In a nutshell-  Seven Spires shrine says go to the tallest building in Hong Kong.  Megabunching.  Hey, where are my maps?  Center, Central, its all the same to me.  Where's the green and white star?  "Hmmm...", Mrs. Chao says, "I see lots of really bad jokes in your future."  Herbal tea or Wishing Tree?  Hard hats, orange vests, heavy machinery... The Amazing Race goes industrial.  Your destination is junk, Chinese junk to be exact.
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     The teams eat, mingle, and sleep at the Karen Village near Chiang Mai.  Everyone gets up during the night an leaves.  No penalties this time, so everyone leaves in the order that they arrived.  The teams are headed to the Wat Jet Yod "Seven Spires" temple in Chiang Mai.  Mary and Peach leave, followed closely by Gary and Dave.  Gary and Dave pass them, which doesn't bother Mary/Peach because they don't really know where they are going.  They spot the flag on the side of the road directing them to the temple.  Soon, even the last team, Chris/Alex, have left.  They all make it to the temple with little difficulty, although Oswald/Danny have to stop to get directions.

     The clue at the temple tells the teams to leave their vehicles where they are and take a taxi to the airport because their next stop is "the top of the tallest building in Hong Kong."  All of the teams rush to the airport, with the exception of Oswald/Danny.  It is the middle of the night, and they realize the counters are not going to open until the morning.  So they decide to find a computer with an internet connection to make reservations online.  The teams who arrive at the airport discover they can make reservations by phone, which they all do.  Gary/Dave get in an argument because several other teams get reservations that were better than the flight plan he made.  Gary yells and then makes his own reservations and tells Dave "We have to know our strengths and weaknesses.  From now on, I'll talk to people."  Ha!

     So, once again, everyone is on the same flight.  They'll be flying from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and then on to Hong Kong.  Gary/Dave are very quick out of the airport and make the first train.  Tara/Wil, Blake/Paige, and Chris/Alex are quickly buy their train tickets via the ATM-like machine and take off.  Oswald/Danny make the next train, while Mary/Peach have trouble with the machine.  At one point, the machine tells them it will cost $200 to go to the city.  They get some help from some bystanders and eventually get on their way, currently in last place.  As they get on the train, they realize they have lost their maps.  They're already off to a not-so-great start.

     Gary/Dave are the first to arrive and enlist the help of a local woman to help find Central Plaza, which is apparently within walking distance of the train stop.  They go into the building, get on elevator 27, and head up to the top.  At the top, the clue tells them to use the provided binoculars to spot "the green and white star."  Once they spot it, they are supposed to go to it.  The words "green and white star," actually refer to the Star Ferry, which is painted green and white.  Gary/Dave look clueless and as they feel their lead slipping, they decide to go for the fast forward.  As they leave to go on that adventure, the pack of three (Chris/Alex, Tara/Wil, and Blake/Paige) arrive.

     Oswald/Danny and Mary/Peach have arrived, and, unlike the other teams, get in a taxi.  Oswald and Danny make it to the building, but Mary has directed her cab driver to take her to "Center Building."  The cabbie protests, "No, Central."  But Mary insists that they want to go to Center Building.  Thats going to be strike 2 for the girl-power team.

      Meanwhile, as the pack of three eventually spot the ferry and leave, Oswald/Danny are on their way up.  Oswald/Danny spot the ferry quickly.  The pack of three narrowly miss a ferry, allowing Oswald/Danny to catch up.  While they wait, Mary/Peach enter the lobby of Center building where they are informed that they have the wrong building.  On the way to the correct building, they discuss that they will attempt the Fast Forward because they are so far behind.  No girls, don't do it!

©Randall van der Woning - used with
permission

 Speaking of which, Gary/Dave have arrived at the location of the fast forward, the Wong Tai Sin Temple.  They must find a specific fortune teller (I think her name was Mrs. Chao).  They wander around aimlessly for a long time saying "Chao?  Chao?"  Mary/Peach meanwhile have found the clue, and appear to be making good time catching up.  As they arrive outside of the temple, Gary/Dave find someone who knows Mrs. Chao and directs them to go downstairs.  Gary/Dave quickly find her and Dave gets his face read, while Gary gets his palm read.  She tells Dave to beware of two-faced friends, and she tells Gary that he is "too smart."  They get the clue and take off.  Ten minutes later, Mary/Peach find Mrs. Chao who tells them they are too late.  Thats strike three girls, and you're as good as out.

                                                                                                      
												       ©Randall van der Woning - used with
                                                                                                       permission

At about this time, the other four teams have made it across the ferry and spot the clue.  Its time for the detour.  This week, the options are "Wishing Tree" or "Herbal Tea."  The Wishing Tree option requires teams to drive 18 miles to a wishing tree where they will have to perform a quick and simple ritual.  The Herbal Tea option requires teams to walk to a nearby Herbal Tea shop, but they will have to navigate the confusing streets to get there and, once there, they will have to drink a foul-tasting remedy to get the clue.  The pack of three all decide to find the Herbal Tea shop, while Oswald/Danny decide to perform the Wishing Tree option in an effort to get away from other teams.  So the pack of three start walking around with a confused look on their face as Oswald/Danny grab a cab.

    Meanwhile, Gary/Dave have made it to the pit stop, which this week is a Chinese junk in Hong Kong Harbor.  Mary/Peach, on the other hand, have a serious problem.  They decided to go for the fast forward at Central Plaza, so they did not look out the window to find the Star Ferry.  Consequently, when the fast forward option didn't work out, they did not know where they are supposed to be going next.  Instead of going all the way back to the building, Mary asks bystanders if they have any idea what the clue means.  Peach seems frustrated, as if Mary has been doing this for a while without luck.  But, luckily, someone tells them the Star Ferry is white and green.  So, they get on the ferry hoping that they are headed the right direction, but they don't seem very confident.

     Tara/Wil are the first team to find the Herbal Tea shop.  They both drink the tea (Tara with a little trouble) and get the route information.  They are now headed to the HIT Terminals, where Phil suggests the teams will have to find the route marker in a maze of large industrial containers.  Now, I'm thinking to myself at this point that this doesn't seem very safe.  Eight people running around aimlessly with large cranes holding very large containers overhead doesn't seem like a very good idea.

     Chris/Alex find the tea shop and proceed quickly while Blake/Paige are still having a little trouble finding it.  At about the same time as Chris/Alex find the tea shop, Oswald/Danny finish their ritual and head to the Terminals.  It doesn't look like they gained time, but it doesn't look like they lost time either.  Blake/Paige finally find the shop and make their way to the Terminals.

     At around this same time, Mary/Peach get off the ferry and find the detour option.  They decide to go for the Herbal Tea
and begin to walk.

     Tara/Wil and Chris/Alex arrive at the HIT Terminals first.  They get a hard hat and an orange vest and are led to the next route marker.  Ok, so its not exactly like Phil suggested.  They get the road block which requires one member to climb up into a crane.  They will have to lower the crane and lock it onto a container which is resting on the back of a truck.  They will have to lift the container off of the truck and lower it to the ground.  Once they lift the crane back up, the other team member can grab a clue envelope off of the side of the container.

     Tara and Alex perform the road block.  They both climb up and complete the task without much trouble.  Tara does it a little bit quicker than Alex, and she is very proud of herself.  And, in a moment that should go down in record books, Wil actually congratulates her and calls her "amazing."  Tara/Wil take off, headed to the pit stop.  Chris/Alex are close behind.  Meanwhile, Oswald/Danny have arrived.  Danny performs the road block and is proud of himself too.  As he gets close to finishing, Blake/Paige arrive.  Blake operates the crane, and decides that he will try to use the brute force method to gain some time.  This backfires as he fails to lock the container and it ends up costing them a little time, but nothing serious as the commercials suggested.

      Well, after having a day filled with both mistakes and bad luck, Mary/Peach wander around for one and a half hours trying to find the Herbal Tea shop.  Once they arrive, Peach is exausted.  Mary drinks her tea, but Peach can't get it down.  They put their cups down, but the lady will not give them the route info because Peach has not finished hers.  She tries very hard and manages to get it down, but she runs to the back of the shop where it all comes back up.  They go back into the shop and recieve the route info.  As Mary reads the information, she tries to convince Peach to at least continue on to the Pit Stop and not just give up.  They decide to take a leisurely trip to the pit stop, stopping to eat at a restaurant on the way.  We see a funny shot of them eating, and apparently in better spirits, right as the other teams are arriving at the pit stop.

      So, Tara/Wil arrive in 2nd place.  Chris/Alex arrive next in 3rd.  Night falls as Oswald/Danny arrive in 4th.

      As Oswald/Danny arrive, one of them jokes that he "Is going to throw up on Phil's Shoes."  That was the title of this episode.  I had assumed from the previews showing Peach get sick that this meant Mary/Peach would be eliminated.  (Like in episode 4 when Shola/Doyin's "This game is about minutes" quote became the title, foreshadowing their elimination).  So, my suspicion was right, but for the wrong reason.

      Anyway, Blake/Paige make arrive in 5th place, relieved that they were not last place.  Meanwhile, Mary/Peach arrive at the HIT Terminals where they are given a mercy pass to the pit stop.  They do not have to complete the road block.   They arrive at the Chinese junk and Phil tells them the news.  They are not surprised and seem in good spirits about their elimination.  This team certainly got farther than I expected them to in the beginning, but they could have done even better if they had not had problem after problem compound this week.  I'm going to miss them.

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