Race Across the World

[Liquorandvinegar]

New series starting next week - really looking forward to it. The teams are travelling in Asia, but I can't find information about the couples yet. Wednesday nights sorted!

PP meant it’s hardly sinister that people like them not that the brothers are sinister

I’m sorry but I’m also team brothers. They are warm, funny and interesting. I had no desire to go to India, even less so now after watching that.

I love the brothers they are my favourites by a long way

To be fair, the places she's been are pretty standard touristy places where I think English will be spoken for the most part. She doesn't seem to have gone anywhere less well trodden, or having to use her initiative like she has to on this trip.

She did, but I found it interesting she said I had a tough time, my dad and my home, not we or our. Which made me wonder if she and her sister spent time living apart when they were very young, as well as when the older one went to Italy.

She's only 19!

Why would you not like the brothers? They're the only team who seem up for a laugh!

So what? The places she's been are still your bog standard easy to get to, easy to organise tourist destinations.

They're nowhere in the same league as RATW.

And I would imagine they’re family holidays rather than Sioned taking the initiative & travelling on her own!

That's what I heard too.

I wondered if they had different Dads. There is quite an age gap I think.

I do like the brothers , especially the one who was in the army, but I also like the teens. I’d like them to win it , but it’s anyone’s game.
Maybe the sisters are half siblings, but no idea.
We are drip fed a lot !
No desire myself to visit any of these places. Dh loved India, but it was all business trips and nice hotels and so on. Completely different to more normal travel.

dad got made redundant, have sub titles so even if dh talks about his own travels, i can read!

i really felt with tom with his cerebral palsy, must be so hard whatever level
and felt for the brothers, having to open up about how their mum didnt hug them, i mean they are in their 60s and men so somehow even more awkward conversation.
i left the room when letitia and elizabeth dynamic was being discussed i am sorry, it was too much reveal by then to me - i was annoyed by sioned actually sitting on the ground crying about being overwhelmed.

I had a look at Sioned's Instagram. She has travelled a fair bit, but lots of it was a few years ago, so must have been with family or school trips, as she was only 19 when RATW was filmed. As PP says, they were all quite easy destinations as well, presumably with hotels and travel organised and paid for.

I think the narrative that she's never left her tiny Welsh village is a bit disingenuous, but shouldn't take away from how brilliantly they are both coping with the race and experiences which are clearly far different from anything they've done before.

yes agree they are both young

i was annoyed by sioned actually sitting on the ground crying about being overwhelmed. Actually I had a lot of sympathy. I went to India on a British Council study trip, not a holiday so not touristy places, but we did have a hotel - a bit grubby and people living on the streets just outside. I had terrible food poisoning and found out at the end of the trip that all water was brought in by tankers due to the drought (not that we drank any). I didn't actually cry but I was 50 not 19 and couldn't wait to get away.

DH is well travelled and he said India is another level. So many people.

I hate the idea of one sister forcing the other to share how she is feeling. If she wants to keep it inside fine. There is obviously more to the story that I’m sure we will find out like Betty’s story came very late into the series.

Loved the poo shovelling by hand!!

i feel I understand Tom and his mum more now. makes sense that she is over protective of him. his CP must be hard for him to deal with,
the brothers are still my favourites.

I think you might have a point there. They seem so disconnected, even accounting for the years spent apart.

I do wonder if anyone is going to get food poisoning.
I remember a very long trip on the bus from India to Khatmandu and all I wanted was a decent hotel, with my own room and my own toilet so I could get over my food poisoning.

And food poisoning is going to impact their race

Not sure what @placemats problem with the brothers is tbh. They’ve been the highlight of all the episodes I’ve watched, the others are all a bit… intense. At least Brian and Melvyn are having a laugh as well as doing really well in the competition. They’ll definitely get their own TV travel show after this, I reckon.

I remember the first time I went to India for work (have been a few times) about 25 years ago, my colleague there asked me before I arrived if I wanted a driver for my last day – which was free – in Delhi, I was like, “no no, no problem. I’ll just get around on the bus – like I do everyone else in the world” I coukd tell he thought I was weird and I thought he must think I was pathetic to need my own driver. 10 minutes into arriving II completely understood what you needed your own driver just to get around Delhi – even crossing the road from my hotel to get to a tourist shop was a major undertaking. I caved.Things have improved since then a bit, but it’s still completely overwhelming even to somebody super-travelled.

However, it’s an amazing country, and if you’re doing it even on a halfway ok budget ie you not trying to hoard the pennies like they are in the show, you can go and have an amazing time.

Definitely the China bit was curated! Some bits had the feel of travelling round China- the brothers in the place with the door etc. I wanted to see more interaction with locals - Chinese people can take hospitality really seriously if you establish a connection with them.

I'd guess the deal for them to shoot in China would be that the checkpoints were places recently renovated for tourism which they wanted to showcase. I lived in China for years and those borders were never safe, I don't think I ever met anyone who had crossed it. It would've been unsafe not to fly in.

The thing that surprised me most about the money exchange on the train was that he had cash on him! China's largely cashless/digipay these days, especially someone that age, think they got lucky.

Nepal looked great (maybe not the roads but apart from that!)

People complain about our roads, but those ones looked really unsafe and I couldn’t deal with those high cliff edges without any kind of barriers around them.