Is it just me, or have the Racers been moving around on the smallest budget ever this season? What was it, sixty-six dollars for China and thirty-nine for Mongolia? I know the producers expect that no one will eat, drink, or find a pay toilet until they hit the Pit Stop, but we've still had a couple of taxis, some train tickets, and before we hit the finish line, at least one native will need a bribe. It doesn't surprise me that Duke & Lauren were shown as running out of money on the next leg. It surprised me that they got any. No wonder Sarah And Her Amazing Wonder Springs were trying to get some cash out of the locals: the first bankruptcy was only an episode away. How long until people start selling watches? Jewelry? Clothing? It's reality TV: their bodies are already under contract...

(Discussion of Peter's 'step right up and see my bionic girlfriend!' barker act goes a thread or two over. So do jokes about Sarah and the 'dollar leg'.)

• RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Max Headroom, 09:06 AM, 09-25-06
• RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Seana, 09:33 AM, 10-02-06
  • RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Max Headroom, 09:48 AM, 10-02-06
    • RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,dabo, 09:55 AM, 10-02-06
• RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Jims02, 11:23 AM, 10-02-06
• RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Karchita, 04:29 PM, 10-02-06
  • RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Earl Colby Pottinger, 12:42 PM, 10-03-06
    • RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Karchita, 06:14 PM, 10-03-06
      • RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Earl Colby Pottinger, 11:12 PM, 10-05-06
      • RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Loren, 00:17 AM, 10-16-06
        • RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Karchita, 02:46 AM, 10-17-06
  • RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Cyndimaus, 11:20 AM, 10-04-06
• RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,nailbone, 10:16 AM, 10-03-06
  • RE: How often do we start with the dollar leg?,Earl Colby Pottinger, 12:33 PM, 10-03-06

I don't get it either. Even though the teams are traveling through less-expensive parts of the world, I know from personal experience that Beijing isn't as cheap as one might think. If the producers are trying to make the race harder, do it through tougher "Treasure Hunters"-style clues, not by pinching pennies on cash outlays. Won't we get enough begging later on after non-elim legs?

And look! A no-money-at-all leg.

For a bonus, they were not allowed to beg or sell anything, either.

I like a no begging rule. It gives me hope that TAR has done away with "getting mugged by Phil".

Spooky bouncie by IceCat

Makes you wonder what would have happened if Duke and Lauren's cab driver would have demanded the full fare? Would they have had to ask other racers to "loan" them some cash? Could have been interesting... though in a contrived way.

At least the concept of keeping the flower-selling money was a good one...

I would have given them the money. Strong teams should do whatever they can to keep weak teams in the race until the final sprint.

Hey, they've got profit margins to watch. How are they ever going to afford to bribe the Emmy judges if they're handing out $50-100 per team each leg?

Besides, this was a great chance to boost the Vietnamese flower economy.

I think it has to do with three things:

1. It adds more stress to the racers, which, of course, makes better TV.

2. It prevents racers from buying guide books. In the past, some have bought Lonely Planet books, which have tons of helpful information, but which cost a lot, like US$30-50, and might well be more in poor, non-English speaking countries. I have wondered how racers could afford it, but they must have had that much extra in their budgets. If their budgets are really tight, racers couldn't even afford to look up info at internet cafes. The lack of access information would make the race a more level playing field and they have to compete using what we are shown on TV (more or less), not what they are doing during the pit stops.

3. It adds another skill that is necessary to do well in TAR, budgeting. It was basically what did in Duke and Lauren last night.

Internet Cafes are cheap. Even a single dollar will get you useful time on a machine. Plus I love some of the twists and turns we have seen from people doing thier research on-the-fly.

Travel books are expensive, I have only about a quarter of the guides I would like to own because at $30-$50 a book I could easyly spend $1000 to cover all the places I am interested in.

Worse, there are almost no good cheap books, I own one BVI book that cost me $9.95 that was worth the money because of all the personal details the author included but the only other times I have seen books that cheap with lots of details they are *YEARS* out of date. Anyone else with a book detailing the waterfalls of Montserrat?

My experience with internet cafes overseas is that for an hour or so it'll cost at least $5 and sometimes much more. Sometimes they are surprisingly expensive in poor countries if electricity and imports are expensive. Often the machines are extremely old and slow and the keyboards are set for other languages, so it takes forever just to do a simple search.

I'm not saying you are wrong, just that my experience is quite different and the racers wouldn't have the slack in their budgets for much internet access.

I am agreeing with you still. At $5 an hour, 15 minutes is just over a buck.

This is a race, so unless there are at an airport or staying overnight in a hotel they usually don't spend that long on-line (I think).

I want they to have internet access, but I don't want they to have in affect (effect?) unlimited funds. IE an extra $100 US goes a long way in a large percentage of the poorer countries.

>My experience with internet cafes overseas
>is that for an hour
>or so it'll cost at
>least $5 and sometimes much
>more. Sometimes they are
>surprisingly expensive in poor countries
>if electricity and imports are
>expensive. Often the machines
>are extremely old and slow
>and the keyboards are set
>for other languages, so it
>takes forever just to do
>a simple search.
>
>I'm not saying you are wrong,
>just that my experience is
>quite different and the racers
>wouldn't have the slack in
>their budgets for much internet
>access.

That might be the price here in the US. I have made considerable use of internet cafes in Shanghai, though. At first it was about 60 cents/hour + I believe I was often slightly overcharged. This got shared access to a 56k dialup. (Note, however, that most people were playing local games, not using the web at all.) These days I can get shared access to a 2mbit ADSL line for 25 cents/hour when it's cheap, 35 cents/hour during the busier time.

Wow, Loren, that is really cheap. I based my comments on the places I have traveled in the last few years, Mexico, Bulgaria, Slovakia, London, Italy and hmm, maybe I am forgetting some, and no place was any where near that cheap.

Whether they are using internet cafes is speculative anyway, but apparently some places they could afford them and some not.

Welcome to the boards.

I like the idea that they'll have to be more careful with their money. Remember in past TARs when some racers have spent the night in a hotel while waiting for a morning opening time? Or the Weavers going through the McDonalds drive-through? (true, this was the U.S., boring version, but still...)

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