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An Interview with Amazing Race 10's First Losing Teams

It sucks to be first, but somebody has to go. A couple of weeks ago I caught up with the first two teams expelled from The Amazing Race 10 — one of whom shockingly didn't even get to stay in the race for an entire leg. Read what they had to say, then go to the Features & Interviews section to find out how the Cheerleaders handled their big AR10 loss.

First up: The "Muslim Team" of Bilal Abdul Mani and Sa'eed Rudolph, two best friends from Cleveland, Ohio.

TVGuide.com: Sucks to be you; you were the last team to make it to the meeting point in the Forbidden City, and, in a surprising new twist, you were kicked out before the first leg was even over. How long did you get to stay in China?
Bilal: From the time we got into China to that semi-pit stop was only three hours. It was quick, and that's why it caught everyone by surprise.

TVGuide.com: Bummer. Well, let's back up: What was it like to see Seattle by seaplane?
Sa'eed: It was dramatic and quite beautiful to see it from that angle.
Bilal: We got on the seaplanes in downtown Seattle. It was rainy, it was chilly... typical Seattle weather, from what the locals say.

TVGuide.com: Before you left for Beijing, you told a TV Guide reporter that your plan was to stay in the pack, watch and let other people make mistakes. What happened? How did you go from being first to last?
Bilal: Well, to be quite frank, it's absolutely ridiculously insane that a cabdriver that is from China and reads Chinese has absolutely no clue where "Woo Men" is — it was written in Chinese and it means the Forbidden City.
Sa'eed: It's like a taxicab driver living and working in Cleveland asking "Where is the Terminal Tower?" [Our driver] got out and asked three people, "Where is the Forbidden City?" and they gave us directions that [had us driving] around the Forbidden City for 10 minutes at least.
Bilal: The guy was either A) drunk, B) couldn't read or C) just nervous about the bearded guys in the backseat. The guy was clueless and he needs to be banned from driving a taxi forever and ever.
Sa'eed: [Laughing] We have been bamboozled! We have been hoodwinked! It's crazy!

TVGuide.com: At least you weren't eliminated in Seattle. Did you get to spend a few extra days in Beijing to look around?
Bilal: Actually, we did. We were there for maybe a day or so, and then CBS took us to our next location.

TVGuide.com: Man, so you were in China less time than it took you to get to China.
Bilal: Correct. But you don't have to say it like that!

TVGuide.com: [Laughing] Well, I mean, you know....
Sa'eed: It wasn't exactly enough time to take in one of the wonders of the world, but yes that was how quick it was.

TVGuide.com: Were you all raised Muslim or did you convert as adults?
Sa'eed: I was Christian before and converted to Islam in the year 2000.
Bilal: I was born and raised Muslim in Cleveland. Most of my family are Baptist and Christian. It's kinda ironic now because with maybe 12 cousins and 11 aunts, four of my aunts and four cousins are now Muslim. But back in the day, growing up, we were like the black sheep of the family.

TVGuide.com: In the airport, they showed one of you saying, "I don't shake hands because of my religion." What do you mean by that?
Bilal: They were like, "We wanted to hug you guys" and so on and so forth. But our religion does not encourage the mixing of men and women — hugging, kissing and things like that — unless they're family members. And I wanted to be a good representative of Islam. But they understood. If my faith did allow it, I would have been hugging all over.

TVGuide.com: What was the best part of your short time in the race?
Bilal: To be honest, seeing a lot of poverty in China and [realizing] how fortunate my family is…we're very, very blessed. Seeing China for what it is was an outstanding opportunity for self-examination. I've started to write a book titled, "Slave Desire to Serve His Master." I'm about 160 pages in. And it's about my experience on The Race and looking at different people and different things.

TVGuide.com: But you were on The Race for three days tops. How are you getting a book out of that?
Bilal: If a lot is in your mind and a lot is in your heart, and you see a lot… and a lot of it has to do with my childhood. I incorporated that into the race and the different teams that participated.

TVGuide.com: What about you, Sa'eed?
Sa'eed: For me, the best part was traveling and meeting all the different people along the way. It affected me in a positive way that [I didn't expect]. It opened my eyes to a few things.

Next up: The "Indian Couple" — aka newlyweds Vipul and Arti Patel.

TVGuide.com: What made you all decide to do The Amazing Race?
Vipul: I've been a big fan of the show since before I even started dating Arti. Basically, I fell in love with the show, and after I fell in love with her I made her fall in love with it, too.

TVGuide.com: In Seattle, you told a TV Guide reporter you studied maps to prepare for the race.
Vipul: Yeah, a little bit. We went and checked out local maps, just to make sure we understood other countries' symbols and stuff like that.

TVGuide.com: Yet you still got lost.
Vipul: Actually, we had limited funds and never had the opportunity to get a map, even if we wanted to! Out of all the teams, only one had a map and it was given to them by a traveler on the plane to Beijing.

TVGuide.com: So you literally went running out of the airport and just hopped into a cab, no stopping?
Vipul: Exactly. We knew we were in the back of the pack so we got a lot of info from people who spoke Chinese about what to tell the cabdriver. We found the Golden House restaurant very quickly. The first night wasn't a problem. It was the second night that did us in.

TVGuide.com: Arti, you rode in the sidecar in Beijing. How scary was the traffic?
Arti: Traffic was insane. People in Beijing drive crazy. I was hoping I wouldn't get knocked by a car or a pedestrian or anything like that. I also thought I was going to fall out [of the sidecar] because my backpack didn't fit in the cart and I had to move all the way to the front. But I only thought about that for like a split second — I was so excited.

TVGuide.com: How long were you guys actually lost?
Vipul: You mean just before we got to the Great Wall?

TVGuide.com: Yeah.
Vipul: Technically we weren't sure if we were lost or not because the cabdriver didn't speak English. When we convinced him to take us to the Great Wall, first he said no and then he said yes, and we jumped in the cab. But on our way we decided to ask how much it would be. When he told us 700 Chinese yuan [about $90] and we only had 350 [$45], we figured he's either ripping us off, or he's going to another point of
the Great Wall. So we decided to pull over and find a person to translate. They told us that you are going in the right direction, the cabdriver is charging you double because he needs fare to get back to where he was. Obviously other teams didn't have that problem. It was just one of those unfortunate incidents. But by the time we figured all that out and got another cab, about 45 minutes had passed. That was our undoing.

TVGuide.com: Sketchy!
Vipul: Well, it's unfortunate. But we have no regrets, because everybody tells us bad breaks like that happen.

TVGuide.com: And, honestly, you got eliminated in China. You could have been on the Family Edition and gotten eliminated in Toledo.
Vipul: It was a great experience. I mean, we saw one of the Wonders of the World.
Arti: And we got a chance to [literally] climb the Great Wall. I don't think a lot of people can say that.

TVGuide.com: What was that like? Why couldn't you just hold on to the rope and walk up the wall? Screw that rope ladder.
Vipul: Everybody tried that. But if you use only your upper body to hold you up, it's very difficult. The trick was using the loop and then using it like a ladder, stepping up on each one. The Cheerleaders did it very quickly because they're small and very athletic.

TVGuide.com: How long did it take you to get up the wall?
Vipul: Probably about 15 minutes total. The producers and the cameramen told us we were among the fastest teams.
Arti: Initially it was hard, I was looking up that wall and I was like, "I don't know if I can do this." But then once I got up there I was like, "I have to do this.... This is something I'm going to overcome."
Vipul: And actually Arti did it faster than I did.

TVGuide.com: So what was the best part of the trip for you?
Vipul: Just being at the starting line and seeing Phil raise his hand, drop it down and say, "Go!"
Arti: We just looked at each other and said, "Oh my god, this is it!"
Vipul: If they would have stopped us and said, "Sorry, we made a mistake, you can't continue on," that would have been fine by us, because just being one of the 12 teams was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Arti: To be the first Indian couple on any [American] reality show — that's something to boast about as well. A lot of people in our community are just proud of us for being on the show and having the courage to overcome our fears.

TVGuide.com: What was the best thing you did in China after you got kicked off The Race?
Vipul: We went to the Forbidden City during the day. And were able to see how beautiful and extravagant that place is.

TVGuide.com: Did you get a VIP tour?
Vipul: No, we were just regular tourists and we made up our minds that we want to go back there in two years for the summer Beijing Olympics.
-- Rochell D. Thomas