Race Across the World (2019) s01e05 Episode Script

Cambodia and Vietnam

1
Singapore - the furthest point from
the UK by road and rail.
Normally a 12-hour plane journey.
But could you get there for just
the price of the airfare
without taking a single flight?
What am I doing? Holy Moley, that's
going to be tough!
Every second counts! Four pairs
of ordinary Brits Beep-beep!
..are attempting just that
Most people would go from A to B
on a plane,
but then they'd miss all this.
Oh, man! ..in an extraordinary race.
Come on, come on! At ground level,
they'll cover over 12,000 miles.
Look at that! That's amazing.
Everybody wants to get to
Azerbaijan. ♪
Who will finish first
We do not have time to mess about.
..as they leave behind the trappings
of modern-day life
34 hours on one bus.
..without their bank cards
We're going to run out of money at
some point. ..and their smartphones.
I don't want to argue about it. Time's ticking
on. You can't finish the race if you're dead.
It's almost like I'm questioning
my purpose.
What is it that I want?
It's just a bit much.
The reward is great
This is where you get to find out
about yourself.
..as the first team to Singapore will
claim the prize of £20,000
..in a race across the world.
Shift it. Right, come on!
50 days. Blood, sweat, tears.
Previously
The teams raced through China
A crazy, wacky, whooping place.
..to the fourth checkpoint
Where are we going, eh?
Huangyao. A dash to the border
Might be our best shot.
..saw Josh and Felix stranded. Looks
like we're staying here, then.
But Darron and Alex squeezed
through Rest here.
..to reach Huangyao Oh, wow!
..with a 22-hour lead.
Oh, man.
Natalie and Shameema
I can do this.
..both achieved lifelong ambitions
but dropped farther behind.
I'm actually really gutted.
And after attempting to save money
by taking slow trains
Whatever the cheapest, we will take.
..Tony and Elaine are still
on the move.
I'd give anything for a flight.
Checkpoint four.
The finish line is drawing
ever closer,
3,300 miles away in Singapore.
One team, Tony and Elaine,
is yet to arrive.
For the other three, the fifth and
penultimate leg beckons.
Hello.
We'd like to check out, please.
First to depart with a whopping
22-hour lead over their nearest
rivals Thank you.
..Darron and Alex.
Koh Rong. I've not got a clue
where this place is.
Koh Rong?
No. See, he doesn't even know.
But he's got a phone.
No, Koh Rong. That says Cologne.
We're not going to Germany.
The final checkpoint before
the finish line in Singapore -
the Cambodian island paradise
of Koh Rong.
Known for white sand beaches
and coral reefs,
it's 1,800 miles from Huangyao.
This whole leg looks quite cool.
In theory, should be a lot easier
than China.
To get there, the teams could head
down Vietnam's coastline, hopping
between Hanoi, Hoi An and
Ho Chi Minh City -
all well serviced by trains
and buses -
then jump into Cambodia.
Or they might choose to hit Cambodia
sooner and travel as the crow flies
across country. In this rapidly
developing nation,
transport can be cheaper
but less reliable.
Once in Cambodia, the teams must
reach the port of Sihanoukville
to catch a ferry for Koh Rong.
The border shuts at seven.
Don't.
It's race day.
We're back on the road.
We've got massive distance on the
other teams now.
Tony and Elaine aren't even here
to be seen.
We're in this competition
to win it.
And if we don't win,
we won't be happy.
No, and I'll blame you
for it all.
Said turn right, didn't it? Yeah.
I don't like losing.
I get in a bad mood
when I lose. You do.
Even when I play with my children at
Monopoly, if I'm starting to lose, I will cheat
and just nick loads of money
from the bank just so I can win.
And that's even my own children.
Their first challenge -
get to the China-Vietnam border,
420 miles away.
Bag, bag.
But as the border closes
at 7pm, the race is on.
Well, I'm very confident by today
we'll be in Vietnam.
They have just nine hours
to get there.
Everything is major for this, like.
The others
are going to be hunting us down.
Back in Huangyao, but unable to
leave the checkpoint today,
Natalie and Shameema.
We said all the money that we saved
would be used to power forward.
That's exactly
what we're going to do. Yeah.
And Josh and Felix.
I do think Darron and Alex
are very hard to beat.
Yeah. But we are in the best
position to beat them.
Rumours of them not having
a whole lot of dosh.
You know, they spent a lot of money
in the last leg. They are the
wounded wildebeest and we are the
lion in the long grass.
What's going to be our downfall
if we're not careful is our money.
Yeah. We're going to run out.
Of all the teams,
Darron and Alex have the least money
left from their starting
budget of £2,658.
If we can get a couple of jobs
up on the way,
that may save on accommodation
and earn us some money.
Learn how to create Vietnam's answer
to street stall lemonade.
Sugar cane juice.
You get paid and you get
free bed and board.
And a sugar hit.
Yeah, that'd be so cool.
I hope we're not more than
12 hours behind everybody.
It'd be a shame if
it's more than that.
After a gruelling journey
through China, Tony and Elaine
finally reach Huangyao.
Oh, they're long in.
Hello! Hello. Hi.
Ah, the book. Well, let's see if our
suspicions are right.
Oh, dear. So we're late. I need my
glasses. Two days behind.
They've arrived 38 and a half hours
after the current race leaders
Oh, dear me. I'm gutted.
..and will have to wait another
36 hours before they can head off.
Oh, no!
As three teams cool
their heels at the checkpoint,
Darron and Alex arrive
into Nanning -
the last city in China
before Vietnam.
It's 6:20pm.
I seriously wanted to be
in Vietnam today,
but we've got 40 minutes
before the border closes.
Not going to make it.
Potentially means our lead
has nearly disappeared.
Hopefully the same happens to them,
what happened to us,
but we just don't know.
You think you've got
a commanding lead,
it can disappear in a day.
We've gone enough money to get
to Hanoi tomorrow morning.
We're hoping we've got enough money
now for some accommodation tonight.
Getting food as well
will be quite a big stretch.
I suspect we may not be eating
tonight.
It's been a bad day.
7:20am.
It's nice to have a little jog in the
morning with 60 kilos on your back.
Next out of the checkpoint,
Josh and Felix.
He says it's this bus. Their plan -
do what Darron and Alex
failed to, and cross the border
before it closes for the night.
Right. We've got to
move quickly now.
We'd do anything to win this race.
We're incredibly pig-headed
when we're together.
We know that we complement each other so
well. You're much stronger as a team than you are as
individuals. It's these type of
things which
Because Darron and Alex left at
9:15, we left at 7:15, it could
make a big impact on our race. Yeah.
In the darkest moments, we pick
each other up and we get on with it.
If we can cut out a night's stay, then
we're really eating into their lead.
Pow!
Bye-bye, China.
You've been good to us.
Also up early, Darron and Alex
cross the border.
Bloody warm!
Did you expect it to be cold
in Vietnam? Yeah, I bloody did.
Heading into Southeast Asia,
the heat and humidity
soars and tropical storms can strike
out of nowhere.
Good morning, Vietnam!
Oh, no. Shut up!
One legend has it that the people
of Vietnam originated from a union
between an immortal Chinese princess
and the Dragon Lord Of The Seas.
Having suffered through brutal wars
for most of the 20th century
it is now well-established
as a tourist hot spot.
Arriving in the capital
Hanoi and strapped for cash,
Darron and Alex.
Wow, it's noisy.
Loads and loads of traffic.
Pretty cool though, isn't it?
I agree.
Beautiful place.
They're looking to take a train
to Hoi An where they have secured
work
selling local thirst-quencher
sugar cane juice.
We want the cheapest tickets.
Cheapest?
So, nearly two million?
Yes.
This is definitely one of the hardest
financial decisions I've made.
At a cost of £63,
the train fare will eat up 22% of
their remaining budget but gets them
770km closer to the checkpoint.
It's money we don't have.
I am concerned about
getting to Singapore.
Is that where it is? Yeah.
We've got to remember how far we're
actually getting through.
And we can work
and get free accommodation.
I reckon take a train from Hanoi to
Hoi An and work there.
Look after my bag. OK.
Yeah. We're having a bit of
a flappy moment.
And Alex hasn't once lost his rag
or thrown a hissy fit.
He's kept calm and gone, "How do we
deal with this? How do we deal with this?
"How do we deal with this?"
Which is a good thing.
These are the valuable lessons
which helps you function
as an adult in society.
Some people get a whole lifetime
without learning these lessons.
Learning them at 20,
it's quite impressive.
I'm very proud of him.
It's bloody hot here.
As they head to Hoi An That were
a tough call but I think
it is the right call.
..back in China
We're really happy with our
progress today.
It's been smooth connection after smooth
connection. We're making good progress.
..Josh and Felix arrive in Nanning
but with less than four hours
to cover the 130 miles to the border
before it shuts.
We should just get a cab.
Pingxiang. How much money?
Pingxiang, uh
650? Yeah.
65 quid. No, no, no. It's too much.
I think we should just buy the train
ticket. I'm happy to do that, yeah.
It's too much money.
The train leaves at six and gets
in at ten after the border shuts.
And it's a lot cheaper,
so we may as well do that.
Stay at the border.
It's really annoying because it
means we probably haven't
caught up any time on Darron and
Alex, today.
As Josh and Felix head out of
Nanning,
Natalie and Shameema arrive,
having joined the race four hours
after the boys.
We're not making it
to the border today.
Let's find out
when the earliest bus is.
We need to go here.
OK. So they know what they're doing.
Our short-term goal is to catch
up with Felix and Josh.
Need somewhere cheap to stay
tonight and cross over tomorrow.
And then travel down
to the south of Vietnam.
Where is the bus time?
Booking a bus to the border
for tomorrow
Hello. Hello.
..Natalie continues to make
new friends.
Where's your mum and dad?
Mama, Papa? Where?
No?
It's weird that in all of China,
I haven't seen any
and now that we're
getting towards Vietnam,
I'm starting to seehomelessness.
Where's your shoes?
I'm definitely somebody who doesn't
take anything for granted.
Oh, no!
I've always had to rely on
myself from a young age.
You sleep here?
My dad died when
I was seven years old
and then my mum died
when I was 19 years old.
Now I'm an orphan.
I've only got this.
Do you want this?
She's had that understanding
of other people, that empathy
that you have for people
who don't have, you know,
what they should have.
At the Chinese border
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Stop!
Do you know where a hotel is?
Oh, look. This looks like
a leisure complex.
..Josh and Felix
find a cheap hotel
Yeah. The Happy Meet International.
I wonder why they charge
by the hour.
..hoping their long day
has a happy ending.
This is the best place
I've ever stayed.
Look at this window!
It's just a mirror. Oh
Oh, it is nice that you're able
to see through
to whoever's having a BLEEP.
What's this free stuff?
So we've got ladies' type
Joy condoms.
And a Male God due pleasure.
It's a brothel!
Oh, no, it's fine.
I think it's actually really nice.
Look how clean it is.
LAUGHING: Stop it!
Oh!
It was quite cheap, Josh.
Thank you so much for everything.
It's been great.
Taxi. Taxi.
5:20am.
Huangyao.
OK. Go, go, go, go, go!
Finally setting off, nearly
two days after the race leaders,
but with the biggest
budget remaining,
Tony and Elaine.
Their early start gives them the
best chance
of making it over the border
into Vietnam in one day.
We've just splashed out
on this taxi to speed us up.
I think that's where
our priority lies,
that the money we do have
will be all for travel.
There's absolutely no way
we're out of this race.
We'll catch them.
I don't think I've
ever given up ever
in the most difficult times
in my life.
I think of when I went
to Base Camp Everest
and despite altitude sickness,
which isn't pleasant,
I didn't give up.
We were definitely cart
horses through China.
We had to cut back, money-wise.
But we're now sylphlike
race horses.
And I've never given up either.
Er Well, I can't think of a time
when you have.
Despite how Elaine treats me,
I've never given up on our marriage.
Why have we stopped?
Do we need fuel, or?
Ah, no. He needed the khazi.
He's taken some loo roll.
Could have done without that.
His having a BLEEP could jeopardise
our transfer over the border.
I hope he doesn't sit for hours.
Yeah!
Go, go, go, go!
While Tony and Elaine
hot foot it to the border
Phew! It's warm!
Phew!
..Darron and Alex have arrived
in the trading port of Hoi An.
Its 16th-century bridge once
separated a Japanese settlement
from the rest of the town
that over the years has been
inhabited by Chinese, Dutch, Indian
and Portuguese merchants.
Hello.
Er, here?
There and up? Thank you.
Just outside of town,
at a roadside kiosk
We're here to work.
Ah, yes. Yes.
Alex and Darron. He's my son.
Ah, nice!
..Darron and Alex have
put the race on hold
to earn some much needed money
selling the Vietnamese speciality
nuoc mia,
a sugar cane
and citrus fruit drink.
Never actually used
a machete before.
You ever used a machete?
Only to murder people.
Like this? Yeah.
That properly gets
all the juice out. That is cool.
I want one! That is cool.
Two to go? Drink now?
Thank you. Enjoy.
This moment in time, we've just got to
work, earn as much money as we can.
But it's better that
I'm stood out here working,
so people can see
and hopefully draw
more customers in.
I'm sweating.
Competitors might be closing
in on us now.
Enjoy.
But every little bit of money is
going to count towards Singapore.
Thank you.
Enjoy.
I always hoped this trip
would be the making of Alex.
At the start, he were a petulant,
self-centred, selfish child.
Now, he's a man. He's assertive,
he's confident.
Bye!
It makes me feel proud, humbled.
Touched.
Just got another tip. Fantastic.
Are you going to do
some actual work?
Is it just me today?
I am so looking forward
to some Vietnamese pho.
Oh, my God!
Pho!
Natalie and Shameema have crossed
into Vietnam,
also aiming for Hoi An.
Another country.
New currency to navigate,
new language, new culture.
All exciting.
Also all anxiety provoking.
It's amazing, isn't it?
Completely different to China.
It's just got that real energy.
Josh and Felix have reached Hanoi
Hello. How are you?
..with a plan to catapult themselves
into the race lead.
There's no seats?
Yeah.
They're targeting an epic
day and a half train journey,
taking them 1,072 miles down the
full length of Vietnam,
past Hoi An and on
to Ho Chi Minh City,
bringing them within touching
distance of the checkpoint.
Yes.
OK, great. That's perfect.
That's perfect.
We've just signed up for 36 hours
on a hard seat
in a carriage with no
air conditioning in 40 degree heat.
You're not going to see me.
I'm going to be bare bones
and a pile of bloody sweat.
We're so wired and mental
about the prospect of catching
the others up.
On an express train hurtling
towards the Vietnamese border
I think the other competitors may
well have gone the Vietnam route.
And so if we gamble and go the
Cambodia route,
then it might give us the option
of trying to make up a bit of time.
..Tony and Elaine continue
their strategy of spending their way
out of last place.
We need to be quick.
Have you got the money? Yeah.
Vietnam. Vietnam?
Seven miles to go.
11 hours, it's taken us.
The race is on.
The race is on ♪
And 90 minutes
before the border shuts.
Where do we go? This way?
Yeah, we made it!
After travelling
nonstop for 420 miles,
they've achieved what none
of the other teams could -
getting from the checkpoint
to Vietnam in one day.
We're here
and it's gone pretty smooth
so let's hope it's a good guide
for what we've got to come.
I actually don't think
it's gone smoothly.
I think we're here by the skin
of our teeth.
You know, one way and another,
it nearly didn't happen.
You know. But it has happened
so I'm just so grateful it has.
That drawer's full.
We made them loads of money.
I earned a bit of tips as well,
personally,
when I was serving.
Bit weird that my dad didn't get any
tips when he was doing it,
but I did.
At the nuoc mia kiosk
I'm for working in the morning.
Earning some money.
..Darron and Alex realise they are
on to a good thing.
If we work here
from eight till 11
..and then we catch a taxi
across the border tomorrow.
OK? Yes. Thanks a lot.
Thank you, thank you. Thank you.
We did four hours' work which was
400,000 pay,
which was half of our ticket
from Hanoi to Hoi An City.
So coming here to work,
it's being very valuable.
Is everything cooked?
Mm.
Spicy.
Very, very nice.
480 miles to the north in Hanoi
..with time to kill before their
train to Ho Chi Minh City,
Josh and Felix
head to the old quarter.
Our budget is so tight that even
things like where you eat food
becomes, like, a big deal.
It's just Excuse me, your beers.
And those things are going to
make Thank you very much.
Those things are going to
make the difference
between winning and losing.
These are, like, 20p by the way so
they don't count.
Hanoians enjoy a tradition of
meandering the length
of the 3km Night Market,
something the boys can't
quite master.
Why don't we just sit down there
and have a beer?
Well, this place looks way better.
We can come back there. OK.
I don't need the hand control,
thank you.
I thought you were going in the
wrong direction.
That's really annoying.
Do you think?
Yeah, it's really aggressive.
Just think we should go left.
What's wrong with that?
That's not aggressive!
Some problem, mate.
I don't think ever in the last
eight years of travelling
and working together
and being friends,
we have ever taken
anything personally.
You're such a douchebag sometimes.
Wow! What?
Why say that?
What's wrong with doing that?
It's just when it's in your face.
It's a bit like
It's not in your face. It's just
like, oh, I think we should go left.
I don't want to interrupt
what you're saying.
It's so important usually.
Wow!
And although along the way
we might disagree or one of us
might be tired or one of us
might be hungry,
we're charging forward
for the same goal.
Well, I will just sit down then.
It's fine.
See you later.
How much is pho?
Sometimes we annoy each other.
But, like, it's silly
and it's nothing.
It's just the fact of
spending eight weeks
in each other's constant company.
Like What?
I'm just saying it's nothing.
And now you're pulling faces at me.
Why are you making
a big deal out of it?
I was trying to say
it's actually nothing.
Always there's the moment
where you take a deep breath
and you're like, this is
the only person I could be doing
this adventure with and this is
the experience I want to have.
And we're going in the same
direction and it's never personal.
I just want to get drunk is
all I want to do.
Natalie and Shameema arrive
into Hoi An
after 13 hours
on a Vietnamese institution
Never have I ever, ever been
on a sleeper bus.
..having leapfrogged into the race
lead for the very first time.
I'm changing into a traveller.
It's happening!
As she reclines with a bag of rice
or whatever that is behind her head.
The city has over 400 tailor shops
packed into the old town
Wow!
It's hot. Ah!
..a legacy of its past as a trading
port on the ancient Silk Road
joining east to west.
Hello. I love your outfit.
Beautiful.
When we win the race, we want to
wear the blazer
and look really nice
in a really nice blazer.
We live far away from each other,
we've got different lives,
different responsibilities.
But when we catch up, it doesn't
feel like any time goes past.
It is like going back to
teenage girlfriends that go out.
You can just, like, become 13.
Yeah, exactly.
I don't really like shoulder pads.
I have broad enough shoulders
as it is.
And I love being a kid.
Like, one of the things
that we have to say,
we are in touch with
our inner child. Yeah.
And so that's
when I have the most fun.
So for a suit, this
How much is it?
It depend on how much.
About 120 dollars.
120 dollars?
Oh, it's so unfair
that we have a budget.
You made it out to be like it was
going to be a fiver. No.
That was in your head.
If you think that they're going
to make a custom suit for you
Why would you think ..for £5.
We're racing across the world,
why would you think we can
spend money on clothes?
I wasn't thinking about racing
across the world.
I was thinking about how much
a custom blazer would cost.
And it wasn't a lot.
Oh, I don't want to race
across the world any more!
I just want to spend it on
a custom-made wine pantsuit.
While Darron and Alex put in a
second shift
to boost their cash flow
Oh You're an idiot.
I can do it. I'll do it.
I'm not a baby.
You pretty much are
acting like one.
That's what I'm saying,
so let me do it.
..Tony and Elaine are closing in.
Sunrise over Vietnam.
I think we've done very well
to get here in 24 hours.
I wonder if they'll bring food.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Bacon and eggs, please!
After crossing into Vietnam,
they've travelled through Hanoi
and are now heading to Cambodia
I'd like to go to Phnom Penh.
Isn't that where
the killing fields are? Yeah.
..implementing the risky strategy
of heading across country,
aiming for the capital Phnom Penh
and from there to the checkpoint
on Koh Rong.
We've had good luck so far.
When we put our little bit
of string on the map,
it looks as though going through
Cambodia is quicker.
Hopefully, we will be gaining a lot
of time on our greatest rivals,
Darron and Alex.
New strategy - blend in
with the locals.
Blend in with the locals?
Get rid of them short shorts.
Them things are definitely
local shorts.
They're not local shorts!
Local shorts, local hat.
Job done,
it's back on the road.
Absolutely buzzing. We got a wage.
We've got a cut of profits.
Look after it. And a tip.
I reckon we've made not far off
a million dong.
Absolutely buzzing.
Now we know we can get to
the Cambodian border.
Planning their next move,
Darron and Alex are drawn to
another ad in the jobs directory.
Help maintain a sanctuary
for rescued elephants.
Pay - two nights' bed and board.
The job at an elephant sanctuary
also takes them to Cambodia
into the jungles of the
Mondulkiri province.
Really want to do the elephant job.
We'll do it.
Those sort of opportunities
don't come up very often in life.
If it means lose some of
our lead, then so be it.
The experience is going to live with
you forever which is more important.
Well, it's not more important
than money, but
Back in Hanoi
36 hours without air conditioning.
Going to be hard. That's brutal,
man. That's a lot of sitting.
..Josh and Felix board their train
to Ho Chi Minh City.
Oh, my God!
Oh, man!
Can't sit on that for 36 hours.
I'll do myself an injury.
Why would they make these seats
so uncomfortable?
It's the longest train journey
we've ever done,
so this is the biggest stretch
of transport in Vietnam
and 70 dollars is really good.
That does give us one of those
advantages in terms of the money,
because I think actually the race
is less in the travel,
it's more in the money
because if you run out of steam,
then you're stuck.
So we'll get Singapore
by hook or by crook.
The town of Pleiku.
Leaving from here in five minutes,
the only direct bus today
to the border with Cambodia
55 miles away.
Ah! Thank you.
Thank you.
It's Tony and Elaine. Thank you.
They've caught us off guard.
They've made up massive time, then.
To the Cambodia border?
How have they made up so much time?
How long?
We thought they were out of
the race, actually.
Remember, we'd left before
they'd even turned up.
So they've actually got
down here super fast
or we've been massively slow.
Hello.
Oh, you're kidding me!
Good to see you.
So good to see you.
I can't believe you're on this bus.
We nearly got
We can't believe you are!
We were very lucky
with all our connections.
I'm really, really impressed.
Annoyingly impressed.
With two days' work
having eroded their lead,
Darron and Alex are joined by Tony
and Elaine crossing the border
into the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Once centre of the ancient
Khmer Empire of Angkor,
today, it still boasts
over 290 temples,
dozens of unspoilt islands,
picturesque rice paddies
and rare wildlife.
See you at the check point!
Well, unless we've left before you
get there, but if so,
goodbye and good luck in the last
leg. I really hope you come second.
Yeah, likewise.
Darron's face!
He wasn't best pleased.
He tried to act pleased, but his
face told his true feelings.
But that fired me up because they
were streets ahead of us
and now we're kind of on a par.
But there you go. Psychologically,
win-win at the moment for us.
Proper wilderness stuff, isn't it?
25 miles into the jungle,
the Mondulkiri Elephant Sanctuary.
My dad's been waiting
since the start of this journey
to come out in the sticks
and be out in the wild.
By agreeing to work with the animals
tomorrow,
Darron and Alex have secured
free bed and board for tonight.
We're in a jungle.
I've never been in a jungle before.
It's a bit freaky.
Just knowing there's
a lot of insects about.
But they won't be sleeping alone.
Dad, I think I can see a spider!
Looks big. Where?
Are you? Oh! Where?
Right there.
Oh, that's a big one. I know!
Oh! It's a Huntsman probably.
I don't care. It's huge.
Absolutely huge. Yeah.
What's it going to do? Eat you?
I'm swapping.
This is scary. I do not like this.
I'm a lot more stronger, braver,
more confident
because of the stuff we've gone
through to now.
It's changed me as a person.
I've just had a look. I can't see
any more hanging around.
But I do feel safe
when you're about.
My dad does make me feel safe.
If I were doing it by myself,
I would have quit and would have
gone home.
Like, could not have done it
without him.
Don't leave your bag on the floor.
I don't know how you feel so relaxed
about the situation.
We've got less than
two weeks left now.
The end is approaching
really, really quickly.
The reality is
I don't want it to end.
I don't think I'm going
to be getting much sleep tonight.
Oh, you'll be fine! All right.
Goodnight. Goodnight.
Just keep your left eye open.
2am, Vietnam.
I hold some hope
of getting a night's sleep.
More hope than when we got on
this train.
After 17 hours, Josh and Felix's
epic train journey
is approaching Hoi An.
There are quite a few bugs though,
aren't there?
Yeah. It's quite a fun game,
actually.
As soon as they land on me, I go
That one was massive.
While the boys try to sleep
I'm just tired!
..the train welcomes two
new passengers.
Oh, this is carriage one.
Oh, my God.
There's a little baby on the floor!
Where? Look.
There's two army people
underneath the seats.
What are you doing?
This is really bad.
How do you actually manage to sit
in this position?
17 hours.
Right. There has to be another plan
other than staying here all night.
Shameema. Josh and Felix.
Who else is there? Who else is
there? Who else is there?
Who cares? Just chill.
Well, what about these seats?
There's loads leftover.
Sit down.
370 miles from Ho Chi Minh City
We've stopped in
an unscheduled stop.
The train's running a bit early,
I think, anyway.
We were pelting along earlier.
Steaming towards victory.
Excuse me. Do you know why the
train's not moving? Yeah.
Storm. Storm? Yeah.
Is it better to get off?
What time do we move?
At Ho Chi Minh, 7pm.
Further down the line,
a typhoon has struck
..and damaged the tracks,
so the train is forced to stop.
The teams should have reached
Ho Chi Minh City in seven hours,
but now all they can do is wait.
A two-hour delay.
The train's leaving at seven.
We could feed Natalie and
Shameema false information
that it leaves in two days
and they fall afoul of a local
transport option.
Hi, guys. Hello.
Afternoon. Morning. Whatever it is.
Oh, it's very nice in here,
isn't it?
Do you guys know how long
we're going to be here? No.
There's a flood on the track
and the train can't go.
That's all we know.
At this point, I think I just
want to make it to Singapore.
Now the train seems like a bad idea.
If Tony and Elaine took the coach,
I wonder whether they won't be
affected by these delays.
When we're here for three
and a half days, they'll waltz in.
See you in a bit.
I don't know.
If I really started to believe that
they're playing mind games
then I have to believe that they're
intentionally trying to stress us out
and that's not nice.
You're focusing on too much on other
people's games, it's going to stress
you out and you're not
going to focus on your own.
So we're going to rise above it,
keep our focus as much
as we can on this train.
The roads won't be any better
than the train at the moment.
Unaffected by the weather,
Tony and Elaine have arrived
in Kratie,
situated on the banks of
the Mekong River.
2,700 miles long,
the Mekong flows from China
through five southeast Asian
countries and into the Gulf
of Thailand and is famous
for its Irrawaddy river dolphins.
There you go.
The monsoon climate makes this area
ideal for growing rice.
Nice to know you. Nice to know you.
Tony.
The budget went out the window. To
get back in the race
we've spent far more on
this leg than we intended to.
We need to pull it back in sharpish.
Joining the local workforce, Tony
and Elaine lend a hand
with the harvest.
We love farming.
So to see how you cut rice
is going to be a good day for us.
So if we don't finish one block today,
we will not stop unless we finish.
Oh. Yeah. Let's start, then.
We have a phrase in England -
work-shy.
Have you heard of this? Work-shy?
It's when people find lots of good
excuses not to work hard.
So now I think that we stop
talking and now we have to finish.
If I don't talk while I'm working
I never get much done. Oh.
Working in the rice fields
brings back a lot of memories
from my youth, that I used to work
every summer holiday.
I was sitting on a tractor one day
and I saw all my mates playing
on the sports field
and I just thought,
I'm working too hard here. And
at the end of it, gave me a fiver
and said, "Thank you very much,
Tony."
Six weeks work for a fiver. I
thought there just had to be another
way in life.
Are you all right?
No. I need to sit down a minute.
It's just the heat I find really
It's really good with you standing
there blocking it.
Are you feeling OK? A bit of a
breeze.
It's all right now.
Is it? Yeah.
Good.
That was only 30 seconds. Do you
want 45 seconds?
Pull us up, then. OK.
You're a tough old cookie.
I know. It's the heat.
100 miles away at the elephant
sanctuary
..it's feeding time.
Oh! Quick, it's coming.
Oh, my God.
Dangerous.
Venomous. Oh, I'm getting away.
Alex, look, it's gone up the tree.
Oh, it's amazing.
It's going all the way up. I feel
much safer with my machete in here.
That's pretty cool.
This place is just amazing.
If you want to get out in the wild
and off the beaten track
this is definitely the place
for you.
I hope these bloody elephants are
hungry.
I've just made them a hell of a lot
of food.
The Mondulkiri Project
provides a protected jungle
environment for five
rescued Asian elephants.
Wow.
Oh, look at that. I know.
That looks so cool.
Oh, there's another.
The most recent arrival is Happy,
rescued
after spending 35 years
working for illegal loggers.
It's a pretty impressive skill
taking the leaves off. I'd struggle.
And I've got opposing thumbs.
You are bigger than me. I'm not
going to argue with you.
I didn't used to know
why my dad used to come out
in these sort of places where
animals can kill you and you're just
in the sticks in the middle
of nowhere.
I am seeing more through his eyes
and
It's quite impressive
being this close to an elephant
in its natural environment.
Oh, definitely.
Doing something like this.
We're doing it together
and we're bonding even more.
It's an amazing privilege.
I haven't always been the greatest
of dads.
There were periods of time
when I wasn't there for him.
We've had five years of wasted time.
It'll be seven weeks together.
But we had a lot of catching up
to do.
When we go back
it's up to us if we let the next
five years be wasted time or not.
It's nice to step out of the race.
Bye. Have you seen the dog
in the water?
Gathering in the rice harvest
has earned
Tony and Elaine free bed
and board for the night.
We've had a really lovely day today.
The setting with the old way
of life.
Everybody looks in and they all help
each other.
The cattle still plough the land.
That was just wonderful.
Tony went on this whole,
"This is how it should be done,
with the sickle, the scythe.
"The old-fashioned way."
Blah-de-blah.
He loved it so much as a kid
that he did everything in his power
to get as far away as possible
from it and go to London
to become a PE teacher.
Now's he hankering after it
in his old age.
I don't know.
Childhood memories, eh?
I have no idea how many hours now
we've been on this train.
Seeing everybody kind of losing
their BLEEP
except for the Vietnamese people,
because they're used
to this weather.
There's worse things in life
than being stuck on a train.
But to live it,
it's really frustrating.
Do you know when the train's
leaving?
No.
I don't know either.
Don't worry. Thank you. It's all
arbitrary.
Even the people who run the train
don't know when the train's going.
10pm.
14 hours behind schedule.
So the train is moving.
The train is moving.
At last.
Look how flooded
Oh, my gosh.
People have actually been working
on this all night.
Oh, my God. This is serious stuff.
That just put it all into
perspective.
24 hours lost because
the way it travels
it's going to come out of
Ho Chi Minh.
So I think it's kind of hard to feel
anything but deflated.
Ho Chi Minh City,
formerly called Saigon,
and named for the first
president of the Vietnamese
Republic,
affectionately known as Uncle Ho.
And today the country's
most visited city.
Very relieved to be in Ho Chi Minh.
Anywhere, anywhere, but that train.
See you later.
Thank you.
You said you wanted a hat.
I don't think it looks as stylish
as it looks on most people.
After seven days trekking
through Southeast Asia the teams
are within striking distance
of the port of Sihanoukville,
from where they will catch a ferry
to the checkpoint on the island
of Koh Rong.
We would like to find out if we can
get a bus to the Ha Tien border.
We're hoping we can leave
as soon as possible.
While two teams plot their way
into Cambodia for the first time
Bus is going to leave at midnight and then
we can get to Sihanoukville, at 11am.
We're actually going to be waiting
in a coach for the border to open.
So the moment the border opens
we'll be through it like a shot.
..Darron and Alex are
heading to its capital, Phnom Penh.
The bigger our lead,
the more pressure we felt.
Definitely.
I personally think it's far better
being second and third
than being first. I don't.
11 miles south of the city,
retired teachers Tony and Elaine
make good on a longstanding promise
to one another.
There's something that
I'm interested in but I don't
expect it will a very pleasant
experience, but that's not why
you need to go, is it?
A pilgrimage to the Choeung Ek
killing fields.
A memorial to Cambodia's troubled
recent past when millions
were killed under the brutal Khmer
Rouge regime of its leader Pol Pot.
1975 to 1978, and he kills how many
people? Three million.
But I just think it's good to remind
yourself of the atrocities
that human beings can do
to each other.
Whilst Pol Pot was in power
in the '70s, one of the groups
of people gathered together
to be killed were teachers.
So, had this tyrannical leader led
an army across England,
Tony and myself
would have been dead.
Simple as that.
We've been very fortunate
that we've both been teachers.
Thoroughly enjoyed that.
But your life is taken over by bells
and commitments.
You lose yourself on that journey
and the vocation like teaching,
you really have to give
all of yourself all of the time.
We've both retired and so hopefully
now this is the time we can go
and rediscover ourselves.
We're going to Sihanoukville.
On Cambodian soil
for the first time,
Josh and Felix.
We have to transfer, 45 minutes.
I want to do that.
We should flag him down.
Natalie and Shameema
Hello. Go, go, go.
It's taken quite a lot of time and,
tuk-tuk, we're back into race mode.
We're going to have to look
for a faster mode of transport.
The port of Sihanoukville
on the Gulf of Thailand.
The jumping off point to Cambodia's
southern islands.
Including the fifth checkpoint,
Koh Rong.
From this checkpoint here
I think it's going to be really,
really tight.
I can see a town approaching.
Arriving from Phnom Penh,
Darron and Alex.
I guess this is where we get off.
Are we here? Looks like it.
Last stop, yeah?
They are notified on their GPS
tracker of the jetty location
where ferries leave for Koh Rong.
"Proceed to the Drop Off.
"Catch a boat to your
checkpoint destination."
Two people. How much? Ten dollars.
Ten dollars?
It can't be that much.
The next crossing leaves at 5pm
We can see the sea. It can't be
that far away.
..in 20 minutes' time.
Look who's there.
Where am I looking? Tony and Elaine
in a tuk-tuk. Seriously? Yeah.
I get the feeling like the
others are around.
Five dollar on tuk-tuk, please.
Expensive gasoline. Please. Please.
OK, OK.
Yes, thank you.
Also in town, Josh and Felix.
Is there a ferry tonight to Koh
Rong?
I remain positive.
We'll get there tonight.
Josh and Felix, and Shameema and Natalie
will probably be already there.
Until we get and sign that
book we're making assumptions.
Look at all the boats. Bloody hell.
Don't laugh. We tried to give you
such a lead but we keep on
catching back up to you.
Come on, guys.
Pull it out.
I saw you drive past in a tuk-tuk.
You're all sweaty.
I know. Tell me about it.
The really frustrating thing
is if we hadn't got caught
in the rain we would have been doing
this 24 hours before. Every
little thing has a knock on.
Anything could have happened
to anyone.
All bets are off.
Woohoo!
Five minutes till the ferry departs.
Pull it out. More.
Oh! Flat tyre. ..On the boat.
Here we go.
"Drop Off closed."
9.30am tomorrow.
It's a strange feeling
that when we left the checkpoint,
Tony and Elaine hadn't even arrived.
And we come here at the same time.
See, this is a special place.
I know. This could be
the best checkpoint.
Hello. Welcome to Koh Rong.
Hello.
Hello.
"Please sign in overleaf."
Yes.
Congratulations.
Oh. I'm happy. I'm happy.
Well done. Well done.
Yes.
Absolutely chuffed to bits. We do, we
need the edge. You deserve it more.
We didn't imagine we could actually
pull in the amount
of time we have.
We are over the moon.
Even though we bombed through it,
we've enjoyed this leg. So much,
yeah.
We felt we couldn't miss
that opportunity to spend some time
with wild elephants.
It was a risk and we were prepared
to take it.
There's one more leg left. I'd love
to win. I've said it from the start.
There's one last team to reach
the ferry port.
Oh, my God.
I knew it.
They got here.
Hi, guys.
I love you guys.
But I don't like seeing you here,
to be honest.
We were running the perfect leg.
The heavens opened and we couldn't
go anywhere. At that point
you have to just go like, "There's
nothing I can do about this. I can't
"get angry at anyone.
I can't get upset."
Then as soon as the ground
dries you try again.
It's heaven.
This is so beautiful, man.
I just want to swim in the sea.
Hello.
Hello. Welcome to Koh Rong.
Thank you.
No way.
Oh, my God.
Tony and Elaine.
Well, guys, seeing as I'm here first
with a pen, I'm signing in.
I love Tony and Elaine. So cool.
Dark horses. The dark horses.
After the penultimate leg
in the race to Singapore, Tony
and Elaine have managed to close
a gap of 38 hours to join Darron
and Alex in first place.
But with 1,500 miles still to travel
some of the teams are desperately
short of cash.
Coming into the last leg,
it feels quite pressured.
It's because we have to make
the perfect right decision.
There's no more space for any
more mistakes.
This is the last opportunity we had.
But it's anyone's game.
All four teams,
they're in it still.
But if we continue with the same
strategy there's no reason
that we shouldn't be two days
ahead of everyone to Singapore.
Bloody amazing.
They smashed it.
They bloody smashed it.
Anything can happen in the next 48
hours. I thought it was wrapped up.
What the hell have Darron and Alex
been up to?
After 12,000 miles
across two continents
It's a lot further than we think.
..21 countries
The storm is coming.
..and four seas
..the finish line and the £20,000
prize awaits.
There it is, the famous book.
Let's just get there, Alex.
There's no second chances any more.
We're absolutely brass knuckles
broke.
You can finish them.
That might be our downfall.
What a bloody dipstick.
We're going to leap
ahead of everyone else.
Oi!
We are royally screwed.
Oh BLEEP.
Can you see them?
The dream is
happening right now.
Somebody has got to cross
that line first in a race like this.
I bet they're bloody sitting up there
having a beer. Having a beer.
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