How sad, I was really warming up to the NFL wives/Supremes. They’ve been so good at hustling during previous legs, I don’t know what happened to them after the stop at Bollywood. What took them so freakin’ long to get to the train station?
My favorites are still the clowns but I think they made a mistake at the detour. They’re in last place now, but they should have the opportunity to make it up next week. They haven’t yet used the Fast Forward.
I really started out liking Milly and Chuck, but last week and this they are starting to get on my nerves. Funniest moment of the week: Millie dumping some poor guy’s clean laundry into the dirty washwater. Ha!
Reichen and Chip played really well this week. What do you think of their strategy of taking the flight through Milan? Kind of gutsy but I think it was smart. In the end, it didn’t matter since everyone got bunched up anyway, but it could have made a difference. Of course they could have gotten screwed too, but I think they made the right choice.
Overall, not the most exciting episode this season, but my prediction as to who would be eliminated was way off. I’m going to say once again that Tian and Jaree are the next ones to go.
I didn’t understand why there was such “energy” in the teams towards the end of the leg. Esp. the Chippendale team and the supposedly-not-gay friends. I mean, I guess its good to get in first, but it I didn’t understand why they were rushing so much. Neither team would be eliminated.
I really thought tonight’s episode would be a non-elimination leg because it aired on the eve of a national holiday, usually a really low viewing time. But. . . no, I was wrong.
I really, really don’t like it when the Race goes to India. India depresses me. And this episode really concentrated on the depressing aspects of the country: poverty, overcrowding, etc. And the racing seemed like a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. That being said, it was pleasant that no teams seemed particularly nasty tonight.
And I, too, was sorry to see the NFL Wives go. They were plucky. And once they got over telling us they were “wives of professional athletes,” they really seemed to be good racers. They were totally out of it tonight, however.
Good for Chip and Reichen. This was the kind of Race leg they’ve needed all along. And I think the Clowns will rebound. So, who’se next to do? I’m at a loss to predict.
I was sad the NFL wives went out. Remember after they visited Studio 10, all of the teams ran one way except Chip and Reichen. For some strange reason, the Chippendales are the only team that went back the way they had come.
All the other teams ended up on one bus (I think) except the NFL wives. Somehow they missed the others jumping on the bus, and ended up walking a long way.
I always get nervous for the women when the Race goes to India. I didn’t really think it was a big deal til the Race where the mother/daughter team were yelled at for trying to buy tickets.
And dear lord, the overcrowding. Why would so many people insist on getting onto one train?
I thought the same thing while watching it, but when Phil announced that the first place team for that leg won an all expense paid cruise, it suddenly made sense.
did Tian and Jaree make a big deal about getting groped?
How come we didnt hear any other ladies in this race complain about being fondled or pinched?
I think that next week will be a Tian/Jaree moment. The almost frontal nudity with a nice mud bath… Yum…
I was also disappointed that the NFL wives got eliminated, they were doing a great job until alas India happened to them. Where did they go wrong? The Bollywood thing should have been easy for them to get out of, actually for anyone to get out of.
I have no favourites right now, I just want the clowns to get more face time, so I can either determine that I like or hate them.
But in a previous episode this season, more than one team tied for first place (voluntarily) and Phil seemed to indicate they would all receive the prize. Maybe the producers made a new rule after they realized how much that would cost.
Personally I don’t like that sort of thing anyway; this is a race, after all.
I didn’t tape the episode so I can’t check this, but it seemed to me that cameramen didn’t make it onto all of the trains. The idea isn’t farfetched at all. I don’t know about India, but groping is a well-known problem on crowded trains in Japan.
Usually when two teams hit the mat together, they’re friends or allies – not the case with these two teams. (Heh heh heh, my guys are in first place.)
Who’da thunk we’d all be so sad to see the Supremes go? I was really starting to like them. They turned out to be real racers.
Equally surprising was that Team Catfight actually managed to get along for a leg. I was esp. surprised when the angry one hugged the passive-aggressive one when she completed the fish Road Block. (Hm, the second Road Block involving fish – no one was comparing them to penises this time, though.)
Chuck and Millie are starting to get very seriously on my nerves. I’m reminded of Tara and Wil, when you start thinking one member of the team is really horrible (Tara, Chuck), but then realize how thoroughly the other person (Wil, Millie) is part of the sick dynamic.
God, this episode was depressing. I’ve never been to India myself, but I know many people who have, and when I described Season One’s foray into India (and how some viewers were wondering if the producers were playing up the “India = hellhole” angle) all of them said, “It’s worse than what they show.”
The blonde chicks nearly lost all my respect, when they said, “Oh, this is so wonderful!” after each other team reacted with shock/horror/tears over the Indian overpopulation/poverty crisis. In fact, I freakin’ cheered when Tian (or was it Jaree? or both?) got sexually molested on the train. (Allow my “dark side” to insert a comment here: “YEAH!! TAKE IT, BITCH! TAKE THAT FINGER UP YOUR CRACK AND ENJOY THE SOUVENIER!!”)
Umm, sorry if that was a bit rough.
Very sad to see the “Supremes” go. They were getting funnier and foxier every leg of the race. I was fully expecting Tian/Jaree to self-destruct on this leg, but they pulled themselves together instead. Unfortunately.
Anyone who doesn’t grasp the depths of poverty in India really hasn’t paid any attention to the state of the world. But things are still better than they used to be – when Millie was talking about the kids leaving the shacks to go to school, my first thought was, “But they ARE going to school.” Which I guarantee you isn’t something that would have been happening not too long ago to those kids. India is a totally different world from anything most of us have experienced, though, and usually is a great shock to most Americans. (I was born there and lived there for the first few years of my life, so it all comes as no surprise to me.)
And why the overcrowding on the trains? Lots of reasons, including: (1) Very little private transportation, so public transportation is almost the only way to get there; (2) the train system was built to handle hundreds of thousands, but these days handles millions.
My problem is that I absolutely love, love, LOVE Indian fabrics. So my family was harassing me through the entire show about the puddle of drool that was building up on the floor underneath my chair as I watched the scenes of the sari shop. I told Papa Tiger, if we ever get in the race and go to India, we are going to LOSE there and I am just going to go shopping!
All that being said, I was sorry to see the Supremes go, too; I think they were more than a bit freaked out by the whole India thing, which is not surprising, and got a bit overwhelmed when faced with a place so totally foreign to their experience. They looked like they were just in a state of shock as they left the Bollywood location.
I’m also still waiting to learn ANYTHING about the supposedly-not-gay friends. They get about 1/10th the camera time of anyone else.
QUOTE]And dear lord, the overcrowding. Why would so many people insist on getting onto one train?
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Maybe because they have a minimal public transportation system? I’m sure people in India like to be on-time as much as people in the rest of the world. Maybe because they have a population of, what, over 1 billion? With the exception of the G7 nations, that’s what train riding is like EVERYWHERE.
And it was rush hour. Bombay has a big transportation problem because of the way it’s shaped and laid out. It’s a triangular-shaped island, and the commercial areas are mostly in the south/tip of the triangle, while most people live in the north. So, in the mornings, a LOT of people are heading north to south, and vice-versa in the evenings. It’s best to avoid trains in those times in those directions… Unfortunately for them, they are in a race.
The Supremes had a much less crowded train, because they managed to avoid rush hour by being so slow.
Oh, and it’s not worse than what they show. Not all of India is poor, and definitely not all of Bombay. Though there is a serious culture-shock stepping off a plane after you’ve been in Europe for a week, but they seem to always pick the India leg as the one where the teams are “shown the reality of the world” or something like that.
Just thought I should mention this… I’ve lived in Bombay/Mumbai most of my life, and I had to travel for about 6 years by those trains, every day, to school and later to college. So if anyone has any questions about the trains or the city in this leg, fire away.
Hi there people, read your comments on the episode of amazing race. I am from bombay,india and i can understand wat the contestants might have gone through( havent seen the episode still but i can imagine)
actually all the trains have specially reserved compartments ONLY for ladies all 24 hours.so people coming to bombay on vacation/work really need not fear getting groped/harrased.
also as <B>sc913</B> pointed out most of the traffic is unidirectional depending upon the hours of the day and definetely the system is not that equipped to handle such crowds.
but i can proudly say that Bombay has a very efficient and effective source of public transport (trains and buses) and once you get used to it, its not that bad.there are regulars who sleep (!) in such crowded trains.
well about the poverty question.actually Bombay is a very modern and cosmopolition.although we have asia`s largest slum there are other expensive places to make up for it.Property prices are one of the highest in the world, but i guess the TV channels want to portray “the real side” to the world so what was shown was relevent.
Thanks for the info maleinblack. I had been wondering why the people from the race seemed to be the only women on the train.
I don’t really have much to add that hasn’t already been said. I’m disappointed the Supremes got eliminated, they had really been growing on me. Actually, what surprised me the most this episode is that no one really annoyed me, not even Team Catfight, though you have to wonder how long they’ll manage to continue getting along. They’re far from redeeming themselves, but if they keep this up I’d even be willing to see Chuck and Millie gone first! I’m guessing we’ll have a non-elimination leg coming up pretty soon though, so we’ll probably be stuck with both of them for a little while yet.
