" I am stuck " I muttered to myself, I was in the middle of hiking up the Batang Melaka hill, and was facing a 45 to 60 degree gradient. Like an old horse dragging a broken wagon, I really hated it, but I could not turn back as it could be more disastrous. I had also this fear, the fear of a heart attack, I imagined of my own funeral, and as thought of sudden death running through my mind, the world appeared a precious, and treasured place.
Hashing is full of love and hatred, you love it because of the hashmanship, the beer and the sweat, at the same time you hate it because you could get stuck in the middle of no way, neither up nor down. Flashing back with what Kojak of Malacca Hash House Hazard kept on reminding me that 26 barrels of beer were in a standby position and Rm 15000 were raised for the occasion, I could not help to put it in my diary that this was a very important hash function that I must attend, rain or shine, floods or earthquakes.
Twenty five members of the Malacca Hash House harriers participated this function which was held in front of a Chinese primary school in Batang Melaka. At the back lies the hill of Batang Melaka, a tail end of the Main Range of West Malaysia. A total of about 150 members from 7 chapters of hash house harriers of Melaka turned up for the run. We started to run at 5.00 pm from a nice tarred path leading up to the hill, passing through the oil palm plantation, Orang Asli village, and rubber plantation. The hill could be pretty steep at times ranging from a 30 to 60 degree gradient.
Because of the continuous rain of the day, the hiking path of the secondary forest appeared to be muddy and slippery especially when you were going down hill. The climb ascended steeply above us. Along the left edge of the jungle path hugged the rocks; passage through its fallen tree trunks did not look feasible. The majority of my view was filled with boulders, looming high to the sky, unknown hundred years' old trees of a couple hundred feet rose from some fifty feet from the foot of the hill. Far away you could hear the roaring sound of the waterfall, but due to the heavy mist, visibility was impossible. I was totally immersed in this cool and beautiful natural environment.
My thoughts were interrupted by " on, on " and " move, move ", Oh Gosh! I was holding up the traffic and my body like a vintage car had to give way to younger bodies. That also gave me some breathing space.
Fortunately, we soon reached to a normal path suitable for running , thanks to the consideration of the organizers who possibly well estimated the physical strength of an average hasher. The trail was actually from the run site, up the hill of about three to four hundreds feet high and back to the town through the main road and then back to the school compound which was then the run site. The time to complete the trail was about one and a half hour for an average hasher. There was not a single " Check ".
Back to the run site, every participant was given a T-shirt and food was plenty and beer kept free flowing. The climax of the function was the hash circle in which the main theme was " sitting on ice " and " on down " right from the hare, the organizers, and the GMs of the 7 chapters of hash house harriers from the state of melaka. The Orang Utan H3 was elected to be the host of the joint run next year.
The logo for the Malacca Hash House Hazard is Orang Gila. Coming to " sitting on ice ", it was really gila ( mad ) as the male spieces had to strip down to the bare bottom and sit on ice while having " on down ". While rising up, the vital organ was seen dangling with the harriets giggling comparing the sizes.
But then, this was the style of their hashing. This could have occurred nowhere but in Malacca Hash House Hazard or Orang Gila, where hashers and beer interpenetrate so to speak, the beer entering into the life of most hashers and the hashers knowing something or everything about the beer, in the way of amusement, of hashing or of a little bit of " kia soo " mentality.
I left the party at 9.30 pm.
Verdict: This was a very well organized hash function in terms of a good run, a well designed T-shirt of good quality, plenty of food and laughable entertainment.
However, James Bond of Batang Hash House harriers commented that the number of participation was far from ideal. No fault of the organizers, there were more food and beer catered for the need. It was that the individual club should have encouraged more members to participate as this was an opportunity for all hashers of Melaka to meet and catch up with old friends and demonstrate the hashmanship.