Thursday, November 09, 2006

Amazing Race Asia

My favourite reality show, Amazing Race, now has its own Asian version. Amazing Race Asia, its premiere was shown by AXN Asia just now. There are ten teams competing on this race, including one team from Indonesia, one team from Singapore, two teams from Malaysia and some other teams from other parts of Asia. The show is hosted by Singapore-based Allan Wu, who has participated in the US reality show, Fear Factor.

The race started at the Dataran Merdeka (or Independence Square) of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Their first destination was the Berjaya Times Square shopping mall, and Sahran, one of the participants from Sri Lanka, cried when he learned that he would need to climb down the void of the shopping mall, from the 8th floor down, using a rope. But he finished the task, eventually!

I was also laughing to see the contestants from Indonesia, brothers Marsio and Mardy. Looks like they are not "too athletic" enough for the race, seems to be already exhausted while reaching the mall, even though they took the cab from Dataran Merdeka to the mall. My wife even commented that the Indonesian brothers wouldn't be able to even pass the second or third leg of the race.

From Times Square, all the contestants had to go to Kompleks Kraf (Craft Complex) for their detour, either batik painting or pot making, using pottery wheel. Once they completed the detour, all the contestants headed to Shah Alam Stadium for a gokart ride, before going to the pit stop at the top of Menara Kuala Lumpur (the KL Tower). And I was very surprised to see that the Indonesian brothers, Marsio and Mardy, managed to take the lead and become the winner of this leg of the race! Well, actually the Malaysians Andrew and Syeon were the first to arrive after overtaking Marsio and Mardy on the last race to the pitstop (of course!), however they didn't follow the instruction on which route to use to go to the tower, so they had to redo their steps, and Marsio and Mardy became the winner.

It's quite difficult to predict who will be at the top three at this stage. The Singaporean girls Sharon and Melody seemed to be quite difficult to keep up, and came to be the sixth to arrive. My favourites are the Malaysian girls Zabrina and Joe Jer, who were actually the first team to arrive at the Times Square and finished the detour at Kompleks Kraf, but were being overtaken by Marsio and Mardy on their way to Shah Alam.

For the second leg of the race, based on the next week's trailer at the end of this week's show, it seems to me that they are going to Indonesia, West Sumatra to be exact, because I saw some Minangkabau-style houses and "plate dance" (tari piring) show, which is Minangkabau's traditional dance. But I guess, we'll only be able to find out next week!

So, now, I have marked two important times of the week: Monday 9pm (Singapore time) for the Amazing Race 10 show, and Thursday 9pm (Singapore time) for the Amazing Race Asia show. I had to rely on AXN Asia to watch the show now, since Mediacorp's Channel 5 is no longer showing the latest season of Amazing Race, not too sure why. Thanks AXN Asia!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pleased you enjoyed the show.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the support! Cheers!

just Endang said...

I am just wait, and wait, and wait the show here in Jakarta, don't know when....

Anonymous said...

Michael, Zabrina, thanks. :)

Mbak Endang, I thought Indonesia's Cable Vision also airing AXN? :) You need to subscribe to the cable network, though, it's not free-to-air.

Anonymous said...

biar body ga mendukung, orang indonesia bakal menang kompetisi ini deh kayaknya :p

tata said...

Dra, XNA itu darimana?

Anonymous said...

I think what mbak Endang think is when this show will be held in Jakarta or Indonesia

btw: I link your planet

Anonymous said...

i watched that berjaya times square episode hahaha... kinda hillarious =P

and agreed with ur wife, the indo team aint too athletic but i hope they will come up with some good tactic when the stunt takes more than mere physical ability (kemaren itu pas muter2in di forest sblm KL tower, dah ngos2an abis kakaakaka)

Anonymous said...

Ah, masak sih Win, berani taruhan? :) :)

AXN kali Ta, bukan XNA. :)

Andri, thanks for the link. Have linked back.

Iya, Haze, kadang disini kekuatan fisik tidak menjadi jaminan, strategi dan kepintaran juga menentukan... :)

Iwok said...

Aaaaaahhh ... tiap orang ngomongin Amazing Race. Duh, kapan saya bisa nonton ya? hehehehe kasian banget nih.

Anonymous said...

Langganan Indovision atuh, Kang Iwok. :) :)

Anonymous said...

Hai haiii!!

Saya juga penggemar Amazing Race Asia! Kalo ada lagi mau ikutan aaahh!! :)

Anonymous said...

miund, tungguin aja pendaftaran berikutnya, untuk Amazing Race Asia 2. :)

Anonymous said...

Love the show, but hate Andrew and Syeon. My god, how kiasa can you get? These people take themselves waaaaaay too seriously.
I hope the gay boys win!

Anonymous said...

Ermmm... which gay boys? :) :)

Anonymous said...

of course our Malaysian team gals are simple superb .. they are they to give their best shot .. i guess Amazing Race Asia is much more hilarious and stress free compared to Amazing Race (Amarican base)!!! especially with Sharan who is simply afraid of heights ..

but, i personally feel kind of sorry for the Indian team guys . there were good but unfortunately they got eliminated .. perhaps, thats when over confidence takes charge .. !!

Anonymous said...

ayo dong para indonesianers jadi pemenangnya. jgn mo kalah ma org2 malay yg narsis abis. LOL

Anonymous said...

Anonymous #1: Yes, I agree, the Malaysian team gals are superb! I'm a very big fan of Zabrina and Joe Jer. :)

Anonymous #2: Mudah-mudahan di Amazing Race Asia berikutnya. :) :)

Anonymous said...

Why not have a season of the race Asia Vesus the United States. I certainty believes that it would be interesting to viewers whether asia racers or US racers are stronger in this face off.