'Amazing Race 13': Make glorious in Kazakhstan

Though Borat was nowhere to be found Sunday night on Lap 8 of CBS’ “The Amazing Race 13,” there certainly was a comedy of errors to engage fans. Yet again, several of the teams failed to read the clues properly, which caused a heck of a lot of grief for the five remaining teams.

After spending the last two episodes in Delhi, India.  the contestants flew 1,000 miles to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and then had to make their way via taxi to a nearby chicken factory.  Four of the teams had to spend the night outside the factory gates because it didn’t open until 7:30 a.m. Superbad frat brothers Dan & Andrew, who caught the last flight out of Delhi, made it to the factory just as the place was set to open, so everyone was beginning this lap on an even playing field. Contestants had the choice of doing the Roadblock, in which one member had to find a golden egg among 30,000 chickens, or try their luck at the Fast Forward — travel by taxi to a nearby restaurant and eat a traditional meal made out of the fat of a sheep’s backside. EWWWW!, or in this case EWWWE!

The first place brother and sister team of Nick & Starr and the newly dating Terence & Sarah raced to the restaurant to try their luck. But alas, Terence is a vegetarian and hadn’t eaten meat in 15 years, and though he tried to down the food, he just couldn’t.  Woefully behind, Terence & Sarah had to leave the restaurant and go back to the coop.

Though Nick & Starr nearly chucked their cookies, they finished in first place for the fifth time, way ahead of the rest of the crowd.

The teams that opted for the Roadblock had to find a nearby crane truck on the farm and take it to a field, where they would be met by two Mongol warriors. Their Detour clue was flown in by a beautiful hawk. The contestants had the choice of either Play Like Mad, in which they had to learn how to play two traditional instruments, or Act Like Fools, in which they went to a children’s puppet theater, dressed themselves in a cow outfit, walk through town into a square, drink a glass of milk — the clue was at the bottom — and go to a nearby market, where they would report to a butcher shop for their next clue.

Separated couple Ken & Tina got to the milk bar, but because they didn’t read the clue properly they thought they had gone to the wrong place because the vendor wouldn’t give them a clue. So they ended up wandering around until they went back to the milk bar and re-read the clue.

The mother-son team of Toni & Dallas had a ball being a cow as Dallas, who took the lead, kept mooing through the streets of Almaty and made it to the butcher shop first. From there, they were told to walk on foot — keeping the cow’s head with them — to go to next Pit Stop called Old Square.

Ken & Tina finally  thought they had to go back to the puppet theater before they went to the butcher shop. So they went back and changed their clothes, only to have the butchers tell them to go back and put on their costume again.

Poor Dan & Andrew got so frustrated with each other that they began to fight, and things didn’t get much better when they left their shoes at the puppet theater and didn’t read the clue properly at the butcher shop and took a taxi to the Pit Stop.  Phil had them go back to the butcher shop and then walk back to the Pit Stop.

Terence & Sarah came close but never caught up with the rest of the contestants because of their decision to try the Fast Forward, only to have to leave because of the meat issue.  They ended up being eliminated from the race.

— Susan King, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: CBS]

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 17, 2008 at 12:06 pm by Susan King and is filed under Africa & Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.