The Amazing Race Asia 2: Episode 11 PICS

These are the pics during the episode 11 for more pics of this episode click "more" below.

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The Amazing Race Asia 2: Episode 11

EPISODE 11

After being in second place for the majority of the race, Singaporeans Collin and Adrian finally manage to pull ahead, thanks to a little ingenuity on Adrian’s part. The pair took the earlier train to Budapest, placing them ahead of the other four teams.

Best friends Natasha and Paula need a little game plan of their own as well, as the damsels find themselves in last place, and will face a 30 minute penalty if they do not come in first in this leg.

MOVING FORWARD (PART 1)
Getting to be the first to leave the pitstop is a thrill to Adrian and Collin, who have spent the race in the shadows of Marc and Rovilson. "I feel so good because we always came in second for most of the legs. So finally, we pulled it off the first time," explains Adrian.

Adds Collin, "It’s not about beating Marc and Rovilson. It’s a personal achievement.

But the duo barely have enough time to enjoy their new found victory, as the first clue leads them to nowhere specific.

From the Solomon Tower in Budapest, Hungary, teams must now locate the Little Princess statue for their next clue. However, teams are not told what or where the statue is.

Sculpted by Laszlo Marton in 1989, the statue was inspired by Marton’s daughter and is located by the Danube Promenade.

"There are no instructions on where to go," notes Collin. "It may not be a real princess."

MOVING FORWARD (PART 2)
The second to leave the pitstop, Marc and Rovilson are already planning to take back the lead, not matter the cost. "Maybe we will lose a friend, maybe we won’t," says Rovilson.

The first thing the guys do is to head to a hotel, and ask for information from the hotel staff. The staff directs them to them towards the river, but they have to search the river banks for the statue on their own. Adrian and Collin get to the river but are unable to spot the statue. "We are lost. It’s quite a disastrous start," says Adrian.

And the race is a tight one. Marc and Rovilson spot the statue and rush towards it, but are beaten by Adrian and Collin, who grab the first envelope.

Teams are now faced with their first Fast Forward. By completing a challenge and winning the Fast Forward clue, teams can skip all challenges in this leg of the race and proceed directly to the pitstop.

To no one’s surprise, both teams opt to vie for the Fast Forward. In this special challenge, teams have to head to the Elizabeth Bridge and count the vertical struts or bars between the flag area of the bridge. The flags are placed on each end of the bridge. The first team to enter the correct number into a combination safe will receive the Fast Forward.

Back at the pitstop, sisters Pamela and Vanessa are the next to head off, followed closely by mothers Ann and Diane. "We are improving. We don’t get lost so much but it’s the little details we need to focus on, notes Diane. "We know Marc and Rovilson can be beaten because we were ahead of them for a little bit."

BEHIND BARS
Arriving at the Elizabeth Bridge at the same time, teammates start scrambling to count the struts. Each of them starts counting on their own, hoping to tally their count with their teammate. But with over a thousand bars to take note off, mistakes can be made.

Collin and Adrian start leaving markings on the rails, but do so such that no one else can read them. "We did not want other teams to know what we are writing, so we wrote in Chinese," says Adrian.

Meanwhile, Marc hits upon another idea. Using a belt, he uses it to measure a series of bars. He then starts shifting the belt itself to count sets of bars, instead of counting each one individually.

But all the effort could mean nothing, as Adrian and Collin hit the safe first. Alas, they key in the wrong number and have to decide if they want to recount, or give up. Realising there is still a chance, Marc and Rovilson quickly finish up and key in their number. But the safe fails to open too. "We decided we are going to give it one more try," says Rovilson, as they head back to the starting line.

In their next attempt, the pair key in 2376 but the safe fails to open again. Running back towards the start point, Marc and Rovilson make it seem as if they did receive the Fast Forward. "Let’s make them think we got it," says Marc, hoping to throw off the Singapore teams.

And Collin almost falls for it. "They got it. They got it already," Collin points out to Adrian.

But they turn back, only to see Marc and Rovilson back at the starting point, making their third attempt for the Fast Forward.

Facing the safe for another time, Collin keys in 2377 into the combination lock and there is a slight pop as the door moves. But a confused Collin is not sure if the safe actually opened. He gives the door a tug, and the safe reveals the Fast Forward clue. "Unbelievable," exclaims Collin. The duo starts to scream for joy as they rush back across the bridge. "We were shouting and jumping." "I have not jumped for a long, long time," says an elated Adrian. "That was when I was in university, but that was 5 years ago."

The scream though, signals something else to Marc and Rovilson.

"Immediately, we had to pick up our hearts that fell to the bottom of the ocean," says Rovilson. After spending an hour at the Fast Forward, they must now catch up with the remaining three teams.

The pitstop for this leg of the race is the Gellert Hill Citadel, where one can enjoy a panoramic view of Budapest. The last team to arrive may be eliminated.

LOST LABYRINTH (PART 1)
The sisters receive directions to the statue and find it, while the moms are still searching around for it. Pamela and Vanessa open their clue, and are undecided if they want to try for the Fast Forward.

Says Vanessa, "Obviously I want to do but as long as we get the right one." "Obviously we won’t know if we get the right one. Do you want to do or not?" asks Pamela. In the end the sisters choose to go for it.

Back in the race, Marc and Rovilson are still hopeful that they may still be the first to the pitstop. "There is still a possibility that we can get to the pitstop first if Collin and Adrian lose their way," says Marc. "It’s an addiction, coming in first. We’re going to get it back," promises Rovilson.

Paula and Natasha leave the pitstop after everyone else, as the moms find the statue. Meanwhile, the sisters finally arrive at the bridge but find that one team has already completed the Fast Forward.

Teams must now head to the Labyrinth of Buda Castle for their next clue. The first team to arrive, Marc and Rovilson finds themselves faced with a Roadblock. One teammate must enter the labyrinth and search the treasure chests for their next clue. Dashing into the dark tunnels, Rovilson starts flipping the lids of the chests but come up empty handed.

And at this time, Adrian and Collin have already arrived at the pitstop, where they are welcomed by Allan. Excited about coming in first again, the gym buddies are counting their blessings and good luck. One of the reasons they manage to get the number correct is through teamwork explains Collin. "It was to our advantage because Adrian could lip read while I was counting." Leaving markings in Chinese also ensured that Marc and Rovilson could not follow in their footsteps.

Back in the winding and twisting tunnels, an exasperated Rovilson comes across chest after chest, but they are all empty.

Locating the statue, Paula and Natasha know that the Fast Forward would be gone and instead, ask around for directions to the labyrinth. They get more than they bargained, when they actually find a guy who leads them directly to the entrance.
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Probe detects "spider" crater on Mercury

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A NASA probe that shot past Mercury this month detected a puzzling geological feature that scientists on Wednesday labeled "The Spider" and found evidence of past volcanic activity on the closest planet to the sun.

The U.S. space agency’s car-sized MESSENGER spacecraft on January 14 flew past Mercury, whose diameter is just a third the size of Earth’s, and its seven scientific instruments gathered new information about the little understood planet.

Data collected by MESSENGER showed that a massive impact crater on its surface is larger than previously thought. The probe is due to fly by again this October and in September 2009 before beginning a yearlong orbit of the planet in 2011.

While Mercury looks superficially like Earth’s moon with a cratered, rocky surface, scientists said the new findings show they are quite different.

"We were continually surprised. It was not the planet we expected. It was not the moon," said Sean Solomon of Carnegie Institution of Washington, the mission’s lead investigator. "It’s a very dynamic planet with an awful lot going on."

Mercury is a mystery in many ways and its proximity to the sun has made it difficult to observe from Earth.

Mercury has been visited by a spacecraft only twice before, in 1974 and 1975 when NASA’s Mariner 10 flew past it three times and mapped about 45 percent of its surface. The latest fly-by covered another 30 percent of the surface.

"The Spider" was the most striking feature described by the scientists. It is made up of more than 100 narrow, flat-floored troughs radiating from a central point, much as petals from a daisy or the legs of a spider.

"A REAL MYSTERY"

"The Spider" has a crater 25 miles wide near its center, but it is unclear whether this is related to the feature’s original formation and scientists aren’t sure what to make of it.

"It’s a real mystery," said Louise Prockter of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, who works on the mission.

"The Spider" is in the middle of Mercury’s Caloris basin, one of the solar system’s biggest impact craters, formed more than 3.8 billion years ago when a large space rock hit.

Based on the probe’s new observations, the diameter of the Caloris basin is now thought to be 960 miles, larger than a previous estimate based on Mariner 10’s data. The basin’s interior looks like it was volcanically resurfaced by magma from deep within Mercury’s crust or mantle.

Prockter said Mariner 10 data provided some evidence of volcanism, but it was not universally accepted. Based on the new observations, Prockter added, "there’s very little doubt, I think, in the minds of most of us from the geology team that there has been widespread volcanism on Mercury’s surface."

MESSENGER stands for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging. It was launched in 2004 and flew past Venus twice and Earth once en route to Mercury.

MESSENGER also collected data on Mercury’s magnetic field, its tenuous atmosphere and its topography.

Mercury’s surface is a mix of craters caused by bygone impacts with space rocks, plains and long, winding cliffs. The spacecraft saw basins as deep as 1.7 miles and peaks jutting out as high as 3 miles above the surface.

With Pluto classified as a dwarf planet, Mercury is the solar system’s smallest planet, with a diameter of 3,032 miles , only a bit larger than Earth’s moon.