Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 2 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT Smithing and Sewing
By M. Giant | Season 21 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.21.2012
The Amazing Red Line cuts across the rest of Indonesia and the Indian Ocean via Singapore to Dhaka, where scenes of cobra tamers, terrifying traffic, passengers on the tops of trains, and people engaging in homey activities like cooking dinner six inches from a moving train are already stressing me out. Most of the teams emerge from the terminal onto the dirty, chaotic streets and immediately experience low-level panic at how hard it's going to be to get a cab. All, that is, except for Rob & Kelley, who stroll across the quiet, antiseptic interior of the air terminal to a taxi window, then walk calmly into a waiting van outside. "It's going to be fun trying to get around this place," Rob says. "No, it isn't, "says Kelley, already over it. But at least they're "Currently in 1st Place."
Of the teams who decided to hunt their cabs in the wild, Abbie and Ryan are the first to actually bag one. They describe it as Third World and comment on how aggressive the other motorists are, all of whom seem to be male. Natalie and Nadiya compare the scene to Third World Grand Theft Auto, "minus the nice cars. I thought we weren't saying "Third World" any more, at least since Kendra from TAR6? Jaymes & James, on the other hand, compare it to a symphony or a ballet. They must be Phillip Glass fans. James & Abba call their cab ride the best wooden roller coaster ever, and Josh & Brent say they're among their peeps when they spot a goat herder leading his charges down the road on leashes. Or maybe he's just a paid goat walker, walking other people's goats. Trey & Lexi's driver has to stop for gas -- natural gas, judging by the hoses he has to hook up under the hood -- and Lexi talks about being at the mercy of things you can't control, while Trey has again been struck mute. And Gary & Will's driver appears to be lost, although he claims it's a short cut. Will says something about the luck of the draw, and Gary rudely tells him to shut up. As for Rob & Kelley, their taxi van has taken them to the hospital landfill. But at least they didn't have to scramble for it.
Seeing a guy proudly waving a bundle of dead poultry from the top of a passing truck, Ryan apparently decides it's now safe to declare the place "funky monkey," a sentiment with which Abbie fully agrees. Shortly thereafter they arrive at Rubel Model Auto Mobiles (thanks to the sign for being in both English and "Squiggly"), just ahead of the twins, who fret about "these two idiots" getting there before them. Ryan collects their clue from a bucket placed inside the skeleton of a trashed bus seat sitting outside the gate to the yard, and reads, "Who wants to fill in the gaps?" Now Phil's walking through the busy yard, explaining how this Roadblock calls for teams to "repair one of the more than 15,000 buses that do battle on the congested streets of Dhaka every day." This over shots of said buses playing chicken within inches of each other on hard areas that can only generously be called "streets," a term which implies some level of organization. The repairs will consist of using body putty to fill in a dented area on the side of the bus, which is marked off about three feet on a side, then sand it so it's ready to be painted, and then take three pairs of seats from another bus and carry them all the way across the yard to the area where seats are apparently refurbished. And then they'll get their next clue, even though the buses will still not technically be repaired.