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The airport exodus in India is the usual frenzied sprint to find a cab. Victor and Tammy get out of there first but most of the teams have little difficulty with their departure. The exception is the father/son team of Mel and Mike. The first cab they dive in has a driver who is unaware of any named tree in the area. They ask him to unlock the trunk of the cab in order for them to retrieve their luggage and find another cab. Rather than acknowledge this request, the man vanishes from sight, stating that he will find out the location. Mel earns my respect by stating to the camera that the race is not important enough to justify dehumanizing the driver by yelling at him, something he will regret all day. The Amazing Race should put that on t-shirts and make contestants wear them each leg.

Those of us who have watched the seasons where participants went to India know what is in store for the next segment. This is the Slumdog Millionaire portion of the show, and I'm talking about the first half with the kids, not the parts with Dev Patel. The contestants see the grim side of life in India and it reduces more than one of them to tears. We'll skip ahead to the next portion rather than mock people for having emotions and a lack of awareness of foreign cultures. Having a Jai Ho earworm should be more than enough punishment for them anyway.

The next challenge sees a great deal of bunching at the start. All of the teams but one wind up on the same one-lane dirt road ordered in a row. Surprisingly, the one team is not Mel and Mike but the flight attendants instead. Seriously, how screwed are they that they can't even bunch properly when the producers try to give them an even chance again? Once the competent racers exit their vehicles, the contestants sprint to the proper area, only to find a pair of "mystic men" sitting by a red phone. None of them thinks through the oddity of that. The editing is a bit confused here as it is unclear why Tammy and Victor are able to make a phone call without the others seeing them. No matter the reason, they complete the challenge and make their getaway long before anyone else is done. The rest of them (painfully) slowly deduce what is required and the entirety of the group heads to Amber Parking, where they presumably will not pass go and will not collect $200.

Victor and Tammy are the first to discover Amber Parking is a maharajah fort where they will be asked to load and carry some food and water to care for camels. Even by The Amazing Race standards, this feels like pointless busy work. Before they can finish, the other teams arrive and all of the contestants wind up agreeing with me on the point. This segment is mainly focused upon shameless shenanigans including a pratfall from Tammy, who isn't even competing, a random camel herder getting kicked to the ground by his steed, and - easily the lowest point - one of the stuntmen doing some Lawrence of Arabia noise in a painfully awkward moment. The good news for the flight attendants is that they arrive right as Victor and Tammy are making their first place exit. This means they aren't that far behind anyone else, and the team that is Mel and Mike are in trouble since the older Mel is struggling in doing the challenge. Maybe the women can overcome their opponents to get a small lead before they have to complete their solo task.

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