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Welcome to the fourth leg of The Amazing Race. I hope after last week's episode you called your dad. When we last left our teams, they were hanging out in a rice paddy in Vietnam. Phil informs us that Rob and Mary received medical attention during the pit stop, for dehydration and a sprained ankle respectively. Erwin and Godwin, the first team to arrive, are leaving at 10:55 p.m. The clue says they are to travel by taxi to Hanoi, where they are to find the Ly Thai To Garden. There, they are to listen for their next clue. Godwin reads that the teams have 588,000 dong for this leg of the race, which each team must collect from an older Vietnamese gentleman, who kind of looks likes David Carradine's Grasshopper. The fact that the teams are collecting their cash in local currency, rather than American dollars leads to a whole host of funny "dong" moments like the beauty queens saying "We're here to pick up our dong" and the gay guys saying "Pick up your Vietnamese dong." Yes, I'm 12, why do you ask?

As you may recall from last week, the teams finished fairly close together. Indeed, the Cho brothers are only 53 minutes in front of Tom and Terry, the last team to arrive last week. As an aside, a number of my site mates have disagreed with my assessment of Peter and Sarah, with their feeling being that Sarah freaks too much about her inabilities to complete tasks and that Peter has been supportive. Given that I generally respect these people's opinions, I'm going into this episode with an open mind – so in this recap Peter will be Peter, unless and until he exhibits ass-like behaviors. In an interview at the beginning, Sarah seems to indicate that she's on my side of this issue, but hey – open mind here.

I love the oral clue; which is a disembodied voice emanating from a speaker, giving the teams directions to the next clue box. In a funny little scene, one of the beauty queens says she's very "auditory," which she hopes will help for this task. The editors then give us a scene of the two of them listening intently to crickets for their next clue. The accompanying music is hilarious. I love the TAR editors. The teams start hearing what they are supposed to be hearing – the voice telling them they are to take a taxi across the Red River to Ben Xe Gia Lam, where they are to then get on a bus to Ben Xe Bai Chay, where they are to find the Hydrofoil Harbor. Karlyn and Lyn leave first, despite the fact that they seem unsure that they wrote the clue down correctly, which they prove when they are lost and looking for the Red River to take them to the Hydrofoam Tavern. Haste makes waste, women.

Tyler and James are the first of a number of racers that are smart enough to have their driver listen to the clue. Instead of using coming up with this kind of fine idea, Rob and Kimberly's big strategy is to follow the models' taxi. Of course, their driver loses the model's cab and they are lost. At this point Rob has a particularly bad meltdown, going through not one but two cab drivers who he is convinced are screwing him. In his third cab, Rob says he's "done talking with foreigners." You're the foreigner, dude. I think that dehydration may have taken a bigger toll than he realized.

Luckily for all the teams that were confused by the directions or frustrated by their taxi drivers, there is a bunch at the bus station. The bus is taking all the teams to Ha Long Bay, where the next clue is waiting at Hydrofoil Harbor. It's a roadblock, and the question is, "Which team member has strong arms and legs?" Of course, this is the roadblock that Sarah finally tackles. I'm baffled by Peter and Sarah's strategy, or lack thereof, when it comes to deciding who does what roadblock. Anyway, the teams must take a boat to an island, where there the person doing the roadblock must use an ascender to climb 90 feet up a rock formation. Only three teams can go at a time. The beauty queens again earn the wrath of another team, cutting off the Lyns as they are getting into a boat. While I agree with Karlyn that it was bad form, I'm not sure I agree with her statement Dustin deserved the cut on her leg which she got getting into the boat.

I have to say, on the way to the task, Peter was being supportive and appropriate to Sarah. Rob, David and Terry are the first three up the rock, each of them making it up without much difficulty. The next clue instructs the teams to travel by motor boat to Sung Sot Cave, where they will search for the clue box. Next up the rock are Godwin and Karlyn. Strike one for Peter, as he says "Pull the handicap placard out and tell them you are next in line." So not funny, especially as Sarah was next anyway (of course, this could be editing). Peter is yelling encouragement to Sarah as she's trying to listen to the instructions of the spotter. Sarah has to ask him to stop talking so she can hear. As she ascends, Sarah begins talking to herself, saying she can't, she can't. This is one of the things that my site mates pointed to as evidence of her, well, hypocrisy – saying she's strong and able and then whining about how she can't do these tasks. I see it differently – she seems to be talking herself through the task...she's not screaming to Peter (or anyone) that she can't do it. I doubt he, or anyone outside of mic range can hear her. She ultimately gets up the rock without that much emotion, so I think I'm right on on this point. To be fair to Peter, in a kind of unfair edit, he's seen lounging and drinking soda as Sarah scales the wall. By the way, Dustin takes the rock climb for her team and seems to have a relatively easy time of it.

While this climbing is going on, the first teams are getting to the cave and finding the clue box. It's a detour – Over or Under. In Over, the teams have to ride a junk to a buoy, where they will get on a sampan which they must row to a supply boat. There, they pick up provisions, which they then are to row to two addresses at a floating village nearby. Then, they must row back to the supply boat with a signed invoice to get their next clue. In Under, the teams must take a junk to a buoy, where they will get on a sampan, which they must row to a pearl farm. There, they must collect thirty oyster baskets. Then they must row to a pearl farmer who will collect the baskets and give them their next clue.

Rob and Kimberly, who find the clue box first, decide to do Under and are immediately bickering. They seriously are screaming at each other. Despite this, they manage to finish the task first. They actually leave the pearl farm before most of the teams arrive. Rowing proves to be the downfall of most of the teams. Many of the teams have never rowed a boat before and the sampan is larger and (and the oars are narrower then) a regular row boat. Additionally, the winds seem strong and a few of the teams are rowing right into it. In fact, the models are the only ones that handle the rowing without a problem. In a pot/kettle/black moment, Peter scolds Sarah for encouraging to him while he's trying to row. While Mary and David and the Lyns each head out to do the provisions, the Lyns are the only ones that actually do it, as David and Mary go to the pearl farm when they stumble upon it.

Rob and Kimberly get the next clue, which instructs them to row the sampans back to the junk and have the junk take them to Soi Sim Island, where they will find the next pit stop. Back at the oyster farm, Peter is losing it – yelling at Tom and Terry for coming too close to their line, pushing their boat away, and then directing Sarah in an intense way to hold onto their line so he can get the baskets. Strike two is when he states, "I'm done after this; I don't want to do this anymore." I know he must be tired, but, this task is not that intense – this attitude, which Peter also exhibited at the packing task, is to me more defeatist than anything Sarah's shown. For whatever reason, Tom and Terry can't find any of the baskets, as they are looking at the wrong buoy lines.

Rob and Kimberly check in as Team #1 and win jet skis. The models are done and get their clue. The Lyns are done delivering their products but are having an extremely difficult time getting back to the supply boat, as the wind seems to have picked up considerably. Sarah and Peter finish, get their collecting baskets and are off to the junk. In a strange little interlude, Sarah compliments Peter on rocking the rowing, and he just ignores her. In her one person interview, Sarah states she doesn't like the way Peter is treating her. On the junk, she's crying and says that she really is disappointed when Peter makes comments about quitting because she's giving a 100 percent and she doesn't give up and that she can't feel good about the ground they made up because of these feelings. In strike three for me, Peter gives this look to the camera – a really chilling look. It's creepy. Like serial killer creepy. He's an ass.

Tom and Terry are whining through their basket hunt, while Dustin and Kandice, who got to the pearl farm well after T&T, are pulling baskets at a clip much faster than the boys. This is confirmed later, when they have 22 baskets to Tom and Terry's 16. Peter and Sarah's junk passes the model's junk with good reason – the model's junk was sailing with its anchor still down. I must say that Tyler and James took that much better than I think Rob would have. There must be something to that "God give me the serenity..." 12 step stuff. The anchor issue puts Peter and Sarah as Team #2. Tyler and James check in as Team #3. The Cho brothers get to the pit stop as Team #4.

Dustin and Kandice leave the pearl farm first and get their clue. They read it quickly and think they have to row to the Island, rather than to the junk. The Lyns finally get their clue, and they are off to their junk. David and Mary check in as Team #5. Finally, Tom and Terry pull in enough baskets and they are off to get their clue. (Again the 12-year-old in me was amused by Tom's recitation of "Take your junk to Soi Sim Island). The beauty queens are still looking for Phil in their sampan and Dustin is getting on Kandice about clue care. It seems that they can't re-read their clue as it is too crumbled and wet. Kandice finally divines that they should get on the junk to get to Soi Sim Island, so they head off that way.

Karlyn and Lyn check in as Team #6. Tom, for whatever reason, decides to pull the sampan to the junk. He interviews later that the rowing was too hard and he needed to get out of the boar. Pulling the boar may be admirable from a perseverance standpoint, but it had to slow them down considerably. Once they get on the junk, Dustin and Kandice continue the back and forth as to who is to blame for their clue being mangled. Dustin breaks down and they share a hug, though Kandice seems a bit put off by Dustin's break down. In the end, the beauty queens check in as Team #7, leaving Tom and Terry to be eliminated. This was the first week they didn't really annoy me and they have a touching farewell interview about the strength of their relationship. Bye-bye nerdy yet still stereotypically flamboyant gay guys. I know Mary will miss you most of all.