TRINKLED

ARA 2 made us more popular -- Marc, Rovilson

"Amazing Race Asia 2" third placers Marc Nelson and Rovilson Fernandez said that the race made them more popular, particularly in Southeast Asia. “Wed been traveling around and visiting some of the other teams and its kinda weird getting recognized in other countries… in Singapore in Malaysia, in Thailand or something like that. So yeah, its kinda cool, its amazing how many people really watched the race. I mean, theres some huge fun,” Nelson bared during an interview on Mornings@ANC Thursday. Known for being wacky, cool and funny, the Manila-based team said that the race gave them the opportunity to gain new friends. “We made a lot of wonderful friends… the other teams, the production, crew and everything,“ Nelson said. “Its just been awesome. We love the fact that, you know, we had a regular demographic we would always cater to, but now we have little girls and boys from six-year-olds to lolas to 80 years old who would go with us in the market ,” Fernandez added. The two said that out of 10 countries they visited for 22 days, their favorite is of course, is their own country the Philippines, in which the first leg of the race happened and where the two lost. “Philippines, winning in the Philippines, traveling and being able to bring international crews so the world gets to see our beautiful country,” Fernandez said. Pressured Both of them agreed that they felt a lot of pressure especially when the first leg of the race was done in the country and that experience is still haunting them. “At the end of the race, no matter how many legs we won, people still gave us a hard time for losing that first leg in the Philippines,” Nelson said. The two also agreed that Asian teams are a lot friendlier than Americans. “People are a lot friendlier. I mean, people see how competitive we are during the race. I think the difference between the American version and Asian version is that Asians are a lot friendlier. Generally speaking, Asians are a lot friendlier with each other off-cam...,” Nelson said. During the race, the guys affirmed they never fought even if they made wrong moves. Beaming with a smile, Fernandez, meanwhile, tried to evade the question on the real reason why they failed to win. "We made a pact and we decided that since Mark and I won too much already, your mom always say share your blessings. We made a little pact with those Singaporean boys and let them win," he said. The two finished third overall in the Amazing Race Asia 2. They came behind winners Adrian Yap and Collin Low of Singapore and the team of Pamela and Vanessa Chong of Malaysia. The race started in Singapore, then the teams went to the Philippines, China, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa, then back to Singapore for the last pit stop. At the end of the interview, Nelson and Fernandez were one in saying that they did their best during the race, not for themselves but for the country. “My personal spiel is we are not professional athletes, we will never be in the Olympics but this was the closest thing we ever got to represent our country and we really know the feeling of carrying the flag and representing the country to, just make them feel proud and thats such an honor for me, for us. Thats the best, the closest we got,” Fernandez said. “The Philippines has been so good to both of us. I mean I came here with a backpack and nothing else and like you said the country adopted me. It made me who I am today everyone has been wonderful. It gave me so much opportunities same with Rovilson this is our way , we want to represent the country as best as we can. The Philippines is doing so well. We just want everybody to see what a great country this is and make the country proud for I guess being so nice to us,” Nelson added.