the amazing race philippines season 2 first leg review

the second season of the amazing race philippines kicked off last week with a very eventful first leg. the race started with all eleven teams (meet the eleven teams here) started the race at the baluarte de san diego in the famous intramuros, manila.

the teams got their first clue which instructed them them to go to the sm aura office tower in bonifacio global city, taguig. it was then a mad scramble to get taxis to sm aura. upon arrival at sm aura, they encountered their first roadblock. one of the team members needs to rapel face first down the sm aura office tower.

in this roadblock, the chefs made a critical mistake when chef roch went down the tower without getting the number. thus, chef eji have to go down to fetch her and up again. this made them go from top 5 (i think number 3) to number 9. most of the teams easily finished the task.

once they completed the task, they received the next route info which instructed them to go the imperial ice bar in fort strip, still inside the bonifacio global city. this is just a kilometer away from the sm aura. once there, the teams needs to go inside the frozen bar and figure out a word puzzle. they need to form words from letters inside an ice cube without any clues.

this mental challenge proved to be hard for the teams. they only have 30 minutes per turn and only 3 teams are allowed inside. if their time runs out, they will again go the end of the line. almost all teams failed to get the word on their first try. then some teams took the time waiting to strategize. team sexy besties befriended team nerds since they knew that they are smart. they lent them their jackets for the answer to the puzzle. but it was not the nerds that answered the puzzle first, it was team magkapatid who got the words "stock exchange". after that, the answer was passed on from one team to the other except for the team mr. pogi (who peked at another team's answer and eventually figured it out) and team blondies. the blondes were the last team out and was able to decode it by themselves.

the teams were then instructed to go to the philippine stock exchange in makati where another mental puzzle awaits them. they were given a series of codes and they needed to find the equivalent letters from the trading board. it was a hard puzzle for all of them but the team nerds succeeded to decode it as "find green coat at fountain" which means they need to find the girl in a green coat at the fountain in front of the building.

the girl in the green coat then hands them their next clue which instructed teams to go to the university of makati where they need to change to running gear and battle the next team head to head in a 100m sprint. the team that wins gets the clue and the team that loses battles the next team. the first match was between team nerds and team magkapatid. it was jet who finished first but the nerds both beat yna, making the nerds win. it was the same case in the next round when team magkapatid went against team magama. on their 3rd attempt, team magkapatid begged pinay world champs to make them win. surprisingly, they agreed and let team magkapatid beat them. they were next up against team travel buddies which they easily beat. the team travel buddies encountered a series of losses until they are the last team left. as a consequence, they need to complete 1 lap around the 400m oval track before they receive their next clue.

the teams then encountered their first detour : serve or souffle. in serve, they need to get 8 orders and serve them correctly in a japanese restaurant; in souffle, they need to cook a perfect souffle. all teams decided to do serve, which proved very difficult as well. the food they got to serve was really difficult to memorize and was really not common japanese food. but most of the teams finished it quickly.

it was already raining hard when teams next reached the newport performing arts theater at the resorts world manila in pasay. here, the teams need to perform a dance routine from priscilla: queen of the desert and satisfy the judges before they receive their next clue. they have to dress up and puttheir own make up and learn the dance moves. most of the first teams' first attempt was rejected by the judges but it was team mag-ama who argued the most, jody even shouting at his dad. some of the teams that performed well were team mr. pogi, team sexy besties and team blondies.

the teams then headed to the first pit stop at the manila post office. despite the floods and the heavy rains, teams was able to reach the pit stop. it was team nerds who placed first and won the express pass. the standings after the first leg was:

1st - team nerds
2nd - team magkapatid
3rd - team dating couple
4th - team pinay world champs
5th - team mag-ama
6th - team mr. pogi
7th - team chefs
8th - team blondies
9th - team juan direction
10th - team sexy besties
11th - team travel buddies

team travel buddies is the first team eliminated this season. what hurt them the most was the sprint challenge in umak. from 5th place, they went down to last and never really recovered.

this leg was a big improvement from the last season. eventhough there is an episode everyday, there was a new challenge everyday which the viewers looked forward too. last season, episodes were cut in between challenges and that was quite disappointing. this is a jampacked leg as well, having 6 challenges in a span of 12 hours is quite draining for the racers.

the challenges themselves were not easy. from physical, to mental, to sports, to performing; this leg have it. and the challenges were quite unique. except for the rapel challenge in sm aura, for an amazing race fan like me who watched all the seasons of the us version, none of the other challenges were copied from their us counterpart. kudos to the creative team!

some of the teams made a good impression on me in this leg. i was really impressed by the team nerds, finishing first over the more physically fit teams is an accomplishment. hope they put the express pass into good use. team blondies also made their mark by bouncing back from the last place finish in the first 2 challenges. team chefs and team magkapatid both have a very good and friendly vibe in them and i like their attitude in the race. team sexy besties is proving to be very strategic and innovative by using their charms.

team dating couple could be a force to reckon with if they can get their act together and not work hastily. the competitive side of the athletes team mag-ama and team pinay world champs can cause a lot of arguments with in their own teams. i think the one teams that is flying low key right now are team mr. pogi and team juan direction. they are both strong teams but they are currently in the middle of the pack. hope they get their groove and race to the top of the leaderboard soon.

i also like the fact that the teams are live tweeting the episode and are replying to the tweets of the fans. it makes the fan feel that they are part of the race.

my only problem is that the timeslot is quite early. i am coming out of work at 6pm and i have to rush home everyday just to catch it at 7pm. hope they can move it to a later timeslot.

as a whole, i am very satisfied with the first leg. looking forward to the next legs of the race!

 photos are from margie natividad's twitter page