Amazing Race

As always, SPOILERS follow.

A few weeks ago Amazing Race had one of their wettest episodes in memory. Tonight they went to the desert. That's right, Dubai baby! The city that makes Vegas look dull and unimaginative. The opening clue was a fun one as teams were told to fly to the Persian Gulf and find the tallest building in the world. I wonder if teams weren't clued in on the Persian Gulf if they would have ended up somewhere else. Also fun, one of the teams showed up at the airport and asked for a ticket to the Persian Gulf. That's the order that every travel agent dreams of!
All teams ended up on the same plane so the only race here had to do with who could find the clue box. The first four teams got the first elevator ride up and the second four got to go up fifteen minutes later. The building is the Burj Dubai, of course, and it is ridiculously tall. And unfinished. And the Tower of Babel comparisons are pretty obvious.
Most of the teams were then sent out into the desert to a challenge that involved finding semi-buried jugs of water. It looked pretty brutal. More brutal (though better for viewers at home) was the driving of this seasons most annoying couple. They got lost. And lost again. And ended up well behind everyone.
Next came a challenge that showcased one of the strangest bits of Dubai. Their enormous indoor ski slopes. Yep, 130 degrees outside and 28 degrees inside. Whee! Contestants were given the choice of finding a small snowman ornament in a huge pile of snow or carrying snow outside and building a snowman of their own. (We would have chosen to build. You control your fate and packed snow doesn't melt very quickly.)
Then on to the pit stop and (hooray!) the annoying team was eliminated. In the background you could see the Burj al Arab, which I blogged about here. I had hoped they would include it in this trip but it wasn't to be. The place is really outstanding to look at. It looks like next week they go to the Bahamas and the Atlantis hotel. Which would be weird because then they would skip Europe. Guess I'll just have to wait and see!