Episode 8

Episode 8

That was close!  

Go to the Ruins of St. Paul We started early in the morning at the Temple and had to go to the Ruins to get the next clue which directed us to go back to the Macau Tower.  We were lucky that some kids were touring around on scooters and happened to be hanging around at the temple area.  We used their phones to call a taxi to come get us. 

Macau Tower Of course … I knew that the next task would require someone to bungee… what other challenge would there be to do?  We arrived second and it was an “hours of operation” in effect so we just stayed there and waited it out.  The four teams all bunched together to wait.  When the doors opened it was a Roadblock.  To even out the Roadblocks Sam decided to do the bungee jump.  I really wanted to do it actually but for strategy we needed to even it out.  The teams members remaining stayed at the bottom of the tower to wait and we all cheered the other competitors together!  When we got the clue it told us to go back to Hong Kong by ferry and then to go to the MASkargo holding centre.  Little did we know that Geoff and Tish actually took the helicopter ( which is much faster).  

MASkargo When we got to the cargo holding centre there were MILLIONS of different sized boxes with names that were very similar to all the team members.  We had to be very patient but work quickly and efficiently.  When watching it on TV… Sam actually missed the box with our names on it… haha!!  He’s supposed to be the patient, calm and analytical one too!  I found the box on our second sweep!  When we opened the box we had to read the letters out loud to the camera before receiving our next clue.  My letter was from a family friend in Hong Kong and Sam’s was from his parents.  I tried to hold back my emotions but Sam like most of the teams was overcome with emotion.  We had been racing for so long and it was great to hear from someone from home.  It did hit me though in the taxi ride to the airport and I was a little “spaced”(as seen when exiting the taxi).

Cochin India

We had to travel to Cochin India so when we got to the airport in Hong Kong we we confident that we knew what we were doing.  After all it was our home turf and we were 2nd and in front of the other teams.  We asked multiple desks and figured out every possible way to get to Cochin.  

Now again the next few events made a difference in the final outcome of this leg.  

We had found a flight to MUMBAI on AIR INDIA but were unable to purchase tickets because of a somerestrictions…..!!!!  We pleaded with the counter and looked for loopholes but we were unsuccessful.  ( now … this is the SAME flight that AD &FUZZIE and IDA&TANIA eventually took to Mumbai to transfer to Cochin.. to this day I HAVE NO IDEA how they were able to secure this WHEN both Bernie and Henry and our team were UNABLE TO PERSUADE them…)  We shared our info with all the other teams that were there at the airport and told them what our plan were.  Ida and Tania weren’t even at the airport at this time, it was just AD FUZZIE and BERNIE HENRY…

instead of waiting for the next bookable FLIGHT…The next best thing to do was to fly to Singapore from Hong Kong on an earlier flight to catch a flight to Mumbai and then transfer in MUMBAI to the AIR INDIA flight to COCHIN ( the same COCHIN flight that AD &FUZZIE and IDA&TANIA eventually took).  Three teams were all clumped together at the same ticket counters and internet terminals After doing their own research and thinking about the situation Bernie and Henry decided that this was best for their team too since (they had a choice to stick with AD and FUZZIE whom did not buy any tickets to anywhere yet at this point ) there should have been no problem getting to Cochin because we had more than 2 hours to do this when arriving in MUMBAI… but… We had actually arrived in Mumbai ahead of AD & FUZZIE and IDA & TANIA) but because we had not taken an Air India flight into Mumbai we had to do customs and check out and then check back in… ( or something like that) … For some reason this process took an excess of 2 HOURS… both of our teams were quite discouraged and because this should not have happened.  IT SHOULD NEVER TAKE THIS LONG….

Because of this … we had to think on our feet and the next best thing to do was to travel to the domestic terminal and take a flight on a domestic carrier to Cochin… but again… we had to wait and hoped that the hours of operations were going to slow the other teams down.

When arriving to Cochin in the morning both of our teams knew that this would probably be it … either us or them … but we both help each other to the Temple to get the next clue.  

Temple When arriving at the Temple we got our blessing and then our next clue.  It required us to travel quite a distance to wash an elephant.  

Washing the ElephantBy this time we knew that we were the last two teams because there were only two clues left in the box in front of the temple.  This is when you run on adrenaline… haha and you are at the mercy of your transportation.  THE KEY… IS NOT TO GET LOST… which in a foreign land is not easy to do… After about an hour and a half drive we arrived at our elephant washing destination and picked the elephant that was closest to the water.  We quickly washed the elephant and made sure to handle it with respect and care…

DETOUR FISH or FILL

After reading the clues I thought that carrying fish would be the better choice.  We were wired and I don’t think that concentrating on a delicate task would be good … as well the location of the FISH task seemed to be more well known so FISH it was. When we got there we saw the GIANT fish that we had to TRANSPORT… MAN THEY WERE HUGE!!  This was a RACE dammit so I decided to power through and take 2 at a time… the fish were slippery, frozen, smelly and awkwardly balanced.  The first trip was torturous because we had NO idea how far and where the restaurant was.  We figured that someone there would know and that they would help us … luckily some dude showed us the way.  It was quite a long trek… maybe 15 minutes pf walking with the fish over my shoulders and then  having to walk upstairs to drop it off … grrr. I was ANGRY hahaha…  the second trip was much better because we knew how far we had to walk and could pace ourselves.

Bolgatty Palace. After delivering the 6 fish we finally got the Pit Stop clue.  We ran to our taxi who kindly stayed for us and got on our way… all we could do is pray that he knew where to go and that there would be no traffic.  It was the longest taxi ride since we had no idea where Henry and Bernie were…maybe we figured that they had done the Fill task but were not sure if they were ahead or if we would be able to beat them in a footrace.  In the taxi we both agreed that we had done the best that we could and that we would be content with the results no matter what they were when we arrived at the mat!  When we got near to the area… another car had come out of nowhere and plugged up the single lane way… we honked and honked but they wouldn’t leave so we decided to pay the taxi driver and run to the pit-stop he said it was about 5 minutes away … MORE like 15 minutes away and the the actual pit stop was deep into the palace grounds near the water…

I was exhausted from carrying the fish, and running from the taxi , searching for the pit stop while carrying my backpack… we jumped onto the mat and waited for Alan’s response…. You are team number….. FOUR….!!!

We actually had mixed feelings because we knew that we had scraped by and avoided elimination but that meant having to say good-bye to Henry and Bernie who are really cool and funny.  The Race definitely became more serious at that point since there were only four teams left.

Team Hong Kong… LUCKY TO BE… ALIVE NOT DEAD …..

VMC