The morning after Yau-Man has his flame extinguished by Jeff Probst, The Deadbolt got the chance to talk to the computer engineer about his former alliance with Cirie and Jonathan, what led to his cast-off, the difference between Fiji and Micronesia, and why the fans had such a hard time lighting their fire.

Yau-Man on why Cirie switched sides so quickly:

"She got into a big argument with Jonathan. They were recounting all of each others’ evil deeds during their season. My disadvantage, of course, is that I didn’t know about that because when they were showing the Cook Islands season, we were filming Fiji. I didn’t know all the things that Jonathan did. So when he approached me to align with him, I was happy to do so because he’s an older guy and he has a family, so we had a lot in common. There were four of us and we were trying to bring Cirie into our alliance. I thought it would be obvious that she would do much better with us than with two tightly aligned couples. For some reason, she did not want to align with us, because of Jonathan. Also, she was afraid that if I ever got an immunity idol I would go all the way, or something like that."

On whether he spent any time with Cirie:

"No, that may have been my downfall. I should have spent more time with her."

Yau-Man on how Micronesia as compared to Fiji:

"Mentally, I was a lot more prepared for this time since I had already gone through the experience. But physically, it was a lot tougher. The challenges were a lot more physical than the ones we had in Fiji. Also, the weather was not cooperating, it was horrible. Rain dumped on us, we’re talking downpours two or three times a day."

On whether the favorites were over-confident when they went into the game:

"I think they went in with too much confidence. During the challenges I don’t think we spent enough time strategizing. We didn’t spend enough time thinking through the challenge. Lots of the challenges were repeated from the seasons before. We thought, ‘Oh, we know what we’re doing,’ and then we’d go on and lose it. So I think that was not good."

Yau-Man on whether he learning a lot about himself via his Survivor experiences:

"Yes. I learned that I am not a people person. I just don’t read people very well. Like with Cirie, I should have gotten to know her better and faster. I didn’t realize what a strong personality she has. She went from being in a defensive position to a completely offensive position in getting everybody to go along with her to vote me out."

Yau-Man on whether he was able to play people better in Fiji:

"In Fiji, I was able to play the under-the-radar, weak old man type of game but this time I was a big target coming into the season. Everybody remembered how well I did in Fiji, so I had a target on my back right away."

On the favorites underestimating the fans:

"I think the Favorites went in a little bit too cocky. We did very well putting up a nice shelter, being able to make fire, finding a lot of food, but when we got into the challenges we were sort of thumbing our noses at them. We thought we know what we are doing well, and in the end, we got whipped."

On whether there were any plans to turn on Cirie:

"It was mentioned, but we never pursued it. In hindsight, we should have done that. We didn’t talk to the other alliance at all about this. I guess Cirie did a lot of talking to Ozzie and James, but Jonathan, Ami or I never talked to them much. If we had talked to them, I guess we could have said vote for the person who’s flip-flopping and trying to stir up trouble. But no, we never pursued it."

Yau-Man on the brutal water reward challenge and whether it was tough:

"Very brutal, yes. It was one of the most brutal challenges ever. Here’s what happened: It was supposed to be the best two out of three rounds. But the first round took about 45 minutes. So 40 minutes into it, and there were no winners yet, the producers stopped the game and told us they were changing it to only the one round. That was it, everyone agreed that it was just too brutal."

"Also, it dumped heavy, heavy rain on us. And you can see that the water was about a foot and a half deep? But what you didn’t see was that underneath the water it was not sand, but a lot of broken coral. A couple of people didn’t wear shoes so they were in trouble. And when we were holding down the pillows, we were on our knees. All our knees were cut up. I’m glad they changed the rules and that everyone agreed."

"At one point, someone tried to keep my head underwater to drown me. I didn’t know who it was. Eliza started screaming that they were trying to drown Yau-Man. So they stopped the game and changed the rules saying that no one could hold anyone’s head under the water."

Yau-Man on what Jeff Probst is really like:

"That’s a funny thing about Jeff Probst, when he’s not playing his part as the host of the challenges and such, he’s a very personable guy. I was very taken aback at how friendly and personable he really was."

Yau-Man on how the fans couldn't make a suitable shelter:

"I think they had so many conflicting personalities, it just didn’t work for them. I also know that they went through a half a flint and still didn’t have fire. You would think that a fan of this show would have figured out how to make a simple shelter and how to start a fire before they went on the show."