The sad reality of many of our members that started with us in Chiang Mai is that most of them don't really live here full time. It just isn't a viable thing for a lot of folks because of family, pension restrictions, and also the fact that Thailand is forever changing the rules as far as visas are concerned. When Covid brought about a bunch of new rules many of our long-term members moved back to their home countries and while they have visited, they have no intention of ever moving back here to Chiang Mai or even to Thailand. In fact, very few of our members actually do live here full time.
While this is sad news for us and we miss them, we do enjoy the fact that they take their love for the Hash House Harriers on on with them back to wherever they are from and continue to participate in their Hash Kennels that are wherever they happen to be in the world. I've said it many times but no matter where you live in the world, there is a very good chance that there is a Hash House Harriers nearby where you are. We recently got some photos from long-time Chiang Mai Hashers "Prison Bitch" and "Discharge" and it certainly is a different environment that they are doing their Hash runs in.
They still do the same thing with explaining to everyone what the chalk / flour markings on the ground mean, but being in the UK they always have a rather imminent danger of the chalk outline being washed away with the never-ending rain, so we were told that they have the Hares on trail to make sure the group doesn't make any mistakes and end up not getting to the end point.
Having Hares on trail is frowned upon globally, but with conditions such as this they don't really have a choice. Either the maker of the trail goes along, or the group has no idea where to go. So yeah, I think it is a good idea to have the guides on trail even though you aren't really in much danger if you get "lost" in an urban environment like Knaresborough, U.K..
This was a relatively large event and it involved a couple of proper buses / coaches as well as some heavy equipment to haul all the water and beer. All this time in Thailand we just carried that stuff by hand..... like fools!
The weather was a little less than perfect but thankfully it was in the summer so that none of those UK people would complain any more than they normally would. They are Hashers after all so I am sure there was some grumbling.
It is nice to see the Chiang Mai shirts being represented in other parts of the world and even though we would rather have them here with us we are happy that they are still doing things like this wherever they happen to live. I know that if I were to all of a sudden need to move away from Chiang Mai I would be very interested in moving somewhere that has a Hash chapter, it is a really important part of my life and I think that all HHH'ers feel the same way.
I've never been on a Hash run in the UK but they told me that there are some rather large differences when Hashing there. For starters you can't just trespass anywhere you feel like it the way that we do here. There are rules in that part of the world that people take a lot more seriously than they do here. In Thailand as long as you aren't really bothering anyone for the most part people just kind of leave you to it. Also, the ability to drink beer in public isn't something that you can just do because you feel like it. So they have to be covert about "beer stops" on runs and be quick about it. I suppose that adds an element of danger to the event that we don't have in Thailand. For better or worse you can drink basically anywhere you feel like it in Thailand.
I hope to be able to join these guys at some point but it will likely be a while before I make my way up to the U.K. It's great to see our members getting out there and representing Chiang Mai abroad though. I hope they were on their absolute worst behavior.
On On!
