Amazing Race Asia to Jakarta and Bali

I'm sorry if I have to write another article about my favourite reality show, Amazing Race Asia, after my previous article with regards to the show. It's because on its second and third leg of the race, they are going to my home country, Indonesia. Jakarta and Bali, to be exact. I was wrong when I predicted that they went to West Sumatra, after seeing the Minangkabau-style houses and the "plate dance" (tari piring) show. It turned out to be that they performed the dance at the West Sumatra pavilion of the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, instead.

On the second leg of the race, which I watched last week, all teams left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. Using Asia's biggest budget airline, AirAsia, I believe that it's Mr. Tony Fernandez -- AirAsia's CEO -- himself, who greeted one of the teams at the tarmac before the team boarded the plane. After touching down at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, all teams were on a taxi race on the busy highways of Jakarta, to Ragunan Zoo on the south outskirt of the city. The taxi race really shows the "turmoil" of Jakarta's traffic, with most of the taxi drivers were speeding and used the road shoulder to overtake other cars.

At the zoo, all teams would have to go inside a snake pit to get their next clues. The Indians Prashant and Sahil took the fast forward by going to SMA Negeri 60 school, which is located at Kemang Timur, not really far from Ragunan. This fast forward brought Prashant and Sahil to become the first team to arrive at the pit stop, the National Monument (Monas) of Jakarta. All the other teams went to the West Sumatra pavilion of the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah to perform "plate dance" (tari piring), a Minangkabau traditional dance. Once done, they then went to Kebayoran Baru area, around Jalan Panglima Polim, to be exact, to perform the detour, Push or Sell. Yud, I believe it's somewhere near your house? :) :)

The detour is related to bakso, or meatball soup, a popular Indonesian dish. In "Push", the teams had to push bakso pushcarts without spilling any soy sauce, while singing the "Abang Tukang Bakso" song, an Indonesian children song popularised by a (then) Indonesian child singer, Melissa, about a decade ago. Not too sure why they called it an Indonesian traditional song. It's not, actually. In "Sell", the teams would have to try selling 15 bowls of bakso for 2,000 rupiah each. Once they finished the detour, they have to go to the National Monument (Monas) as the pitstop of that second leg of the race. The Indonesians Mardy and Marsio become the second team to arrive (after Prashant and Sahil who took the Fast Forward) and my favourite team, Malaysian Zabrina and Joe Jer were the fourth team to arrive, while Filipino Ernie and Jeena become the first team to be eliminated on the race.

On the third leg of the race, which I just watched earlier this evening, all teams headed to Bali, again by using an AirAsia flight from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Once touched down at Denpasar's Ngurah Rai International Airport, they headed straight to Kuta beach to perform their roadblock, digging the sands. The task was quite tiring, causing 5 (read: five) of the teams gave up digging and chose to take a 4-hour penalty instead. After accessing the Internet in an Internet cafe nearby to find the next clue, all teams went to Ubud.

In Ubud, they needed to explore the Ubud Monkey Forest to find the next clue, which leads them to a detour: Wet or Dry. In "Wet", they need to perform white-water rafting down the Ayung River while in "Dry", they need to ride an elephant at the Elephant Safari Park nearby. From Ubud, they needed to go to the southernmost tip of the Bali Island, Uluwatu, and went inside a cave near a surfing centre there to get their next clue. The pit stop of the leg of the race is the Tanah Lot temple, located at the southwest coast of the island.

In this leg of the race, the Sri Lankan team Howard and Sahran came first, since they were the first team who find the "treasure", which is a small wooden surfboard, while digging the sands of Kuta beach. Zabrina and Joe Jer came in the fifth place, while Marsio and Mardy came in the sixth place, because both teams didn't finish the roadblock and chose to take the 4-hour penalty instead, which was served at the pit stop instead of at the roadblock's scene.

The good looking Filipinos, Aubrey and Jacqueline, become the second team to be eliminated from the race, following their fellow countrymen Ernie and Jeena. No more team from the Philippines remains in the race! The only Singaporean team Sharon and Melody came in the third place because they never gave up and managed to finish the roadblock and avoid the 4-hour penalty. Two thumbs up for their perseverance!!

Based on the trailer, it looks like all the teams are heading to Sydney, Australia for the fourth leg of the race. Well, I'm not too sure whether I would be able to watch the next week's show since I'll be in Jakarta, Indonesia next week. Let's just hope that I would be at my parents' place (which TV subscribes to AXN Asia), and not at my mother-in-law's place, at that time. :)