Hashers helping Hashers

We recently got word of a Hash House Harriers startup in Hoi An, Vietnam, that was struggling to maintain its userbase. Because we all know that the Hash is one of the greatest joys we get out of life - and it presumably keeps us at least a little bit fit, a few of us went over there to see what we could do to help.

The weather in Hoi An was wonderful and perfectly conducive to running. It kind of saddens me to see that this group can't seem to get things off the ground so to speak because you can see in the pic above that it was not a great turnout. Keep in mind that the event was taking place in Hoi An. 4 Chiang Mai members were there, 3 came over from Da Nang, and none of the locals turned up for the Hash at all.

I guess it is difficult for those of us from Chiang Mai to understand why it is that a community would not be interested in the Hash on a level like this since for most of us, hashing is life. Our events in Chiang Mai happen 3 and sometimes 4 times a week and we regularly have 30-50 attendees. I guess all of these have to start somewhere but it is extremely sad to see that an area with such a massive expat population as Hoi An can't get a single member to come out.

The trail was almost entirely flat, and because Hoi An is pretty densely populated, most of the trail was on-road, which no one prefers but we understand the limitation of the area and did not complain. Since it is so urban, it was really easy to score a beer stop, which was a nice touch that we don't always get to have in our rural running locations.

The Chiang Mai group is represented here by "Strangely Anal," "Adorable Blue Balls," "Pussy Whisperer," and "Robin Banks." The local hare guides were "Peter File," and "Faster than Diarrhea."

One nice touch was the fact that the Hoi An hosts are aware of the fact that in Chiang Mai we usually have ice blocks for the circle at the end of a run and while they couldn't provide us with exactly that and did the best they could

It's the thought that counts, right?

All in all this was a fantastic run and it was truly disappointing to see such a lack of interest by the locals. One of our own hashers, "Anal Boring," will be permanently relocating to the area soon, hopefully his loud mouth and overall drunkenness will help to gather some more of the locals into participating.

Hoi An, thank you for the hospitality and we hope to see you in Chiang Mai at some point in the future. Best of luck in growing your group... They really don't know how great a thing they are missing out on. All hash chapters have to start somewhere, hopefully yours can take off and one day be the exciting weekly gathering the likes of which we have in Chiang Mai.

The next Chiang Mai runs take place on Thursday the 30th of Jan and the 2nd of February at the usual meeting spot. Full details can be found here