amazing race asia season 3: thailand's beauty queens eliminated

leg 3 of the amazing race asia started with a 25 hour journey to hue, vietnam. the first bus boarded henry & bernie and nirro & kapil. on the second bus are sam & vince, ad & fuzzie and geoff & tisha. alone on the third bus are ida & tania. the last bus boarded natalie & pailin and mai & oliver. i think the leading teams ha d a clear 4 hour advantage over the last 2 teams.

during this bus ride, some of the bus encountered flat tire and the teams had to wait for them to be fixed before they can proceed. its a battle for mental endurance since a one day bus ride is very tiring, given the conditions of the bus and the surroundings. they arrived at hue the next day and retrived their clue which instructed them to proceed to a caltex service station by foot.

once there, the leading teams saw the service station would only open at 9:30am, allowing the last 2 teams to catch up a bit. at the station, teams need to change a tire of a jeep and change its oil before they received the next clue. most teams did well in this challenge. natalie is still struggling. she is questioning the race and is still contemplating to quit.

after they are done, the teams were instructed to proceed to khai dinh tomb using the jeeps. upon arriving at the temple, they encountered a roadblock. the roadblock involves a team member to retrieve seven coins from the tomb of minh mang and take it back and wait for further instructions. the teams had a hard time finding the coins but eventually found it. some teams wrote the information that were provided at each stations were the coins can be found.

while waiting for their partners, the teams confronted tisha about geoff's behavior. tisha was really nice in explaining to them that geoff really had a bad temper but is a good guy. he is very competitive and that is why he is doing such things. i hope the other teams would understand.

upon returning to khai dinh tomb, they were instructed to arrange the coins according to their reign. only henry was able to arrange the coins and gave the coins to sam who worked with him in retrieving the coins. sam had the coins mixed up and was not able to use it to his advantage. niroo was asking for help but was turned down several times and decided to go back to the tomb of minh mang.

after a long time, the teams were able to get the arrangement of the coins. the teams that finished last were nirro & kapil. natalie decided to quit the challenge and take the 4 hour penalty. the next challenge was a detour, a choice between stick or stalk. in stick, teams need to make 10 incense sticks before they receive their next clue. in stalk, teams need to thrash rice stalks and collect 2 bags of grains before they can get the clue.

all the teams choose stick but all of them initially had a hard time. only geoff & tisha switched task after they found it hard to do the sticks and they saw that none of the teams have progressed in making them. after that, the teams got the hang of it and were able to finish one by one. about 4 teams were able to finish ahead of geoff & tisha.

the next clue instructed the teams to proceed to quoc hoc park and find a traditional cyclo and their next clue. the teams immediately saw the cyclos but missed out on the clue that was on top of it. they tried finding a clue box but can't find it anywhere. they wasted so much time until they realized that the clue was on the cyclo. the clue instructed them to proceed to the next pitstop, the hue citadel, on board the cyclo.

the cyclo ride was really hard for all of the teams. they had difficulty controlling the vehicle and some even did not know how to apply the brakes. the unruly drivers on the street also gave the teams a hard time. almost all the teams bumped into posts or walls and henry and bernie even toppled over. at the citadel, it was henry and bernie of malaysia who finished first. final standings are as follows:

1st - henry & bernie

2nd - sam & vince

3rd - ida & tania

4th - ad & fuzzie

5th - geoff & tisha

6th - mai & oliver

7th - niroo & kapil

8th - natalie & pailin

natalie & pailin arrived last and even without the 4 hour penalty, they would still get eliminated. i was really disappointed with natalie. she signed in for amazing race and yet she was not prepared for it. i was really sad for pailin because she really wanted to race but was not able to choose the correct partner. she was determined and focused and really wanted to continue. but at least, natalie did just not quit but her quitting on the roadblock was the final nail on their coffin.

henry & bernie are really racing well, finishing 1st for the 2nd time. same with sam & vince. i am really surprised with ida & tania, who i initially tag as early boot. they are really working as a team and are supporting and complementing each other well.

geoff and tisha must work on their communication and their relationship with the other teams. geoff must really control his temper. most inconsistent of the teams are definitely niroo & kapil. they must step up if they want to stay in the game.

it was a good episode but had a predictable ending. hope the next episode will be better.

image is from the original website of amazing race asia season 3.