Episode 2

So we live to see another week....

That was a super long leg...

Flight of the GibbonsIt started in Chiang Mai where we were had to look for the Flight of the Gibbons... The streets were completely barren and no one was around... there were no taxis anywhere.  Some teams ended up walking back to the rest stop for that leg.  We wandered around and by chance we saw some people eating at a noodle cart and asked them to use their mobile phone...  After chatting for a bit another patron heard that we needed a taxi so he called a  friend who was a taxi driver to come pick us up...

We were lucky to get a taxi because we saw many teams walking aimlessly around on the street trying to flag down a taxi.  It was about an hour drive to the Flight of the Gibbons and it was up some mountain.  The route marker was hidden and difficult to see because it was pitch black but we were able to see it as we drove up the mountain...  We saw the other teams drive by up and down the road missing the marker.... HAHA.....

Zipping down half the mountain was exhilarating and we were eager to get to the end of the zip lines to get our clue.

Banana Plantation

We had trouble getting a taxi after the Flight of the Gibbons and then ended up getting clogged up in a bunch with the rest of the teams.  There were literally 5 teams that took off together.  We all raced towards the next location.  Our taxi was definitely speeding but somehow other teams still overtook us.  We all arrived in the area where the banana plantation was but all the teams turned into a dead street.  All the taxis did a three point turn and took off but our taxi driver stalled the car and we were left by ourselves.  That's when I got my first "BLEEP"  as I watched all the other teams' taxis leave...haha!

"BLEEP!!"

We finally got our car started but were completely separated from the group and got lost.  We were brought to schools and temples but not the banana plantation.  We had to act out and draw what a banana plantation was to the locals because we couldn't communicate to them.  We finally got there just behind the Beauty Queens ( who are from Thailand... even they got lost).

The Roadblockclue was " Who is steady under fire"  ... That's it... we had no idea what that entailed.  I thought that it had do with shooting something... not evading paintball snipers!   Anyway Sam did the roadblock and it was definitely tough . It was hot, it was difficult to see out of the mask and the snipers were ruthless.  (actually there was some misdirection because Sam was told by somebody that the clue was in a yellow bag... not a camouflage bag and he had walked by that a few times...)

it became more difficult as some of the teams left because that meant less targets for them to shoot at.....  We were there for a very long time... it was just our team for about half and hour.  It was really demoralizing for all participants because once you were hit you had to go and start again... but Sam was able to fight through and find the clue.

Ho Chi Minh City

We flew to HCMC and were very lucky to get onto that flight ... I basically pleaded with an airport staff to hold the flight and she walked us through ahead of other people ... so that we could make the flight!  NICE!! haha..  Once we got to HCMC we were all bunched up at the opera house and found the clue box around the same time.

Pho Cafe

Damn ... I LOVE VIDEO GAMES... and I was confident that we would be jumping ahead of everyone... we got to the cafe in 4th place but we finished the task quickly and got out of there 2nd!!Flower Stall

We searched the market and found the stall but we did not notice that it opened at 6.  All the locals told us that the stalls opened at 7 so we got a hotel and slept for a few hours.  We got to the stall at 6:45 AM and realized that it was already open. We had no idea what place we were in because the other teams had probably got their clue.Cai Be

We booked a ticket on a bus to go to Cai Be and were quite satisfied with ourselves... The journey was a few hours however we were dropped off at the side of the highway 6KM away from the Cai Be exit.... We think that the reason for this was that we were the only ones wanting to go to Cai Be ... and to turn off the highway and to go into Cai Be would waste time and fuel...

We couldn't even call a taxi because we couldn't communicate with the locals. 

We were lucky to convince another bus to go out of their way to take us...

DETOUR Sampan or Some Walk...

We choose Some Walk because we thought that it would be easier to transport chickens...and we choose right!!!!  All the other teams that tried Sampan eventually gave up and went to catch chickens.  When we got there the chickens were running all around the coupe hahaha..I basically pinned the chickens against the fence and grabbed 3-4 and put them in the baskets.  Sam had difficulty catching the chickens because of his phobia of things near his ears....HAHA.  We were able finally catch the 20 chickens and we had to transport it to the wet market..... which was more than a 20min walk away...  It was VERY far... again... it was hot , we were tired and hungry and thirsty ... we had 3 hours of sleep the night before ... and the load that we had to carry was heavy and awkwardly balanced.... the chickens kept on sticking their heads out of the basket and pecked my leg repeatedly!   We finally navigated our way to the proper stall with the help of a local guide and we got our clue.

We saw all the other teams struggle with their task and cheered them on as they were walking past us.

Church and Orphanage

We walked slowly back to the bus and negotiated with Niroo and Kaps ( Indian Team)  to share a bus to go back to HCMC to look for the church.   When we got there we found the clue box quickly and were very happy to see our task.

We were very happy that our charity task was to buy supplies for an orphanage... As a former teacher I love children!  We wanted to maximize our money and so we bought food, vcd players , and cartoons.  We maximized all the money that we were given which was what the clue had asked us to do.  After delivering all of the goods we decided to stay and play with the children. 

I think that buying things for the kids was great but we wanted to give more and I know that the children rarely have visitors.  We stayed and visited two floors. We knew that we wouldn't be first and we knew that we wouldn't be last (because we knew that for sure there were teams behind us) so our placement didn't matter but the time spent with these children would mean so much to them.

One of the little guys even stepped into my shoes and tried to run away... I guess he didn't want us to leave. Post Office and then Pit Stop

We received our clue and went to the post office to look for the clue box that eventually sent us to the pit stop at the Zoo.

Team Hong Kong 3rd ... we live to see another week... tune in Thursday night to AXN for Episode 3!

VMC