Venue: Bukit Subang and beyond...
Hare: Melinda Mai
Co-Hare: Ugly Mike
Scribe: Shirley Tan (remotely)
Comic: Sue Chan
I was told that there was a big crowd and quite a lot of visitors en-route to Interhash. It was a blistering hot day and OnOn was called promptly at 4.30pm. Running country is basically oil palm and checks were easily broken with plenty of running. Hashers crosses an un-open highway and back into oil palm.
It was a long home trail back and during the circle, Maria was made to sit on ICE(charges unknown as stand-in scribe was not listening, as usual busy helping serving beers). 2 visitors was made to drink from their new shoes.
Venue: Peretak (after Kuala Kubu Baru dam) - New Running Area!
Hare: Shirley Tan
Co-Hares: Hares from HC2010 3rd Sector
Scribe: Ow Mei Mei for Hong Mei Keng who did not make the run
Comic: Soo Kan Hoy
New running site!…sounds exciting. It must be worth it even though the journey was going to be almost forever. So off we went to check out this venue. On arrival the first thing that greeted us was a good picnic area with a river. Parents and pet owners, this is your day.
Parking was a problem as the original parking place was occupied by the army when the hares went in to set the run. So they parked their vehicles at an adjacent parking field just in case. But the army had cleared the site by the time the runners came by, but of course left the bond fire still burning which was good for us as this was a kind of mosquito repellent as we had many of them here. In the meantime some of them were parked where the hares had left their cars so there was much confusion before all were brought to one common place.
As usual the GM did his job to call the start of the run. And as usual, I’m never in the front pack, but if I tried a little harder, I will be in the middle, otherwise I’ll be at the back strolling, enjoying the surroundings besides hashing with my legs and mouth. Needless to say, beautiful secondary jungle and sound of running stream along the way and of course challenging hills to conquer.
Heard from the grapevine that the first check took 25 minutes to break.
Obviously I were nowhere near the incident cos I’m still taking in the scenery and see whether I could ‘catch’ anymore beautiful butterflies (saw a few at the start).
Although the run was only 8km, I heard there were a lot of goings on and I happened to be a minor star in it too. Half way through, as I was trying to hold on to some twigs or leaves to get cross a wet patch, I felt a real stinging pain on one of my fingers and the next I know was a swell and numbness and pain of course. I continued on (as a true blue hasher), trying hard to ignore the pain.
Then I passed Virginia on the way and she said some earlier hashers were stung by bees/wasps. I see, now I know what hit me. By now I have a real swollen hand. And as I prodded on, I was breaking up in hives on my body and legs, and yuks! it’s so so itchy, and really trying to keep my fingers from scratching them.
By now I’ve lost sight of the scenery and just focus on going back as fast as I can. After another hour, I finally arrived back at about 6.30 pm and luckily still in one piece. Thanks to 2 antihistamines from the hare, my itch and drowsiness subsided. Then found out that Dave Wilson was stung by heaps of them, so he obviously was the main star.
First runner came back 6.30pm and last 10 were in at 7.30pm. At the runsite there was the normal porridge/cup-cakes and of course many many kids.
There were 8-9 tables at the on-on and the run was judged T-Shirt although the run was way past the PH3’s trend for front runner in 1hr – 1.20 hr.
Hare was rewarded for making the extra effort of setting the run at a very beautiful area of which was enjoyed by most.
What a wonderful hash despite what happened with the killer bees, and thank you Shirley and co-hares for the great effort.
It had been a cooler day than most when Ibrahim and Zul met for lunch at the mamak stall in Lorong Changkat.
"I want to do something different you know, every day in town same same," said Zul sipping his teh tarik, "why don't we take the families out camping for the weekend, you know, somewhere in the jungle, TV Tiga always show such beautiful places in Malaysia."
Ibrahim broke into a coughing fit and ejected a piece of rice and chicken bone, which landed on Zul's sleeve. "What? Stay out overnight? Jungle? No Astro? What you mean? Hantu lah!"
"Yes, exactly." replied Zul, nonchalently flicking Ibrahim's recent oral inhabitant onto a plate on the neighbouring table.
Ibrahim thought deeply, he had never been out of town, but had often dreamt of the possibility of spending time with his family and some friends in that other Malaysia often portrayed on TV. "OK lah, we go, I would really like to relax and lepak with your family and mine. We can fish and the women can pack some food and cook, then we can lepak in the shade while the kids play."
So it was agreed. Zul sought advice as to the most beautiful area within 90 mins drive from KL, and come Saturday morning, with food, tarpaulins, food and tents (and more food) packed they set off passed Ulu Yam to Sungei Sendat Waterfall. There were now three families, the men erected the tents and some tarpaulin covers to fend off any rain, and the wives prepared the food, whilst the children played in the river.
It was a perfect setting, so quiet, so beautiful, and so peaceful, they all felt completely relaxed and happy with their choice and were looking contentedly forward to the rest of the peaceful 'back to nature' weekend, where they could bond with family and friends away from the rush of the city.
Suddenly as Zul and Ibrahim were preparing their fishing rods, one of the children shouted "Harimau!!" and an astonishing sight rolled into view. It was a blue lorry with a picture of a Tiger on the side. The lorry parked nearby, followed by more and more 4wd cars with Orang putih, Chinese and Indians in. Beer was laid out, dogs ran around, men and immodestly clad women were flocking around. Showers were erected - maybe they were going to witness a pagan naked orgy. (Must hide the women and children's eyes lah).
The run was set in a beautiful area, the hares had done a great job in choosing the site, however things started to go horribly wrong very shortly after 4:30.
The pack set off down hill, past a group of Malays camping, and across a very pleasant stream, a steep and slippery ascent followed at which a very wise Uncle Looi said "I'm not going up there" (there is no point getting older if you don't get smarter!).
Paper at this stage was hard to find, people were checking all over the place... even I decided to check, and, using hash wisdom, went up. Someone called on-on further up, but 5 mins later, the paper ran out, so again the pack spread out and was checking. I went up again...and up and up, I lost contact with the others who were presumably checking below me. Probably the hare would not waste the hill, and going down was not an option as it was very steep, thorny and slippery, so I stayed high.
Finding no paper, and enveloped in silence, I knew I was wrong so I descended to look for the stream which I would be able to follow back to the run site. At the bottom of the hill I found the stream and even better found paper and signs of the normal pack damage to the undergrowth. With some difficulty I managed to follow the trail, just me and the two dogs.
After half an hour I came across Peter (guitar Pete) going in the opposite direction. I was sure that I was right (and apart from the fact that Peter got home in a reasonable time and I didn't), I was.
I followed paper along some tough terrain down stream and over rocks until it stopped under a tree, not an obvious check as there were only two pieces of paper, but I figured a check it had to be. Now to be honest, I have become a bit unfit and I don't normally check much these days (down-down) so I looked all over the place to find the trail. The dogs got bored with me and chased each other round in circles, and finally disappeared.
Now I had two problems, I was lost, and I had lost the dogs. I spent the next hour searching for both trail and dogs, because I knew that if I went back without them my family would think I'd topped them, but I couldn't stray too far from the paper or I would be totally lost. Finally, with darkness approaching, at 7:30 I was relieved to hear the distant voices of the rescue party of Rob and Jerry.
The trail actually started within 60 metres of where it ended . I just couldn't find it (duh!) -AND THE COMIC DIDN'T FILL IT IN (b'std). So your very tired and exhausted scribe was escorted up hills and down (on his bum) back to the run site at 9:00pm, and was driven home with thorns and a dogless and tearful family.
Mary (aka spanking machine) came back the next day kindly aided by Chicken Head and Saru to help find the dogs. they went around the run in reverse direction twice (certainly couldn't do it forwards!!) and didn't find the dogs, Mary decided to stay until night fall and bought an ice cream from the Orang Asli vendor. Five mins later the ice cream man came back excitedly bouncing over the stones on his bike and said he had seen the dogs, .Ikut saya, ikut saya.. . So, all's well that ends well.
In summary, the hares chose a great run site, but were dumb enough to leave rekky paper out where it could easily be found, and so most of the pack got lost (23 not back by 7:00pm). It is a shame as setting a run requires a lot of effort, which they deserve credit for, and I believe the food was very good too.
Please note: The job of the comic is very important.
On-On
Weathercock (ghost writer for Spanking Machine)
Run-site: Genting Valley, Ulu Rening
Hares: Mary Morss & the 1-Borneo team
Scribe: Bob Morgenthaler (again)
"Hi, this is Jerry French. I'll be late to the run .. can you scribe for me?"... Check!!
Okay... Excitement was in the air! It was the 1st (hopefully annual) Gawai Day Run! Finally an event to lose your head over. The Sarawakians / Sabahans had been working hard cooking food, brewing tuak, and preparing penganan. The runsite ("Genting Valley") looked great - canopies set up, sound system, cooking fires. Everyone was expecting a good run and a fantastic evening, and did the 1Borneo team deliver! Yay!
The run started up one of the usual entrance points with the usual climb straight up. Soon we were on the back trails where the hares did a good job keeping the pack close together with some decent checks. Just when most of us guessed that they would play it safe on the regular trails in this area, the hares cunningly headed through the bush, over some muddy creeks and into the Orang Asli village. It's always fun to get to say hello to the locals and have a few kids and chickens join the pack. Once again a good check in the village slowed up the FRBs before we finally found the path across the river and through some farm fields. A bunch of hills (perhaps just a few too many-ugh!) later we finally stumbled back to one of the usual paths home, where we were welcomed with traditional, home-brewed tuak and a 1Borneo Sarong! Woo-woo! A beautiful, diverse run that was about 9km with the front runners in at about a buck and a half.
Then the fun started. Our chameleon-like GM appeared this week as a Sarawakian chief complete with loin-cloth, spear, and a little head between his legs. Adding to the atmosphere were the beautiful Borneo women dressed in traditional clothes and certainly catching a few heads of their own! A short circle ensued as the full, sumptuous buffet meal was alluring the hungry runners. The dishes (too many to remember all!) included wild boar in curry, fish cooked in bamboo, chicken/bamboo and a wide range of amazing deserts! What a treat!!
Of course no Gawai Festival would be complete without games and entertainment. There was a blowpipe competition with defective blowpipes and/or blowers, a loin-cloth tying contest that was too ugly to watch (next year let's use women!!), and a hilarious skit involving a village chief, his promiscuous daughter, and her very well-hung but otherwise worthless boyfriend. You can guess what happened...
An amazing evening generously provided by a bunch of wonderful hashers! We look forward to next year!!