(S14E07) Tonight on The Amazing Race, the teams left India and headed to Thailand. In particular, they headed to Phuket, Thailand. Now, just the name of the city alone is enough for some teams to struggle with the correct pronunciation. There is an obvious one, but that probably wouldn't fly on network television. The accepted pronunciation is "FOO-ket." But, according to Jen and Kisha, it's "pa-KOOT." Mel was familiar with the city, but most of the other teams had trouble with the name. Phuket, it's that easy!

Bunching up and bad taxi doom
Although there was quite a large time span between the teams, they all ended up on the same flight to Thailand. I'm of two minds about the bunching up points. The good thing is that it puts them all on a level playing field once again. If they run the race right and have good luck, the last could be first at the next Pit Stop. But it also lets one bit of bad luck doom a team's chances with the pack so tightly together.

Tonight it was another Taxi of Doom. The teams, armed only with a picture of a gorilla statue, had to find the statue itself to get the next clue. Sigh. Mel and Mike not only had trouble finding a taxi to begin with, but they chose the Taxi of Doom. All of the other teams made at least halfway decent time finding the gorilla statue at the Phuket Zoo while the father and son team ended up miles away at a beach. Sure, a few minutes could have been saved when a local told them it was the zoo and they didn't act on it. But, had the driver not been so positive it was on the beach and so dumb about where it might be on the beach ... one of my favorite teams would have had a chance.

Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo
Teams had to have their picture taken with a tiger and have an elephant step gently on their butts, then squat over them. I don't know. That squatting looked like the elephant was about to defecate or something. It creeped me out. But, worse than that was the tiger's keeper. He had one arm. They didn't say why. But I bet that tiger wouldn't mind chomping the other one off if he keeps poking him with that stick. Sheesh. I don't like the way they treated him.

Luck of the drawer
Cara and Jaime were the first to arrive at the task which had clues hidden amongst a gazillion pharmacy drawers. Here's where true luck comes to play. Some of the teams tried keeping track of the numbered drawers which didn't hold the clues, but that seemed to be an exercise in futility. With the exception of Jen and Kisha and Mel and Mike, all of the other teams found the clue and left before Cara and Jaime.

Bad boys Michael and Mark
Sure, you can be a bit sneaky in arranging flights and all. But, whatever you do, you don't mess with stuff to sabotage the teams in back of you. I previously mentioned that Mark and Michael need to step up their game in the race or they'd be out. But I didn't mean for them to stoop to sabotage or to cheat by having a taxi lead them to their destination while the clue said they had to find it while doing their rickshaw detour! It cost them their first place and made me respect them a bit less.

The Pit Stop order
1. Mark and Michael - Suffered two 30-minute penalties for their dastardly deeds
1. Tammy and Victor - They won a trip to Oahu
2. Jaime and Cara
3. Mark and Michael
4. Margie and Luke
5. Jen and Kisha
6. Mike and Mel - Philiminated

Although the promos made it sound like Margie suffered a heart attack or something, it was the heat. And, it happened at the Pit Stop. So she had proper medical care and is still in the race. I'm so sorry to see Mel and Mike go. I really enjoy Mel, and the two are so not what I expected them to be. I'll miss them on the show!