It's been a crazy year as far as just about everything is concerned but we have been given the green light to reopen all operations of the Chiang Mai Hash House Harriers including bus transport for members to the run sites.
Prior to this Thursday, we had been having rather covert meetups but they were never official events and more like a group of friends going for a walk in the jungle. As far as I know there was never any rule against that but it wasn't true Hashing because there were no circle checks and mostly it was just a bunch of us wandering through new territory looking for potential new trails to use in the future.
With the full "go ahead" given by our buddy in the police department as well as a document provided by him, we have nothing to fear as far as our operations are concerned, at least for now.
The truck in the back is what I am referring to when I say "bus" and it is a very common method of getting around in Thai cities. We charter our own and the guy just hangs around while we do our run. It works out nicely because then we can drink a lot and not have to worry about idiots doing drink driving. You see, a big part of Hashing is the drinking part of it and some of our older members turn up and just participate in that part of it. This isn't because they dont' want to do the trails, they are just really old and are incapable of doing so. They are kind of like war veterans in the Hash circles, so no one gets on their cases for this.
This past Thursday was the first time in many moons that we were able to do a full Hash with zero restrictions. For show, we had to put on masks during the in-town pickup process, but once we got out of town it was up to us if we wanted to wear one or not. Most of the Hashers are not big believers in the effectiveness of the masks but we certainly wouldn't get on anyone's case if they are afraid and want to wear one. It's up 2 you.
The Hares apparently wanted to try to hurt us as we have all been out of practice for a while and they made a trail that was a bit longer than we are used to.
8.5 km is probably child's play to a lot of actual athletes out there but it is about 2.5 more than we would do, especially on hilly terrain. So this was a bit longer than we were expecting and there was some groaning about it when we got back to the circle and the Hares were roasted quite a lot over it. No one was legitimately pissed off, this is just what we do and I am quite certain they expected it.
In other news we have at least a dozen members who have secured their passage back into the country so it looks like our numbers are going to continue to grow and grow. Hopefully the lack of lockdowns will continue because the country now has a very vested interest in not closing the country again due to Covid. With any luck we will be back at full strength in a matter of weeks.
If you are in the area and would like to join us you can get full details as well as contact information by going to our official website