Philippines: Parul & Maggie Aim to Stay in the Game

Wazzup Pilipinas!

It’s the eighth leg of The Amazing Race Asia and teams must depart Singapore and head to Yogyakarta, Indonesia where they must make their way to Jomblang Cave to retrieve their next clue. The first team that reaches the Garuda Indonesia check-in counter in Singapore gets special access to the Garuda lounge.

JK & Mike are first to reach the airport and they decide to gift the special access to the other teams via a simple lucky draw. Rona & Eric win the pick of the draw and they gleefully make full use of the lounge.

“What a bunch of sweethearts!” exclaimed Eric, touched by their action.

At Yogyakarta, the teams rush out to grab a taxi to Jomblang Cave. Drama ensues as Treasuri & Louisa squeeze through the other teams and forcefully get their tickets first. The other teams look on with disdain and shock.

“We have a pact with Eric and Rona, and that’s to get rid of Treasuri and Louisa. That’s the goal,” says Parul and Maggie revealing their strategy.

While the other teams make their way to Jomblang Cave, Eric & Rona have to perform their Speed Bump penalty to make up for the last leg’s non-elimination. At this Speed Bump, Eric & Rona have to drink a traditional Indonesian herbal concoction while being blindfolded and guess which one it is. The duo bravely down the concoction and using its bitter taste as a gauge, they manage to guess the correct bottle in just a few minutes. 

At Jomblang Cave, the teams find out that it’s a Roadblock – “who’s ready to walk the line?” – In this Roadblock, one team member must walk on a rope across a 100m vertical cave and descend down a vertical ladder to retrieve their clue. Teams who drop their clue or fall from the rope must redo the task or risk a two hour time penalty.

JK and Treasuri are first to walk the line. Treasuri is confident at succeeding at this task, but after 10 steps she realizes that it requires a tremendous amount of upper arm strength. JK struggles to keep his balance especially with Treasuri on the other side of the line.

Treasuri keeps her cool and swiftly completes this task, leaving JK still stuck in the middle. Parul steps onto the rope while JK is still on it, shaking their balance. At the pivotal moment, JK can’t hold on any longer and plunges into the cave, still harnessed of course.

Exhausted from hanging on for so long, JK doesn’t want to redo the task and chooses to take the penalty, giving Parul, Yvonne and Eric the lead.

Once the teams finish with this Roadblock, they must head to Prambanan Temple for yet another Roadblock – “who recognizes Divine Order?”. One team member must head into the Prambanan Temple to memorize the names and locations of the Hindu deities.

Treasuri chooses to take up this Roadblock and she comes up with a strategy to memorize the names and locations. Not surprising, she guesses everything correctly on her first try and they can proceed to the next task.

After seeing the other teams passing them by, JK decides to give this task another try and he gets up on the rope again.

Fortunately for him, he manages to complete the task in his second attempt and they both rush to Prambranan Temple for their next Roadblock.

After the Roadblock at Prambranan Temple, teams must head for their Route Marker, where both team members must master the basics of traditional archery called Jeparingan. Each team member must hit the target once in order to move on.

At the archery range, Treasuri and Louisa yet again manage to finish the task way ahead of the other teams.

“When we got to the archery challenge, Treasuri and Lousia were nowhere to be seen. They basically left all of us behind.” Maggie complains.

After the archery task, teams must head to Alun-Alun Selatan Square and complete laps around the square in their Odong-Odong, a colorfully lit-up pedal cart with two locals. Once they have completed the required number of laps, they must pedal the Odong-Odong straight to the Pit Stop located at Ndalem Ngabean.

The other teams are not as good as Treasuri and Louisa. Parul struggles to hit the target with her shaking arms and both beauty queens start crying due to frustration. Once Eric & Rona figure out the right aim and direction, they manage to hit the target.

Treasuri and Louisa quickly complete the task and arrive at the Pit Stop first, giving them the honor of having four first places in the race so far. Eric & Rona arrive in second place and Parul & Maggie are third.

After Yvonne and Chloe take a long time trying to get a taxi to Alun-Alun Selatan Square, JK & Mike manage to catch up and both teams are competing for fourth place and are only mere seconds apart.

It was such a close finish but JK & Mike receive the wrong direction from a local and that ultimately messes up their game.

Yvonne & Chloe arrive at fourth place and JK & Mike arrive last and they are eliminated.

Coming up in the next episode, teams pull out all the stops to gain an advantage in this second-to-the-last leg. Treasuri and Louisa hang on for dear life as the Filipino alliance strengthens and the Malaysian Beauty Queens resort to mud-slinging.

The Amazing Race Asia Season 5 airs every Thursday at 9pm on AXN. The series is supported by presenting sponsor Wonderful Indonesia, and partners Garuda Indonesia, Grab and Great Eastern.

[Editors’ note: Hi-res images, team bios and quick facts are available to download via www.AXN-Asia.com/TARApress]

Join the action and connect with Allan, Tara and the 22 racers via: #AXNTARA and @TheAmazingRaceAsia

Team	Relationship	Country	Social Media Handle
Rach and Vicky (eliminated)	Travel Hosts	Indonesia	#TARAVickRach
Treasuri and Louisa	Childhood Friends	Indonesia	#TARATrezLou
Chloe and Yvonne	Beauty Queens	Malaysia	#TARAChloeYvonne
Alex and Will (eliminated)	Brothers	Malaysia	#TARAAlexWill
Brandon and Alphaeus (eliminated)	Old School Mates	Malaysia	#TARABrandonAlph
Eric and Rona	Married	Philippines	#TARAEricRona
Parul and Maggie	Beauty Queens	Philippines	#TARAMagParul
JK and Mike (eliminated)	Radio DJs	Singapore	#TARAJKMike
Rei and Kenji (eliminated)	Siblings	Singapore	#TARAReiKeiji
Tom and Anita (eliminated)	Dating	Thailand	#TARATomAnita
Lisa and Nicole (eliminated)	Life Partners	Vietnam	#TARANicLisa

Check out www.AXN-Asia.com/TARA for all the latest news on The Amazing Race Asia Season 5    

AXN is seen on Sky Cable Channel 49, Cable Link Channel 38, Cignal Digital TV Channel 61, Global Destiny Cable Channel 61, Dream Channel 20, and GSat Channel 51. AXN HD is seen on SkyCable Channel 247.

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