Sunday night marked the second installment of the CBS reality series “Amazing Race,” which is in its 15th season. After starting the leg in seventh place, professional poker players Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho finished in sixth. Nine teams remain.
After arriving at Cai Be, Vietnam for the Pit Stop, teams were transported by boat downriver to Mỹ Tho. There, father and son team Gary and Matt were to first to depart the Bassac III riverboat at 5:45am. The clue instructed the teams, who had no idea where they were, to head to the Ho Chi Minh City Water Puppet Theater, a two hour taxi ride away. At the theater, they had to pluck a clue out of the mouth of a twisting, spitting water dragon. Michelle and Ho were the seventh team to depart, doing so at 6:11am. The last team to leave the Pit Stop, married couple Brian and Ericka, left just 18 minutes later.
The team of poker players exited the Water Puppet Theater in sixth place and were given a stamp with an image of a building on it, which they ultimately discerned to be the Main Post Office. There, teams were given their first Detour, a choice between two tasks, on this season of “Amazing Race.” The first option, “Child’s Play,” challenged teams to head to a local park, pick up a heavy concrete animal statue, and transport it along a course while collecting five colored balloons. In the second Detour option, “Word Play,” teams headed to the observation deck of a local hotel overlooking a busy traffic circle and had to spot six Vietnamese letters. Then, they had to leave the hotel and unscramble the letters to spell a common word.
Michelle and Ho elected to complete “Child’s Play” and selected a large wolf, transporting the statue on a cart, which quickly broke after leaving the start of the Detour. Fortunately, they were easily able to run back and grab a second cart to continue the challenge. With Michelle dragging the wolf through the Detour, Ho rolled the team’s luggage. Consequently, Michelle was exhausted. She told “Amazing Race” cameras, “The Detour was so incredibly tough. I was gasping for breath like I’ve never had to gasp before. Every other team has a man to lean on and we don’t.” Michelle and Ho are the only all-female team on this edition of “Amazing Race.”
Upon completing the Detour, teams received a clue outlining the leg’s Roadblock, a task that only one team member can perform. In the Vietnam leg’s Roadblock, dubbed “Who’s ready for a complete breakdown,” teams had to break down two VCRs, sorting their parts into separate piles. A man performed a demonstration on-site in a local market stall, Dien Co 008.
While teams were busy pushing and pulling their animals through the park, dating couple Marcy and Ron chose to complete “Word Play.” Upon figuring out what the six letters were, they failed to consult locals to unscramble the word for quite some time, a costly mistake that sent them into last place. Meanwhile, Michelle and Ho arrived at the Roadblock in sixth place, where the former disassembled two VCRs. The Ultimate Bet pro quipped, “I like these power tools. They are bad ass.”
Harlem Globetrotters Flight Time and Big Easy were the first to arrive at the Pit Stop, Reunification Palace, outrunning dating couple Meghan and Cheyne. For winning the leg, the Globetrotters earned a trip for two to Aruba courtesy of Travelocity. The island nation is currently playing host to the annual Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic, whose $5,500 buy-in Main Event begins on Monday.
Brian and Ericka, who finished last in the first leg of “Amazing Race,” righted the ship to take fourth place this time around. Michelle and Ho checked in sixth, up one spot from last week. Marcy and Ron, after taking too much time to perform the Detour, checked into the Pit Stop in last place and were eliminated. For Marcy, it was bittersweet, as her father was shot down during the Vietnam War and rescued by American forces.
Next week, teams dress up like monkeys as the “Amazing Race” crew travels to Cambodia. In addition, “one team breaks the cardinal rule” and loses their passports. “Amazing Race” airs weekly on Sundays at 8:00pm ET on CBS.
