If you are an avid fan of Amazing Race, the reality TV show, you would know that lucky contestants in last week’s show headed off to Bali on March 10, 2013!
Monkey! Please open this coconut!
The contestants w
ere first sent to the Ubud Monkey Forest where they were faced with the challenge of getting these naughty monkeys to open a coconut for them. It was an amusing sight to watch the contestants roll and toss coconuts to the monkeys, in the hope that they would open it to reveal the rolled up scrolls that contained clues. The greedy monkeys were happy to get the coconuts, but perhaps the more difficult task was in retrieving the scrolls from the monkeys after the coconuts had been chewed open. The monkeys can be little balls of mischief who never let go of their loot. Waiting out the monkeys slowed down some teams who couldn’t convince their furry friends to let go.
Fruity Top or Sandy Bottom
The detour section of the game was when contestants had to choose between a physically demanding task or a detail oriented tedious task. It was Fruity Top or Sandy Bottom. Fruity top involved the contestants constructing an elaborate fruit offering of ‘Gebogan’ that was to be presented at Pura Desa Puseh Temple for a blessing and the next clue. Gebogan is essentially an arrangement of fruit, sweet cakes, peanuts, flowers, and rice towers stacked in a cylindrical arrangement.
The Sandy Bottom task involved contestants collecting black volcanic sand from the riverbed and carry it 200 yards uphill- on their heads. Most of the contestants chose to create the fruit offering. A hilarious moment was when Team John and Jessica accidentally went to the wrong location and was helping a totally random stranger put together a floral arrangement!
Even after realising their mistake, they failed at putting together their offering. John and Jessica then decided to switch to doing the Sandy Bottom task, even though the had an express pass that would allow them to move on. Their decision, or rather, John’s decision, cost them serious lag.
Bali Surfin’
The roadblock challenge was at Ulutwatu surf beach. One member of each team had to go to the surf shops and look for a surf board with a picture of something they had seen earlier in the race. They must then look for their teammate whilst carrying the surf board and head to the pit stop. The correct board was the one that had a sticker of the priest who had blessed them. Here we saw some teams being hopelessly confused about which board to pick, others sneakily looking at what other teams had picked, and some even forming alliances and giving each other the right answer.
Sooner or later, all the teams have checked in at the pitstop, except for John and Jessica. John stubbornly refused to use the express pass and for that, they became the first team ever to be eliminated whilst holding the pass.
What an exciting show, and what an adventure each contestant had whilst exploring Bali! We hope they have time to recharge with some good Balinese food and perhaps a massage to soothe their aching muscles before they head off to the next challenge!
To all the remaining teams, we say Good Luck!
