Around The World In 80 Ways Episode 9 Preview: “From Titicaca To Bangkok”

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The second-last episode of Around The World In 80 Ways is finally here.

Boston Rob and co-host Dennis Anderson have already used 61 of their 80 methods of transportation and start the ninth episode at the famous James Bond island in Thailand. They are tasked with finding their way from Phuket to Bangkok and Dennis immediately asks Rob to come up with a plan.

Rob suggests a pair of long tail boats and Dennis tells the Survivor winner that he “has a nice long boat” which makes Mariano chuckle and reaffirm that he is married. Dennis immediately says that his boat has a 1970s motor while Rob’s boat has a new 2000 model. The pair race as they usually do and Dennis jumps out to an early lead while Rob struggles with muscling the 800-pound V8 engine. Rob manages to figure it out and beats Dennis to the dock. While there were no stakes on the line for the impromptu race, a near collision with Rob’s boat, losing to his co-host and the bad weather put the surly Anderson into even more of a bad mood.

The pair also use an iron buffalo to travel through a mudpit, but the most entertaining part of the episode is almost certainly when they race a pair of Sampan thail boats through a congested outdoor water market.

Rob basically offered every Thai shopper around with his careless paddling and desire to win while Dennis plays the southern gentleman as he usually does and ends up losing the race. It’s pretty hilarious seeing the townspeople telling Rob to slow down and him trying to explain that he is in a competition. The scene almost looked like it had been directly lifted from The Amazing Race.

As his prize, Rob got to decide what Dennis would eat for lunch and he decided on a concoction of fried crickets and grasshoppers that is apparently a Thail delicacy. Given that Rob’s one weakness is food challenges (remember how he performed with the Maraamu tribe on Survivor Marquesas), it’s a good thing he didn’t lose this one.

Other methods that were used this week include a salt pan roller and something called a Tranny-Cab. And yes, that means exactly what you think it does.

Dennis has to take a plunge with piranhas for losing another race and the episode almost comes to a screeching halt when Rob is severely injured.

The best line of the episode? When Rob says that they were already “in Lake Titicaca and now they are going to Bangkok.”

Hilarious.

See you next week for the finale!

Around The World In 80 Ways airs tonight at 10 p.m. on History Television

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.