by David McAlpine

On last night's episode of The Amazing Race, teams headed from Indonesia to Thailand in a resort-fueled leg that had a twist of charity.

Andy and Tommy and Laurence and Zac were the first two teams to leave the starting mat, with instructions to head to Phuket, Thailand, the famous resort town that was devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. They're both quick to book tickets to Jakarta, in hopes of finding a flight to Phuket there.

The other six teams get to their airport to find the snowboarders and the father-son duo gone, so they all book their flights to Phuket through Jakarta, and board a flight a couple hours later. In Jakarta, Laurence and Zac and Andy and Tommy find out that there's no direct flight left to Phuket, so they have to fly through Bangkok, putting them at least an hour behind everyone else.

The six teams are shocked when the two leaders aren't there, but no one is too worried about it, because the beach is closed until the morning. Once the snowboarders and the father-son team show up, they're thankful that they hit an equalizer.

In the morning, the teams head out in speedboats to another beach where they get to the Detour: Coral Reconstruction or Beach Preparation, both of which are designed to help this town get back on its feet after the tsunami. In Coral Reconstruction, teams had to build a very flimsy frame out of pipes, bring it out the open ocean on a kayak, plant it, and put a tray of baby corals on top. In Beach Preparation, teams had to mirror a set up of beach chairs and umbrellas.

Of course, there's major problems with both: the current is extremely strong in the ocean, ripping apart the pipe frames, while the wind keeps pulling the umbrellas out of the sand. Andy and Tommy finish first, followed by the always- arguing Jennifer and James.

Marcus can't swim and Bob has a hard time keeping the pipe frame together, so they have to switch to the beach detour where everyone else is. Liz and Marie get there first, but struggle the most with the wind and the heavy objects, and their whining only makes them more annoying to listen to.

After many comical moments where the wind blows an umbrella away, or someone makes an incorrect observation, eventually just Liz and Marie after left to complain at the detour.

After the detour, teams had to make their way 13 minutes north to a very obscure rock formation out at sea. Everyone has an easy time finding it except Ernie and Cindy, who find themselves floating in the middle of nowhere.

For the Roadblock, one team member has to scale the side of the island to reach a "nest" of clues. Andy scrambles up the rock like it's nothing, even though he's never done it before. Note: this is why he's an Olympian. Meanwhile, Marcus really struggles with the climbing, even though he's an NFL player. Go figure.

It comes down to Bill and Cathi and Liz and Marie. Bill takes the Roadblock, which Cathi explains has to be their strategy, because they don't know how much longer they're going to be in the race, so he might as well take all the physical ones.

In the end, Liz and Marie finish the Detour will behind the other teams, and get a nice montage of arriving at the Pit Stop. Lucky news for them: this week is a non-elimination leg, and they'll be faced with the Speed Bump during the next leg. Both of them start crying (which I'm really not sure how much more I can handle), knowing they're still in the race.

The Amazing Race airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.

(Photo courtesy of CBS)

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