These are the Lost City's Palace Gardens, in Sun City, South Africa. Here, our Amanxing Race teams were enjoying this location so much, we decided to give them two extra days to eat, sleep and mingle here in this world famous resort - the eighth Pet Stop in a race around the world.

During their stay here, the donkeys, bulls, cats, and corgis all went out into the garden courtyard. Bella fell asleep, and Ernesto played a chase game with the corgis and the donkeys.

Fermin sat under a Red Bushwillow tree, appropriately enough as the bark of this tree is often used to cure stomach disorders.

Astonished guests looked from the balconies and saw bulls, donkeys, dogs, and cats at play.

Joey and Larry invited approximately two hundred of their closest friends and relatives from Madagascar to visit them. The Little Steven-Bruce Springsteen concert in the hotel ballroom was overrun by lemurs, who demanded the DJ play “I Like to Move It” for five hours. Much fun was had by all except Little Steven and Bruce.

Will the penguin team of Burgess and Meredith, who spent most of their break time sitting in the ice machine in the hallway outside their rooms, be able to endure the increasingly hotter climates?

And will the narcoleptic Bella overcome her sleepiness so that she and Douglas can climb out of fourth place?

Stravinsky and Zhivago, who were the first team to arrive in Sun City, will be the first team to depart. They tear open their clue envelope, which reads:

Fly to Mumbai, India.

Teams must now fly more than 4,000 miles to the city of Mumbai, India. Once there, they must then hop aboard a train for an 800-mile journey to India's famous Karni Mata Rat Temple at Bikaner. There they will find their next clue.

All seven teams get on the same flight to India, but when they arrive, Ernesto and Fermin are getting preferential treatment from all the locals. The locals show them to the train station, and let them have their own train car!

The cats are favored as well, but the lemurs and penguins have to crowd into a third-class car. Bella offers to go find their fellow racers, but Ernesto snorts at that idea. Burgess and Meredith have borrowed a local hotel's ice machine, in hopes of bringing it on the train. But there is no room:

So they scoop up as much ice as they can hold, and board the packed train car for the long trip:

The (sacred) bulls are the first off the train in Bikaner and are shown the way to the Rat Temple, where they receive their clue:

ROAD BLOCK.

A Road Block is a task that only one team member may perform.

In this Road Block, one teammate must enter the Rat Temple and search for their next clue. THE RACERS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO CHASE, STALK, POUNCE ON, PLAY WITH, KILL, OR EAT THE RATS. RACERS WHO HARM RATS WILL RECEIVE TIME PENALTIES. THIS MEANS ALL RACERS.

This task is no problem for Fermin and Ibrahim. But Douglas and Zhivago are having a lot of trouble and get distracted by the scurrying rats.

Douglas has to be warned twice by the temple guard not to pounce on the rodents.

The other team that is noticeably having trouble is the penguin team of Burgess and Meredith. India is so hot, and the train ride was so crowded-even with the ice they took, that they are slowing down considerably. They have had to stop and look for more ice several times. By the time they get to the Temple, every other team has read their clue:

Take the train to Agra, India, and find the world-famous Taj Mahal.

All teams except the penguins make the same train ride, which gives them time to contemplate the space between us all, and the people who hide themselves behind the walls of illusion. When they get to the enormous Taj Mahal, the Racers see they’re really only very small.

They receive their next clue:

Go to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia.

Teams must board a train to take them more than 2,000 miles to Ulaanbaatar, in Mongolia. Then they may find peace of mind is waiting there.

And it’s back on the train for the first six teams, who share the same car with an old man who talks about the love thats gone so cold and the people who gain the world and lose their soul.

Bella and Douglas can't find room in the sleeper car, so they ride in the empty milk pails hanging from the outside of the train.

The penguins arrive at the Taj Mahal, having been delayed on their train, and head on the Mongolia train at least five hours behind the others.
 
The train crosses through Bangladesh. Omara looks for some bread to get the Racers fed. Monty looks out the window and think it doesn’t sure look like a mess. Joey looks at the cats and he sees that they’re sleeping; Holly looks at the floor and she sees it needs sweeping. They cross into China as the sun sets. The four cats share a bunk and get plenty of sleep. Meanwhile, Burgess and Meredith are delayed again at the Taj Mahal.

The next morning, the first train arrives at the station in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Monty is the first to find the clue box and gets his directions:

Take a marked Land Rover to a traditional Mongolian camp outside the Mongolian city of Ulaanbaatar. This 360-year-old city, originally known as Urga, is the Pet Stop for the night. The last time to check in here, may be eliminated.

The corgis are the first to arrive at the camp, where they are met by Morgan Freeman with a Takhi horse.

The bulls are second, followed by the donkeys, Stravinsky and Zhivago, Bella and Douglas, and good ol’ Joey and Larry, who have come in second to last or last in every leg of this race.

As the sun sets over Mongolia, high bassoon music plays on the soundtrack, the penguins come waddling across the desert sands, and Morgan Freeman takes over the narration.

“The penguins have traveled over four continents. They have slid on the ice, ridden in balloons, visited museums, and survived Indian trains. But the heat, in the end, was their enemy. Accustomed to the Antarctic cold winters, during which they will walk back and forth to the ocean several times, they were unsuited for the heat of tropical India. For Burgess and Meredith, the Amanxing Race is over.”

WRITTEN BY BECKY BANFIELD
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS DAVE HUNTER & BELLA T. MANX
Inspired by The Amazing Race on CBS
Dedicated to Bella T. Manx

Special Midseason episode > | Racers react to Bella