Amazing Race update – The Thais that bind

The six remaining teams start out in India and head to Phuket, Thailand where they need to find a King Kong-style statue somewhere. (Pssst…it's at the zoo.) Many of the teams go to the same travel agency before heading to the airport. Therefore everybody's on the same flight to Phuket. Well, OK. Once in Thailand, teams show passersby the picture of a gorilla hoping they'll know where to go. Mel & Mike's taxi driver seems to think it's at the beach, so they're off-course.

Once at the gorilla, teams must have their picture taken with a tiger and then participate in a show where an elephant walks over people. The guy handling the tiger for the picture only has one arm (and a limp?) so some of the Racers are nervous. I'm impressed when Mark & Michael respect the culture and do a proper wai to the elephant trainer. Meanwhile, Mel & Mike are way lost.

After the zoo, teams head to a shop where they have to choose from a hundred drawers until they find the next clue. This is just a sheer luck kind of thing and the clue they find is the Detour: 100 Barrels or 2 Miles. Teams may either prepare 100 barrels for a fishing boat, or pull a rickshaw to a local park. Team Mighty Mites complete the rickshaw run fairly quickly as they trade off pulling the cart. Before they leave, however, they hide the bicycle pumps to inflate the tires of the rickshaws to hamper the other teams. They make it to the next clue which directs them to the Pit Stop at a Buddhist temple. Once they arrive at the Pit Stop, Phil announces that they are "the first team to arrive" and NOT that they are "Team #1." It turns out that hiding the air pumps was an illegal step as was allowing a taxi driver to lead them to the next stop; they incur a 30 minute penalty at the mat for each infraction so they're sitting around for an hour.

Back at the Detour, Victor drops his rickshaw and runs to the park but he needed to park it at a marked area. The teams doing the rickshaw task are really winded. Back at the fishing wharf, Mel & Mike are picking up the pace on Kisha & Jen.

At the mat, Phil announces that Team Esquire is the real Team #1, followed by Team Ginger. Team Mighty Mites serves out their 60-minute penalty and they're announced as Team #3. About 10 seconds after Margie & Luke are announced as Team #4, Margie collapses from heat exhaustion. The Amazing production crew converges on her with water and a plastic patio chair.

Back at the fishing boats, Kisha & Jen finish ahead of Mel & Mike and head to the Pit Stop. There's the typical TAR creative editing to suggest the race is a lot closer but Team Sistahs arrives next to the mat. Mel & Mike bring up the rear and they are eliminated from the Race.

Team standings:

#1 – Team Esquire – Tammy & Victor
#2 – Team Ginger – Jaime & Cara
#3 – Team Mighty Mites – Michael & Mark
#4 – Team Say What? – Margie & Luke
#5 – Team Sistahs – Kisha & Jen
#6 – Team White Guys – Mel & Mike – PHILIMINATED

Next week – Karaoke.