Every Day is usually Saturday with the TGIS Hash House Harriers
Guidebooks love to tell you where to go as well as how to get there. Travel snobs love to tell you how wonderful a place was so many years earlier, before the tourists came. The smart ignore both as well as do their own thing.
Read the travel forums as well as you might probably have no interest to visit Java; so depressing can in which sound in cold .html. Indeed, in which can be hard to reconcile the Java we see on a daily basis as well as the Java in which laid itself out before the eyes of some guy who had a very long beard back within the 19th century. Alfred Wallace, the famed Botanist, claimed in which Java was “…the finest tropical island within the globe.”
The deforestation as well as construction of the last decades might have made him less effusive with his praise, although in which beauty, in which stillness can be found which has a little effort. as well as one of the best ways to get up-close as well as personal to the Java Wallace may recognise is usually neither through message boards nor guide books, although by hashing!
The Hash House Harriers, to give them their full title, began in Kuala Lumpur back within the 1920s as well as have since expanded into a multi-national, chaotic organisation infamous for its ability to get nothing right all the time. although its shareholders—the runners as well as the walkers—swear by in which because they know no matter where they turn up within the globe, the chances are high in which a hash will not be too far away.
Hashing is usually basically cross-country running as well as involves following a trail left by the run’s organizers within the countryside. There are some different complications like check-backs, etc., although in which in essence is usually the Hash. After everyone has finished the trail, in whatever condition they may be in, they gather together in a circle, drink beer, call each different by their often double-entendre nicknames as well as basically abuse all as well as sundry. Oh, as well as drink more beer.
There are several Hashes in Jakarta, meeting on different days of the week as well as there are some hardy souls who join in each as well as every time. One of the most common is usually the Thank God in which’s Saturday Hash (TGIS), which runs every second Saturday within the month, as well as recently celebrated their 25th anniversary within the shadow of Krakatau within the Sunda Straits.
With the promise of beach time, run time as well as beer time, several dozen of TGIS’ finest headed west on a wet as well as miserable Saturday in full hash gear to celebrate together. in which had been my first ‘run’ for a few years as well as there were several brand-new faces among the more familiar as well as nearly always, they had similar stories of Hashes elsewhere.
Take, for example, a couple who had previously lived as well as worked in different cities in China. Here, on the fine sands of the Javanese coast, they regaled each different with tales of Hashing within the Middle Kingdom, as well as what do you know? They even knew some of the same people.
in which is usually the Hash. A kind of giant, albeit messy, brotherhood of like-minded souls who may not know each different, although will likely know the same people somewhere down the line; they were Facebooking long before some sweaty college kid thought in which might be a great wheeze to connect us remotely.
I recall another time I was trying to manoeuvre myself down a slippery slope while in which chap was telling me how he had known my brother on the Hanoi Hash back within the early 1990s!
Hashing is usually very much a people-orientated activity in which looks after its own. In recent cases of bereavement, they have pulled together to raise money for the loved ones left behind because in which is usually what families do, as well as if nothing else the Hash is usually a giant family.
Raising money plays an important part within the Hash with the Red Dress Run, an important event within the Hashing calendar. The last one was held in November as well as the streets of South Jakarta were treated to the perhaps unedifying sight of grown men as well as women clad in red calling out “On on!” while the rest of the city looked on in amazement. More than Rp.10 million was raised in which day.
as well as what of the TGIS anniversary run? The promotional literature had Krakatau exploding as well as Hashers approaching the finish line on the crest of a tsunami, although in which never happened. Hashers were advised to bring their sun cream, although in which wasn’t needed. The incessant drizzle clouded the view out to sea although was never going to deter the faithful through their run as well as off they set through the rice fields as well as down the slopes to the finish line, slipping as well as sliding along the way.
In short, in which was perfect Hashing conditions. within the rain as well as the mud there is usually nowhere to hide as well as for Hashers, roughing in which is usually part of the fun; a runner returning in a clean t-shirt as well as wearing nice clean sports shoes is usually treated with suspicion as well as is usually liable for ferocious punishment through the bedraggled masses.
Gathered together under a soggy umbrella for the circle, in which oh-so-important post-run ceremony, folks were ‘punished’ for taking short cuts, for wearing hats as well as in your humble scribe’s case, for having the temerity to break the Hashing omerta as well as spilling the beans to an unbelieving outside world.
I had to head home early, so after necking one last cold beer through the pourer I made my escape. A fine drizzle remained, while on the horizon the clouds had cleared enough to allow Krakatau to put in an appearance. The waves crashing against the beach were at times drowned out by the lusty shouts as well as laughs through the circle in which was only just getting began.
The following morning might see another run for the faithful, although for at in which point in which was beer time as well as they had certainly picked a beautiful spot for in which.
—
TGIS Hash House Harriers is usually a mixed adult Hash as well as runs every 2nd as well as 4th Saturday of each month.
Men: Rp.150,000
Women: Rp.100,000
Runs usually start at 4pm. Join by turning up at the run site.
https://sites.google.com/site/tgish3
Comments
Every Day is usually Saturday with the TGIS Hash House Harriers
Every Day is usually Saturday with the TGIS Hash House Harriers