TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 11

Apologies for being very late in posting about the show this week. I was staying at a hotel with pretty poor Internet access (though that may have been true across the whole island I was on) and even poorer TV reception. I probably could have scheduled things better to watch the show on time, but I guess I needed a break from the hectic world by going low-tech and sauntering at a 28.8 kbaud pace.

This week's show began with a repeat of the exciting 3-way finish from last week with several shots of Monica giving the Hippies the evil eye accompanied by a wicked nose scrunch. Once again the Hippies relied on the other teams to bail them out, though they also were resourceful in asking the hotel if they had anything in "lost and found" to give away. It was funny to see BJ actually wear Yolanda's spandex pants and Eric lie about donating the sandals. MoJo incurred the Bad Karma this week by holding a grudge much too long.

Australia must have a bustling night life. It was probably 3am when the Hippies went out begging for money and had no problems finding people. "Last Call" in SF is 2am, effectively shutting down the partying relatively early in this little corner of the planet.

Persistence is the lesson for this week. The Hippies used it to grab seats that opened up on a previously full flight that was scheduled to land earlier than the flight taken by the other teams. That did not quite work out, but they were willing to check out ALL the ticket counters at the bus terminal and still catch up with the other teams. This may be where MoJo lost the race. Despite Joseph's gut warning him there might be shady business going on, they decided to listen to people who said that the bus to Lopburi would not leave until the morning. [I suspect one bus company did not want to lose more business to the other, so they may have lied to Team MoJo. I wonder how much business the company with the blue signs will lose to the one with the red signs because of tourists who have seen this episode.]

Yolanda displayed her "ESPN" abilities by divining that a Fast Forward challenge with a clue of "an after school favorite" would involve cricket. Of course she was thinking of the sport rather than eating a bowl of stir-fried insects. At first I thought BJ would have a harder time eating that stuff but it was Tyler who ended up vomiting more frequently. BJ got through things by comparing the ordeal to a Turkish prison and lamenting that he thought he had ordered Pad Thai (one of my favorite Thai dishes). They both persisted at that task and won the leg of the race. I'd never be able to each that much any food in one sitting.

Back at the road block, the team had fun with monkeys. It's unfortunate the losing contestants do not appear on David Letterman's show. Dave's assistant, Stephanie, used to always ask the Survivor losers, "Did you get to see or touch any monkeys?" The Frat Boys got to do both while subtly advertising a snack food in the process. I guess Eric found a good reason to wear a T-shirt with a tuxedo design while serving food to the cute but voracious monkeys. Then kudos to the editing team for piecing together a funny shot of Monica cursing at the monkeys, then stuffing huge handful of trail mix into her mouth.

MoJo once again had a chance to stay alive in the race but had trouble finding the next clue while Ray-Yo continued to improve their sense of direction and find the clue earlier. From watching the post-game interviews it sounds like MoJo completed the physical task in less time than it took the other teams to apply slivers of gold leaf to a Buddha statue. They finished about 15 minutes behind Ray-Yo but started their task later and lost another 20 minutes locating a taxi.

- The flight from Darwin to Bangkok involved going south to go north. I hate those kind of flights.
- The finish was not as exciting as the two weeks but that would have been asking too much.
- MoJo never won a leg or a prize the whole race, but it sounds like they will be happy to just have each other (no mushy tears from me though).
- Next week, Mt Fuji, and the coolest shots I've seen of Tokyo since Lost in Translation.
- For once, I have no idea who will win this thing, but I suspect I'd be part of a majority if I bet on the Hippies. The previews show a final task involving some physical work in the ice and snow, and that might favor the Frat Boys.