Recap: More Mr. Nice Guy

The Amazing Race - Check out a map of Mel and Mike's journey so far, plus previous stories

On Sunday night, Mel White continued to cement his reputation as one of the nicest reality show contestants to ever hit our TV screens.

During the latest episode of “The Amazing Race,” Mel briefly lost his cool after he and son Mike landed in India and wound up with an initially slow-moving cab driver. Mel raised his voice at the man, but immediately regretted it.

“This race certainly isn’t important enough to dehumanize somebody else by yelling and screaming at ’em,“ he said as they hit the road. “So I’m gonna feel bad about it for the rest of the day.”

Not the kind of behavior you see very often on these types of shows. But that’s why we love Team White.

The good karma paid off and, despite Mel’s struggles in a physically demanding Roadblock, he and Mike finished the episode in second place.

The episode also had them trading in their winter jackets for short sleeves as they flew 2,000 miles from Novosibirsk, Russia, the location of last week’s pit stop, to Jaipur, India. Once there, racers had to travel by taxi to find a sacred tree in a nearby village.

As they drove through the streets of India, many teams were touched by the poverty they saw.

“We’ve seen some children eating garbage back there. It’s just overwhelming to see people have to live this way,” fellow racer Margie said. “It’s very, very sad that this is normal. It makes use realize how lucky we are.”

Next up was the Roadblock, which required one team member to lug baskets full of feed and buckets full of water over to a herd of camels.

Mel chose to complete the task for their team, not knowing the physicality of it until he’d started.

“When I was carrying the water to the camels, I thought, ‘You shouldn’t be doing this. You’re too old,’” Mel, who is, at 68 years old, the race’s oldest contestant, said.

“I was thinking, ‘I can’t do this to Mike. He wants to do this so badly.’”

Watching his father in such pain was hard on Mike.

“I can see my dad struggling, and it’s not fun. It’s not a pretty picture,” he said. “I wish I’d known what the challenge was, and I would’ve done it in a

second.”

After filling up a trough with water, Mel made up for some lost time. While other racers transported the feed in their buckets, Mel realized the clue called for them to use much larger baskets instead. It was a while before any of the other teams realized their mistake, which gave Mel time to finish up.

He and Mike moved on to the detour next and chose the option that had them joining a local dance troupe to “shake their hips for tips,” according to host Phil Keoghan.

Outfitted in bright red hats and scarves, with fake horses tied around their waists, Mel and Mike danced in the crowded streets of Jaipur and raised the 100 rupees they needed to get their next clue.

“It was so colorful. There’s such poverty, but then there’s also such festivity,” Mike said. “And the people were so generous.”

This week’s pit stop was at Jaigarh Fort, a 15th-century fortress.

After they arrived, Mike marveled at how well his father did in “smoking” the competition.

“Today, when he said, ‘You really smoked them, dad.’ That was better than the million dollars,” Mel said. “I love this kid anyway, but when I make him proud, that’s the prize for me in this race.”