Recap: The Amazing Race 3, Episode 9 (Hour 2) – “It’s the day of wetness.”

Recap: The Amazing Race 3, Episode 9 (Hour 2) – “Why Did You Have to Take Your Pants Off?”

Teams are transported to Lucerne where they will begin the 10th Leg of the Race. From there, they will have to make their way to Geneva and find the next clue under the Jet d’Eau.

The clue tells teams to make their way to the Petronas Towers in the country represented by the flag in their clue envelope. Teams have to figure out the flag is Malaysia’s and the towers, the tallest in Asia, are in Kuala Lumpur.

Derek & Drew celebrate their birthday today as they arrive at the Jet d’Eau. Ken & Gerard’s taxi driver knows what flag it is while John Vito & Jill go to a nearby hotel at the airport to find out.

Flo & Zach say they tend to forget Teri & Ian are still in the Race. Flo thinks they’re lost somewhere, but actually, Teri & Ian are already at the Jet d’Eau. They even know the flag belongs to Malaysia.

The airport is still closed so all teams catch up to each other as soon as it opens.

Teri & Ian are able to book the first and best flight out of Geneva at 7:50am to Kuala Lumpur via Zurich and Vienna on Swiss. The other teams fly out much later via Paris to Kuala Lumpur on Air France.

Teri & Ian are already in Malaysia while Flo and Drew are continuing their flirting on the plane. Zach says it was symbolic how one seat separated him and Flo while another man was moving in.

The trailing teams still think Teri & Ian are far behind them. But they are actually already at the Petronas Towers. They open the next clue telling them to have a local take a photo of them in front of the towers using a provided Kodak EasyShare Digital Camera.

They must then walk one mile to the Ampang Park Shopping Center to develop their pictures and receive the next clue on the back.

Flo & Zach and Derek & Drew continue to ridicule Teri & Ian even though they are still in the train from the airport while the married parents are already on their way to developing their photo.

Teri & Ian maintain their lead as teams must now take a train to Singapore and find Margaret Thatcher (an orchid) in the National Orchid Garden.

When the other teams finally get their acts together, they are shocked when the photomat owner tells them Teri & Ian have long gone. The other teams continue to whine about how in the world Teri & Ian have beat them here to Malaysia.

Unfortunately for Teri & Ian, the next train to Singapore leaves in two hours. That allows the other teams to catch up. Flo continues questioning how impossible it is that Teri & Ian managed to get in front of them.

In between her whining, Flo continues her flirting with Drew on the train ride.

Upon arrival in Singapore, the teams find that the National Orchid Garden is already closed for the day. So they all look for places to stay for the night. Zach, very cautious about their money, suggests the YMCA. But Flo will not have any of that. She whines to Drew that Zach is being so unreasonable.

Flo & Zach and Derek & Drew end up finding a nice hotel instead and share a room. Flo says her ideal set-up would’ve been her and Drew in their own room, but not her and Drew in the same bed in the same room with Zach.

Anyway, next morning, the teams head to the National Orchid Garden and wait for the 8:30am opening.

The clue inside reveals the Detour: Dry or Wet. In Dry, teams will drive themselves to an apartment building on Choa Chu Kang Way to find the unit where Singaporean TV star Gurmit Singh aka Phua Chu Kang is waiting with their next clue. Teams will have to navigate the confusing streets and apartment corridors to find him. In Wet, teams must head to the Singapore Zoo and find the manatee enclosure. They must put on wetsuits and swim alongside them to receive the next clue.

Flo & Zach, Ken & Gerard and John Vito & Jill choose Dry while Teri & Ian and Derek & Drew choose Wet.

Flo & Zach decide to just follow Ken & Gerard to the apartments. Derek & Drew end up following Teri & Ian to the zoo. John Vito & Jill, meanwhile, are lost, having gone the complete other way.

Teri & Ian are happy that they bought disposable paper underwear to use on the Race instead of having to wash cotton underwear all the time.

The four leading teams finish the Detour and must now find the Fountain of Wealth in Suntec City.

Zach and Gerard try to figure out the directions using the map Zach has. Gerard asks if he can borrow the map and he can use it as they drive over together. But Zach hesitates and isn’t too keen on handing their own, superior map over to them. Sensing that hesitation, Gerard says forget it and he goes back into the car to leave them.

Flo cannot believe this. She says it’s only fair for Zach to hand over the map when they followed Ken & Gerard here. She takes the map and hands it to Ken who promises not to lose them.

Flo yells at Zach and calls him an asshole. Zach says he’s tired of getting yelled at.

Gerard says he has no problem if they end up losing Flo & Zach along the way. Ken says he will not do any such thing and the brothers get testy with each other over it.

Derek & Drew move into first place when they arrive at the fountain. They run into the fountain and grab the clue pointing them to the Pit Stop atop Mount Faber. They drive over and officially check-in as Team #1, also claiming their 7-night European vacation on Royal Caribbean’s Splendour of the Seas cruise ship.

Ken & Gerard are 2nd and Flo & Zach are 3rd. Teri & Ian manage to finish 4th.

That means John Vito & Jill are last and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

It really is crazy watching TAR3 again, but recapping it this time. Because I am more conscious about the little things and am more critical of the Legs and the teams.

Take this Leg for example. I remember only good things about it. But now I’m like, what in the world is this?! It’s another poorly designed Leg that’s again, so typical of early TAR. (Though maybe I only feel that way because Teri & Ian’s lead was erased by the Leg design lol They could’ve gotten their first non-Fast Forward win if the Leg had been in Kuala Lumpur only. lol)

First off, I liked the good clue with the flag. I would assume most people know the Petronas Towers are in Kuala Lumpur today though? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s just because I’m Asian and have watched every single TARUS and TAR Asia season lol. So I immediately know about the Petronas Towers.

But how crazy to think the Petronas Towers were the tallest in Asia at the time. Now there’s buildings twice its height in Asia! Even crazier, I just checked and the Ampang Park Shopping Centre was demolished in 2018! What?! What a world away 2002 is to today, yeah?

Anyway, the Kodak task was fine since it got teams running around downtown Kuala Lumpur. (And Kodak helped with the season’s budget of course.) But thinking back, having one of those digital cameras back then was a big deal. I think the Kodak EasyShare was like $400-$500 each. Not the Travelocity or Royal Caribbean trips of course. But solid prizes for early Legs.

But really, the whole Leg should’ve been in Kuala Lumpur. Not just because Teri & Ian probably would’ve killed it so far ahead. But because the train ride in the middle of the Leg again just brings the Leg and episode to a screeching halt.

One Leg in Kuala Lumpur and one in Singapore would’ve been great. The Detour was fine since each one required different skills.

The Detour was good since it required teams to drive more. I don’t remember any recent Singapore Leg requiring teams to drive. It’s usually taxis now. So having teams drive in Singapore is a refreshing thing to see. Both sides of the Detour were fine and I think pretty balanced. They could’ve made the Dry side of the Detour a little more challenging by maybe having teams go to several apartments. Or give them a few different apartments as choices and they had to guess which one.

But the Road Block! My goodness. The running into the Fountain of Wealth was a Road Block presented as a regular Route Marker task. But TAR detectives have confirmed it was a Road Block. What the hell kind of Road Block is that though?! That has to be the worst, lamest Road Block ever on TAR. At least, it has to be the shortest Road Block ever to complete. Like what was it? Five seconds total?! Yikes! Yes, it was a good luck tradition. But have it be a regular Route Marker. Have both team members run in.

There definitely should’ve been another, better Road Block in Singapore. But because of the chunk in Kuala Lumpur in the beginning, that wasn’t going to happen.

So, as a Leg on paper, this wasn’t the best. But as an episode, the teams again picked up the slack and made it fun, exciting and competitive.

My Subjective Team Rankings

GAP GAP

About the other teams harping on how inexplicable it is Teri & Ian were so far ahead. Like, WTF was that? How jealous of them. Teri & Ian managed to outsmart them and out-finesse them and they were salty. Yuck! One thing to remember though is Teri & Ian are legit All-Stars. So, boo hoo!

(As I just read that over again, I realize John Vito & Jill were also on All-Stars. lol Though first eliminated of course. Hey, I love JVJ. But the anti-Teri & Ian sentiment was very annoying. Lol)

Ken & Gerard, I really appreciated Gerard basically telling Zach to go F himself when he didn’t want to give them the map. Flo & Zach followed them to the apartments. So it’s only fair Zach let them use the map. I think they have a relationship where they can trust each other. So Zach shouldn’t be afraid of Ken possibly losing them. Ken would likely wait for Zach if they got separated at a stoplight. Anyway, I liked Gerard showing that bit of annoyed, competitiveness.

I always liked John Vito & Jill, but this was the perfect time for them to go. Watching and recapping the season over again, I actually love them a little less. Oops. Certainly not as amazing and awesome as I remember them.

This might have been the most annoying Flo & Zach have been on the Race. And I mean both of them. Between their whining about Teri & Ian and the whole map drama, they were pretty annoying. Borderline insufferable. Like, can’t even enjoy their bickering because they felt so entitled and haughty. Ewe.

Derek & Drew were the most Racebot they’ve been so far this season. it wasn’t a surprise they would win considering how poorly designed this Leg was. I want more of Derek yelling at Drew!

Episode Quotes

Drew: “It’s the day of wetness.”

Ian: “Anything goes to win the Race.”