Episode 4 Recap - From Phnom Penh to Mae Sariang

Checkpoint four is halfway through the race with nearly a month of travel, so the teams were clearly starting to feel the stress of racing.

As the current leaders Alfie and Owen left first, heading straight to the border excited by the prospect of visiting Thailand - the ‘land of smiles’. They weren't smiling for long though, getting hopelessly lost in search of Pak Chong and the Khao Yai National Park. 

The friends had intentionally decided to take things a little more relaxed this week, wanting to see some wildlife in the park, and check out white water rafting on the Khek River. While their slow progress and more-scenic-then-intented route bothered them, they seemed happy to worry about it later while they made the most of their trip.

Far less happy in their travels were Eugenie and Isabel, who have felt like a pot about to boil over since starting. They travelled to Krakor by Tonle Sap Lake where they visited a floating village and made something involving stamping on fish in exchange for bed and board.

All of which seemed to be background to ongoing disagreement as they tried to resolve their differences. Even (after a few more bus rides) a trip to the Ban Khlong Water Lilly Park caused more strain, a situation I hope they can resolve in the coming weeks.

Equally stressed, although over less long term events were Betty and James. They started their week with James losing his money belt containing cash and his passport. Recovering the belt with only the money missing it wasn’t a race ending loss, but it did prompt the siblings later to take a stock of their budget.

This finally answered the question I’ve been wondering the last few weeks - how exactly did they think their budget would work? Turns out they just hadn’t thought about it! Looking at last week’s numbers (with some estimated values for this week) Betty and James remain the biggest spenders with under 31% left in their budget at the halfway point!

Deciding to be more budget conscious, the siblings ignored the sights at Angkor Wat and headed to a farm in Roi Et to work with water buffalo. Not sure the £1 per hour pay made a great addition to their purse, but seeing James reluctantly massage a bulls rear suggests maybe they’ll manage to find jobs to continue. Or he really really felt guilty about losing that money belt!

Also working with animals were Steven and Viv who took on a job clearing horse mess. Having left last originally they looked a bit too casual as they stopped in Phnom Sampeau Caves to see the bat migration, and learn about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. 

Viv was celebrating her birthday this leg, which seemed to give the couple a bit of a boost and meant after working at the horse farm they made it to Chiang Mai at the same time as Eugenie and Isabel.

Coming into the fourth checkpoint was a footrace between the two couples with Eugenie and Isabel taking a wrong turn and arriving two minutes after the amazing run of Steven and Viv.

Taking some guesses on the later teams times you can see the complete turn around as Steve and Viv jump from fourth to first, while the boys Alfie and Owen fall into fourth:

Steven and Viv also have the advantage of the (likely) biggest remaining budget, while Alfie and Owen took a last minute hit as they used an expensive taxi to try to avoid a large gap at the checkpoint.

Final results are a bit empty as the show remains tight lipped on the official budgets and arrival times:

Still think you can work out who will reach checkpoint 5 first? Get your prediction in here!