The Amazing Race 2010 - Episode 9 Recap

Five teams remain on the Amazing Race. Having stayed in Oman at the pit stop, it is now time to fly to Dhaka, Bangladesh, the city of mosques, muslin and rickshaws. Newly engaged couple Chad and Stephanie get to leave first since Jill and Thomas came in under a penalty the week before, allowing Chad and Stephanie to slip past them for first. Everyone on the Amazing Race is either excited or apprehensive about a race first, the double U-turn. This means two different teams will be allowed to U-Turn two other teams, A U-Turned team, when they arrive at a Detour (a choice between two tasks), will have to do both tasks.

Most teams are only able to get a flight that arrives at noon the next day. Nat and Kat fly the first leg to Dubai and hope to get a quicker flight out from there. Jill and Thomas and Chad and Stephanie are working together at the airport when Jill and Thomas decide to try for an earlier flight. Chad and Stephanie opt for a trip to buy a Blizzard ice cream shake and a cheeseburger. While they enjoy their meal, Jill and Thomas snag a much earlier flight that will arrive at 5:00 a.m., seven hours earlier than the other teams. Brooke and Claire overhear and attempt to get on the flight too, but it is sold out. While Brooke and Claire are waiting to see if their travel agent can find anything else, Nick and Vicki get the last seats on another flight that arrives at 9:00 a.m. Meanwhile, at Dubai, Nat and Kat end up on the same flight as the other two teams, arriving at noon after all.

Jill and Thomas, by far the first team on the Amazing Race to arrive, find Sundarban Square Supermarket and the sugar cane stand. They grind the sugar cane, fill a mug, and Thomas throws it back in one long gulp. Jill pours herself a sip, and they get their next clue. Meanwhile, Vicki and Nick arrive. Vicki hopes they get to ride "one of those cute little buggy things," wile Nick observes that the locals have "body odor from hell." Nick drinks the sugar cane juice, saying it tastes like sweet grass.

Jill and Thomas are on their way, by bicycle rickshaw, through some brutal traffic to the Detour. Their choices are Balanced Meal or Balanced Bricks. In Balanced Meal, they must load 30 large containers full of food on to a small boat and take them out to a barge. There they must lift them high on to the deck, and they will receive their next clue after delivering 10 empties they have retrieved.

In Balanced Bricks, the teams must load 100 bricks in baskets on their heads and walk some distance to deliver them, a basket at a time, and unbroken. Jill and Thomas choose this, but Jill drops the bricks before she even gets off the barge she loaded them from. Despite the heat and the weight of the bricks, they finish the task and head to Dhaka Riverport, where they find the Double U-Turn. They choose to U-Turn Brooke and Claire, since they believe they are a strong team.

Next Jill and Thomas head by bicycle rickshaw to Nazira Bazaars, where they encounter a Roadblock. One of them must enter a mechanic's shop and assemble a rickshaw. Jill takes the task. She gets everything on but the chain; eventually she discovers her mistake and receives the next clue. She and Thomas must go to Lalbagh Fort, a 300 year old castle that is the next pit stop. They find Phil on the mat with no problem and come in first place, winning a $15,000 Discover gift card.

Meanwhile, Nick and Vicki choose to do the Balanced Meal task. They load 30 aluminum carriers full of meals. This is known as Tiffin and is a growing cottage industry in Dhaka to feed hungry laborers with food delivery. Vicki doesn't think the food smells very good, but she and Nick quickly finish the task of delivering it and head to the Riverport. Nick wants to U-Turn Chad and Stephanie, but Vicki says since the two are behind she and Nick anyway, there's no point in U-Turning them; Nick concedes and they go to assemble a rickshaw and then head to the pit stop. They are team number 2, their best finish yet. "So you see," Vicki says gently to Nick, "being nice does pay off."

Three teams, Chad and Stephanie, Nat and Kat, and Brooke and Claire all finish the sugar cane drink around the same time and head off in rickshaws to the next task. Chad and Stephanie hope to finish quickly and then U-Turn Nat and Kat, but somehow their rickshaw driver gets confused and heads in the opposite direction. Nat and Kat, arriving at the U-Turn with surprise to find they are not on it, decide to U-Turn Chad and Stephanie. Brooke and Claire, of course, do find themselves on it, and have to go do the Brick task after finishing the Meal task. They are not happy and Brooke is mean to Claire as usual, although both complain endlessly about the task. They finish in spite of themselves, and Brooke, after a bit of trouble with the bell, assembles a rickshaw and hugs the mechanic.

Nat is busily assembling a rickshaw when Brooke and Claire arrive; then Chad and Stephanie show up and Chad begins trash talking them. "Is he going to tackle me?" muses a grinning Nat. "It's nothing personal, Chad," she says, as she and Kat leave to go to the pit stop, arriving in third place and very happy that they used the U-Turn. Meanwhile, Stephanie has an awful time getting the back seat in, but finally Brooke and Claire and Chad and Stephanie are able to race off to the pit stop.

However, these Amazing Race teams can not find the pit stop, finally relying on local people to direct them. Brooke and Claire manage to arrive first, and after a little friendly torture, Phil tells them they have arrived fourth. Chad and Stephanie, the last to arrive, are eliminated from the race. Chad says he got the greatest prize anyway since Stephanie agreed to marry him. Even if he didn't win a million dollars, he says, he feels like a very rich man.

Tune in two weeks from now when The Amazing Race continues on CBS.

Sources: Personal experience watching The Amazing Race on CBS

The Daily Star, It's tiffin time, Sayeda Akter