Amazing Race: China to India

So, last night on the Amazing Race, all the teams started in China. They had to go to a tea shop and drink one cup of tea.  Most teams thought it was tasty.  However, all the teams were angry about still being in China.  They had now been there for several days, if I'm judging the Amazing Race time gap correctly.  So, anyway, they drank the tea and all got on the same flight to Kolkata (used to be called Calcutta in the US), India.

They all ran through an immense crowd of people, trying to find a cab.  As Keisha/Jen said, there were so many people and it was 1 am.  Kolkata was very busy.  It's strange, they came from China, one of the world's most populated country and I did not hear them talk about all the people there and it really didn't look that crowded.  They must have been in a smaller city.

After the mad dash for the taxis, which culminated in Big Easy and Flightime getting the lead taxi and telling their cab driver repeatedly, "No, these are not our friends.  We are in a race."  They all arrived at the Town Hall, which did not open until 10 am.  So, they had a nice long wait, which meant that they all received the next clue at the same time.

Now, for the RoadBlock.  This was an absolutely painful RoadBlock to watch.  They had to identify the tea that they had drank before leaving China by drinking cups of tea and bringing the empties to a judge.  Sounds relatively easy, right?  Not so much, since there was a table easily 50 ft long and 5 ft wide full of tea cups.  Ron seemed to be an avid tea drinker or taster, so he identified the right one within a very short time.  The clue was contained on the cap of the Snapple bottle they received.  They however lost their lead when their taxi driver didn't know where the next place was.  Oh well, darn...  Jet/Cord smelled the tea, which worked well for them.  Keisha and Jen and Kent and Vyxsin also did the task quickly.  Keisha and Jen proceeded to use the bottle for the clue, not the cap.  They asked everyone where the Snapple Factory was.  Finally, at one stop, they yelled at a man for trying to open their Snapple and then they did so themselves.  Voila, they now have the clue.

The remaining four teams seemed to lack a good strategy for the tea task.  They just kept drinking and drinking and spilling lots of tea down their chins.  Luke said to all, I'm so full, and I really think that was the general consensus.  Zev got really frustrated and dropped an empty.  Finally, Mal found the right tea and all four teams were really happy.  It seemed as if they had lost all hope for there being more of the right tea, but there was.   After a long while, Zev got the right type.  Then Flighttime.  And then it was Luke, all alone with the longest table I have ever seen.  He cried.  Margie cried.  The workers clapped him on and cheered him on.  Finally, after a super long time, he found the right cup.  And the workers picked him up in celebration.  It was all very nice.

So, somehow, Gary and Mallory not only caught up with the earlier teams, but they passed them.  They were one of the first to the Detour and chose to deliver books rather than decorate Ganesha.  A good choice.  Jet and Cord also chose to deliver as did Zev and Justin.  All they had to do was get eight stacks of books, get a rickshaw and get directions to the right school to deliver their books.  They all had no problems.  Gary and Mallory somehow finished first and got a cool trip or something in India.  The others got caught in traffic.

The other five teams(I believe), all chose to decorate.  They had to paint this stature in the right colors and then decorate it with jewelry and such.  It took them all a long time. 

The people got out of traffic and then just Margie and Luke and Flighttime and Big Easy were left.  Flighttime spilled some paint on their stature so they had to redo some of it.  It really looked like Margie and Luke could catch up, but they just couldn't.  They were the last teams to arrive at the Pit Stop and it was an elimination leg, so goodbye...
There was a rather touching moment in which Flighttime offered a hug to both Margie and Luke and said he knew how tough the tea RoadBlock was and was proud of Luke for completing it.  He and Luke both looked a little sick the whole day after the tea challenge, which makes me wonder how much tea they really drank.  It looked like a lot.

So, another episode down.  And now, because of the Country Music Awards, it's two weeks to the next one.