Leg five starts off with a flight from Phuket to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where teams make their way to Thanh Da, an indoor fishing pond to receive their next clue. Here, they find their first Fast Forward in the Race.The first team that finishes the Fast Forward challenge can skip all tasks and head directly to the Pit Stop.
Eric & Rona and Treasuri & Louisa are huge fans of The Amazing Race Asia and they conclude that previous teams that had gone for Fast Forward usually end up last, so they immediately opt for the challenge.
At Thanh Da, teams put their angling skills to the test and catch four prawns from the indoor pond before receiving their next clue. As teams settle down to wait for their catch, Tom & Anita decide to take the risk and head to the Fast Forward task.
In this Fast Forward task, teams must break potentially hundreds of clay bowls containing steamed, sticky rice. Only one bowl contains a coin that is the golden ticket to the Pit Stop.
However, teams must break one bowl at a time and eat the rice before they can continue their search.
Meanwhile, back at the fishing pond, there are screams, cheers, and laughter as the teams slowly catch their prawns. They concede that it’s more of a game of luck than a game of skill in this challenge. Alex & Willare not making any progressso they decide to head to the Fast
Forward task. Eric & Rona, despite Eric’s fear of prawns, manage to catch all four prawns first. After seeing the magnitude of the Fast Forward task, Tom & Anita give up after only eating a handful of bowls and make their way back to Thanh Da to catch the prawns. Upon arrival, they are encouraged to see three remaining teamsthere – Louisa &Treasuri, JK & Mike, and Parul& Maggie.
While all the other teams finish their prawn fishing, Alex & Will are on their 46 th (!!!) bowl of rice and they are clearly having trouble eating more. When Will vomits all over himself, they decide to cut their losses and head back to Thanh Da.
Teams now need to find an outdoor photocopy shop to receive their photocopied Detour information. In Detour, teams choose between “Badminton Bash” and “Flower Power”. In “Badminton Bash”, teams must score 10 points against local Badminton pros. In “Flower Power”, teams must make their way to a local flower market and put together an order of flowers from specific stalls and deliver them to a flower retail shop to receive their next clue.
Being Indonesians, Treasuri& Louisa are confident of their badminton skills and decide to go for “Badminton Bash” while the other teams choose “Flower Power”.
After finishing the Detour challenge, teams now go for the Roadblock challenge with a single clue: ‘Who’s ready for a snack?’One team member must complete a five-course meal comprising bats, lizards, centipedes, scorpions, and rats. Treasuri, Rona, Maggie, Yvonne, JK, Tom and Will represent their teams to take part in this Roadblock.
Treasuri tearfully finishes her meal with the support of Louisa and they are the first to reach the Pit Stop for the third time in a row! Rona tears through the exotic meat like fast food and they become the second team to arrive at the pit stop. Yvonne & Chloe are third, followed by Parul& Maggie. Tom & Anita and JK & Mike are neck-to- neck but JK happily finishes the exotic meal and clinches fifth place, leaving Tom & Anita at sixth.
Falling prey to the Fast Forward curse, Alex & Will are the last team to arrive at the Pit Stop and they are eliminated from the Race. “In this Race, we took our relationship to the next level and we have gained a deeper respect for each other. You can try to slow us down, break us up but you will never stop us,” Alex & Will said.
Coming up in the next episode, teams fly to Manila, Philippines where they must assemble a Disaster Preparedness Kit for families in need. After an overnight bus ride to Vigan, teams attempt to master a mixture of local traditions in order to avoid elimination.
