I don’t believe they’re allowed to pack any. They can buy maps or guidebooks, I think, once the race starts, but that has to come out of the money they’re provided, which is very limited.
I just remembered another moment that stood out: Dan (the darkhaired half of Team Superbad) is a neurotic panicker. I know, because I am, too. He’s going to die of an aneurysm before they clear Asia. It’s a shame because I think he’s kind of hot…
Boo at the ending! Boo!
Terrence is already incredibly annoying.
What is the full name of Ken the former football player?
Ken needs to forget about ever being worthy of Tina’s love. That bitch will remind him every day, of the rest of his life, that he cheated on her.
And as long as they are still in the race, she will remind us too.
That Starr chick was (maybe still is) a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys and was featured on the CMT reality show, Making the Team, over the past few years. Google some calendar photos of her, she’s freaking gorgeous.
And once again, all of America can tell the female half of the “just started dating” couple “Dump His Ass, Now.” Terrence is an absolute tool.
The brother & sister annoy me - so do both of the all woman teams and the frat boys.
Aw, poor beekeeping hippies. 
Knew they wouldn’t last, but I was hoping they’d make it for at least a few episodes…
So…who’s the gay team this year? They always have one, whether it’s announced at the beginning of the season or not. (I’m betting on the frat boys.)
Can’t wait to see the “cheated on his wife” guy start flirting with the luscious Southern Belles…
The conversation in my house went something like…
Me: “Inevitably when they go to Brazil someone will try to communicate in Spanish.”
Moments later…: “You’re supposed to know how to do Spanish…”
If there’s an Amazing Race drinking game it must include drink every time someone attempts to communicate in Spanish when they’re in a country where Spanish is not the native language. (Warning: alcohol poisoning could result when playing during season 4 with Mirna…)
He better do it soon. They were arriving with another team simultaneously when they could have been last and were casually strolling up to the pit stop.
This might have been the ugliest first leg ever. We’ve got teams showing fracture at the first airport before they’re even out of the country. We’ve got creepy behavior from would be lovers. We’ve got shrews with plastic surgery faces and the jerks who tolerate them. I predict massive breakdowns well before the inevitable third world legs.
They’ve really got a set of interesting people for the race this time and our “villains” are being set up early on. Can’t wait to see where they go next.
Oooh, can we use Team Dump His Ass, Now! as a nickname? I’m sad that the Bee Team is gone, but I didn’t really expect more. I just always hate how the first team to be eliminated gives that speech about what an amazing it’s experience it’s been for them and I’m sitting there thinking, Dude, it’s been, what, 2 days?
It’s a Racearoundtheworld! Huzzah!
Taxi Assessment
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Anita and Arthur - Well, here’s a twist: the slow, non-racing oldsters get knocked out in the very first leg. At least we won’t have to hear, episode after episode, that experience can triumph over speed, and how Amazing it is that a team of senior citizens can keep up with people half their age, blah blah blah. On the downside, I was looking forward to hearing pithy anecdotes on how racing aroundtheworld is just like beekeeping. And, alas! they would have rocked the “bang the wasp’s nest with a stick” Roadblock coming up in Nowheristan.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
Marisa and Brooke - The next team likely to be sacrificed to the gods of TAR. They’re polite, wear pink, and can’t race for crap. Boo, hiss.
Anthony and Stephanie - This team is kind of a nonentity at this point. They’re presumably supposed to be headstrong and bickering (because…why else would they be cast in TAR?), but we haven’t seen much from them yet. I’m uncertain whether their poor showing is due to bad luck or poor racing, but I imagine we’ll find out next week.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Aja and Ty - Ty has a degree from Michigan and lives in the D, so clearly he’s witty, urbane, and twice as intelligent as the rest of [del]you[/del] the contestants. But…it looks like Aja just can’t move very fast, which, in hy humble opinion, will likely handicap this team if they ever had to RACE anywhere. They lucked into the first flight, but dropped steadily back in the pack to finish uncomfortably near last.
Andrew and Dan - I thought at first that this team made a mistake picking thier Detour option, but now I’m not so sure. They still finished ahead of Aja & Ty (although maybe that’s no large feat), also a 9:30 team, so perhaps avoiding the logjam at the cargo net was a good idea. However, if you’re asked a “mystery question” after climbing a set of stairs on your knees, what is the most obvious question you could be asked? It took me literally three seconds to figure this one out. Still, Andrew & Dan are showing some flashes of racing skill, so they might move up later.
"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Toni and Dallas - Wow, this team, despite leaving wound up beating two of the three 9:30 teams. That shows enough drive that I’m willing to overlook the circumstances that led to them being a 9:45 team. Mom doesn’t look so athletic, which might hurt this team in the future, but Dallas’s manly jaw and ability to make cheerleaders swoon might make up for it.
Kelly and Christy - AAAAUGH! Being divorced does NOT prepare you for a racearoundtheworld. Otherwise half the adult population of the US would be winning the Race, and I don’t see that happening. Seriously, whence this concept that some random life experience qualifies you to excel at something completely unrelated? “I used to eat Cheerios as a toddler, and the oaty taste means that I should play first chair flute at the New York Philharmonic.” WTF?
Mark and Bill - I sense the “gamers” here might actually be quite clever. Note they were the first team to NOT mill like slaughterhouse cattle at the airline chute, taking off to find the right check-in desk. They also had a smart solution to prevent the candy from falling off their adorable little choo-choo. Geeky for sure, but this team has potential.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Terence and Sarah - Good God, what is up with this team? Between Terence’s whiny needfulness and Sarah’s abrasive bitchiness, they’re really cringeworthy. I dub thee: Team Panties-Too-Tight. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll see a lot of this team, because, while they make minor mistakes, they also recover quickly and did end up in third.
Ken and Tina - Ugh. If we have to hear twenty references to Ken cheating on Tina every single episode I’m gonna scream. Why oh why do teams think they can “work out personal issues” by participating in a high-stress race? (Don’t answer that.) A generally solid run this week, but I can easily see this team melting down into a pile of screaming goo.
Nick and Starr - Hum. I was prepared to not really like a cheerleader named “Starr,” but this team looks like it works well together and races hard, despite the nonsense about forming an alliance and so forth. And good thinking under stress: don’t jump into a taxi before you know that you need to. That was the difference, this week, between first and second place. If that’s the case on the last leg, this team is in good shape.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Clearly no one.
Next week: Sarah is bitchy! I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot as the season progresses.
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]
Rule #7 of TAR: Most people in the world speak English. If they won’t, that means they hate you.
Rule #8 of TAR: All people in the world speak pidgin Spanish. Muy rapido!
I had to mention here that I stumbled onto Amazing Race Asia which I was completely unaware of before. It’s for an English language cross Asia network which means it’s in English but there’s a multinational team. They also race for $100k rather than $1 million. It’s currently a few episodes into their third season and episodes can be found online in places moderators would rather not get mentioned.
They started the third season in Bangkok and before they even went to the airport made them race to an open market to eat a bowl of scorpions. Okay it’s a “strange food” eating challenge but it’s also a challenge even before they leave the country. That felt really odd to me though I understand exactly why the US version gets them out of the comfort zone before doing anything.
To be fair, Portuguese is close enough to Spanish that they probably would understand pidgin Spanish.
I don’t speak either, but Babelfish gives these translations for “Go faster, please”
Spanish: vaya más rápidamente, por favor
Portuguese: vá mais rapidamente, por favor
Close enough for most people to understand, I’d say.
That hairdo annoyed me before he even said a word.
I was disappointed in the ending, too. It’s always nice to keep the less generic teams around for a while, if only to add interest. One of those girl/girl teams who always seem to look like each other would be more expendable at this point, IMO.
I thought it was funny that the “frat guys” lived more up to the geek stereotype than the geeks did, especially when they were clearly trying so hard to live up to the cool guy stereotype.
I’d like to see a category for the most debilitating case of “Montezuma’s revenge,” complete with lost in the translation searches for the toilet.
That would be evil. But entertaining.
“Dohnday is el bathroomo? Rapido! Rapido!”
My grandparents spoke Portuguese, and as I recall - it may look in print like Spanish, but it sounds closer to Russian. Just MHO.
I should really be paying more attention; I missed a lot of the drama pointed out above. To me they all looked alike and all got 4 minutes of screen time…except the hippies. So I was disappointed to see them go.
And frankly…it was a pretty boring episode. No airport drama (unless you stretch the definition of drama to the breaking point)…the roadblock was ridiculously easy, the Detour choices were easy…no particularly exotic sights, no disgusting food. Meh. Fortunately, based on the 12 preceding seasons, I know it’ll get better.
But I bet Arizona State University is real proud to have their logo plastered on that dweeb.
I like the Geeks and think they might actually do OK once the mind-numbing rush of the start of the race wears off some. Or else they’ll be eliminated next episode. Hard to say. Right now they’re really the only team that I pay any attention to, except for Toni & Dallas and Aja & Ty.
While there probably will be a couple of local delicacies that pop up along the race, disgusting food on a weekly ( or even every quarter hour)basis is more the job of “Fear Factor.”
Something that seems constant in TAR is altitude. We saw it tonight with the ladder climb. There will be more altitude to come.