Run 2094, The Songkran Run
The Songkran Festival which celebrates the Thai New Year on April 13 is probably the most respected of Thai holidays and traditionally celebrated by the ritualistic sprinkling of water upon friends and family to signify cleansing and purification for the forthcoming year. However, Songkran is also noted for water games that in Pattaya persist for more than a week, during which complete strangers can throw buckets of ice-cold water into baht buses – behaviour that anywhere else, at any time would attract a jolly good kicking.
So, with the scene set, and everyone expecting to get wet at some time during the course of the afternoon, the first baht bus departed from the Buffalo Bar at around 14.10, with our baht bus leader and number one driver, Sip Baht, nowhere to be seen, and as we pulled away, in true form one of the intellectually challenged girls from the Buffalo Bar douses us all with her water cannon, and the cargo of rags we were transporting. Thankfully, the rest of the relatively short journey to the A site on Santi Kham Rd was uneventful and we arrived more or less dry, in good time to set up the sign ups and Rags – vital components of the hash operation that are often taken for granted – kudos to the guys that give their time freely week after week.
Initially, there was little indication of things to come, buses turned up regularly, some hashers sporting bright Songkran shirts, many of which had been procured through Rags, and only one outsized water pistol was evident, though by this time, around 15.30, the surrounding hills were shrouded in threatening, dark clouds which led us to believe that rain was imminent. And as the GM called out for circle in 5 minutes the first light drops began to fall, almost imperceptibly other than the small ripples on the surface of the adjacent lake – Nong Pladuk (named after a species of fish, the walking catfish). Anticipating a deterioration in conditions, I threw my rucksack into a heavy-duty plastic bag and left it in its usual spot, on the bonnet of the beer truck.
At 16.00 the usual ceremonies commenced, Its 4 o’clock, its Monday it can only mean one thing…..etc. but was noteworthy for the GM calling out the 2 virgins that he had been advised of, when 5 actually presented themselves for the routine introduction. But hold on….VV was standing beside me and apparently having a mild seizure…’’Zut Alors! Mon Dieu!! C’est impossible!! Sacre Bleu! Qu’est ce que?” the cause of his malfunction was the sight of one of the female virgins proudly sporting the strictly men only Swamp Rats shirt. No doubt we will get to the bottom of this in the second circle! Some gentle resuscitation and VV seemed to fully recover in time to listen to the briefest of brief briefs from the all girl team of hares. ‘’easy, checks are red, back checks are blue. Run 8 km, walk 5km, are you ready?’’ and off we were sent.
So, to a backdrop of persistent thunder and lightning we trooped off, some eager to get running straight away others preferring the more sedate approach and as the raindrops became larger and more frequent, one of the visitors was heard to say ’have you ever seen the rain’ here in Pattaya? Within a few minutes it was obvious that a hard rain’s a gonna fall but for the runners in particular this is a boon, keeping the temperature down making running more enjoyable. For my part I was quickly separated from the FRBs but a combination of great paper, and runner friendly trails (for the most part) kept me going in splendid isolation like a complete fool in the rain. A thoroughly enjoyable trail of around 8 km (5 for the walkers) thanks to the considerable efforts from the hares. And thanks to Tan and the others that remained at the A site for getting everyone’s bags into trucks, cars and buses, keeping them dry. Good job!
You know though, rainy days and Mondays don’t often coincide and as the clouds parted and the sun peeked through, conditions were ideal to receive the free food supplied by the hares and we were all to believe that that Gods were smiling on us, and another circle would be spared the rain. I can only recall a couple of circles that have been negatively affected by the rhythm of the rain over the last few years but our complacency was to be short lived…
Oh dear, here comes the rain again, just as the circle got underway, gently at first, an odd umbrella, ella, ella, ella and plastic rain coat making an appearance but the sensation of raindrops keep falling on my head was only to intensify….and quickly!
Within minutes a good percentage of the assembly had dissipated to cars and buses to avoid the torrential downpour, the beleaguered GM one of the few souls to not have any protection from the rain, but in true hash spirit he carried on despite his plaintive cries of why does it always rain on me – which like most of what was going on was difficult to hear through the sound of the rain. Somehow the first part of the circle – fashion police which saw Gas Man sporting the now familiar blue pimple on his head, numerous hash crashes (it seemed to be a week for the Dutch to fall over), some highly undesirable hash trash and of course the raffle all were completed relatively normally, but things took a turn when the ever dependable Airhead took the circle for a record time – he was in and out in 45 seconds, just long enough to comment on the irony of Serial Killer winning a set of kitchen knives in the raffle. I love a rainy night, he said, but this is ridiculous!
Scar's time in the circle was also shorter than usual and punctuated by repeated questions from the GM – have we even finished a circle early due to the weather, what’s the earliest we can finish, will there be a riot if we end now?? Looking very much like on oversized drowned rat, the GM made the call to forego some of the usual sectors of the circle; we were excused the awards and congratulations, and the hares, led by the Sexy (Scissor) Sisters were absolved from performing the hares’ song, allegedly ‘It’s raining men’ – but we may never know.
The final down-down and hash hymn were conducted in record time, sounding like a 33rpm record played at 45, but at this point it was raining in my heart and the few defiant hashers left were utterly soaked.
The circle concluded at about 7.00pm. Most made their immediate escape but a couple hung back to assist with the tedious chore of tidying up and reloading the beer truck – great effort and well done to you.
The journey home was one to remember, flooded roads but not too much traffic, and remarkably despite the still pouring rain, the final walk of 100m or so to Monna Bar was punctuated by bar girls still throwing water at passers by and cars. Unbelievable really!
Although we were early to arrive at Monna bar they were ready for us; the velveteen furniture wrapped in black bin bags and the staff ready to serve buckets of beer. The indomitable spirit of the hash always shines through and come rain or shine, fun is the order of the day, epitomized by D.I.S.C.O. Dick and his attempt at singing and dancing in the bar.
Songkran (or soggykran) 2025 will long be remembered by those who took part, as another wonderful chapter in the adventures of PH3 – and for the record, yes, it did rain.
On On The Wizard