Chiang Mai Saturday Hash House Harriers

Drinking and Running Since 1991

                                             Hash Trash 1540                                                                                                                                                                   Grand Master – Skid Mark                                      Haberdasher – Hot Nipples

Historian & Awards Master – Superman     Hash Cash – Titty Smoker

Joint Master – Just Cumming                               Beer Monster – Deep Throat

Religious Advisor – Chuck Wao                          Hare Raiser – Bushy Tail

Deputy Beer Monster – Sheep Shagger           On Sec.–  Stumbling Dyke

Run 1541

After a short absence, Skid mark and Chatterbox stepped up to the plate as hares for today’s run with the location out in Sarapi. There are two things you can be certain of when Skid mark sets a run in this area. The first thing you can bank on, it’s going to be a flat run devoid of hills or any steep inclines. The second point that can be relied on is that the OnOn will be at Auf der Au – The German restaurant with the amazing buffet. If you’ve never been there, I would certainly recommend you give it a try. You will never leave the place hungry, that’s assured.

It all started with a considerable amount of inconvenience and frustration with the road through Sarapi town being closed off due to the weekly street market taking precedence over the smooth flow of traffic, as a consequence severe congestion built up along the alternative route. This is one of those occasions where a motorcycle is a great advantage, as you can drive to the front of any vehicular queue. An observation corroborated by Chuck Wao who had spent quite some time in the traffic jam on his way to the A bucket.

About 25 of the usual suspects turned up. Belly Dancer, a long time returnee, making an appearance having done the obligatory 2 weeks quarantine after returning from England. Skid Mark proceeded with the hare brief, but chatterbox was nowhere to be seen. Apparently whilst setting the run, she had mistaken a dirty slimy swamp for firm ground and consequently ended up waist deep in the quagmire – all part of the fun and games of hashing. We set off down the concrete road and the first circle check. As anticipated we were heading for the rural attributes of the local topography, through a banana plantation followed by a few coconut trees and finally into the rice fields.  This time of year the rice plants are in a state of maturity, almost ready for harvesting, the sun low in the sky, giving the whole area a golden comforting hue; a vast contrast to that almost, unnatural, fluorescent glow that is  experienced earlier on in the year when the rice plants are just establishing themselves. it’s all part of nature’s ever changing pallet of wonderment.

So the run was going to take us through various plantations, predominantly rice, which meant there were many irrigation channels to cross which can only result in many substandard rickety bamboo bridges to be crossed – bridge is a far too generous description to bestow upon basically what amounts to, in many cases, a couple of dodgy poles strewn across the void. The abundance of channels had turned a lot of the area in to little islands and a great deal of time was consumed finding crossing points. A few of the more daring and agile of the pack jumping the ditches, personally I took the more sensible approach and put my faith in the rickety bridges as my means of island hopping.

One common sight at every precarious crossing point was Snowballs, in his capacity as hash paparazzi with his telephoto lens, waiting for the inimitable money shot, eagerly anticipating that moment where someone fell in, which would also allow him to glean a certain degree of schadenfreude, I’m sure, reveling in the misfortune of the unfortunate. I’m not aware of any photographic evidence of any mishaps.

We traversed our way around the expanse for quite some time and the scenery didn’t seem to change that much until we came to the area of a sugar cane plantation. I can’t ever recall seeing sugar cane on a run before. These plants grow to about 5 meters tall and running through them was quite a surreal experience. I was made aware – by Square Rooter, I think – that it is the waste material from these plants that is burnt and contributes a great deal to the egregious air pollution we suffer on an annual basis. So I, for one, am going to stop taking sugar in my coffee to decrease the demand and help mitigate the severity of the pollution – every little helps. We finally got through the sugar cane to be met by Skid Mark taking pictures and the OnIn.

The run took me just over an hour and I clocked up about 6 km. Great run guys I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn’t get the mushroom report.

OnOn Stumbling Dyke …