| The Amazing Race Asia 3 | |
| Season run | September 11, 2008 – November 20, 2008 |
|---|---|
| No. of episodes | 11[1] |
| Winning team | Vince Chung & Sam Wu |
| Continents visited | 1 |
| Countries visited | 6 |
| Cities visited | 11 |
| Distance traveled | 21,600 kilometres (13,422 miles) |
| No. of legs | 11 |
| Season chronology | |
| Previous | The Amazing Race Asia 2 |
| Next | The Amazing Race Asia 4 |
The Amazing Race Asia 3 is the third installment of the reality television game show The Amazing Race Asia. The show features ten teams of two, with a pre-existing relationship, in a race around Asia to win US$100,000. The season premiered on September 11, 2008 and consists of 11 episodes, two episodes fewer than the first and second seasons.[1] The season finale aired on November 20, 2008.[2]
In 2009, the series was nominated for an International Emmy Award for Best Non Scripted Entertainment,[3] losing to the Dutch reality series The Phone.[4]
Hong Kong friends Vince Chung & Sam Wu are the winners of the race, they are the first team with a non-Asian in the Asian Version to win the race.
Contents |
The Amazing Race Asia 3 covered 21,600 kilometres in six countries. Following the race tradition as in American edition, the route markers were colored yellow and white to avoid the confusion with the flag of South Vietnam when the teams visit Vietnam. Season 3 also introduced the U-turn marker, while the Intersection was removed from this season. However, like the American version's Family Edition and Brazilian version, this is the first season to have the entire Race take place in one continent: Asia. Previous seasons saw the Race covering at least two continents. This is the first season to filled an elimination in Leg 1, having not in past two seasons.
According to AXN, this season is dubbed as "the toughest race ever" compared to previous seasons as both contestants and crew personnel experienced high fatigue during the Race due to the faster pace and shorter break times. During filming, one production crew member was even hospitalized.[5]
Applications for Season 3 due on March 3, 2008 (extended from the original deadline on February 25, 2008). Interviews for semi-finalists and finalists were held sometime around March or April 2008. Filming was expected to have taken place around the middle of 2008.[6][7]
Season 3's cast include cousins, and a father & son team. Like Season 2, the Race featured a large number of local media personalities or their relatives. Natalie is the winner of Miss Universe 2005 and also the wife of Thai tennis player Paradorn Srichaphan.[8] Her teammate, Pailin, is the runner-up in 2006 Miss Thailand Universe and also contested in Miss Earth 2006.[8] Tisha is the ex-girlfriend of Survivor Philippines' host, Paolo Bediones and was once Miss Philippines but had to forgo her crown due to her Canadian citizenship, while Ida, Niroo and Mai are famous actors in their respective homelands and Bernie is the host of Project Runway Malaysia. William and Isaac are sports commentators and football agents for professional players in the Korean K-League. Vince is a leading stand-up comedian in Hong Kong, often performing and hosting at The TakeOut Comedy Club Hong Kong, and was a finalist in Hong Kong's first nationwide stand-up comedy competition.[9]
This season consists of three non-Asians. Natalie and Vince are Canadians (though Natalie was born in Russia; Vince has a Chinese ethnicity), and Geoff is from New Zealand. Additionally, Sam, who was originally from Singapore, is representing Hong Kong. Tisha is of Canadian nationality but of Filipino ethnicity; Henry and Bernie are of Australian nationality but of Chinese ethnicity.
Paula Taylor, one of the racers in Season 2, appeared as the local greeter in the first leg of the Race.
Kynt Cothron and Vyxsin Fiala's audition video was shown on the Racers Revealed episode. Michael McKay, the executive producer of the show, confirmed that Kynt and Vyxsin of The Amazing Race 12 did really submit an audition tape but did not made it because according to McKay "we felt it would be unfair to have a team that had already raced (and raced very well I might add) and also we take teams from Asia. But if we do an All Star version down the track you never know."[10]
The Amazing Race Asia 3 had six official sponsors, they are Caltex, MASkargo, Nokia, Singha, Sony and Standard Chartered Bank.[11] A special episode known as Racers Revealed was aired one week before the actual premiere, on September 4, 2008, and a special "Memories" episode aired after the season finale on November 27, 2008, similar to the second season.[1]
The following teams participated in the Race, with their relationships at the time of filming. Placements are listed in finishing order:
| Team | Relationship | Position (by leg) | Roadblocks performed | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |||
| Vince & Sam | Best Buddies | 7th1 | 3rd | 2nd | 2nd | 1stƒ | 1st | 2nd | 4th | 1st | 3rd5 | 1st | Vince 4, Sam 5 |
| Geoff & Tisha | Dating | 2nd | 5th | 5th | 6th | 4th | 3rd | 1st> | 1st | 3rd⊃ | 2nd | 2nd | Geoff 5, Tisha 5 |
| Ida & Tania | Actress & Heiress | 5th | 6th | 3rd | 1st | 5th | 5th | 5th | 3rd4 | 2nd | 1st | 3rd | Ida 5, Tania 5 |
| A.D. & Fuzzie | Friends for 15 Years | 8th | 2nd | 4th | 5th | 3rd | 4th | 3rd | 2nd | 4th⊂ | 4th5 | A.D. 4, Fuzzie 5 | |
| Henry & Bernie | Brother & Sister | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 4th | 2nd | 2nd | 4th< | 5th | Henry 3, Bernie 4 | |||
| Mai & Oliver | Friends | 1st | 8th | 6th | 3rd | 6th3 | Mai 1, Oliver 2 | ||||||
| Niroo & Kapil | Father & Son | 9th | 4th | 7th | 7th2 | Niroo 1, Kapil 23 | |||||||
| Pailin & Natalie | Beauty Queens | 4th | 7th | 8th2 | Pailin 1, Natalie 12 | ||||||||
| Isaac & William | Brothers | 6th | 9th | Isaac 0, William 1 | |||||||||
| Neena & Amit | Cousins | 10th | Neena 0, Amit 0 | ||||||||||
Individual prizes were awarded to the first team to complete a leg.
| Destinations | Air travel Railroad Water travel Bus travel |
|---|---|
| Route Markers | Detour Roadblock Yield U-Turn Fast Forward Pit Stop |
The first Detour of the race was a choice between Race or Rice. In Race, teams had to proceed to the Chiang Mai X-Centre and drive an off-road buggy over an 8 km track to receive their next clue. In Rice, teams must work together to pound rice into paste and make two rice balls using a traditional method, subjected to approval.
In the first Roadblock of this season, one team member had to cross the plantation and retrieve a clue from a hanging backpack. The catch was that along the way, snipers brandishing paintball guns would fire at the team member; once shot, the team member must return to the starting point and perform the task again until successful. In this leg's Detour, the choice was between Sampan and Some Walk. In Sampan, teams must transport fruits on a sampan and row across the river to a designated fruit stall along the river. In Some Walk, teams must gather twenty live chickens and bring them to a designated retailer in the nearby market.
In this Roadblock, one team member had to retrieve seven coins representing the seven emperors of the Nguyễn Dynasty in Vietnam at the tomb of Minh Mạng, bring them back to Khải Định Tomb and put the coins in the correct order of the reign of the emperors. In this leg's Detour, the choice was between Sticks and Stalks. In Sticks, teams must make ten incense sticks using the demonstrated method. In Stalks, teams must whack rice stalks to fill two platters of unhusked rice.
In this leg's Detour, teams had to choose between Shoot It or Shape It. In Shoot It, teams drive themselves to the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan and are told to use a Sony Cybershot camera to shoot a very miniature model of a yellow-race envelope hidden inside one of the dioramas. After the photo was printed, the next clue could be found behind their new photo. In Shape It, teams drive themselves to Raohe Street Night Market where they will have to solve four sets of figures using a large tangram set. In this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to completely consume an entire bowl of a Taiwanese/Chinese delicacy: stinky tofu.
After the task at the Sony Style Store, teams received a Fast Forward option. The Fast Forward was to travel to a certain street, where there will find a clue box. The clue would then instruct them to get a permanent tattoo at Kevin's Tattoo. The Roadblock was to find a souvenir, which would later be revealed to be a small silver token that had the AXN logo on one side and The Amazing Race Asia logo on the other side in a cart of coal. In this leg's Detour the choice was between Pick or Pail. In Pick, teams had to drive themselves to a local mall and retrieve three soft toys from a game machine. In Pail, teams had to go to the Grand Tong Temple and must fill a bucket full of water and carry it to the top of the mountain where a monk will check to see if they had enough water. If they have enough they will receive their next clue.
In this Detour, teams had to choose between Get Fishy or Get Lucky. In Get Fishy, teams had to find a seafood store in Graham Street to scale and gut 12 fishes to the satisfaction of a fishmonger, before they would receive their next clue. In Get Lucky, teams had to head to one of the designated tables at Mee Lun St. and bite into hundreds of fortune cookies in a marked jar and only when they find the one cookie which contains a fortune regarding their next clue can they proceed. In this Roadblock, one team member had to choose one of the provided handbags and search through the crowded market for the lady who is carrying the same handbag as the one the team member has chosen. This lady will hand them their final clue for the leg.
In this leg's Roadblock, the chosen team member must climb to the top of the Macau Tower, obtain their next clue there, and go down back to their partner before reading their next clue. However, due to the storm, not all the teams who were still performing the Roadblock at the time were allowed to climb to the top as a precaution. In this leg's Detour, the choice was between Dance or Chance. In Dance, the team members must correctly perform a lion dance routine to the satisfaction of the performance troupe. In Chance, teams must don formal attire and play a game of blackjack in the casino of Hotel Royal Macau; they must beat the dealer nine times (as denoted by the letters of the word COMPLETED) before receiving their next clue.
In this leg's Roadblock, the chosen team member must perform a bungee jump from the top of the Macau Tower to receive their next clue. The first team to complete the task will receive a helicopter ride from Macau to Hong Kong instead of the TurboJET ferry ride. In this leg's Detour, the choice was between Fish or Fill. In Fish, the team members must carry six large swordfish to a nearby restaurant before receiving their next clue. In Fill, teams must fill an intricate floor pattern using colored rice before receiving their next clue.
In this leg's roadblock, one team member had to find the correct pheta from 50 men who were walking around the castle. If that person found the pheta with the word "Correct" inside, they received the next clue. In this leg's detour, teams had to choose between Push and Crush. In Push, teams had to go to Datta Shinde Pottery Shop and push the cart with 75 pots one kilometer to Rajkumar Provision Stores in Mahatma Phule Market with 70 or more pots unbroken at the destination before receiving the next clue. In Crush teams had to go to the market, make 40 glasses of sugar cane juice and sell them to earn 200 or more to receive the next clue.
In this leg's Detour, teams had to choose between Carpet and Count It. In Carpet, team had to walk to the carpet shop and find two exact carpets, using the images in the Sony Cybershot as references. In Count It team had to walk to a shop and count the dry lime and will only receive their clue once they state the correct amount to the shop owner (correct numbers were 1601, 1595, 1598 and 1577). This leg's Roadblock, one team member must zip across the canyon to the other side to receive the next clue.
Additional tasks:
In this leg's Roadblock, one team member must locate one of seven special keys out of seventy keys buried in the sand using the metal detector to unlock the clue box. In this leg's Detour, teams have to choose between Pull or Plunge. In Pull, teams must kayak to a nearby oyster farm and find the marked shell by pulling the oyster lines, then the teams must bring the marked shell back to the beach to exchange it with their next clue. In Plunge, teams must snorkel and search for a giant clam shell with a pearl inside; the pearl should be exchanged with their next clue.
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