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Phnom Penh H3 run
Stephan's first conatct with the HashersWell, here I am in Siem Reap and had a day of tempeling behind me. This is now my fourth time here and it is still al amazing as the first time I wondered the ruins of Angkor Wat.
But more to this later. First I have to tell you about my last few days in Phnom Penh and the amazing Hash House Harrier run I did there. Yes, I know, another HHH run. It turns out that this holiday is filled with H3 runs. It wasn’t planed like that, but in a way it is great.
As you know I arrived from a pretty disappointing stay in Sihanoukville back to Phnom Penh. And it is always great to come back to PP as it has its certain charm. And knowing about the history and what happened in this city, and as a matter of fact in the whole country, it is even more amazing that the feeling one has towards to city are so positive and one feels so good being there. And I am not the only one feeling like that. So far I didn’t meet one person who doesn’t like the city.
Anyway, I arrived
Phnom Penh H3 run
Way to go to a run back on Saturday and just walked the streets, taking it all in. During the evening I was having dinner at my backpacker place, the OKAY guesthouse. Now this Guesthouse is one of the best one I stayed - it is the typical hangout for people on the big elephant path of backpackers; great rooms for $10 a night, heaps of information from the staff and even more from the fellow backpackers. You meet people from all over the world that are on tour for everything from 2 weeks to 4 years. At night the restaurant - bar - movie theatre - meeting point - etc is a hub of people talking about what they did and what they are planning to do.
I meet a German guy there, Stephan, who was on tour four a couple of month and has a few more month to go and told him about the HHH run. He had never heard before about it but was willing to come along as he had nothing planed for the next day.
So on Sunday afternoon at 2.30pm we were at the meeting point for the Phnom Penh Hash, right in front of the PP
Phnom Penh H3 run
The ferry to the run central train station. Stephan was there which was great since Peter was nowhere to be seen again. I told him about the run and he said that he would come, but then…..
I can tell you that it is not very busy there as there is only one train a wee leaving from there. As you can imagine the train system in Cambodia is as good as non existent.
There was a truck parked right at the entrance to the station with a big banner advertising the H3. And slowly the people showed up and I was amazed how many came along. We must have been about 50 people when we took of. Guess how? On the truck through the whole of PP. We were like cattle in truck. One has to wonder what the Cambodian people thought about us when they saw us.
What a great way to go to the Hash run.
Once we arrived at the run location we took a ferry over to a small island where the run was set. No cars at this island, just bikes and bicycles. And plenty of people who thought we are just crazy.
Anyway,
Phnom Penh H3 run
Bringing up the most important thing - water and beer off we went. It was stinking hot and running through rice paddies was not what a sane person would do on a day like this. But then we are Hashers and sanity is not in our vocabulary.
And it was wonderful. We run through rice paddies, people’s backyards, along the river and banana plantations. These were sights a normal tourist will never see. There were kids running with us for a while and saying hello, the older people on the side of the track just laughed at us silly foreigners running around in that heat.
After about a 50 minute run we reached the Hash circle and I can tell you that I was very happy to be at the end. I was spent…….. My cloths were soaked with sweat and regretted every cigarette I had that day.
Then we had the circle and the usual down down where had. Good fun and the beer did go down very well. Don’t worry; I had plenty of water before the beer. We also had a naming and a guy, who was Canadian, got the name “Wanky Yankee”. Good one. A group of American girls that came along for
Phnom Penh H3 run
Runing through the bush the first time thought that this was not very political correct. Well, they have to learn a bit more about the Hash House Harriers I guess…
After the run and the circle we took off, again on the back of the truck and had dinner at a local restaurant, which was brilliant. More beer flowed and the food went down well…..
Stephan and I went back to the guesthouse at about 9 pm, on the back of one of the millions of small bikes, and just couldn’t stop talking about the run. It was a great experience and the people we meet were great. I can say that this was one of my best runs I ever had and I can only recommended the PP H3. And Stephan is a new convert to this great fraternity……
On Monday morning I took the bus to Siem Reap where I was to be reunited with my better half that night. Three weeks of backpacking was coming to its end and what a great time I have had.
So what happened today is another story and I will hopefully write it tomorrow……
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michael
non-member comment
Welf. dont argue about a fare... it cost you how much $5... he needs to feed his family