The Amazing Race Vietnam 2012


The Amazing Race Vietnam: Cuộc đua kỳ thú 2012 is the first season of the reality television game show, The Amazing Race Vietnam. It featured ten teams of two race around Vietnam for 300 million₫.
The program premiered on VTV3 and aired every Friday primetime from 18 May to 10 August 2012.
The first season was directed and hosted by Dustin Nguyen. He also served as an executive producer.
Friends and actors Saettie Baggio and Thành Phúc were the winners of the first season of The Amazing Race Vietnam.

Production

Development and filming

Filming was from 6 April 2012 to 5 May 2012.
Ten teams of two with pre-existing were chosen to join the race of about one month. Thirteen episodes were ordered with seven pit stops to eliminate teams. It was also reportedly announced that itf would be the first-time ever in Vietnamese television history a TV series would be broadcast in high definition.
Route Markers were coloured orange and light green, whereas in the original the colour scheme is yellow and red.

Cast

Applications were accepted until 23 March 2012, with interviews in Ho Chi Minh City on 24 March and in Hanoi on 26 March.

Future appearances

Richard "Richie" Humphrey and Ngọc Phượng "Mimi" Lý Thị later competed in the fifth season in 2016. Baggio & Thành Phúc appeared in a task during the tenth leg of the same season.

Marketing

The show is sponsored by Sting Energy Drink.

Results

The following teams participated in the Race, with their relationships at the time of filming. Note that this table is not necessarily reflective of all content broadcast on television due to inclusion or exclusion of some data. Placements are listed in finishing order:
  1. Thanh Thủy & Minh Thoa initially arrived 3rd, but were issued a 15-minute penalty for taking motorbikes instead of a taxi. Thanh Tuấn & Mỹ Trâm and Minh Châu & Trần Châu checked in during the penalty time, dropping Thanh Thủy & Minh Thoa to 5th.
  2. Gia Bình & Bảo Châu initially arrived 9th, but were issued a 30-minute penalty for being "marked for elimination" and not arriving 1st. This did not affect their placement.
  3. Richie & Mimi were subject to various changes on the third leg of the Race:
  4. *They initially arrived 5th at the Pit Stop, but were issued a 30-minute penalty because Mimi took off her life vest before the boat landed, creating a safety hazard. Three teams checked in during the penalty time, dropping them to 8th.
  5. *Because they did not arrive 1st for this leg, they were forced to give up all of their money. They also received no money on the following leg.
  6. Thanh Thủy & Minh Thoa used the Express Pass to bypass the roadblock in Leg 3. Neither of them were shown choosing to perform the Roadblock, so it is not counted towards their Roadblock count.
  7. Tuấn Anh & Xuân Sơn initially arrived 6th, but were issued a 30-minute penalty for not paying the taxi fare. Gia Bình & Bảo Châu checked in during the penalty time, dropping Tuấn Anh & Xuân Sơn to 7th.
  8. Because Tuấn Anh & Xuân Sơn finished 1st, they were allowed to keep their money for the next leg.
  9. Chí Bình & Hồng Long initially arrived 1st, but were issued a 45-minute penalty for pulling up the net at Anh Tin Fish Raft. Phương Thảo & Minh Hoàng checked in during the penalty time, dropping Chí Bình & Hồng Long to 2nd.
  10. Thành Chung & Thanh Bằng, Baggio & Thành Phúc, and Phương Thảo & Minh Hoàng initially arrived 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively, but were issued 30-minute penalties for not going in the correct direction in the Roadblock. This did not affect either teams' placements.
  11. Phương Thảo & Minh Hoàng initially arrived 4th, but were issued a 30-minute penalty for being "marked for elimination" and not arriving 1st. This did not affect their placement.
  12. Leg 11 was a double-length leg with two Roadblocks and two Detours and was shown over two episodes. The placements listed in the first column reflect the order teams arrived at the leg's halfway point.
  13. Chí Bình & Hồng Long initially arrived 3rd, but were issued a 90-minute penalty for quitting the first task in Ho Chi Minh City. Phương Thảo & Minh Hoàng checked in during the penalty time, dropping Chí Bình & Hồng Long to last place and resulting in their elimination.

    Prizes

The prize for each leg is awarded to the first place team for that leg.

Leg 1 (Hanoi)

Airdate: 18 May 2012
In this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to climb the steps to the roof of the My Dinh National Stadium and abseil down where they would receive their next clue.
In this leg's Detour, teams had to choose between Maze of Streets or Beautiful Words. In Crowded Streets, teams had to travel to the Dong Xuan Market where they received a list of six daily objects: 2 reed mats, 2 masks, 1 pipe & 1 feather duster. After, teams needed to walk and locate three marked shops in the nearby Old Quarter that sold these objects with each shop selling different goods. After collecting all of the needed objects and delivering them back to the starting point, teams would receive their next clues. In Beautiful Words, teams had to travel to the Temple of Literature and engage in a traditional Vietnamese literal examination. Here, one team member had to listen to a poet reciting a poem with 4 sentences. Then, that team member would go back and tell his/her teammate the poem. This teammate would then write down the poem and show it to a calligraphist. If their poem was correct, the calligraphist would hand them their next clue. If their poem was wrong, team had to wait until one incense stick burned, about 5 minutes, before they could re-do the task.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 25 May 2012
In this leg's Roadblock, teams had to search the ground of Doch Thech Ancient Cemetery for 4 hidden numbers: 1, 2, 5, 8. Then, they had to use these numbers to form a combination to open a 4 combination lock. Each team had a different set of combination.
In this leg's Detour, teams had to choose between two type of activities that familiar with Muong people: Farm Play or Farm Work. Both tasks had teams travel to Giang Mo Village. Here, whoever picked Farm Play would need to finish a stilt-walking course. Both of the team members needed to reach the finish line in order to receive their next clue. If any team members fell from the stilts, that person had to walk the course again, from the beginning. For Farm Work, each team member had to plough, fertilize and plant one furrow of sugarcane and couldn't help each other. Upon satisfying a farmer, teams would receive their next clues.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 1 June 2012
In this leg's Detour, teams engaged in two activities related to Ninh Binh's most famous products: goat for Play or :vi:Cơm cháy Ninh Bình|cơm cháy for Eat. In Play, teams traveled to Anh Luc's Goat Ranch. Here, one team member was blindfolded and had to follow verbal directions from the other team member to catch a goat in a mud enclosure. Each teams must catch only the goat wearing the same color as their blindfolded cloth. After successfully finishing the capture, teams could take off their blindfolds and herd the animal back to its pen. In Eat, teams traveled to Grand Restaurant in :vi:Tràng An|Tràng An Marina and had to eat 20 plates of cơm cháy each.
In this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to climb the stairs of Tam Quan Gate and find a young monk, who would tell them to count the stairs' steps. During the counting, teams were also distracted by a loudspeaker introducing Trần Dynasty's history. If they came up with the correct answer, they would receive their next clues.
;Additional task
Airdate: 8 June 2012
In this leg's Detour, teams had to choose between Thick Jungle or Thin Jungle. In Thick Jungle, teams had to make their way to a marked jungle area. Here, they had to search through the density to find clues hidden among leaves, branches and vines. In Thin Jungle, one leg of each team members would be tied together. In this situation, they had to pass through a rope system without ringing any bells hanging on these strings. If a bell was rang, teams must re-do this task from the beginning.
In this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to crawl into a snake cage and retrieve a clue put under a python.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 15 June 2012
In the only Fast Forward of the season, one team had to travel to My Khe Beach and convince any person they could find on the beach to have his/her head shaved to win the Fast Forward award.
In this leg's Detour, teams had to choose between Fingerprint or Palm. In Finger, teams had to travel to Nguyen Hung Stone and attempt to make a living statue. One team member had to take off his/her clothes and pretend to be a stone figure while the other team member painted his/her partner's body with white paint, and could only use one finger to do so, to receive their next clue. In Palm, teams had to travel to Sandy Beach Resort, where they had to dig in a marked sand area on the beach for a clue buried somewhere 1 metre below the sand, with only their bare hands.
In this leg's Roadblock, one team member had to carry a tray of Sting bottles to Quan Thuong Be Thui and serve random customers in exchange for a Race sticker. Then, they could trade it for their clues. If any teams ran out of Sting, they had to go back to the starting point and refill.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 22 June 2012
In this leg's Roadblock, team had to travel to the Yaly Sew Factory where each team member had to successfully sew a cushion's cover to a chief tailor's satisfaction.
In this leg's Detour, teams had to choose between Make a living or Solemn. In Make a living, teams had to use a movable bánh tiêu vendor to sell these snack and earn 400,000 VND. In Awe-inspiring, teams had to figure out by themselves how to create the symbol of Hội An: a cloth lantern. If teams could impress a lantern-maker with their products, they would receive the next clue.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 29 June 2012
In the Detour, teams had to choose between The Beauty and The Bold. In The Beauty, teams had to make 400 sticks of incense at Dạ Lê Thượng Shrine. In The Bold, teams had to travel to Hương Thủy village, where they would have to run through a muddy course without being forced out of the boundary by six professional wrestlers. Teams were allowed to tackle the wrestlers but not to injure them by any means. Only one team could attempt this task at a time. If a team member were forced out of the boundary, both of them had to redo from the beginning.
In the Roadblock at Minh Mạng Tomb, one team member had to memorize both of the reign times and the faces of seven kings from the Nguyễn Dynasty. Then they needed to pick up 20 wooden tablets indicating four different time durations: 1, 2, 5 and 10 years. After that, they had to bring these tablets to the inner area of the temple and placed the times correspondingly to each of the seven kings. If the calculation was correct, teams would receive their next clues. If not, they had to travel back to the front of the temple and collect a new set of wooden tablets.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 6 July 2012
Towers served as the Pit Stop of this leg
For this leg's Detour, teams needed to walk on foot to Sheraton Hotel and engaged in either Soft or Tough here. In Soft, teams were requested to make a bed accordingly to Sheraton's standard. Teams were given only one bed to examine as a sample. In Tough, teams needed to make 16 bowls of noodle from dough. If their noodles could satisfy a chef, he would handle them their next clues.
For this leg's Roadblock, one team member must walk on a cầu khỉ to reach a hanging clue at the other end.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 13 July 2012
In this leg's first Roadblock, a team member needed to slide down a stream, abseil down a water fall and retrieve a clue hanging in the middle of the place, jump down a rock cliff, then found his way back to his teammate.
In the leg's second Roadblock, the other team member had to dress up as K'Ho people and ride a horse to a pole holding a bag of arrows. After that, he/she needed to ride the horse to an archer's yard and use a crossbow to shoot one arrow into a bull's eye. If missed, that team member had to ride the horse back to take more arrows.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 20 July 2012
In the Detour, teams had to choose between Blue Sea and Red Stream. In Blue Sea, teams travelled to Mui Ne Beach and had to paddle out to sea in round basket boats and retrieve one of five keys hidden inside 500 ml of bottles of Sting. In Red Stream, teams travelled to the house of Dia and had to load 100 coconuts onto a cattle-drawn carriage and deliver them to the Fairy Stream without dropping any to receive their next clue.
In the Roadblock, one team member must ride a dune buggy across the nearby sand dunes and follow a marked course, searching for their next clue in one of twenty pots in the sand.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 27 July 2012 and 3 August 2012
In the leg's first Detour, teams had to choose between Hot or Cold. In Hot, teams had to travel to a pepper farm, where they had to separate all of the fresh pepper seeds from a pile of dried pepper seeds. In Cold, teams traveled to an Ice Factory where they would find their next clue frozen in a block of ice. They had to use only an ice cream scoop to hack away at the ice to get their clue.
In the first Roadblock, one team member had to guide a key through a rope maze. After extracting the key, they had to pull on a rope to pull a heavy wooden crate out of the sea and use the key to unlock it. Inside, they would find three photographs. They would finally have to search the beach for three parts of a map, which identified the location of the Chez Carole Resort.
In the second Detour, teams had to choose between Eyes and Ears. In Eyes, teams traveled to the Martial Arts Training Center, where they had to learn a series of Martial Arts moves. They then had to perform these moves to the satisfaction of a master to receive their clue. In Ears, teams traveled to the University of Film and Theater where they had to learn and perform the Cải lương play Lan and Diep. If they could perform their lines correctly, they would receive their next clue.
In the Roadblock, one team member had to perform three circus acts including balancing on a balancing board for three minutes, spinning three hula hoops without dropping any for another three minutes and successfully performing a flying trapeze to receive their next clue. These tasks could be completed in any order.
;Additional tasks
Airdate: 10 August 2012
In the first Roadblock of this leg, one team member had to climb up to the top of a stack of large shipping container and then balance across a thin metal beam to the top of another stack to get their next clue.
In the second Roadblock, the remaining team member had to perform a two-minute action hero stunt perfectly. They had to outrun two men on motorcycles and use a stunt trampoline to climb over a shipping container. They then had to climb a rope ladder to a container suspended above the ground, where they would have to engage in a stunt fight. Finally, they would have to jump through a fake wall and fall onto a cushion to complete the challenge.
;Additional tasks