Natalie and Nadiya, in a rare moment where they don’t seem to be screaming.

I was looking forward to this episode of The Amazing Race since I knew it would begin with the teams flying to Bangladesh. It’s one of those crowded, hectic, exciting locations that usually deliver a lot of drama for teams on the race.

The flight meant that all the teams started off at the same time, and they were all pretty overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the city of Dhaka.

Roadblock – Bus Boys (and Girls)

This Roadblock clue came with a Fast Forward, but interestingly, none of the teams who first arrived at the challenge went for it. One teammate would have to use putty to repair a bus.

The Chippendale got very frustrated working on it, but the annoying twins were really good. Look, I love girl power. Just not when it’s shrieked at deafening levels, which is Natalie and Nadiya all the time. You can tell it bugs the other teams, and who can blame them? It’s so annoying!

Abbie and Ryan were the first team to leave the Roadblock, which many of the teams really struggled with.

Fast Forward – Rats!

Oh. My. God. The Fast Forward is usually not something everyone would want to do, like shaving your head or getting a tattoo. But filling a bag with rats? Dead rats? I mean, I guess dead is better than alive. But ew. There aren’t enough tetanus shots in the world to convince me to pick up a rat in Bangladesh, even with gloves.

James and Abba were the only team to attempt it. Abba is an entertainment lawyer, so they were able to make plenty of rat jokes. That’s as much of a Brightside as there could possibly be when dealing with rats. The guys were really chill about the whole thing, even when one of them stepped in raw sewage. Wow, this show is doing wonders for Bangladesh tourism!

I was surprised how long the Fast Forward took to complete, but Mark and Abba still pulled off the first place finish.

Something smells fishy!

The next challenge was almost as gross as the Fast Forward – teams had to search through tons of stinky dried fish for one colored with TAR red and yellow. It didn’t take teams as long as I thought it would, and barely set people back.

Detour – Pound the Metal or Pound the Cotton

In pound the metal, teams had to play blacksmith and make a metal spike, and in pound the cotton teams had to make a mattress. The latter sounded possibly more time consuming, but easier and less dangerous. Pumping the bellows for the fire and then pounding the metal sounded exhausting.

Abbie and Ryan went for cotton because Abbie knows how to sew, but the twins went for metal. It looked like a disaster waiting to happen. I was really surprised that they finished so quickly, ahead of Abbie and Ryan. It came down to the wire, but Abbie and Ryan managed to still arrive in second place, with the twins in third.

The fabulous Beekman boys.

My favorite part of the show was when the Chippendales were at the cotton challenge along with the Beekman boys. The Chippendales couldn’t sew at all, but former drag queen Josh used to be a drag queen named Aquadisiac. He sewed his own costumes, something Chippendales aren’t asked to do. They left that challenge pretty far ahead of James and Jaymes.

Not surprisingly, Gary and Will were bringing up the lead. But with them were Trey and Lexi, who had a hard time with cabs. They went for opposite Detours – Trey and Lexi took off for metal, and shortly behind them (or so it seemed) Gary and Will chose cotton.

Rob and Kelley impressed me with their fourth place finish, but they’d gotten on the wrong boat to the pit stop so they had to turn back. I don’t know whose mistake it was, but they got a little too Ugly American for my taste and blamed their boat driver. Trey and Lexi had the same problem, but Josh and Brent tipped them off before they got to the pit stop. That meant Josh and Brent moved up to fourth place.

Rob and Kelley corrected their course and came in fifth, followed by James and Jaymes in sixth and Trey and Lexi in seventh.

Of course, that left Gary and Will. Not only did they sew at a snails’ pace, but they also had a hard time getting to the pit stop. They might be fans of the show, but let’s face it – Gary and Will kind of sucked at running it. I was glad this wasn’t a non-eliminated leg because they didn’t deserve to be saved.

Next week it looks like the competition heats up, as do the players – I spotted a Beekman boy and a Chippendale sweating on the ground. Yikes!