Amazing Race Review

Spoilers ahead!

At the end of last week's episode the Globetrotters were assessed a half hour penalty for accidentally taking another team's pack. I was pretty sure that it wouldn't matter since most legs start with a flight and a bunching point. Sure enough, this week all of the teams were told to get on the same flight to Kunming China and then on to Lijiang. The flight left about twelve hours after the first team departed so they had ample time to drive to the airport. At least it was ample for most of them. Kent and Vyxsin got horribly lost, drove in the wrong direction for hours and ended up missing the flight.
Most teams divide up between driver and navigator. I've never understood how the navigator could just sit back and get more and more lost. Keep checking the map. Double and triple check it! Keep an eye out to spot signs along the way. Driving for three hours in the wrong direction is unacceptable.
The bulk of the teams ended up in Lijiang, which is a beautiful mountainous area in the southwest part of China, not far from the border with Burma. See here for tourist information. They had to cross a river on yaks. Simply gorgeous scenery. Next they had to take a gondola up the mountain and find charms that had pictures of all the animals in the Chinese zodiac. Kent and Vyxsin caught up with the tail end of the teams here.
Then it was down to the old town (a Unesco Heritage site!) for a couple of simple local tasks. One of the teams here (Ron and Christina) speak Chinese and therefore should have had a big advantage. And would have except that Ron got very distracted by reminders of his childhood and lagged behind.
Two things happened right at the end. First of all the teams got to the Pit stop and were told that they weren't done yet. This is the second time this has happened in a very young season. I like it.
The second thing was that Kent and Vyxsin lost a bag with their passports in a gondola. They'll have to go back and find the bag in the right car. They have to hope that the extended leg (which they don't know about) will allow them to catch up. In all honesty, anyone that screws up this much deserves to be knocked out. We kind of expect that next week they'll somehow destroy a car, blow up a village and end up in prison.
Again, what a beautiful setting!