In last week's episode, five teams remained as they raced through Siem Reap, Cambodia. Teams donated items to a floating Buddhist Temple, built floating gardens for a local village and created beautiful ornate tiles before checking into the pit stop at Angkor Thom’s East Gate! The final Double U-Turn of the season played a huge role in last week’s episode and sadly the siblings, Eswar and Aparna, were eliminated from The Race after being U-Turned by Team NFL, Gary and DeAngelo.
Now, the FINAL FOUR teams will race through the city of Manila in the first ever “City Sprint,” where speed matters as much as teamwork during each task faced as a team - no Roadblocks and no Detours.
The final four teams of season 32!
The pressure is on! If you haven’t caught up on the first ten episodes of The Amazing Race, be sure to watch the season on CBS All Access in preparation for tonight’s penultimate episode of Season 32!
At the start of this leg, we were extremely excited to rip open our clue and read that we would be traveling to Manila, Philippines! Luckily for us, we had the opportunity to visit twice before, in 2016 and 2018! It’s safe to say that it’s one of our favorite places in the world and we were thrilled to be visiting a country and city we were already familiar with. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean any of our prior experience would help us on this leg of The Race. Check out our previous experiences in the Philippines!
The Philippines consists of more than 7,600 islands and the final four teams will be traveling to the island of Luzon, home to the capital city, Manila.
This thriving metropolis is the most densely populated city center in the world with over 12-million inhabitants and serves as the backdrop for this leg of The Race. English and Filipino are widely spoken across the islands and the multiple cultures that exist. The country is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is home to a robust level of biodiversity. Having been to the Philippines before we can say first hand how welcoming and hospitable the Filipino people are. Interacting with the local communities is a major highlight and racing through Manila allowed us to interact with the warm and inviting culture of the country.
After we arrived in the Philippines, each team lined up for Phil to announce that we would be embarking on the first ever “City Sprint” with no detours or roadblocks but a series of challenges that we’d encounter as a team. The pressure started to set in, realizing that we’d have to race through downtown Manila, in dense traffic, fighting to stay ahead of the other teams. It was made abundantly clear that in order to survive and earn your spot in the Final 3, speed mattered most. Check out this bonus clip as teams travel to the Philippines:
The first portion of this “City Sprint” consisted of racing in high heels outside the Mall of Asia. You’re probably asking yourself, Wait what? Am I reading this correctly? -- Yup, you are! We had to run in high heels in order to receive our next clue.
Marikina City, part of Metro Manila, is home to a thriving shoe manufacturing industry earning the nickname “the shoe capital of the Philippines.” It’s also known for hosting an annual running race, unlike any other in the world, where both men and women compete to see who can strut best in high heels. We’re not ashamed to admit that we’ve worn heels before but running in them is not for the faint of heart. If you’ve never visited the SM Mall of Asia, we highly recommend a visit for all of your shopping needs as it’s one of the largest malls in the Philippines and thankfully for us, we visited it back in 2016 prior to The Race. Check out this *EXCLUSIVE* sneak peek for OutTraveler of us running in high heels:
Another area that we sprinted through was Binondo, a district in Manila referred to as Chinatown. When we arrived, we had to navigate our way through the crowded streets in search of one of four dancing dragons, to receive our next clue.
Bindondo is known as the oldest Chinatown in the world and you could see the incredible history of the area as you entered. Upon arrival, you pass through the Arch of Goodwill and we hoped this would ultimately bring us goodwill for the rest of the City Sprint. As you stroll through the crowded area you can see beautiful red lanterns and architecture lining the streets highlighting the Chinese culture within Manila.
We visited really interesting parts of the city, other notable mentions include: Manila Central Post Office, the main post office of the city and Mehan Garden, which was the location for an epic memory challenge that tested our knowledge of the previous legs of The Race. The city sprint is bound to be a very interesting leg full of beautiful sights around Manila and rapid racing from all teams fighting to make it to the final leg, for a shot at the $1 million prize! We don’t want to spoil all that this leg has in store so be sure to watch it unfold! We are so happy to have traveled to the Philippines yet again because as the saying goes, “it’s always more fun in the Philippines.” Tune in TONIGHT for the penultimate episode of The Amazing Race 32 at 8PM/7C on CBS. Only one more episode until the finale where a winner will be crowned!
Keep up-to-date with our adventures at itswillandjames.com or follow us on social: Instagram: @itswillandjames @whereswallington @williamjardell Facebook: facebook.com/itswillandjames Twitter: @jameswallington @williamjardell
