EPISODE 1
Recap by Gordon Pepper
Original Airdate:  September 5, 2001
Re-air:  September 8, 2001
Travel Channel Re-air:  September 14, 2001

The show starts with everyone taking off their blindfolds and then screaming up and down with joy because they're lost - wha?

There are 6 people divided into 2 teams. Celeste and Tami form the 'Blond Bombshells', Carla and Lando form 'Attitudes are Us', and Joe and Courtland form the 'We are so stupid that our village was wondering where the idiots went off to' team.

Rules: The team gets a compass, some things to barter, and $10. They get more money by completing objectives, and the team who gets to the Statue of Liberty first wins $100,000 and a new set of wheels for each member of the team.

The first objective - they need to find out where they are. By calling someone on their satellite phone and giving that person the correct location, the people get a combination to a backpack lock which, when opened, gives the team an extra $330 (as well as visas and passports).

It doesn't take any more than 10 minutes until we get into our first cat fight - Celeste and Carla get into it while Lando and Tami just stare at both of them. Meanwhile, Joe, who is openly gay, seems to spend all of the time that he isn't talking like a bubble-head making as much sexual innuendo as humanly possible about his  teammate Courtland.

Day 2 - Lando spends his morning dealing with pushups, while Celeste, who is overcome with the helicopter ride, water deprivation, and a heavy backpack,spends most of her morning dealing with throw-up. Carla and Lando find a village that has been deserted by a tribe of wandering nomads - but that doesn't stop Carla from telling the women that she found out where they were, and the blondes stupidly go to the village to look for the non-existant natives. Meanwhile, a guy on a motorcycle passes both Carla/Lando and Courtland/Joe. The cycle stops by Courtland and Joe, who give the guy on the bike bottles to fill up with water. The guy on the bike knows absolutely zero English, and Joe asking him 'Joe, America, you, where?' makes as much sense as asking Hilary Clinton about all of the good things that Kenneth Starr has done - both resulting in blank stares.

Lando and Carla go to a site that may be a burial and find an empty bottle of Mongolian Vodka and Mongolian currency in a second bottle near the mound, which prompts them to call their cell phone - their guess is correct (they are in Mongolia) and they are the first group to get the extra $300 and change. So what do they do after celebrating? They determine that its a burial site and replace the money with a couple of American dollars. Classy, real classy. Meanwhile, Tami and Celeste find another person on a motor bike and communicate with him using pencil and paper. They also figure out that they are in Mongolia. Joe and Courtland are still thinking that the natives can understand English and come to this Earth-shattering realization: since they are Asian they must be in CZECHLOSLOVAKIA! (wha?) That night, the people who took their bottles come back with their tribe (either because they were being nice or they knew that the tourists would never survive the night) and hang out with them. But it is Carla and Lando who get the big jump - they find the first populated town and spend a little over $13.00 to get a ride to the next village. Tami and Celeste also find a village and get a water replenishment. 

The next day, they also find someone to cart their stuff on a motorcycle while they hike to the next village, but Joe and Courtland are one step ahead. The nice natives drive them to the next village - where they find Tami and Celeste's gear attached to the motorcycle (The women couldn't possibly find a way to get on the bike with the luggage?) but the guys decide to be nice - for now - and leave a cute note with their stuff.

But that's when their smugness turns to disbelief when they find out that Carla and Lando were there and are long gone. By this time, Tami and Celeste also make it to the same village where Joe and Courtland are and get the last bus out of town. Or so they think - now the guys (who were finally clued in by the pleasant Czechloslovakians that they are, indeed, in Mongolia), decide to not be nice anymore and double what the women would pay and get the van behind the women's back (and do a number on translator Van Dang) as the women see the last van out of the town - with Joe and Courtland in it. But both teams have a long way to catch up - Lando and Carla already made it to the first major city (Bayankhogor) and just spent $120 to get a van ride which will get them to the capital of Mongolia.