VTH3 #897

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7 JULY 2019
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BIG MOUNTAIN

Hares: Mr. T, Chook, Cleaver
Hash Flasher: Chom Chom
Ringmaster: ​Boozer
Report: Faulty Brakes

The starting pistol went off at Cafe Uno last Sunday at 13.30 for run 797 to Big mountain. Taxis cars and motorcycles ferried the usual suspects hailing from Russia, Europe, Australia and Asia to OLH at 102 Tran Phu. This was to be our base camp for today’s climb and we were greeted warmly by our favourite hostess. It wasn’t long until the VTH3 Beer Truck arrived with today’s supply of chilled gargle, Banh mi, softies and Simons Sambos were unloaded. Earlier the shekels had been accounted by Boozer and Cleaver at Cafe Uno. In bright sunshine, driving across the front beach we saw that the preparations were in full swing for the upcoming food festival.
It was now time for the instructions for today’s run, Mr. T duly obliged, straight up the Tran Phu road to the school, over the wall and follow the red tapes to the path that crosses the mountain and back via the 600 steps to OLH. This Trail was revealed some years ago by Mountain Shrimp to us and we take advantage of this a couple times every year, Chook, Mr T and Cleaver had marked this trail the previous Thursday. Secs our  secretary had just 2 more tasks to hand out ,Scribe and Hash Flash for today, we saw Chom Chom given our new waterproof camera and yours truly the chronicler for today’s run.
Walking along the Tran Phu road the cloud cover eased the temperature a little lower, looking out on to the East Vietnam sea the cooling breezes made our task a little more comfortable and it wasn’t long until we reached the beginning of today’s climb. Boozer was waiting to point us in the right direction at the school, over the wall first and up the side of the wall through the now overgrown vegetation. Forty hashers ranging in age from 4 years to 69 negotiated today’s climb. My knees protested but with helpful fellow hashers everyone made it to the path that encircles the mountain. Now the next task was to reach the battery of old French guns, a sign of  previous Colonial times here in this beautiful country. Heading upwards to the French fort and along the mountain towards Ho May Park we could see the splendid views of the  city, shipyard and Long Son in the distance. The next area to pursue was the top of the 600 steps and sure enough we encountered the well marked trees festooned in red ribbons telling us it time for us to descend. Some of the steps are now beginning to become overgrown with vegetation and our horticultural section will attend to this shortly.
At last we are back in OLH, now is the time to unwind and relax,hashers hoovered the chilled beer and softies into themselves, complimenting them with freshly made banh mi and Simon sambos with the traditional family recipe. As we sat around relaxing on the new chairs provided by our hostess, children played and our music box provided us a medley of tunes from the Russian classic ‘Katuska’ to more recents hits. I declined the offer of the new chairs as a result of the the extra kgs accumulated on my recent visit home.
SHOWTIME ......   the weekly introduction of new people to the circle, sinners, returnees etc. Ringmaster Boozer introduced a Vietnamese girl and an American ex pat and both were doused with cold water, welcome folks to Vung tau Hash. The handle of G-String was assigned to Ron a reference to his mastery on the guitar and definitely nothing to do with an item of lingerie.
The last act of today was a rendering of the Van Morrison classic, ’Brown eyed Girl’ belted out by the newly named G -String. The beer bus had arrived and all the eskies were reloaded and returned to Cafe Uno for storage. Zidane took the bow for this task and we will miss him for a week or 2 as he returns to Oz. A party of hashers followed the beer truck to Cafe Uno to assist Zidane with the storage of the eskies and the few remaining cans were slaughtered by the still thirsty hashers. In the 4 hours since the hash commenced we had walked, climbed mountains, sipped beers played music all part of VTH3 family Sunday.The Trail was given a 12 out 10 rating.
Notice.
We will shortly be celebrating our 900 run,plans include a party on the 28 of July. A weekend away 10 August and the launch of a new T-shirt. It is essential to book early for these events and prepay.

VTH3 #897 PHOTO GALLERY

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