An Article on Arti Patel, TAR 10 Contestant

Jozi lady was on Amazing Race
14 May 2008



For Arti Patel, the Johannesburg-born contestant on the reality TV series The Amazing Race, being eliminated last week on the show has not been "the end of the world" for her and her husband, Vipul.



Arti, 29, and Vipul, 31, the first Indian-American team to appear on the show, were the last team to arrive at the Great Wall of China after they departed from Seattle in the US at the start of the tenth season.


During the opening episode, the couple had to eat fish eyes at a Chinese restaurant and even climbed up the Great Wall before making the pit stop in the last place – resulting in their elimination.

Since filming on the show wrapped up - two years ago (although it’s only being broadcast here in SA now!) - Arti has gone back to working as a nutritional educator in Florida, where she and Vipul currently live.


"Vipul and I both went back to working at the jobs we had before The Amazing Race. He still works in sales and we’re also now focusing on starting a family.”


Speaking to My Weekend from her home in Florida, Arti described taking part in the show as "the best life experience ever. Even though we only raced for three days during filming, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat".


"It was also the most memorable experience in my life. I had the best time, met incredible people and made life-long friendships," confessed Arti.


The couple had to keep their participation on the show a secret and told friends and family that they had to travel to South Africa to visit Arti’s family. "When we got back, they wanted to see photos and gifts which of course we didn’t have. We managed to lie about the photos and luckily The Amazing Race decided to reveal our names within a month," she explained.


Happily married, the couple met in their teens when Arti would come over to Vipul’s house to do Tae Bo with his sister. Vipul was born in India but his family later moved to Florida.


Arti said being eliminated from the race was very painful for her.


"I cried for three days straight after being eliminated. I was extremely disappointed, especially knowing our elimination was not because of our incapability or a major mistake we made. We just had bad luck with a taxi driver (a greedy one)."


She added that her favourite race moment was experiencing Beijing.


"If we had visited Beijing on our own we would never have had the chance to lay bricks, climb the Great Wall, and definitely not eat fish eyeballs. This experience takes you out of your comfort zone and on a crazy rollercoaster ride."


Arti admitted that playing the game was harder than she had anticipated it would be.

"The travel time, the stress and the hunger really wears you out. You experience so many emotions all at one time. When you’ve had no sleep for almost three days and barely anything to eat, you rely on adrenaline," she admitted.


As for coming home for a visit, Arti said "I definitely want to return to South Africa soon!”




This article was published by the Weekend Post, a sister newspaper within the Avusa group, based in Port Elizabeth. Click here to read more on its website



Source: Weekend Post

thanks for the article..