Amazing Race 15: Episode 1, Part 2

By Daron Aldridge

October 5, 2009

Eighteen hours and several tubs of sushi from now, they'll look less happy.

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In rain-soaked Vietnam, the brothers and girls share a van to a bus terminal that will take them to Cai Be village. As the board the van, Dan says "poker, poker, poker, poker," to the girls in a joking and dorky way. The girls just giggle and say "you're cute." Maybe Tiffany and Maria are possessed by Lloyd Bridges circa the Airplane movies.

Ho Chi Minh City is essentially flooded and mopeds are driving in and out of traffic in about a foot of water. This gives producers plenty of gasps, winces and cringes from the teams' point of view as their taxis narrowly miss several other motorists. Please wait a second while I make a mental note: Find out when they filmed in Vietnam and do not visit unless an entire suitcase is dedicated to slickers and galoshes. All right, I'm back.

Apparently, Flight Time and Big Easy heard (we assume from the poker groupie) on the plane that Tiffany and Maria aren't the selfless non-profit workers they claimed. Any sympathy this cover story might have curried from the Globetrotters is gone.

At the bus station, the girls and brothers on the next bus to leave for Cai Be at 3:30 p.m. As Flight and Easy, then Ron and Marcy, and Mika and Canaan board the bus, Tiffany keeps declaring that there is no room for anyone else. This first bus leaves Ho Chi Minh City with only these five teams, so there very well could be a gap.




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As the remaining teams arrive at the station, they discover that their bus at 4:45 p.m. puts them trailing the others by more than an hour. Check out the big brain on Brian. He suggests paying the bus driver more to get them to leave and Garrett fleshes this plan out more by saying they should just buy the rest of the tickets. First the seat swap on the plane and now this. Brian may have choked (yeah, I said it) in Sushi Roulette but he seems to be thinking really well on his feet to come up with unconventional solutions.

And it's another successful finagling as they get to leave early. During the course of the bus ride, a guy with no jacket in the middle of this downpour gets on. Zev takes note of the situation and gives him his jacket. He explains it matter-of-factly as "he probably needs it a little more than me." Ericka gushes about the gesture. Way to go, Zev, Miss America is impressed with you.

The second clumping in a row at a challenge is on tap. The first bus arrives but the designated dock doesn't open until the morning so the other bus will assuredly catch up. The sad thing is that those teams spent the extra money unnecessarily but that is the gamble they had to take. I will make an amendment to the previous statement: Airports and hours of operation remain the great equalizers in the Amazing Race.

It's time for a multi-team camp out, social evening. Here are the pearls of wisdom that result.


Continued:       1       2       3       4       5       6

     


 
 

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