Pan Asia Hash was born in 1987. Since then, it is held once in 2 years and used to attract a big turnout of hashers from all over the world.
Time flies. Come last 3rd to 5th August, 2007, it was its 11th birthday. Its celebration run was held in Medan, Indonesia which is a beautiful city with friendly people, fine weather, good food and challenging hashing runsites. As expected, it had attracted some 2,000 enthusiastic and devoted hashers from various countries which included Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Brunei, Australia and United Kingdom.
Malacca Hash House Harriers (MH3) is one of the oldest mixed hashing chapters founded in 1975 with a good number of enthusiastic and devoted hashers who are attracted to Pan Asia Hash. They included GM Cocker, Bombastic, Vibrator, Gerald, Garfield, Utom Singh, On Sec. Chickadee, Kwan Yim Mah and me. We left Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for Medan by air in 3 separate groups on 2nd and 3rd August, 2007. The journey took us 50 minutes. On arrival there, we were being fetched from Polonia Airport to our respective hotels by a shuttle bus. Bombastic and I were the first to leave and arrive there on the morning of 2nd August, 2007. As arranged by Murugan, the adviser to the said Pan Asia Hash, we stayed in Danau Toba International Hotel in downtown Medan. While in KLIA, we met a big number of long-lost hashers. Among them were Wong Yong Lim from Perth Hash and Hardy Boy from Mother Hash who were also on their way to Medan. Greetings were exchanged and grandfather stories were told.
The registration was held at Tiara Convention Centre which is situated across the busy road some 400 meters away on the left of our hotel. It started from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm daily from 2nd to 3rd August and from 10.00 am to 12.00 noon on the following day. On my arrival there early on the first day, it was crowded with a big number of enthusiastic hashers. More familiar faces were seen and greetings were exchanged. Among them were hashers from Kuching, Tawau, Bentong, Klang, Kluang, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca of Malaysia and Malang and Surabaya of Indonesia. Each of us was given a goodies bag which contained 2 beautiful T-shirts, a beer mug, a magazine, a logo, a car sticker and a pack of candy. For welcoming our arrival, we were served with free-flowing Bintang beer.
The first run for the day was the Red Sarong Run which required registration on the spot. It was open to 600 participants which were fully taken up. Among them were Vibrator, Gerald, Utom Singh and me from MH3. The participants were required to put on the red sarong provided. The run was flagged-off at registration centre at 3.00 pm under the hot sun. It went through a number of busy roads in the city guided by a number of local traffic policemen. Of course the residents were surprised and amused to see such a big pack of crazy hashers walking and running in red sarong for nothing under the scorching sun without realizing that we were enjoying it with fun. It took us some 50 minutes to complete the run at a village restaurant behind the Polonia Airport on the outskirt of Medan city where some light refreshment was served with free-flowing Bintang beer. It was followed by hash circle conducted by Murugan where it saw a good number of sinners being on-downed. It ended at around 5.00 pm when we were sent back to the starting point by bus where we dispersed.
A welcome party was held at the Tiara Convention Centre at 7.00 pm. It was well-attended by some few hundred early birds. Varieties of delicious local food were served with free-flowing Bintang beer. It was followed by official opening ceremony by the Mayor of Medan. Local unique cultural dances were performed and live bands were in attendance to the applause of the audience. The party ended at around mid-night.
The first official run of the event was held on 4th August. It was made up of 1 ball breaker, 2 long, 5 medium and 3 short runs. Their distances varied from 21.6 km for the ball breaker run to 4.6 km for the short run. Vibrator, Utom Singh and I chose Long Run No.1 with a distance of 9.7 km which was set from Namobintang to Barusta by hares Player, Bomba and James Bond of Nusantara H4. We were first fetched by a bus from our hotel to the main venue at Lapangan Merdeka which is some 20 minutes drive away at 10.30 am. After fetching more runners from there, the bus proceeded straight to the said run-site which was situated in a residential village surrounded by mixed fruit trees some 1 hour drive away where we were later joined by another bus load of hashers.
It was a sunny and hot afternoon. The run was flagged-off by the hare at 1.30 pm after a short briefing on its pattern and type of paper to follow. The paper proceeded on the right on a tarred road across a few kampong houses for some 400 meters before turning left into a path. The villagers looked amazed to see us crazy hashers running for no apparent reason. It was another short distance away before it went down slope across a stream and upslope into an oil palm and a mixed-fruit plantation of mango, rambutan, durian and duku which were fruiting with fragrant smell which made my saliva flowing.
It was some 15 minutes walk cum jog through the undulating terrains before the paper hit the first simple check on a path. A spread-out search resulted in a front runner finding its connecting paper a short distance ahead where it continued to trudge through the undulating terrain for another 15 minutes when it hit a vast hilly clearing. A bulldozer and some workers were seen clearing the hill and leveling the land for replanting. It was another tough descent and ascent through 2 hills before arriving at a slope where I met Vibrator who was sweating profusely from head to toe. On being offered, he took a few gulps of water from a mineral water bottle I carried along. After that, we continued to follow the paper up a tough ascent on the barren hill slope for a short distance before arriving at the fringe of a forest. It was there that I last saw him when he turned right and I continued to ascend straight forward. On arrival at its top, the paper turned left downhill for a short distance before hitting a T-junction which I was told led left to the starting point of Medium Run No.4 and right to the home trail which I followed. From then on, it was another some 40 minutes of tough and tiring ascent and descent through a few bushy hills, a soggy swamp and 2 streams before arriving back at the run-site at Barusta village at 4.10 pm where a few front Long Run runners, a big number of Medium Run runners, the Bintang beer and a variety of local fruits such as banana, rambutan, mangosteen, orange and buah salak were waiting. I do not know the total number of checks for this long run, as they might have been joined by the front runners.
It was a well-set A to B long run through the challenging hilly terrains and one of the few toughest runs which I have encountered in my 35 years of hashing which made my balls shrinking. It took the FRB 1 hour 35 minutes to complete and me 5 minutes behind him. My fellow running mates Vibrator and Utom Singh completed the run in 2 hours 5 minutes and 2 hours 20 minutes respectively. To replenish his lost sweat, I was told that Vibrator drank water from the stream. What a good idea! Three other of my hash chapter mates, namely, GM Cocker, On Sec. Chickadee and Kwan Yim Mah, who took the Medium Run No. 4 with the distance of 6.7 km set by Sumatera H4, also ended up at this finishing point from Armada. They looked tired but satisfied.
Hash circle was conducted jointly by Murugan and GM Cocker at around 4.30 pm when the last runners were back. It was well attended by 5 busloads of long and medium runs runners. The hares and the sinners were put on ice and on-downed. A few lucky hashers who included Murugan were each given a pair of sexy underwear presented by MH3 which they wore on the spot. They really made them looked very sexy with their protruding dicks and balls which made the harriets screamed and their eyes opened widely! The circle ended at around 5.00 pm after which we left for the evening party.
The evening party was held at spacious open field of Lapangan Merdeka which is situated in downtown Medan. It was well-attended by a big pack of hungry hashers who had just emerged from their runs. Delicious buffet local food which included satay and chicken curry were served with local fruits such as mangosteen and banana and free-flowing Bintang beer. In attendance was a live band with popular singers singing their hearts out to the applause of the gorgy hashers. Avid hashers were seen dancing wildly on the field in front of the stage. Indisputably it was an enjoyable night. But as oldies, I did not stay long to finish its programme which included boat race, as I needed a bath to clean myself and an early rest after a tiring long run in preparation for my early departure back to Malaysia on the next morning with Bombastic due to some error in our flight arrangement. As such, the two of us did not attend the second run and its closing programme on the next day which included voting for the coming Pan Asia Hash 2009 in which Alor Star and Philippines hashes were bidding. However, I was later told by GM Cocker that Philippines had succeeded in its bid. Congratulations! Knowing Philippines, a beautiful country with good runsites, friendly people, good food and good drink, so do not hesitate to register for the run, fellow hashers! See you there!
It is clear from the above that it was a well organized Pan Asia Hash which left us with fond memory. A big thanks to its organizing committee for its good efforts.
On! On!
Scribe: Drug Buster
Date: 10th August, 2007.
