Where'd the Fight Go??

Hahn-Yo Hah Say-Yoh!  Now, I bet a lot of you are wondering where did the fight go between Henri and me?  I was able to catch the seventh episode of The Amazing Race Asia last night here in Beijing and was anticipating the flare-up between Henri and me.  Little did I know how quickly a lot of teams were well on their way to completely unraveling.  Sure, I don't think many of us were surprised to see Terri yelling her head off at Henri, but Pamela and Vanessa really let the emotions get the best of them when they got lost, huh? 

However, it's always great to see the two Malaysian sisters make up when they hear that they are not last...and actually did pretty well.  On the other hand, I was even a little shocked myself to see Henri completely break down and cry in the interview.  I guess that's the least we would expect from him, huh?

Since you won't get a chance to see on the airwaves what happened to Henri and me at this pit stop, I will sum it up for you.  In this new season, we implemented a new rule for teams arriving last thatif they do NOT arrive in first place at the next leg of the raceafter one of these predetermined non-elimination rounds, the team will incur a 30-minute time penalty .  This might not seem very serious, but having an additional half an hour added to a team's total time could ultimately lead to their elimination in the successive leg.

For this leg finishing up in Seoul, Korea, we threw in a "curve ball" and reverted back to the original penalty for the last team to arrive by taking all their money so they have to start the next leg with no money at all.  Henri and Terri were both shocked to learn of this.  Coupled with all verbal abuse Henri had tolerated during this leg with probably his own "scarcity" issues,  Henri was initially very reluctant and angry to give me their teams' leg money.  In fact, he was incensed and refused to surrender the money.  As he was quickly working himself up into a nice agitated lather of rage, he even asked,  "Who makes the rules around here?"  I tried to stay cool and calm and responded, "I do."   Believe it or not, it was actually Terry who was the level-headed one here and got him to calm down and finally surrender their money. 

And from that moment forward, I know I wasn't on Henri's "Favorite People" list.  I think even up until today, he still takes it personally and would have liked to show me what he thought about me taking his money.  This is all I've got to say about this:  "Henri, if you are reading this...It's just a race, Man." 

Well, that's about all I wanna say on that so that's that.  Here's a candid shot of the greeter explaining to me the finer features of the K-Phone, which works on a different network than the rest of the world.  She's actually a TV actress who took time off from her busy schedule to greet our teams.  Little did she know we'd be waiting a long time for them to arrive, especially Terry and Henri.

All in all, Korea was great.  I absolutely love Korean food, and I was fortunate enough to have a little time to get some Korean Bar-B-Q myself before I hit the road again.  However, I must say that I still believe Koreatown in Los Angeles, California, still has the best Korean food in the world so make you try some the next time you're there and tell me whether you think I'm right or not.  If not, then maybe I'll let you take my money at the next stop!

Hope you're enjoying the race and be prepared for a continental shift as we do some major flying in the next leg!