After beauty queens Dustin & Kandice caused some friction by cutting line at a travel agency, the nine Teams traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam where brothers Erwin & Godwin used their navigational skills to earn a first place finish and father and daughter Duke & Lauren, fighting over money early in the leg, became lost and chose the slower Detour option by default to become the fourth Team eliminated from the race.
Departing the Pit Stop in first place at 6:54am, friends Peter & Sarah open up their clue instructing them to fly over 2,300 miles to Hanoi, Vietnam. Once there, they need to find the Hoa Lo Prison, infamously known as the "Hanoi Hilton."
To purchase tickets to Hanoi, Teams have to use a travel agency located in a hotel in downtown Ulaanbaatar. Getting there first, Peter & Sarah wait for the agency to open its doors at 9am and soon had the company of models Tyler & James, father and daughter Duke & Lauren, boyfriends Tom & Terry, beauty queens Dustin & Kandice, and coalminer and wife David & Mary.With only four agents available, everyone agrees that forming a line based on order of arrival would be the only fair way. When the doors open however, boyfriends Tom & Terry walk past an available agent, so the beauty queens Dustin & Kandice decide to step up to the counter. Realizing they had been skipped past, the boyfriends begin to argue with the beauty queens accusing them of cutting lines. A disappointed Tom told them, "I thought we could trust you guys."
The blondes' didn't cut in line!
Afterwards, Tom quipped to Terry, "They are not going to win a beauty pageant of kindness. That is for sure." On the situation, James noted, "The blondes are conniving. They're always looking for any little inch they can get on anybody else." Defending themselves, Dustin later said, "We really didn't feel guilty because we were on the ball and doing our stuff." In the end, the maneuver didn't pay off for the beauty queens as all nine Teams made the same flight to Hanoi.
Landing in Hanoi at 10:58pm, beauty queens Dustin & Kandice took an early lead out of the airport, but soon relinquished it when they stopped on the side of the road to check on an overturned truck. This allowed dating couple Rob & Kimberly and model Tyler & James to pass them.
Meanwhile, against his daughter's wishes, Duke chose to employ the navigational services of a woman they met on the plane by bringing her along in their taxi causing them to leave the airport in last place. The plan hits a snag when the woman directs the driver to drop her off at her brother's house before taking them to the prison, wasting even more time.To make matters worse, their financial situation also becomes a concern when it becomes clear their remaining eleven dollars might not cover the taxi fare. The pair get lucky on two fronts as the prison doesn't open until 8am and their taxi driver is incredibly gracious in accepting eleven dollars for the fare even though it may have been greater.
The following morning, the nine Teams open up scrolls outside of the Hoa Lo Prison and read the history of how hundreds of U.S. servicemen were held as prisoners of war here during the Vietnam War. One of the most notable prisoners was Senator John McCain, who endured five years here when his fighter plane was shot down.
This ad paid for by John McCain
The Teams have to search the grounds of the prison to find his flight suit and their next clue. A solemn David, whose father who also served in Vietnam, notes, "I'm just really honored to be here for my dad." Inside, amid the cells, shackles, and dungeons of the prison, the Teams located Sen. McCain's flight suit and took their next clue. Brothers Erwin & Godwin fall to last place after taking the time to pay the proper respect at the suit. Godwin remarked, "We took a moment of silence out of respect for the servicemen, not only in Vietnam, but around the world that today are fighting and sacrificing their lives." Erwin added, "It is a significant place and it is a place we wanted to honor properly even though it meant that we would be in last place."
My new favorite team
Outside of the prison, the Teams open their clue instructing them to travel one and a half miles to Hanoi's Old Quarter and search for a marked flower shop. With all of the Teams taking taxis to the marketplace, the penniless Duke & Lauren have no choice but to walk through the streets of Hanoi putting them in last place.
In the Old Quarter, boyfriends Tom & Terry find the flower shop first, opening their clue to find a Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member has to choose a bicycle with a basket of flowers and sell enough to make 80,000 Vietnamese dong, roughly five U.S. dollars. Whatever money Teams earn, they can keep.
Jumping on a bike for his Team, Tom soon discovered the difficulty in balancing the flowers on it as he tries to pedal. Erwin runs into a similar situation as the locals looked on laughing. A frustrated Godwin laments, "I knew I should have done this one." Meanwhile, Peter sails through the challenge with no trouble at all. Sarah, hazarding a guess about his strong performance, remarks, "All the women love him, I think they're loving the blonde hair."
Ripping open their clue, the friends learn they had to travel by public bus 30 miles to the tiny village of Vac and search for a Buddhist temple.
In a chaotic scene outside of the flower shop, the remaining Teams, minus Duke & Lauren who had yet to arrive, all tried to sell their flowers to a huge crowd of locals. With the success of beauty queens Dustin & Kandice, Godwin later commented, "Academics came easy for the two of us, but at the flower market you could be the most intelligent person in the world but the reality is two young females come out there, stand there, they're gonna sell more flowers than you."
While dating couple Rob & Kimberly, beauty queens Dustin & Kandice, and models Tyler & James all finish the Road Block before Erwin & Godwin, the brothers, using the intelligence they speak of, board a bus to Vac ahead of the other Teams including friends Peter & Sarah who, in their haste to keep their lead, take the wrong bus.
Boyfriends Tom & Terry also flex their navigational muscle finding the bus station to take the second bus to Vac. An excited Duke & Lauren gain ground at the flower shop to share the third bus to Vac containing every other Team except for Peter & Sarah, who because of their mistake, fell to last place on the last bus to Vac. Coalminer David became teary while reflecting on the Vietnam countryside, saying, "My dad's only told me stories about Vietnam really once. Just fighting and people dead and shooting. To be able to see a rice paddy and be able to imagine some of the things he went through, it just ain't right."
Arriving in Vac Village, brothers Erwin & Godwin have to walk one mile to reach the Buddhist temple. They declined offers to ride on a motorbike as it was forbidden in the clue due to safety reasons. Arriving at the temple, the brothers open their clue to find a Detour, having to choose between Fuel and Fowl. In Fuel, Teams had to travel to a nearby work station, take wet coal from a communal pile, and use a traditional press to create 30 coal bricks which are a common fuel source in Vietnam. In Fowl, Teams had to travel to a nearby courtyard and use traditional materials and local methods to build one birdcage.As boyfriends Tom & Terry arrived in Vac Village and, against the rules, accept a motorbike ride, brothers Erwin & Godwin begin slapping the wet, lumpy coal into the press with poor results as all thirty of their bricks were declared unacceptable for being too short. Starting over, the brothers had a much better idea of how to pack the clay-like coal and quickly finished the task to earn the clue that instructs them to proceed on foot to a nearby rice paddy and Pit Stop for this leg of the race.
As the brothers took off to claim first place and a home entertainment system, boyfriends Tom & Terry already had several acceptable bricks completed, placing them comfortably in second place. The six Teams on the third bus all become lost in the intricate maze of buildings while searching for the coal work station allowing last place Peter & Sarah to catch up. Father & daughter, Duke & Lauren, separated from the large group they were with, stumbled upon the courtyard and decided to switch task, becoming the only Team to build a birdcage.
After completing their thirty bricks, boyfriends Tom & Terry stepped onto the mat in second place. However, Phil informs the stunned pair that they would be receiving a 30-minute penalty for traveling by motorcycle. Now the frightened pair wait with dread as Teams begins checking in. Tom remarks, "It just shows that you can have one bad day and you're gone from this race."
After friends Peter & Sarah came from behind to claim fifth place, two Teams who have become friends along the way, David & Mary and Lyn & Karlyn, find themselves having to square off in a race through the rice paddy. With Mary's bad ankle, she tells the single moms to keep going without her even though Lyn later remarks, "I am not a fair-weather friend. We always keep working with our friends."
After Lyn & Karlyn and David & Mary nabb sixth and seventh place respectively, the two Teams hug and Karlyn and Mary cried out of exhaustion and relief. Lyn says, of the coal miner and his wife, "I just didn't want them to go home because they're such deserving people." Mary adds, "We have three great groups of friends: Lyn & Karlyn, the Cho brothers, and TNT. We're the backpack. We don't give up on each other. We encourage each other."
With only Duke & Lauren remaining, who constructed their birdcage, boyfriends Tom & Terry continue to anxiously wait for their penalty to expire. With a sigh of relief, Phil finally welcomes the boyfriends back on the mat, now in eighth place. Tom later said, "We're not going to let this get us down. We're just gonna pick up the next leg and continue on with the same energy we had today."
Stepping onto the mat in last place, father and daughter Duke & Lauren learn that they had been eliminated from the race. Before giving his daughter a kiss, the proud father remarks, "I think she has a better understanding of me not only as a father, but as a person and I do the same for her, not only as a daughter, but as a remarkable woman. You almost want to wish this on every parent out there."
