amazing race philippines pilot episode

being a big amazing race fan for years, i was really excited for today... the premiere of our very own version of the amazing race: the amazing race philippines.

i have watched the US version since season 5 in 2004 (when it was first aired in the philippines by studio 23 because the philippines was one of the destination - just before the finale) and it is already airing season 21 right now and i have not missed a single episode since. not only that, i have also watched all episodes of the 4 seasons of amazing race asia. with that, i am really farmiliar and a big fan of the show.

the show started with all 11 teams being transported via helicopters to the starting line of the race (though it was not shown that the helicopters landed on that exact spot); the historic paco park. the season boasts of a mix of very interesting contestants. knowing filipino reality shows, it was to no surprise that there are celebrities in the cast. there are football players, a popular actress, a noontime show dancer and beauty queens. but despite these, the teams were quite interesting.

the show is hosted by derek ramsay and the winners' price amounts to PhP2 million, which is small compared to the USD 1 million (even up to USD 2 million in season 21) for its US counterpart and even half of the guaranteed price of the asian version.

the show started very well, the ambiance and the shots is really like the US version. i was really amazed on how accurately tv5 edited the clips and make it look like the original amazing race. but my excitement died down a bit when i heard the first clue being read.

the first clue told the racers to head down to the manila yacht club, where they need to find the dock. there, they need to find the marked yacht and decode the nautical phrase from the series of flags that hangs on the yacht. unknown to the racers, there are cheat sheets scattered on several locations in the place, where they can see the equivalent letters of each flag.

when i heard the challenge, i immediately thought that this challenge has been done previously in the US version, they just modified it a bit. and i immediately remembered that this was the roadblock where the cowboys (jet and cord) had difficulty finishing. so, i went through several internet sites (thanks wiki!) and found the similar challenge. it is the first roadblock in australia in the pilot episode of the amazing race season 18: unfinished business.

here is the challenge description from wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Race_18 ) :

In the Race's first Roadblock, one team member had to scuba dive in the Oceanworld shark and ray tank and search the tank for a compass. The compass included a guide to decode a message hidden in series of nautical flags outside. The correctly decoded message instructed teams to go to the Manly 16 ft Skiff Sailing Club, find the Commodore, and tell him the password "I am Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" to receive their next clue.

they just modified it but the challenge of decoding the message from the nautical flags is the same. you can also watch the video of the episode here (hope the video survives - i just found it in youtube -
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZZa09Q1np0 )

refer to this part for the challenge explanation: 18:00 - 18:50.

this has been one of the pitfalls of localized versions of reality shows, recycling challenges from the US version of the show. this means lack of creativity and it sometimes turns off several fans of the show. this is also the case with survivor philippines, almost all their challenges in their pilot season were recycled challenges from the US version of survivor. i really hope they make more unique challenges in the next episodes.

the episode was finished even without anyone completing or even starting decoding the nautical message. this is what i hate when you covert a supposed to be one episode a week to an episode a day show. the suspense is killing the fans and it is really bitin. my definition of an amazing race episode  is an episode with at least a roadblock and a detour, and i think this will not happen in amazing race philippines. this is the same adjustment i had to make for survivor philippines.

and not only that, when they showed the next challenge, i immediately recognized it again - another recycled challenge! based on what i saw, the casino challenge is the chance choice in the detour of amazing race asia season 3 episode 7. here is another challenge explanation from wikepedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Race_Asia_3 )

In this leg's Detour, the choice was between Dance or Chance. In Dance, the team members must correctly perform a lion dance routine to the satisfaction of the performance troupe. In Chance, teams must don formal attire and play a game of blackjack in the casino of Hotel Royal Macau; they must beat the dealer nine times (as denoted by the letters of the word COMPLETED) before receiving their next clue.

convinced?

amazing race asia season 3: ad and fuzzie eliminated, final 3 racers revealed

the singaporean friends ad and fuzzie became the 7th team to be eliminated in what is dubbed as "the toughest race ever", the amazing race asia season 3. the singaporean duo came in last after the 10th leg, which covers india and oman. their elimination came after a non-elimination leg in leg 9 in which they also came in last. they had a 30 minute penalty since they did not come in first. they also did not finish the roadblock since fuzzie gave up halfway through the challenge. they also incurred a four hour penalty for this.

with their elimination, the season's final three teams that would battle it out for the grand prize was revealed. the three teams were ida & tania of malaysia, geoff & tisha of the philippines and sam & vince of hong kong. the finale will be aired next week on axn.

to be updated regarding leg 10 details, image is from the official site of amazing race asia season 3

amazing race asia season 3: episode 2 review

nine teams left, who will be eliminated next?

after 12 hours in the pitstop, the teams were instructed to proceed to the flight of gibbon treetop adventure by taxi. The teams will traverse the parks' treetop canopy through a zipline, one by one. since it was late at night, mai and oliver decided to call it a night and wait for the morning before going to the park. the other teams proceeded to the park and got numbers that would determine the order of executing the task. mai & oliver suddenly dropped to last place from first.

they were next instructed to proceed to a banana plantation. once there, they encountered a roadblock. this team member would try to retrieve a clue from a back pack hidden in the plantation. on the way, they would try to evade the bullets from paitball snipers also hidden in the plantation. when they are hit, they would go back to the start. most of the teams had a hard time retrieving the clue. the challenge was great. with a good mix of action and drama. some even cried and we hear the occassional "ouch" every time a ball is baing fired. it was tania who retrieved the clue first, followed closely by fuzzie.

the teams were then instructed to fly to ho chi mihn city and proceed to the sydney opera house to get their next clue. in the flight to vietnam, the teams were split into 3. ida and tania took the earliest flight to vietnam at 2:40pm. the next group includes 5 teams, geoff & tisha, henry & bernie, ad & fuzzie, niroo & kapil and sam & vince. they took a later flight with stop over at siem reap, cambodia. the 3 remaining teams, mai & oliver, natalie & pailin and william & isaac, took the flight that would depart at 7am the next day. staying overnight at the airport, natalie experienced a breakdown. it was not irritating to watch because it was not an outburst. it looked natural and she just broke the barrier and becomes relateable to other beople despite her status.

in vietnam, teams scrambled to proceed to the opera house, ad & fuzzie wasted time because they said that there were 2 opera house in the city. teams were then instructed to proceed to saigon pho cafe where both team members needs to complete a nokia phone game, system rush using a nokia n88 phone. the guys had an easy time finishing the game, except probably for niroo. the girls were impressive enough to finish it after some tries. they were then instructed to proceed to a flower shop in ben thanh market to retrieve their next clue.

upon arriving at the market, the stores are already closed. the stores would open at 6am, according to the hours of operation sign posted on the store. but ida & tania and sam & vince talked to locals and informed them that the stores opens at 7am.

the next morning; geoff & tisha, niroo & kapil, ad & fuzzie and henry & bernie got to the flower shop at 6am, getting the clues first. the clue instructed them to proceed to cai be bus station for their next clue. they took the bus to cai be together, approximately a 2 hour bus ride. at 7am, sam & vince and the malaysian team retrieved their clue and was surprised to find out that the stores opens at 6am. in bangkok, the other 3 teams' flight departed for vietnam.

in the cai be bus station, teams encountered a detour; a choice between sampan and some walk. in sampan, teams need to load fruits and vegetables on to a sampan, a traditional vietnam boat and deliver the goods to a floating market. in some walk, teams need to catch 20 chickens and deliver them to a store in a nearby market. about 3 teams choose sampan but it proved to ba a difficult task. they all switch back to some walk. catching chickens really proved to be hard for some teams, especially for some of the girls. it was also hard to transport the chickens to the market. eventually, it was henry & bernie who finished first.

teams were then instructed to proceed to thanh nu jeanne dark vang lang church in ho chi minh. in front of the church, the next clue told them about charity work. they need to help one of the "friends in need" and spend the USD500 given by singha beer. it was a great chal;lenge because the teams did not help only 1 charity, the helped nine. most amazing race charity challeneges would focus on one charity, but helping 9 charities in one day is really awesome. most of the teams enjoyed the challenge, even mingling with the orphans. it was a great stress reliever in the race.

the teams then proceed to saigon post office to retrieve a clue that told them to proceed to the 2nd pit stop of the race, the museun of vietnamese history. the last team to check in may be eliminated. it was a dash to the finish, with henry & bernie of malaysia winning the leg and a year supply of caltex fuels. rankings of the first 6 teams are as follows:

1st - henry & bernie

2nd - ad & fuzzie

3rd - sam & vince

4th - niroo & kapil

5th - geoff & tisha

6th - ida & tania

the last 3 teams were then shown struggling to get back in the race. in the nokia challenge, it was william & isaac on the advantage, having been video game players for so long. at the detour, they had a hard time finishing the task, the 2 thai teams were able to overtake them. the lead of the 2 thai teams was enough for them to take the last 2 spots. final ranking are as follows:

7th - natalie & pailin

8th - mai & oliver

9th - william & isaac

this made the south korean team the 2nd team to be eliminated in the race.

the episode was a great one, with tough challenges to go with it. the detour was tough, even the boys had a hard time finishing it. the detour was also great, there was no easier task, both proved to be hard and challenging. in the end, it boils down to commitment, perseverance and commitment. as we all know, communication is a key to this race and this is a factor that most teams really need to work on.

the episode also shown some aspects of the challengers we have not seen yet. there was natalie's breakdown which shows her soft spot. we saw henry's breakdown which was so emotional and was so different from the henry we saw in the previous leg. there was also geoff's competitiveness, i don't actually equate it to arrogance but this is what competitiveness leads to, but he must watch his actions because other teams starts to hate him.

the leg was shown for 90 minutes not necessarily because it was a very hard leg but due to the large time difference encountered. the last 3 teams are about 3 hours behind the lead pack. but if the teams were neck to neck, this would fit in to a 1 hour episode. it was great to see that flights are becoming the deciding factor in the leg. in previous seasons, flights are the great equalizers and eats up some of the team's lead.

this season proves to be an exciting season and i am already looking forward to the next leg.

picture was taken from the official site of amazing race asia season 3.

amazing race asia season 3: episode 1 review

after several months of anticipation, the amazing race asia finally debuted on axn last night. being dubbed as "the toughest race ever"; race fans all over asia expects an exciting season ahead of us. having been a fan of TAR and TARA, i myself has been waiting for the premiere of the show to see how tough this season will be. from the racers revealed special episode, we saw how diverse the casting has been for this season. compared to the other 2 seasons of TARA, i think this is the most diverse mix of racers we ever had. but it is still full of racers with celebrity status in their hometowns (it includes former beauty queens, tv hosts, actress, actors and models); which has been a norm for the past seasons of TARA.

the race started in bangkok, thailand and was kicked off by an eating challenge. last season also had an eating challenge on the first episode (the balut challenge in manila). they were tasked to eat bugs, frogs and scorpions, which are local delicacies in thailand. some of the teams had a hard time doing the task. henry and bernie finished first and was first to leave; followed by the beauty queens from thailand and the philippine team. the next teams finished closely behind them, with sam & vince finishing last in this challenge.

the next task was to proceed to a caltex station and clean a car. henry & bernie got lost and were overtaken by the beauty queens and the geoff & tisha.teams arrived at the gas station surprised, for they found out that they would be cleaning a passenger bus rather than a "car" which was stated on their clues. i think this is the most amazing car wash chellenge in amazing race history. most of the teams had a hard time finishing the task. it also rained while they were doing the task, which was a great help and a morale booster for them. sam & vince also provide comic relief at this point of the race (remember the munchkin cleaning the bus?). despite arriving in the station 2nd to the last, henry & bernie managed to finish first.

the next task was to sign up and board the bus that would take them to wat phai rong wua. the first 3 teams woiuld be on the 1st bus, the next 3 teams on the 2nd bus and the other teams on the last bus. mai & oliver took 2nd place but did not read the clue and left the gas station. this allowed neena & amit and the beauty queens to overtake them and go on the first bus. the second bus left with geoff & tisha, mai & oliver and ida & tania. the other teams took the last bus.

at wat phai rong wua, they were tasked to find their clues that were placed randomly on statues. the place contains hundreds of statues and what was worse was that it was already dark when they arrived. another catch was that the bus that they used getting there will leave the place exactly 20 minutes after they arrived. the teams from the 1st bus had a hard time finding the clues. the 2nd bus arrived soon and some of the teams did well, finding clues ahead of the others. mai & oliver and geoff & tisha was able to catch the first bus. henry and bernie boarded alone on the 2nd bus. all the other teams were on the last bus.

the teams then went to chiang mai, thailand where they encountered a detour, a choice between rice or race. in rice, they would pound rice to make rice cake and on race, they are tasked to drive a buggy along an 8 kilometer dirt track. most teams choose rice. i think only ida & tania and william & isaac choose race. but some teams switched to race after a grueling time pounding rice. the first team to finish the task was mai & oliver, followed closely by geoff & tisha. these 2 teams has been working together half of the race so they decided to go to the pit stop together and decide who will check in first by rock, paper and scissors.

upon arrival at the pit stop, mai had a hard time going to the mat, arriving last after oliver, geoff and tisha. but they were lucky as mai won the rock, paper, scissor m,atch with tisha and they checked in first. geoff & tisha checked in second, acknowledging mai & oliver's help in this leg and they said the that they deserve to check in first (hope this would bring them good karma in the next legs... and this made them more likeable). sam & vince originally arrived 4th but did not paid their taxi so they have to go back. 3 teams overtook them and they checked in 7th. neena & amit got lost on their way to the pit stop, they checked in last and were eliminated. team stadings are as follows: mai & oliver (thailand), geoff & tisha (philippines); henry & bernie (malaysia); natalie & pailin (thailand); ida & tania (malaysia), william & isaac (korea), sam & vince (hong kong), ad & fuzzie (singapore), niroo & kapil (india) and neena & amit (india).

it was great that for the first time in TARA history, the first leg is an elimination leg. it would definitely be so predictable if this was a NEL. it would also get boring. it was definitely a great episode, the tasks proved to be challenging and the racers were great. but i think they still need to step up more to live up to the tag line "the toughest race ever." i've seen harder challenges in TAR and earlier seasons of TARA. but we have more episodes coming in the next weeks so we expect harder tasks and challenges.

my early favorites are geoff & tisha and henry & bernie. i did not like the fact that mai considered quitting after finishing the first leg on the top position. i know that the race is really beyond her comfort zone but joining TARA needs so much mental preparation. there are hundreds of teams that applied for the position and it would be a shame giving up your slot that way. my wildcard would be sam & vince because they seem to be enjoying themselves in the race. my darkhorse would be william & isaac.

it was a great episode and i am very much looking forward to next week.

photo is taken from the amazing race asia season 3 official website. this blog is also published in my multiply account: http://diyeysiaquino.multiply.com/