VTH3 #840

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3rd June 2018

Nui Dinh - "Up and down, and up and down"

Hares: Secs, Mr. T, Boozer
Hash Flashers:  Secs
Ringmaster: Boozer
Report: Secs

Eskies cleaned? Check! Ice ordered? Check! Enough San Miguel? Check! A variety of Soft Drinks? Check! Cool bags for food? Check!

Buddha and Zidane, our Beer-meisters this week, single-handedly organise this week’s supplies and load it in to taxis and meet up with the 39 expectant Hashers at Hon Ru Ri . 1.30pm already and there’s some consternation as our Hashmobile hasn’t arrived yet! A couple of phone calls later the bus arrives 10 minutes later after having waited for us at the wrong location. Supplies loaded, we are soon on our way to our favourite mountain Nui Dinh. 

Not long after passing Ba Ria our Hashmobile takes a right turn and laboriously grinds its way up the mountain road to our starting point 270 m above sea level. We disembark a few hundred meters from the end of the road pleased with the overcast sky and cool breeze - perfect Hashing weather. We gather round our Hare, Secs, for the “chalk-talk”. He indictes to the trail leading into the forest - follow the path until you come to a pagoda, then at the staircase going to pagoda look to left for the red tape that marks the way back in to the jungle. Follow this path until you reach another pagoda - with some awesome views. Continue through the pagoda until it meets up with a paved road and follow the road for about 3km and then look out for the red tape that shows a shortcut down to a coffee shop - turn right at the coffee shop and then follow the road for the final kilometer to the down-down spot at the end of the road where we started.

So on-on in to the jungle we go! The clement weather and gentle slope makes for easy going until we emerge from the jungle at the second pagoda and are greeted with a jaw dropping view. Plenty of time for photos, reflection and bell ringing before setting off to find the paved path. 

Finding the path was easy - not so easy was the realisation that it was on 60˚ incline with no end in sight. We poise ourselves and tiptoe determinedly up the slope. Arriving at what we believe to be top of the hill we are confronted with an equally sharp descent. Baby stepping our way down, we turn a corner only to be presented with another steep climb. Now we know why this the “Up and Down Trail”. We continue up and down the many “rolling hills”, many of us taking a breather to rest our burning calf muscles.  Eventually the road evens out and we spot the red tapes marking the shortcut through the jungle. It may be a shortcut but as we peer in to the bush it’s apparent that it’s another steep climb down an overgrown, rocky jungle path. Undaunted, we trepidatiously begin our descent helping each other as we go. Unscathed we emerge at the coffee shop and the easy last kilometer to the down-down.

Ice cold San Miguel, chilled soft drinks, banh mi and a variety of fruit and other delights await. Thanks foodies! We imbibe, ingest  and intermingle until the inimitable Boozer takes out his whistle and gives it blow. 

Time for the circle! This week our Hares Mr. T., Secs and Boozer, are front and center eagerly awaiting the trail rating and subsequent dousing when we are visited by an old friend - Porky Pig. Not a Hashname but a nosy portly pig that seems to always take an interest in us when we have our down-downs here. He is shooed away and our attention is back to the circle. This weeks our virgins are asked to rate the trail and the final bid was somewhere around 11/10. 

This week we have six virgins hailing from Australia, Vietnam and France after the customary introductions we welcome them with a song and a “drink it down-down” and initiate them into the Hash with the ceremonial “ice-water shower”. 

The Captain and Tatiana are the only returnees, Tatianna has been in Russia and The Captain has been busy “drinking beer and chasing women”. The Captain then proceeds to give a master class in how to down a beer from the chalice of holes and the tube of doom.

Sinner Time! 

Secs charges RadioWave for missing the obvious red tape and leading some Hashers the wrong way. RadioWave, in turn, charges Secs for interfering with him going the wrong way(?!?). Zidane is pushed in the circle for the heinous crime of New Shoes. Virgin Steve has committed the unforgivable sin of Wearing Thongs. A couple of late entries; Niharika for “doing nothing” and Yash for promising to bring some Indian delicacies last time and turning up empty handed. Their sins are cleansed with same ceremonial “ice-water shower”. 

Closing the circle Boozer announces next weeks will be local and there will be a shindig afterwards in honour of stalwart Hasher Viking who will be returning to his native Denmark soon.

Just enough time for another beer before we board the Hashmobile and head back to Hon Ru Ri in good spirits.

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