Episode 16.09 – Dumb Did Us In
The Leg
Jet & Cord open their clue first and find out they will be traveling by bus and train to Singapore. Once there, they would travel to the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall and find Amazing Race Asia host Allan Wu, who will give them their next clue.
  
They catch the first bus to Kuala Lampur at 10:47am, while Carol & Brandy are alone on the next bus at 11:00am. Louie & Michael, Brent & Caite, and Dan & Jordan all catch the 12:00pm bus.
All teams end up catching a 9:30pm train to Singapore. The next day, just before arriving in Singapore, teams get ready and start to cluster around their beds. Carol & Brandy try to squeeze through, but the petty grudge-holders won’t budge.
The teams arrive in Singapore and scramble for taxis. Caite falls on her ass while the other teams get cabs. The cowboys are in last.
At the Victoria Theatre, Louie & Michael and Carol & Brandy arrive first but head inside. Dan & Jordan stay outside and immediately find Allan who gives them their clue, which also includes the clue for the only Fast Forward in the Race. Teams will go to the Singapore Flyer, the tallest observation wheel in the world where they will ride a capsule until it reaches the top at 541 feet. There, they will exit the capsule and walk along a metal beam to the next capsule over. When they make their way over, they’ll get the next clue. Dan & Jordan decide to go for it.
  
Back at the Concert Hall, Louie & Michael head back outside and run into the cowboys as they find Allan together. The detectives are about to punch Allan since he isn’t automatically give them the clue. The cowboys wait patiently and Allan shakes their hand before opening the clue, the Detour.
In this Detour, teams will take part in two different worlds of Singaporean life.
In Pounding the Drums, teams make their way to a park called Speakers’ Corner where they will learn a complex routine on traditional drums. When their teacher thinks they’re ready, they’ll head on stage and perform with the Drum Troupe to receive their next clue.
In Pounding the Pavement, teams travel to a plaza in Rochor where they’ll obtain supplies and 10 boxes of ice cream. Working with an Ice Cream Uncle cart, teams must sell 25 ice cream sandwiches made with ice cream and either wafers or slices of bread to the locals.
Except Dan & Jordan, all the teams choose the drums. They get schooled by little kids and the detectives couldn’t handle being shown up by little kids so they go for the Fast Forward. Sucks for them because the brothers have already arrived and started. They head back down but their taxi driver is nowhere to be found. Good for them.
Dan & Jordan complete the Fast Forward and get their clue for the Pit Stop, Marina Barrage. They take a boat there and meet up with Phil who officially checks them in as Team #1. They win a pair of motorbikes.
  
The detectives get to the ice cream and start selling while the other three teams are still having trouble with the drums. Jet & Cord go up on stage and try but Cord gets lost fast. Brent & Caite head up next and do it. They get the next clue telling them to head to the intersection of Penang Road and Orchard Road where they’ll have find to Istana Park.
They get there and excitedly find the U-Turn which they happily use on Carol & Brandy. They get the next clue telling them to head to the ASL Marine Shipyard.
Louie & Michael forces their cab driver to buy 10 ice creams from them so they can finish as Carol & Brandy beat the cowboys at the drums and then beat the detectives to the next clue but find out their fate. They go do the other side of the Detour.
Brent & Caite arrive at the shipyard and find the Road Block where teams will have to count the 521 links on a large anchor chain. And no Phil, this is not a stressful task.
Brent finishes and they get their next clue telling them to go to the MegaZip at Sentosa Island.
The detectives arrive at the shipyard next and decide to use their counter to count the links. Not legal and in their insistence on doing it, they don’t read their clue correctly and leave behind the necessary clipboard. The cowboys are right behind.
  
Carol & Brandy finish the ice cream and head back to Istana Park as their U-Turners finish the zip line at MegaZip and receive their clue for the Pit Stop.
The former Miss Teen South Carolina finish the leg in 2nd such as tiara.
Carol & Brandy arrive at the shipyard just before the detectives and the cowboys finish the Road Block. The cowboys dash off and Louie & Michael want to steal Carol & Brandy’s taxi, telling the driver they don’t said they didn’t need him anymore and that they are people who will be mean to him. He’s a good driver though, so he doesn’t fall for their lies.
But, the cowboys finish 3rd and the detectives manage to escape karma to get 4th, leaving Carol & Brandy in last and eliminated.
Episode Thoughts
First off, my dream of an Amazing Race US and Amazing Race Asia crossover almost came true with the appearance of TARA host Allan Wu as a cluegiver. It would’ve been even more awesome if he greeted the teams at the Mat instead of Phil. Or if the TARUS and TARA teams bumped into each other during a crazy leg. Ah well. Bertram has said in an interview that would be too crazy.
This leg was very interesting. It was a busy leg, but the tasks were relatively easy and simple (what else is new?). And the extra route markers were very straight forward.
I did enjoy the Detour for having the teams either directly interacting with the locals or being pwned by kids in something. The drums were a great cultural task and it is always fun seeing kids on the Race at the destinations. The ice cream selling was great since it had the teams in busy settings with lots of people and actually having them interact with the locals is something that’s been lacking this season. Though having your taxi driver finish your task for you is worthy of an eye roll.
The Road Block was boring since it could’ve been done anywhere there was a port or dock. Plus the distractions TAR seemed to include were far from and probably were not as intrusive as it seemed… and they were already pretty lame to begin with. Where’s the challenge? This definitely pales in comparison to past counting challenges where it actually involved thinking and using your brain, like in TAR3 or the Ikea Detour in TAR6. Even the gold conversion Detour last season.
The Fast Forward… *sigh*… I know it’s a budgetary and cost-cutting decision to eliminate the Fast Forward from every leg, but I long for the early seasons when the Fast Forward was not only a chance for teams to pick themselves up and jump to the front, but also legitimate drama that didn’t involve flimsy personal attacks on other teams. Which is basically what the U-Turn has turned into. People thought the Yield was cruel. Huh? The U-Turn is 10x worse, especially when Detours are not of equal difficulty (like in France a couple of weeks ago).
It was an okay leg, saved mostly by the destination, Singapore itself. I want to try an ice cream sandwich now. With bread. Otherwise, I agree with the promos for this week, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Unfortunately, that is a true statement. This season has a 50/50 shot of being doomed in terms of winner. Let’s hope that at least drops to 33% chance of suckage in two weeks.
Oh, and random hilarity. When they mentioned Orchard Road on the episode, I immeadiately thought of the hilarious video of dethroned Miss Singapore Ris Low talking about strutting down Orchard Road in Singapore in her piece of bikini. Watch it!
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Adrian
