Rubber trees and the hash...

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I’ve been neglecting my running here in Malaysia and decided that I needed some help. I contacted the local chapter of the Hash House Harriers to see if I could meet up with them for a run. Now, hashing as they call it is no normal run. There is a long and storied history to it; coincidentally, it all began here in Malaysia back in 1938 with British troops stationed here. Hashing is basically a hare and hounds kind of run, where the hare runs off and sets a trail with tiny pieces of paper. The trail sometimes stops at junctions and the hounds running after have to stop and check to pick up the trail again. Frequently there are false trails as well. Sounds like fun, right? Well it is, as I found out.

I met up with the Kuantan Hash House Harriers at 5pm at the edge of a rubber/palm oil plantation in Jabor ,just north of Kuantan. They were very welcoming and seem like a fun loving group with ages ranging from early thirties up to sixty plus. All of the members I met were Chinese, so most of the conversation and joking was in Cantonese but they were quite good about switching to English for my sake, making sure to explain things as we went, me being a hash virgin and all.

We started off on the trail at 6pm after passing through some barbed-wire fences surrounding the plantation (they do have permission to run there, so no worries there). The group of hounds spread out quickly due to the various paces. Being one of the younger ones there I got to the front and ran with David (51), Choong (38), and Eng (45ish). We followed the trail through widely spaced rows of rubber trees and then into the canopy of oil palms. It was late in the afternoon of an overcast day so the heat was bearable at first, but I was quickly drenched in sweat. The trail led us up and down hills following roads and paths among the thousands and thousands of oil palm trees. It’s a good thing that we had a trail to follow as I would have never found my way out without it.

A few times us few front runners would come to a “check” and the trail would stop at a junction. Runners would each pick a direction and run down the path until someone found the trail again. That person would yell “on, on” calling the rest of the group to follow that path. Those waiting at the check then mark the proper trail for the rest to follow. As I mentioned sometimes false trails are laid and we had to backtrack to pick up the correct trail. All in all we ran for an hour and fifteen minutes, but due to the terrain and searching the trail we probably managed only 6 km (just under 4 miles). The hares were waiting for us at the end with a cooler full of beer and sports drink for the next very important step in hashing, the “down, down”. What more could I ask for, a running and drinking group! How come I’ve never tried this sport before?

Okay, Kathy, Julio and Mark we have to get a hash group started when I get back....

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Photos

Rubber plantation...
So you've always wondered where rubber comes from, eh?

Rubber collection...
Rubber workers come through in the early morning hours to slit the trees and later on another group comes through to collect the raw rubber that has collected in the cups attached, think of it as sap coming from a tree... In Malaysia, rubber is still big business...with latex glove makers, etc...

end of the hash
time for drinks at the end of the hash trail while waiting for the others

My first hash...
David, one of the members of the Kuantan Hash House Harriers. He's been on over 500 hashes...