‘The Amazing Race’ 14: Look for the gorilla in Thailand

Lap 7 of “The Amazing Race “14 quite literally heated up last night as the teams left India for the sweltering heat of Phuket, Thailand.

Once the six remaining teams arrived at the airport, they were given a picture of a statue of a gorilla but with no clue as to its location. The taxi drivers the teams chose had to figure out the location.

All the taxi drivers seemed to realize, it was the Phuket Zoo save for the cabbie who was driving the father-son team of Mel and Mike White (above). He lead them on a wild goose chase to another location and finally had to ask for directions. They never were able to catch up with the rest of the pack because of the taxi driver’s mistake.

Even before we talk about the escapade at the zoo, Jaime Edmonson, the former NFL cheerleader who is competing with her friend Cara Rosenthal, really came across badly last night, proclaiming that she hates foreign languages and couldn’t wait to get out of India because it was so noisy.

When she and Cara were in their taxi in Phuket, she treated her driver like he was a moron, talking to him in near baby-talk. Let’s face it, Jaime came across as the ultimate Ugly American.

Meanwhile back at the zoo, after locating the gorilla, the next clue had the teams get their picture taken with a beautiful tiger named Esso. Interestingly, his trainer was missing an arm. After having their photo taken, they had to participate in a traditional Thai elephant show, which was hard to watch because of the stupid tricks these magnificent animals had to perform. The team members laid down on the ground and then the elephant walked over them, squatting over some like he was using a toilet.

Once they returned to the tiger area to pick up their photo, the teams traveled to an herb store in Phuket where they asked an elderly man behind the counter to open drawers, out of 99 total options, until they found their next clue. Needless to say, Jaime was less than patient with the elderly man.

The diminutive stuntmen brothers Mark and Michael Munoz were able to get the clue first and headed off to their Road Block where teams either had to go to a fishing boat and fill more than 40 barrels of fresh drinking water and then move over 50 other barrels from the bottom to the top of the ship or travel two miles through the streets on a rickshaw with one member riding while the other pulled. Mark and Mike chose the rickshaw.

Laid out next to the rickshaws were pumps for the vehicles’ tires. But the brothers got the devious idea to put all the pumps in a box to make it difficult for the other teams.

Then they went against the rules by getting their taxi driver to show them the way to the Pit Stop. Though the brothers came in first place, they incurred two 30-minute penalties and ended up coming in third.

Brother and sister team Tammy and Victor Jih were the official first-place winners, earning a trip to Oahu, Hawaii; Jaime and Cara placed second; the mother-son team of Margie and Luke Adams came in fourth. But Margie couldn’t take the sweltering heat and collapsed into her son’s arms. “How embarrassing,” she said, as she was fanned and given water.

Sisters Kisha and Jen Hoffman, who chose the barrel Road Block, placed fifth. Mel and Mike, who also performed the barrel Road Block, came in sixth and were eliminated from the race. Mel and Mike were such a warm, fun-loving team it was really sad to see them go.

– Susan King, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: CBS]

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 30, 2009 at 11:40 am by Susan King and is filed under Amazing Race. 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.