in the correct order before attaching them to the globe. The pieces seem to attach with velcro at the ends.

Nobody seems to have any problem with solving this puzzle. But once solved teams must get their globe up onto a float and then get it approved by a judge.

 Your map is correct but the assembly needs work", the judge
All of them seem to get their first attempt rejected since the pieces are not tight enough.

Riley & Maddison arrive to the warehouse while Hung & Chee are assembling their strips.

Teams complete this task in the following order:
 1(+0) Will & James
 2(+0) Hung & Chee
 3(+0) Riley & Maddison

Route info: "This is it, run to the finish line of the Amazing Race. Travel by taxi to the main entrance of where the saint go marching in. Go, go, go!!!"

Teams must now figure out that they need to go to the New Orleans Super-dome. Will & James, who are in the lead, have no problem figuring that out.

Teams reach Phil in the following order:
 1(+0) Will & James, win $1,000,000
 2(+0) Hung & Chee
 3(+0) Riley & Maddison

 "11 countries, 17 cities, more than 33,000 miles", Phil summarizes the race

At the finish line Will takes the opportunity to propose to James.

Looking back we can definitely say that the outcome of this leg was determined by the King Cake road block. The first team got a huge lead here. It may seem like a luck based challenge but based on interviews it seems as if James used a much better strategy when searching for the baby.

 "It's a dream come true", James