RACE ACROSS THE WORLD 2024

[TokyoSushi]

Just seen my first advert that it's back!!!! Japan to Indonesia starting 10th April, brilliant, my absolute favourite!

There are 2 episodes of a Sue Perkins programme about Japan, on iplayer. It was very interesting and goes into more detail about culture and the free diving women.

RATW, I found Steven irritating regarding the queue pushing in particular.

Think the budget issue will catch up with Isobel and her mum, although am impressed with her language skills. Looks like a disagreement with them next week.

The boys seem to be finding their feet. Penis Park was just odd.

Bryde and her mum and the brother and sister didn't seem to featured much?
I would much prefer some more info about how they are travelling or the culture of the place rather than the 'We are repairing our relationship ' focus.

Michael Palin did a really interesting series about North Korea a few years back. Don’t know if it’s available anywhere to watch, but if it is, then worth watching,

Looking at the review in next weeks radio times it appears that they skip over the journey through china so maybe they fly them out

Interesting - what does it say?

I love "the boys", same age as my DS1 and I could just imagine them being his mates!

Can't stand Steven, what a flipping embarrassment he is

They skipped over the China bit in series 1 as well IIRC. Something about not being allowed to film, and maybe there’s a specific route that they all need to take

I've just looked.

After racing through the neon-lit streets of ultra-modern Japan and South Korea, there is a split in the pack. The teams enter South-east Asia for the first time, starting the third leg from the chaotic Vietnamese capital Hanoi. They must race more than 2,000km through Vietnam and into Cambodia to reach one of the fastest-developing cities in the region - Phnom Penh

So they teleport from South Korea to Vietnam. Perhaps China weren't prepared to let them in or there were visa problems. Or maybe China is just too big!

Oh yes! Good spot. Don’t think they’ve mysteriously transported them from one checkpoint to another before.

They travelled through China in series 1, racing in the normal way, but one of the autonomous regions, (Xinjiang according to Wikipedia) didn't allow filming while they were there. We did see a fair amount of scenery and cities in the other regions though.

In South America they were flown across Ecuador as an emergency measure due to civil unrest.

Loving this thread - I watch RATW on my own and find the comments here very enjoyable to read. I wonder if the BBC or whoever produces the show read feedback on this sort of forum - does anyone like the “personal journey” stuff? Most here don’t seem to and I agree that less of that and more on the logistics / travel experience would be way better!

Ah yes.

does anyonelike the “personal journey” stuff?

The same goes for The Dog House on Channel 4 - everyone has a sad story to the extent that I sometimes wonder if they are actually able to take care of a dog.

I don’t mind finding out the reasons for doing the race, but not when it’s hammered down our throat all the time.

i agree with you on The Dog House, and other programmes of it Ilk (although I still enjoy it).

I couldn’t watch it live so caught up yesterday. Just enjoying all your comments. God, Stephen is an utter embarrassment and I cannot imagine the continuing agony of having to apologise for him.

Love Eugenie and Isabel although them also losing their map seems inexplicable from such an organised duo. Their work/race strategy is paying off well, although next week hints at a bit of tension to come.

for @EvilRingahBitch - Japanese supermarkets are fascinating to browse and the sliced bread is the weirdest thing - it’s super-thick and fluffy and god knows what they put in it, as it lasts for days if not weeks without going mouldy. You can put together a very interesting picnic! Incidentally, bread is called 'pan' and one of their iconic cartoon characters is 'Anpanman', literally 'Bean-Bun Man' - a superhero whose head is made of bread filled with bean-paste. He helps people out by letting them eat bits of his head (!!), that's his superpower. It’s truly, hilariously weird but is massively popular and you can buy little toys of him everywhere.

@theresnolimits - as pps have said, the big cities are very built up but outside them (and indeed within them) there’s a huge amount of greenery and it doesn’t take long to get into beautiful countryside. There's a lot of rural Japan.

I'd love there to be a spin-off programme with some out-takes and more in-depth material that they didn’t have time to include. They must have an enormous amount that didn’t make the edit.

See also "The Repair Shop". I want to see them repairing stuff, I'm not tuning in to watch people cry.

I can see me visiting the penis park.

They were at a bus stop and had 2 1/2 hours until next bus. Visiting a park by the bus stop seemed pretty reasonable rather than just sitting at the bus stop (I mean they have no mobiles to scroll!)

I'm sorry this sort of attitude just drives me insane. It was for two years. They weren't locked down for more than a few months within those two years.
My 18-year-old went on a school trip in year six, in year seven, and could have gone on one in year 12 but we couldn't afford it. Instead he went camping with mates in 2022, and interrailing in 23 paid by himself. He is going again this summer and then travelling next year.

I agree. Their biggest problem would be managing without the internet.

My similarly aged DSs would absolutely have gone to the Penis Park. Deliberately missing a bus if necessary.

I do wonder how much longer it's going to be possible to do shows insisting on travel without smartphones and cards. Increasingly many transport options are impossible without an online booking. You can still just about catch a London bus for example without a contactless card or phone but I don't think that will last forever.

I guess the entire process becomes "befriend someone with a smartphone, give them some cash and let them book it for you". But then how do you show the ticket?

And even the most distant corners of the world are moving to a cashless phone based economy very rapidly.

@EvilRingahBitch we were saying that while watching the latest episode, maybe they’ll do a prepaid card or something? Would definitely lose some of the charm/ reduce the amount of drama caused by having the wrong currency though!

Incidentally, bread is called 'pan

That's interesting a sliced loaf of bread in Ireland is called a sliced pan. Wonder who influenced who?

There is a lot of research which demonstrates the negative impact of covid lockdowns and school closures on teens. Not every teen is the same and grows up in a supportive family. I don't think it's right to dismiss the impact based on your child's experience

That's interesting a sliced loaf of bread in Ireland is called a sliced pan. Wonder who influenced who?

Not to derail the thread completely but word derivations are fascinating! Bread is 'pan' in Spanish and 'pain' in French of course, but I’ve seen it said that the Japanese derivation comes from the Portuguese 'pão' - the Portuguese had a presence in Japan in the 16th c and they introduced bread (into what was a rice-based food culture and largely still is).

I'm not too bothered about more time on the destinations, eg the diving ladies etc, as it's billed as a race rather than a travelogue. There are lots of other travel programmes which focus in more detail on destinations. I'm not really interested in them 'finding themselves' either. But interestingly in the first series, which I thought was definitely the best, one of the most moving aspects was watching the relationship between a father and son and how it changed as the race went on. But it wasn't really focused on that, it was all very natural.