Introduction → Meet the Teams → Race Tracker → Leg 1 → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4 → Leg 5 → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9 → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12 → Leg 13 → Leg 14 → Leg 15
Leg 23.15 – “Our Good Bad Memory”
This is it! The Final Leg of the longest Amazing Race Philippines: DryedMangoez Edition ever! Teams fly from Hawaii, USA to Manila, Philippines. The three teams begin the Leg at 9am in front of national hero Jose Rizal at Rizal Park.
This is a Road Block Decision Point and teams must decide now which team member will complete each Road Block: Who wants to hang with J-Bee? And Who thinks they’ll get the right three?
After deciding the Road Block participants, teams must hail a cab to take them to Jollibee Plaza in Pasig where they will take on the first Road Block.
For this Road Block, teams will rappel down Jollibee headquarters. Along the way are various photos of Jollibee holding international flags. Teams must collect the Jollibees holding flags of countries they visited during the Race which have at least one Jollibee branch (Spain, Canada and the United States). When teams have the three Jollibees, they will receive the next clue.
After the Road Block, teams must head to Manila International Container Terminal.
Here, teams will take a speedboat to this ship and search for their next clue atop one of the new cranes waiting to be delivered. What teams don’t know is that they both must tandem bungee off the crane to receive the next clue.
That clue reveals the second Road Block. For this Road Block, teams must figure out three equations using Leg numbers from the Race. The resulting answers will reveal a container number. Teams will use the modern computer system to find the container’s location. They will then be accompanied to retrieve the container and then have it opened to see if the correct clue is waiting inside.
If it is the correct clue, teams must head to this Ice Plant.
This season had a world record-setting 26 Road Blocks! Teams will need to remember which Road Block each team member did and then identify them. To do that, teams must retrieve an ice block and then chip and smash away at it to release tokens. Each token has a symbol representing each Road Block from the Race.
Teams must place the tokens under their names, depending on who completed that Road Block. When correct, teams will receive the next clue.
This is also the Speed Bump location for Elma & Jojo. For their Speed Bump, they must retrieve another ice block which they must chip and smash away at to release their next clue.
That clue tells teams to head to the Cultural Center of the Philippines. And here, teams will find a Double Road Block: Tinikling or Pandanggo.
The team member who chooses Tinikling must find bamboo poles representing the countries they’ve visited on the Race. Those poles can be found amongst the hundreds of cultural dancers performing the tinikling dance.
When they’ve gotten all the correct bamboo poles, they must load them onto a cart and transport them (with their teammate) to the Philippine International Convention Center. Here, teams must place the bamboo poles at waiting stands.
When approved, the teammate who chose Pandanggo must now search amongst hundreds of cultural dancers performing pandanggo sa ilaw for candles representing the two sides of each Detour they’ve encountered during the Race. Each dancer represents a single Detour. And teams must figure out the Detours they encountered during the Race were always in the local language.
Once teams have the correct Detour candles, they can head outside to find their next Route Marker location. Teams must figure out the clue is being projected onto the side of the CCP complex: SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Upon arrival at MOA Arena, teams will encounter the Final Memory Task.
Each team will come across a grid of 15 98″ Samsung QLED 4K televisions and 14 remote controls. Teams must figure out which remote controls which TV. And teams must scroll through the photos to eventually figure out that most of the photos represent the 14 Pit Stop locations during the Race.
Teams must then use the remotes to put the photos in the correct order, according to a provided grid. When they have properly tuned in to the 14 Pit Stop photos, the clue that will pop up on TV #15 is the location of the Finish Line: The Fountain at Okada Manila!
When that clue pops up, teams can now head outside to find a pair of e-bikes. One of which needs to be assembled.
When deemed safe, teams will pedal these e-bikes to Okada Manila in Paranaque.
The first team to arrive at The Fountain Finish Line will win all of this!
Congratulations!
^Click here to follow the teams through the Leg!
“Director’s” Commentary
Wowow! I think this might be the most challenging TARPHDME Final Leg ever! Every single task has a memory component to it. And I think that is fitting to have on this the longest Race ever in TARPHDME history. Pointing to the 15 Legs and the record-breaking Road Blocks and Detours makes sense for this finale.
We did warn the teams at the Starting Line to have good memories! Hehehe
We start this Final Leg by having teams hop into taxis! The first time in a while that TARPHDME has public transport in the Final Leg. But in easing back to a pre-COVID position, having taxis is a way to make a point for that.
For the first Road Block, I wanted to have some kind of rappelling or heights task in the Final Leg. And doing it at the Jollibee headquarters made good sense. But I had to add something to the task so it’s not just boring rappelling. So I inserted the typical flag memory task here. But with the twist regarding Jollibee locations. Once I set this task, I went back and added specific interactions with Jollibee (in Spain) or actual visits to Jollibees (Canada and USA) in order to provide teams with the needed clue that they would have to recall here.
Next up, TARPHDME has visited the Container Terminal before. But it’s an easy location to insert into this NCR-focused Leg. I stumbled upon these cranes being delivered on a ship. And I wanted teams to bungee off of a crane. So how exciting to have to speedboat it to the ship and then have teams be surprised they have to jump off! Two high flying tasks in one Leg woohoo!
Next, I wasn’t sure what kind of Road Block to do here with the containers. A better task is probably there somewhere, but we ended up with this. I wanted teams to do like TAR2 and other TARs that has teams control the cranes to lift containers up themselves. We could do that here while also having the memory equation.
The questions will be stuff like “Which Leg did you do X?” or something like that. Then the resulting numbers reveal the container number. Easy!
Next, I knew I wanted to reference the Road Blocks in some way. So I thought this would be great. Having to use tokens to remember who did which Road Block. But I decided to add the ice block element as a physical facet to the task. I anticipate this to be a tricky task. Or not, if teams have a good memory.
All good tasks so far, but here are the two headliners.
First is the Double Road Block. I had this idea of having to search amongst pandanggo dancers for correct candles. And then it just clicked to have them be Detour options. When I set this half of the Double Road Block, I went back to switch all Detour titles to the local languages. All in an effort to maybe frustrate teams trying to remember.
Originally, I had the pandanggo side of the Detour here at the CCP also. But I thought maybe having to deliver the bamboo across the street to the PICC would be another extra task that can tire out and frustrate teams.
Putting these two sides of the Double Road Block together should hopefully make for an exciting sequence.
Finally, I’ve had this Samsung TV task on the waiting list for two seasons now. So it’s great to have it finally be possible on this third season. I think the big challenges here are first, figuring out which remotes control which TV. (Can you have many remotes in one place to control different TVs? I dunno. Lol)
And then having to figure out what to actually look for. Teams will not be told to find Pit Stop locations. They will have to figure it out by looking at what pictures are being shown the most.
This is also a great opportunity for Samsung promotion too of course lol
Finally, I didn’t want teams to take a taxi to Okada Manila. But biking all the way over there from MOA Arena might seem long, but it is one last task. Who knows, we might see a pedal off to see which team can pass the other on the way to the Finish Line! E-bikes also to help ease the exhaustion a bit.
For the Finish Line, how amazing to have the fountain light show just as Team #1 crosses. It should make for a thrilling moment. And I’m sure Okada Manila will love to sponsor our Finish Line hehe
Overall, another TARPHDME season is over! Completed successfully woohoo! It was actually quite fun putting season together. My faith in TAR has been renewed! Hehehe Thank you to everyone who has watched TARPHDME23! See you next year!