Sam and Vince - Hong Kong

by **JonL0ver** Wed 06 Aug 2008, 4:58 pm

Both started out as teachers but in their spare time, one is a master of words while the other is plays with words. Meet Vince Matthew Chung, the former primary school teacher turned full time comedian cum host, and his best bud Samuel Wu, a university lecturer who ranks as one of the top players on the online word game, Prolific.

For those wondering, Prolific is a word puzzle much like the classic Boggle game and yes, this shows how quick thinking the duo, who make up Team Hong Kong, can be. Having met three years ago while working in Hong Kong, the 32-year-olds became fast friends due to similar passions in a variety of things, from acting, hosting, stand-up comedy, and most importantly, partying.

They actually met via mutual friends at a party and things since then have been a blast. Recalls Vince jokingly, Sam "wouldn't leave the area where the food was being served."

This also will not be the first time that the friends have participated in a competitive event together. Vince once made it as a finalist in the first ever nationwide stand-up comedy competition, "The Funniest Person in Hong Kong", and if you hear Sam tell the story, the jokes were all Sam's. "I was very proud of him," enthuses Sam. "They were all my jokes of course, but he denies it vehemently."

One thing that does stand in their way though is their hot headed nature, which has led to confrontations. Sam too has to deal with physical fears as he is terrified of needles and bees.
He says, "I was hospitalized after getting stung in the head by a hornet when I was four and since then, I've had a major phobia and if anything flies near or around my head, I freeze instantly."

This is why Sam reckons that Vince is the more physical one, whereas he is the thinking part of the group. And what is their overall strategy? Sam says it is to, "always be part of the pack, and then break away to lead the pack in the middle legs of the race".

But what if it doesn't work? Vince jokes, "I want to bring banana peels to throw onto the ground so that teams running behind us will slip on them."

Yes, Vince is the more competitive of the duo, but it's because being on top is in his blood. Vince has also joined various sports teams, from softball, baseball to football throughout his life and swam competitively from age six to university.

Don't dismiss Sam either as he too can be single minded in his endeavors. Back in 2001, a desire to lose some weight made Sam go on a diet that saw him shed 20kg over a five month period. "I went from an obese 80kg to a 60kg, through rigorous exercising and dieting," he recalls.

The one thing the duo will do however, is to soak up every experience on this race because this could be their last hoorah, since Vince might be leaving Hong Kong in the near future. You might say they have nothing to lose, but everything to strive for.

SOURCE: http://amazing-race-asia.axn-asia.com/season3/teams/sam-vince/index.html

by **ChnBamboo** Sat 23 Aug 2008, 11:50 pm

go for it.

by **JonL0ver** Sun 24 Aug 2008, 1:09 am

Chnbamboo, that is your first post. COngratulations. Yes, Hong Kong is part of China and you're from China. Go Sam and Vince. Very Happy

by **ChnBamboo** Wed 27 Aug 2008, 6:56 pm

thank you.
Tell you truly,I am not very delight about AXN use HK instead of China.

by **JonL0ver** Thu 28 Aug 2008, 12:58 am

I understand Chinese Bamboo. Don't worry the host is from China.LOL

by **ChnBamboo** Thu 28 Aug 2008, 12:03 pm

really? I donno that.
anyway.I support them everyday!

by **JonL0ver** Sat 30 Aug 2008, 4:41 am

OMG. Allan Wu is a Chinese who is only based in Singapore. LOL

by **Alan_Ariel** Mon 01 Sep 2008, 5:37 pm

by **JonL0ver** Sun 07 Sep 2008, 4:52 am

More and more racers are admitting they're using TARA as their stepping stone for a bigger dream. (But why not?) Here's a blog by a friend of Sam and Vince.
_______________________________________________

"Sam said to me he could see me doing some sort of media work, but i said I'd
hate to be recognised and stared at on the street. Kevin, who was in a movie way
back in 1995 called Army Days, says he hates being recognised and that the
recognition had just started to die down, when a friend of his posted the damn
thing on youtube.

Sam was saying he doesn't like to be recognised either, then
they both turned to Vince and he said "I don't mind it." They both laughed at
him and said "If you had said you didn't, you'd be a liar". Vince is a Canadian
chinese and he says he's using the Amazing Race as a springboard into a career in entertainment. He says he's currently working as an MC and comedian.

I really like Sam. He was still very funny, despite the fact the three
of them got plastered on black label the night before and then he got no sleep.
Somehow the conversation rolled about to Sam's weight and he said he used to be
fat and white, like a fishball. hahahah. Sam, who lectures, was telling us about
his students names, and he had some mint ones that included Circumference,
Pussypoo, Groovey, and Cheerful."

by **camomile** Fri 19 Sep 2008, 10:01 am

Sam really awesome!!!

You should add him in your facebook. He replied your every post.

by **camomile** Fri 19 Sep 2008, 10:02 am

Allan Wu is American born chinese lah....

by **JonL0ver** Tue 23 Sep 2008, 9:02 pm

camomile wrote:Sam really awesome!!!

You should add him in your facebook. He replied your every post.

Sneaky Cam. You are spying on our exchanges of mails huh. you're busted! Very Happy

by **Avalanche** Thu 25 Sep 2008, 6:23 am

From Vince: ABOUT EPISODE 2
===========================================
So we live to see another week....

That was a super long leg...

Flight of the Gibbons

It started in Chiang Mai where we were had to look for the Flight of the
Gibbons... The streets were completely barren and no one was around...
there were no taxis anywhere. Some teams ended up walking back to the
rest stop for that leg. We wandered around and by chance we saw some
people eating at a noodle cart and asked them to use their mobile
phone... After chatting for a bit another patron heard that we needed
a taxi so he called a friend who was a taxi driver to come pick us
up...

We were lucky to get a taxi because we saw many teams
walking aimlessly around on the street trying to flag down a taxi. It
was about an hour drive to the Flight of the Gibbons and it was up some
mountain. The route marker was hidden and difficult to see because it
was pitch black but we were able to see it as we drove up the
mountain... We saw the other teams drive by up and down the road
missing the marker.... HAHA.....

Zipping down half the mountain was exhilarating and we were eager to get to the end of the zip lines to get our clue.

Banana Plantation

We had trouble getting a taxi after the Flight of the Gibbons and then
ended up getting clogged up in a bunch with the rest of the teams.
There were literally 5 teams that took off together. We all raced
towards the next location. Our taxi was definitely speeding but
somehow other teams still overtook us. We all arrived in the area
where the banana plantation was but all the teams turned into a dead
street. All the taxis did a three point turn and took off but our taxi
driver stalled the car and we were left by ourselves. That's when I
got my first "BLEEP" as I watched all the other teams' taxis
leave...haha!

"BLEEP!!"

We finally got our car started but were completely separated from the
group and got lost. We were brought to schools and temples but not the
banana plantation. We had to act out and draw what a banana plantation
was to the locals because we couldn't communicate to them. We finally
got there just behind the Beauty Queens ( who are from Thailand... even
they got lost).

The Roadblock clue was " Who is steady under fire"
... That's it... we had no idea what that entailed. I thought that it
had do with shooting something... not evading paintball snipers!
Anyway Sam did the roadblock and it was definitely tough . It was hot,
it was difficult to see out of the mask and the snipers were ruthless.
(actually there was some misdirection because Sam was told by somebody that the clue was in a yellow bag... not a camouflage bag and he had walked by that a few times...)

It became more difficult as some of the teams left because that meant less
targets for them to shoot at..... We were there for a very long
time... it was just our team for about half and hour. It was really
demoralizing for all participants because once you were hit you had to
go and start again... but Sam was able to fight through and find the
clue.

Ho Chi Minh City

We flew to HCMC and were very lucky to get onto that flight ... I
basically pleaded with an airport staff to hold the flight and she
walked us through ahead of other people ... so that we could make the
flight! NICE!! haha.. Once we got to HCMC we were all bunched up at the opera house and found the clue box around the same time.

Pho Cafe

Damn ... I LOVE VIDEO GAMES... and I was confident that we would be jumping ahead of everyone... we got to the cafe in 4th place but we finished the task quickly and got out of there 2nd !!!

Flower Stall

We searched the market and found the stall but we did not notice that it
opened at 6. All the locals told us that the stalls opened at 7 so we
got a hotel and slept for a few hours. We got to the stall at 6:45 AM
and realized that it was already open. We had no idea what place we
were in because the other teams had probably got their clue.

Cai Be

We booked a ticket on a bus to go to Cai Be and were quite satisfied with
ourselves... The journey was a few hours however we were dropped off at
the side of the highway 6KM away from the Cai Be exit.... We think that
the reason for this was that we were the only ones wanting to go to Cai
Be ... and to turn off the highway and to go into Cai Be would waste time and fuel...

We couldn't even call a taxi because we couldn't communicate with the locals.
We were lucky to convince another bus to go out of their way to take us...

DETOUR Sampan or Some Walk...

We choose Some Walk because we thought that it would be easier to
transport chickens...and we choose right!!!! All the other teams that
tried Sampan eventually gave up and went to catch chickens. When we
got there the chickens were running all around the coupe hahaha..I
basically pinned the chickens against the fence and grabbed 3-4 and put
them in the baskets. Sam had difficulty catching the chickens because
of his phobia of things near his ears....HAHA. We were able finally
catch the 20 chickens and we had to transport it to the wet market.....
which was more than a 20min walk away... It was VERY
far... again... it was hot , we were tired and hungry and thirsty ...
we had 3 hours of sleep the night before ... and the load that we had
to carry was heavy and awkwardly balanced.... the chickens kept on
sticking their heads out of the basket and pecked my leg repeatedly! We finally navigated our way to the proper stall with the help of a local guide and we got our clue.

We saw all the other teams struggle with their task and cheered them on as they were walking past us.

Church and Orphanage

We walked slowly back to the bus and negotiated with Niroo and Kaps (
Indian Team) to share a bus to go back to HCMC to look for the
church. When we got there we found the clue box quickly and were very
happy to see our task.

We were very happy that our charity task was to buy supplies for an
orphanage... As a former teacher I love children! We wanted to
maximize our money and so we bought food, vcd players , and cartoons.
We maximized all the money that we were given which was what the clue
had asked us to do. After delivering all of the goods we decided to
stay and play with the children.

I think that buying things for the kids was great but we wanted to give more and I know that the children rarely have visitors. We stayed and visited two floors. We
knew that we wouldn't be first and we knew that we wouldn't be last
(because we knew that for sure there were teams behind us) so our
placement didn't matter but the time spent with these children would
mean so much to them.

One of the little guys even stepped into my shoes and tried to run away... I guess he didn't want us to leave.

Post Office and then Pit Stop

We received our clue and went to the post office to look for the clue box that eventually sent us to the pit stop at the Zoo.

Team Hong Kong 3rd ... we live to see another week... tune in Thursday night to AXN for Episode 3!

VMC Sam and Vince - Hong Kong 022

by **Avalanche** Thu 25 Sep 2008, 6:25 am

From Sam Wu:

Now that Vince has mentioned, during the paintball challenge, I was
told by another racer that the bag was YELLOW. So even though i had
seen the green, camoflouged bag twice, I didn't know it was the actual
bag. Until everyone had left, it then dawned on me that maybe I was
fooled. I was so naive and stupid. It was classic misdirection. I don't
wan... Read Morena
say i was lied to, but really, I was misdirected so we would waste more
time at the challenge. It was frustrating. I could've finished it
earlier!! Blame my ownself for this.

Vince & I wanted to
play a fair game with integrity because we believed that nice guys who
play a smart, competitive game can win TARA 3, and we set out to try
our best to achieve that. But after paintball challenge, it was clear
that some teams could not be trusted.

So, we survived one more leg. Can we survive Leg 3?

==============================================

PS - the racer who misdirected me was NOT Geoff. No speculations please. It's already over.

by **camomile** Fri 26 Sep 2008, 3:33 pm

Awesome job boys....

Number 1 next leg pls...

by **camomile** Fri 26 Sep 2008, 3:34 pm

My fav team in the final 3 will be

1. Sam and Vince
2. AD and Fuzzie
3. Bernie and Henry

by **JonL0ver** Fri 26 Sep 2008, 5:22 pm

I think I have a good guess who the racer was but since Sam tells us not to guess, I am giving in. Hehe

Sneaky Avalanche again.

by **JonL0ver** Sat 27 Sep 2008, 10:47 pm

I like the part where Vince broke down, I mean when he started shouting. I love it and I mean it. Very Happy

by **ahdeng88** Mon 29 Sep 2008, 11:32 pm

Jon likes to see people shouting at the team mate.. hahaha Razz

by **JonL0ver** Wed 01 Oct 2008, 2:51 am

Not really but sometimes they make intersting TV.hehe

by **camomile** Fri 03 Oct 2008, 4:34 pm

Why do I get a strange feeling that they are the winner of TARA season 3?

Or maybe my instinct is wrong.... hola16

by **JonL0ver** Fri 03 Oct 2008, 5:11 pm

Tha's why you said it "STRANGE" haha

by **heartz1988** Mon 06 Oct 2008, 4:13 pm

is vince the only racer that is still in the race who has a blog this season?

by **JonL0ver** Mon 06 Oct 2008, 4:24 pm

Yeah, I think so. Maybe the others have but they don't talk about the race.

by **camomile** Fri 10 Oct 2008, 11:00 am

Congrats Sam and Vince to win this leg....and also so brave for doing FF....

If I am the one, I'm would not do it...

by **sprity** Mon 13 Oct 2008, 6:32 pm

camomile wrote:Congrats Sam and Vince to win this leg....and also so brave for doing FF....

If I am the one, I'm would not do it...

why camo... u dont like tatoo...

i like to have one for me... iam not a fair guy like them...
i look brownish... i dont know whether it will look fine for me.....

by **JonL0ver** Fri 24 Oct 2008, 4:00 pm

These two guys are so naughty. I am really curious to know why they have thought of switching the name tags of Henry and Bernie. LOL. I was laughing so hard actually.

by **farah91** Fri 24 Oct 2008, 5:26 pm

sprity wrote:
camomile wrote:Congrats Sam and Vince to win this leg....and also so brave for doing FF....

If I am the one, I'm would not do it...

why camo... u dont like tatoo...

i like to have one for me... iam not a fair guy like them...
i look brownish... i dont know whether it will look fine for me.....

muslims are not allowed to do tatto sprity..
heheheh..
it is a sin u know..

by **dexter02** Sun 26 Oct 2008, 11:59 am

Go Sam and Vince and Geoff and Tish!

by **sprity** Wed 29 Oct 2008, 1:17 pm

farah91 wrote:
sprity wrote:
camomile wrote:Congrats Sam and Vince to win this leg....and also so brave for doing FF....

If I am the one, I'm would not do it...

why camo... u dont like tatoo...

i like to have one for me... iam not a fair guy like them...
i look brownish... i dont know whether it will look fine for me.....

muslims are not allowed to do tatto sprity..
heheheh..
it is a sin u know..

really......

i dont know whether it is sam or vince told that he is thinking to do tatoo or not becoz of religious belief he has....

by **JonL0ver** Thu 30 Oct 2008, 10:16 pm

Sam and Vince are very brilliant to take Henry and Bernie with them on the same flight. They know that at least even if something went wrong on their flight they still had the chance to catch up at the expense of the Malaysian siblings.

by **farah91** Thu 30 Oct 2008, 10:24 pm

jon,are u really that hate henrie and bernie?

by **JonL0ver** Thu 30 Oct 2008, 10:28 pm

Why did you say so? Are there something wrong with my post?

I said, I know Henry and Bernie even before the airing of this show that they will not make the final 3. What I know was they would have been eliminated next leg but I was wrong.

I am talking here about something I know

by **Alan_Ariel** Thu 30 Oct 2008, 10:35 pm

yes, but you sounded like you dislike them.. its okay if you do.. we understand.. =)

by **JonL0ver** Thu 30 Oct 2008, 10:38 pm

It's not an issue Alan. I like them from the start but not now because I don't find them entertaining. So don't make a big deal out of this. Don't gang up on me like what Bernie and Tania did to Tisha.

by **Alan_Ariel** Thu 30 Oct 2008, 10:40 pm

well, i said it was okay.. no big deal.. Wink

by **farah91** Thu 30 Oct 2008, 11:03 pm

hahahah jon...dont mind la..hehhehe.. Razz

by **dexter02** Sat 01 Nov 2008, 12:38 pm

I'm both glad and worried that S and V are still in the race.
Glad bcoz i like this team, i think they are very articulate and spontaneous.
Worried bcoz this team is a force to be reckoned with.
I hope they can't overtake G and T.

by **Nf-Heartbreaker** Sun 02 Nov 2008, 4:28 pm

i think they won the race...i mean they were in the advertisement just like adrian and collin.

by **Alan_Ariel** Sun 02 Nov 2008, 4:59 pm

yeah, maybe..

by **dexter02** Sun 02 Nov 2008, 6:07 pm

maybe or maybe the commercial is just there to mislead us.

by **JonL0ver** Sun 02 Nov 2008, 9:13 pm

McKay mentioned in that Sam and Vince are not the only racers have a Sony commercial.

But one things is for sure, the top 3 teams have Sony Commercials.