The production team seems to be trying to save money in more ways than one this season. Not only are they staying in Thailand for a another leg of the race (therefore giving Team Twins a snowball’s chance in Hell of catching up), but they also didn’t give the teams enough money to complete the leg. If I heard correctly they gave them $86 at the start, but the truck cab drivers charged them $150 US/4500 baht for all the driving around Phuket. While most of the teams had no problems because they’ve been hoarding their money, Team Twins were out of money and struggling.

Team Snowboarders came away with a pretty decent lead last week as they left an hour before Team Annoying. The brother/sister duo had a 45 minute lead over the next group. Team Twins were 3 hours behind Team Snowboarders and an hour behind Team Old People. I’m really not sure why they had a non-elimination last week. Though I’m sure Team Twins didn’t care because they were in hog heaven.

ROADBLOCK While a normal leg consists of one Roadblock and one Detour, this time we have two roadblocks. The first comes after an elephant ride through the jungle. One team member had to wade into a pool of water, to the musical stylings of a flutist, and retrieve a clue. It was a ceramic fish that they gleefully broke open to reveal their next destination. While the editing department tried to make it seem difficult everyone powered through quickly. Before Team Twins could ride their elephant they had to deal with the Speed Bump.

Who cares about a million dollars? I get to wash an elephant!

Much to the delight of both girls they got to clean up after and go swimming with wash the elephants. You could tell the girls were just enjoying the moment and weren’t concerned with time, etc. If I were them I’d be pissed because Team Old People’s Speed Bump had to have been shorter.

After the Roadblock, teams had to disassemble a shrine and take all the pieces to a temple. Right away most of them realized they would probably have to put the shrine back together. The Snowboarders each chose one side to memorize thinking it would be a team effort. Much to their surprise, it was an individual challenge that had to be performed by the team member that didn’t do the first Roadblock. Tommy had to go back and take notes, losing time. Some of the other teams were smart and took notes before disassembling the shrine, while others were in too much of a rush. Laurence, of Team Adventure, pretty much told his kid he was stupid for wanting to take notes. I lost all respect for him when he then told Zac, ”Don’t blame me. You’re responsible.” Ernie of Team OCD hurried through and thought it was stupid to worry about the placement of the items. Apparently only being a A/B student makes you stupid. I was pleasantly surprised when Cindy didn’t rip him a new asshole. She was more sick to her stomach as Bill and Cathi passed them.

After completing the two roadblock teams had to get on a bus for the 500 mile trip to Bangkok. This is where things got crazy. There were buses that left earlier, but got in later, first class buses, and smarmy cab drivers. The first three teams hopped on the first bus out at 4:30pm. While Team Adventure also got a 4:30pm bus they freaked out when they realized it was a first class bus. They thought the rule of No First Class Travel applied to all forms of transportation. They got off their bus and had to walk three miles back to the terminal. In that time most of the other teams got on buses and left. They ended up having to wait and leave at 8pm.

Then there was the problem of paying the cab drivers. I couldn’t tell if all the teams were being charged 4500 baht/$150 or if that was just a few that were getting screwed. I think it was kind of shitty of the producers to give them US dollars without a way to exchange the money. Cindy and Ernie tried to pay in US dollars and almost had the cops called on them. They had some lady come up and she had her calculator out, so I don’t think they were getting screwed on the conversion rate, just the fact that their cab driver wanted $4500 baht for his time. Phuket isn’t that big. I wonder if anyone has been there? I’ve been to a small island on the other side of Thailand and I don’t remember getting fleeced. Anyway, Team Twins also had a problem. They didn’t exchange enough money the last leg and I believe gave all their US money to a cab driver because they needed to get going. Because of that they were out of money at the start of the leg. When it came time to pay the cab driver at the bus terminal they didn’t have enough. After much pleading, and, let’s face it, their blond hair/blue eyes helped, they were able to cut a deal with the guy.  He even drove them to their waiting bus.

We hear that over the course of the 13 hour bus trip some of the buses would stop randomly and drop people off and some drove straight through. This led to some major changes in the leader board. Team OCD were the first to arrive in Phuket. I think it would have been Team Adventure if they would have stayed on their first class bus. The other teams all trickle in and I can’t be bothered to remember it all. Let’s just say they all get to Bangkok, feed the fish and try to make their way to the Pit Stop. The traffic was terrible so some of the teams tried to make it on foot. It was a terrible plan as they all ended up back in a cab. Amani & Marcus and Bill & Cathi got a great cab that knew a short cut and they ended up at the Pit Stop first. Team Ex-NFL hit the mat first and they get a trip to BALI for their efforts. I’m officially jealous.

Team Twins are the last to arrive to no one’s surprise. They arrived in Bangkok without a dime to their name and refused to beg poor people for money. I can certainly respect that. They did use their feminine wiles to get free cab rides, so they made it to the Pit Stop before Phil came searching for them. I’m sad to see them go. They were really endearing this episode and I was starting to really like them.

Will you miss Team Twins? Would you pay $150 for a cab ride? Would scooping elephant dung excite you as much as it did the Twins? Does elephant dung not smell? These are burning questions I NEED the answers to! COMMENTS hold the key to my heart!!