Introduction → Leg 1 → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4 → Leg 5A → Leg 5B → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9 → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12
Leg 19.04 – “We can try to swim back, but I think we’d die.”
The fourth Leg for the All-Stars begins as they learn they will be flying to Dili, Timor-Leste!
Teams will be on one of two direct flights from Bali to Dili: Citilink Indonesia arriving at 12:20pm or Sriwijaya Air arriving at 1:40pm.
Upon arrival in Dili, teams must make their way to the ruins of Ai Pelo Prison in Liquica to find their next clue.
That clue directs teams to make their way to Dili Harbor Lighthouse for their next clue.
From here, they must search for a boat that can take them to Atauro Island.
And there, teams will find the Road Block: Who can take Note?
For this Road Block, teams will be given a brand new Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and will scuba dive underwater. They will swim across one of the most diverse coral reefs in the world. Teams will use their Galaxy Note 10 to take photos of two different corals and 10 different fish. Once they have their photos approved, they will receive their next clue.
Teams must now search the island for the Forced Double U-Turn Vote Board!
After voting, teams will settle down for an overnight rest and will depart two at a time, every five minutes beginning at 8am tomorrow.
First thing in the morning, teams head to Beloi Beach where they must build five drying racks where they will then prepare fish and octopus to be hung to dry. Once approved, they will receive their next clue.
Teams must now find themselves a boat that will take them back to Dili.
Upon arrival in Dili, teams must hop on a local microlet that will take them to the Dutch Fort in Maubara.
And here, teams will find the Double U-Turn Reveal Board. As well as the Detour: Weave It or Carve It.
In Weave It, teams must find the Maubara Weaving Cooperative where they will learn how to properly weave baskets. Each team member must choose a different design to recreate. When their baskets are up to the level of the locals’ creations, teams will receive their next clue.
In Carve It, each team member must choose a local wooden carving and learn how to replicate it. When their creations are approved, they will be given the next clue.
This is also the Trigger Point for this Leg of the Race. If more teams choose to perform one side of the Detour than the other, the U-Turn or Yield will be activated.
After each Detour, teams will also be given two samples of the local tais fabric and they must keep it until further notice.
Teams must make their way to Motael Church in Dili where they will find ANOTHER! Road Block. There are no restrictions as to who can perform this Road Block.
For this Road Block, teams must search the nearby market for matching full length tais amongst the many shops. When they’ve found them, teams will then learn how to prepare dye for each of the colors on both their tais designs. They will then dye a set of uncolored tais to receive the next clue.
Teams must now take the newly dyed tais and bring them to Jesus Backside Beach.
Here, teams must hang the tais to dry along the beach in order from darkest to lightest color.
They will then carry a rod of already dried tais and make their way on foot up to…
Cristo Rei.
Other than the Philippines, Timor-Leste is the only other predominantly Catholic country in all of Asia. And here at the foot of this 27-metre-high statue of Jesus Christ is the Pit Stop for this Leg of the Race.
The first team to check-in here will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+.
The last team to check-in here WILL be eliminated.
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“Director’s” Commentary
Another #NewCountryAlert for TARPHDME! And it’s only Leg 4!
Timor-Leste, or East Timor, has definitely been on the TARPHDME shortlist for a while. And it seemed like a good choice for this All-Stars route. Timor-Leste though is definitely one of those places where Google scouting is nowhere near actual on-location scouting to come up with tasks and locations.
So what we have here is just a basic and somewhat standard TAR Leg with very familiar tasks, but in a brand new, fresh location.
First struggle though was the logistics of getting into Dili. There’s direct flights from Bali to Dili. But none that would allow teams to get in early in the morning or late enough at night to have an uninterrupted Leg during the day.
So the only solution was to have a few Route Markers in the late afternoon before an overnight rest. The Samsung-sponsored Road Block gets teams onto Atauro Island for the overnight. It’s a challenging enough task that fills out the afternoon. But simple enough to not really matter before the overnight equalizer.
Like, we don’t want to have all this Racing now before it all gets erased anyway in the morning. Essentially, teams start out on the same level in the morning anyway, like a typical Hours of Operation. But we couldn’t have teams just sitting around all afternoon and night arriving at 12pm-1pm.
Then again, we really could just hold teams until the morning and not even mention it in the episode. But there’s no fun in that. We want to maximize our time in every location. Especially for a TARPH where we gotta squeeze out as much of the budget as possible, in the most efficient way possible too.
Anyway, the Race restarts in the morning with a good task early in the day. Originally, I had teams just cleaning and preparing fish to hang. But I decided to have teams build those drying rack things instead which makes it more physical and time consuming. (Also because, spoiler alert, teams will be cleaning fish in a future Leg I realized lol)
Teams will then hop on a boat back to Dili. The thing here also is we need to secure all these boats for teams as apparently the regularly scheduled boats only set off twice a day or something like that. And you can hire smaller boats, but of course, we need to make sure there’s enough for all teams. Unless we intentionally want to strand teams and have them struggle in the back. Lol I don’t think we’d be that harsh! Lol
Next we have the simple Detour. Both are typical “create something” tasks. And I think they’re both equal, so the U-Turn won’t be so bad here.
The second Road Block should be interesting as it does require several steps. I think it could tightened up a bit. But it basically ties in to the task at the beach. I just wanted to have teams do something at the beach before the Pit Stop. And I also wanted teams to have to carry something with them up the stairs to the foot of Jesus. A perfect task to end a long day.
Overall, what we have here is a pretty good, full Leg that would definitely be improved upon with an actual scouting visit to Timor-Leste.