 PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MAJOR SPONSOR, SAN MIGUEL! Contact Mr Cuong for all San Miguel products in Vung Tau: email: [email protected] phone, text/sms: 0938 83 31 83 or 0906 79 11 55 Home, office, party etc deliveries a specialty! 27 April 2014 BIG MOUNTAIN - and a dip in the ocean! The cool pre-Tet weather has long gone now, and some of the 17 Hashers who arrived at the Offshore Bar 1 beer garden on Sunday were already showing signs of wilting in the hot sun! Registration complete, the taxi fleet was summoned to take us to the starting point in the fishing village on the west side of Vung Tau peninsula from where Hares The Gardener, Ut and SamSon had laid a trail over Big Mountain which SamSon had dubbed "The Connection Trail". All taxi drivers received the same instructions but the lead driver was receiving new directions along the way (classic back seat driving?), which resulted in some confusion and a few wayward cabs - until it was eventually all sorted out and we arrived at the designated start point: Tran Xian Do. The Gardener gave the Chalk Talk and then it was "On On" along the narrow street, behind the Buddha statue and up the stairs. We lost a few here, with some Hashers turning right, but Ronald Reagan was fortunately "on the ball" as duty Hash Flash and pointed the miscreants in the right direction. We passed several small homes along the way, with the usual happy children all wanting to practise their English: "Hello, how are you, what's your name?", followed by squeals of joyous laughter! On past the temple with resident K9 pot-lickers, and onto a dirt track that wound its way around the mountainside for a long, scenic stroll until we went up again on a narrow, partly overgrown track. Some "old timer" SCBs veered off the trail near the top of the mountain, but most followed the red ribbon markers. Ronald Reagan was on hand once again to round up the strays. At the top, we all enjoyed a view of Vung Tau Bay over the Front Beach area, until it was time to head on down through the undergrowth until we reached the old steps by the small'ish Jesus statue on the side of the mountain. It's here that the steps get much steeper and several Hashers experienced "wobbly leg syndrome" and were suitaby relieved when we finally reached the church grounds at the bottom because, from here, it was just a quick stroll across the road to our favourite cafe on the beach at 83 Tran Phu. It's fair to say that the lovely, red San Miguel eskies had never looked so beautiful to a bunch of hot, sweaty and extremely thirsty Hashers! An injured Falcon had performed Beermeister duties admirably, stocking the eskies and delivering them to the beach, along with Russian bread, pork and pickle snacks supplied once again by Mountain Goat. The Circle was called after a suitable interval for those cooling off in the sea. The trail set by Hares The Gardener, SamSon and Ut was awarded 8/10 by Andy; VTH3 Virgins Clinton, Tony, Lieu and Ms Ut (also a Hare on her first-ever run with VTH3) were welcomed to the fold. Sinners Mountain Goat and Stubble were punished for taking a short cut on the mountain, and returnees David (Smokey) Tuong and Ms Thao were welcomed back. The bad news for next week is that Hareraiser and all-round VTH3 stalwart Falcon will be absent on "medical leave". Deputy Hareraiser The Gardener will team with Ms Ut and Ronald Reagan to set a trail on Long Son Island for next Sunday. Meet, as usual, Offshore Bar 1 beer garden 2 pm for 2.30 pm start. On On!  Reporting: The Gardener, Falcon, Uncle Hares: The Gardener, SamSon, Ut Hash Flash: Ronald Reagan VTH3 #626 PHOTO GALLERY>>>>>>> 
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 PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MAJOR SPONSOR, SAN MIGUEL! Contact Mr Cuong for all San Miguel products in Vung Tau: email: [email protected] phone, text/sms: 0938 83 31 83 or 0906 79 11 55 Home, office, party etc deliveries a specialty! 20 April 2014 LONG HAI MOUNTAINS - the return of UXO and search for the Easter Bunny! It was a big welcome back this week to one of VTH3's "favourite sons" - UXO (aka "our very own Dangerman!"). After finalising registration and loading the all-important eskies, we headed out to Long Hai and parked near the now familiar Ngoc Xuong resort. A Chalk Talk by Falcon on an extremely hot day and it was "On On" along a sandy track for about 1 km, until we turned left and found ourselves heading up the mountain through dense bamboo, occasionally interspersed with a few rocks for good measure, until we finally reached the large "painted boulder" at the top. (Worth noting that the Hares had already nicknamed it "the lost trail", having spent several hours earlier in the week hacking their way through the undergrowth only to encounter impenetrable bamboo near the top.) Some Hashers sported punctured skin by this time, but nearly everyone made it successfully to the top (one savvy Hasher heeded VTH3 Protocol 101.2 - "Know your limitations" and rested his injured knee at the bottom.) There was just time for a quick rest at the top to enjoy the view and rehydrate ourselves, before it was "Down down" the mountainside and back to the Ngoc Xuong resort via the big rock temple. The Circle was called and the trail awarded a worthy 8.5/10 by Ronald Reagan. Hash Virgins Tobin, Sam (UK) and Tien (Vietnam) were welcomed and various sinners punished (including UXO for being away too long!). And then Ms Hien was given the Hash monicker "Bunny" (well it was Easter, after all!). The weather was so hot that the copious "icings, VTH3-style" were welcomed by everyone. STOP PRESS: Hares The Gardener, SamSon and Ut have set a new trail on Big Mountain that they call "The Connection Trail" (see NEXT RUN box). New recruit Ut did very well, sometimes leading the way. It promises to be a good day's Hashing on Sunday - meet as usual in the Offshore Bar 1 beer garden, 2 pm for 2.30 pm start. See you there! On On!  Reporting: Falcon, The Gardener, Uncle Hares: SamSon, The Gardener, Falcon Hash Flash: Falcon VTH3 #625 PHOTO GALLERY>>>>>>>    PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MAJOR SPONSOR, SAN MIGUEL! Contact Mr Cuong for all San Miguel products in Vung Tau: email: [email protected] phone, text/sms: 0938 83 31 83 or 0906 79 11 55 Home, office, party etc deliveries a specialty! 13 April 2014 BIG MOUNTAIN - yet another new trail! A motley crew of Happy Hashers piled into the local taxi fleet and headed off to #3 Tran Phu - a new starting point for Big Mountain, across the road from the prestigious Ganh Hoa waterside restaurant. What have Hares SamSon and The Gardener got in mind today, we wondered? We would soon find out. The Gardener gave a Chalk Talk and then it was "On On!" up a steep flight of broken steps, followed by a stretch of rubble and finally past an old abandoned house before emerging onto a much better but still very steep track that kept going upwards to the roadside stalls on Vi Ba (the sealed road used by locals for daily exercise on Big Mountain). It was here that the trail split, courtesy of wily Hares SamSon and The Gardener. Blue arrows showed the way towards the easier trail, and red the more difficult - which was steep, steep, steep. Whew! But all trails eventually come to an end, no matter how tortuous, and so it was with this one - when some very relieved Hashers finally began a long descent via Vi Ba to the park on Front Beach for some well-earned refreshment. Hare and this week's volunteer Hash Flash SamSon had been unavoidably detained and missed the start but, like the determined Hasher he is, made sure the eskies full of coldies were waiting in the park, along with Mountain Goat's famous and very welcome snacks! There were several "tales to tell" from what had been an eventful day for many: one Hasher managed to get "temporarily" lost; Hard Drive was rumoured to have found his own trail; The Gardener impressed locals with "chin ups" in the park; Hashputin and Yoffi "faced off" but became as close to "mates" as any Hash pooches can ever be; one of two Hash Virgins, Jeff, reinjured his "tennis knee" but was still able to hobble as far as the park to join co-Virgin Pham at the Circle - and ever-present Falcon had been forced to miss the run entirely because of a sudden illness! SamSon had not been able to take any photos along the trail because of his late start, so he made up for it by running his very first Circle (this is the same guy who volunteered for Hare duties after his first-ever run with VTH3 - a "true blue" Hasher, through and through!). He also snapped just about everything that moved in the park, so there's plenty of "apres run" coverage below (and Hot Dog has subsequently saved the day with some photos on the trail - a selfless act which has earned him a well-deserved listing as co-Hash Flash!). And just to prove that Hash days don't always end at the Circle, a few of the more hardy Hashers visited the Lan Rung restaurant for OnOn and then, after even more grog, OnOnOn at Vitamin C and eventually base camp: Offshore Bar 1 - hence finally completing an intrepid "Circle" around most of the western side of Vung Tau peninsula, from OSB1 to OSB1 via Big Mountain peak and half the town! Next Sunday's trail will be set in the Long Hai Mountains by Hares SamSon, The Gardener and Falcon - so be early for registration because only the first 29 are guaranteed a seat on the bus! As always, we'll meet in the Offshore Bar 1 beer garden at 2 pm for 2.30 pm start. On On!  Reporting: The Gardener, Uncle Hares: SamSon, The Gardener Hash Flash: SamSon, Hot Dog VTH3 #624 PHOTO GALLERY>>>>>   PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MAJOR SPONSOR, SAN MIGUEL! Contact Mr Cuong for all San Miguel products in Vung Tau: email: [email protected] phone, text/sms: 0938 83 31 83 or 0906 79 11 55 Home, office, party etc deliveries a specialty! 06 April 2014 NUI DINH - Angel Falls to The Lake With a clear indication that the "festive season" holidays are finally over for another year, 35 enthusiastic Hashers discovered they couldn't really fit properly onto the 29-seater bus so a bigger chariot was swiftly organised by co-Hare KFC. We disembarked at Angel Falls, just before the bridge past the roadside cafes on Nui Dinh about 5 km west of Ba Ria on the highway to Saigon. Co-Hare SamSon gave this week's Chalk Talk and then it was "On On" along the trail that begins just to the right of the bridge. It was a rock-strewn track that continued for about 1.5 km before turning left onto a dirt road. Some 500 metres further on, we made a right turn into a very narrow but well-used trail that took our merry band of Hashers through many different types of vegetation - with plenty of cultural artefacts along the 5 kilometres until we emerged at the large lake and coffee shop near the top of Nui Dinh (yes, you're right - we had effectively been going uphill for the entire trail!). A left turn onto the potholed access track took us the last kilometre to the sealed road and our faithful Hashmobile stocked with ice cold San Miguels and soft drinks, which were put to good use washing down the tasty snacks provided once again by Mountain Goat. Falcon called the Circle and the great trail that had been set by SamSon, KFC and Ms Khanh was awarded a well-deserved 9.5/10 by Hard Drive. Hash Virgins Ms Khanh, Ms Phuong and Ms Vi were welcomed (noting it was the first time in VTH3 that a Hash Virgin was also a Hare - which gives Ms Khanh a small advantage over SamSon, who became a Hare on his second run and has only run once since then without having set the trail!) Many familiar faces were welcomed back (and "iced", VTH3-style), including Mapdraw, Hot Dog, Paul, Aqualung, Rapunzel, Tom Cruise and Pikachu. But the highlight of today's Circle was the naming of 5-year-old Ivan (son of VTH3 stalwarts Ronald Reagan and Dolly). Ivan is already a Hash veteran despite his tender years - having followed many trails around the Vung Tau mountains on Dad's shoulders! In Hash Circles, he will forever more be known as "Ivanhoe" - whether he's walking, running or riding! Hares SamSon and The Gardener will set a trail on Big Mountain for next Sunday's run - we'll meet as usual at the Offshore Bar 1 beer garden, 2 pm for 2.30 pm start. On On!  Reporting: Falcon, Uncle Hares: KFC, SamSon, Ms Khanh Hash Flash: KFC, Radio Wave VTH3 #623 PHOTO GALLERY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> This link will take you to more than 300 photos from prolific VTH3 lensman Radio Wave: http://yadi.sk/d/oBh2vZhILwqev All Radio Wave's photos are available in high resolution upon personal request via Contact VTH3  |
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