Saturday, October 25, 2014

the amazing race philippines 2 leg 2 review

the second leg of the amazing race philippines started at resorts world manila even though leg 1 pit stop was at the manila post office. i don't know if this was a production error but this is the first time that a leg started in another location as compared to the pit stop the previous leg.

the teams were instructed to go to the city kart racing circuit in makati city. teams have to race individually against 4 other teams in the go kart race course. the top 3 teams with the fastest combined time of the 2 members will get the clue. the 2 remaining teams will again race against 3 other teams. aj of team mag-ama was formerly a race driver but his experience proved not to be an advantage as they lost the first round. pinay world champ also encountered difficulty in this challenge. the 2 teams that were left were team pinay world champs and team sexy besties. as a consequence, they have to complete 6 laps around the course before they receive their next clue. here is the teaser on the task for the october 13 episode:



the next clue instructed teams to proceed to the urban peak rock climbing gym at the lotus central mall in imus, cavite. this is the leg's roadblock. one member of the team needs to climb a wall and retrieve a bottle of summit mineral water at the top of the wall. the bottle has a number under the cap which they need to keep and will be used in the next challenges. most of the teams struggled in this challenge but it was only jeck of team sexy besties who gave up. they opted to get the 4 hour penalty. here is the video of jeck's moment at the wall:


the teams were then instructed to proceed bauan public market. the u-turn board is in play here. what is unique here is that all teams needs to vote who they want to u-turn, and the teams with the highest votes gets u-turned. unlike in the us version, only 1 team (or 2 if double u turn) can exercise the u-turn.

when the teams arrived at bauan public market, it was closed and will open only the next morning, allowing team sexy besties to catch up. the next task was a detour, a choice between fashion or fruits. in fashion, teams needs to dress up a manequin with clothes they bought at the market. the catch is when they finish, they will receive another envelope instructing them that they need to trade the clothes with clothes from the people in the market. in fruits, team has to buy a specified list of fruits with a given budget which they will trade for their next clue. here is the teaser for the episode showing the fruits detour task:



most teams initially choose fruits but due to the high price of the fruits in the market and also due to the heavy load, some teams switched detours. at the end of the task, teams were instructed to check out the u-turn board at the shrine of the our lady of lourdes to see who get u-turned. in this task, it was team mr. pogi and team juan direction who were u-turned.

in the next task, teams have to ride in one of the gondolas of the sky eye ferris wheel at the sky ranch in tagaytay city. each gondola has a clue envelope. some are the next clue but some will say try again. if they get the wrong clue envelope, they must go to the end of the line and ride again until they get the correct clue. the number of the gondola they will ride first will be the number at the cap of the summit mineral water that they retrieved in the roadblock. this is a similar challenge to amazing race season 1 episode 12 which they did at the singapore flyer.

it was really hard for the teams to find the right gondola but some of the teams got lucky. but team pinay world champ got the worst luck. they did not read the clue completely at the roadblock and they did not keep the bottle that they got at the wall climb.


as a consequence, all other teams needs to finish the task before the pinay world champ can start, which is a big blow to their time.

the next clue instructed the teams to go to the canyon cove resort where they need to dig for a clue amongst 100 sand castles. if they dig the wrong sand castle, they need to rebuild it before digging up another one. this is another similar challenge that was done in amazing race season 22 episode 1 which used 400 sand castles and 3 teams gave up and opted for the penalty.


this is a really hard challenge and tested the team's patience. most of the teams have to dig more than 70 sand castles to get the clue. some of the teams even fought during this challenge. it was really difficult once frustration sets in.

once they retrieve a souvenir item buried in the sand castle, they will need to go to the basilica de san martin de tours in taal, batangas which is the 2nd pit stop in this race. the order of arrival at the pit stop is as follows:

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

team pinay world champs did not recover from the error of throwing away the mineral water bottle. they arrived last at the pit stop and was eliminated. what was surprising was the video shown after the pit stop. luz and chen had a bitter exchange of unpleasantries and led to chen walking out. it was also revealed that the pair has not yet reconciled and has not talked to each other after the race. it is really sad that a fun race can end a friendship in an instant. i think it is their competitive nature as athletes that led to this argument.

this leg was a very exciting one. last week was a test of everything, this week was more of a test of patience. the gondola and sand castle task was clearly hard and was as challenging as their counterparts in the previous seasons of the US version. one thing unique is the u-turn execution. the u-turn will be voted by all teams and not by just one team.

it is also good to note that the top 3 teams remained the same, following a strong race from the dating couple, magkapatid and the nerds (surprise again!). the biggest climber in the standings was team chefs who climbed from 7th to 4th place. i am also impressed with team mr. pogi since they did not finished in the bottom 3 even after the u-turn. they got lot of luck in the sand castle task and easily found the clue. they even coined my line of the leg - "kapag hindi mo hinahanap, nagpapakita".

what also surfaced here is the character of the teams. jeck gave up on the wall climbing challenge can be an indication that she is not fully committed to the race. the temper of team mag-ama and team chefs are starting to manifest as well, which can harm them further in the race. i liked the positive attitude of team mr. pogi even after the u-turn.

i am really looking forward to the next leg and they will be moving to a new timeslot during weekdays at 9pm. this will be a better timeslot for me since I do not have to hurry home after work.

videos are from the Amazing Race Philippines YouTube channel

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