Taiwan Updated1949 the Chinese army, facing defeat by the communists, fled to the island of Formosa with whatever it could grab. For the next twenty years it was Formosa, or Taiwan as it is now known, which was represented in the UN and at the Olympics. That has now changed and the long-term future of the island is uncertain. China is willing to accept the status quo, but stages impressive military demonstrations with any mention of ‘independence’ for Taiwan.
None of that of course has
prevented the economy from booming and in terms of Hash this is a vastly
underestimated destination. Taiwan is mountainous and beautiful and the
nine Taiwan hashes offer some great trails. Taiwan Hashing is also
extremely well organized and the Taipei Hash claims that their
‘financial s
History of hashing in Taiwan Taipei H3 was founded in February 1973 by Don 'Organ' Hammond, Zeke 'Slobbo' Haffman, Mike McFarline and Bob Jacques. The guys had apparently only read about hashing, and all runs were set by live hares who were given a half hour head start. It wasn’t until a visit from Swordedge Wilkinson (Jakarta) on run 16 that Taipei learnt about checks and backtracks ‘which made our runs all that much better’. Erectus Guru ran most of the first 1000 runs, while the first locals to join were Tom ‘The Fag’ Wu and David ‘Elephant’ Chang. Today 90% of the membership is made up of local Taiwanese. An early dispute as to whether the GM was GM for life, or should be democratically contested, led to ‘Organ’ starting the China Hash. This pack had the advantage of running on Sundays which allowed them to get out into the countryside. At first the China Hash was also an all male hash and it was two years before it became a mixed event. Meanwhile back at the original kennel ‘Stonewall’ Pinnick became the first formally elected leader of TH3, ‘This guy despite the shortcoming between his ears more than made up for it with his B.O.’ Taipei’s 100th run was a special 3 days and 2 night event held which members of Kaohsiung Hash (founded September 1973) attended and the occasional ‘All Taiwan’ event followed. Taipei organized its first Mini-marathon in 1976, which was open to the public and a full marathon followed in 1977. These events did a great deal to promote the new craze of jogging on the island. Taiwan hashing also has a long tradition of charity work, including going en-mass to donate blood. In 1996, Formosa H3 was founded as a monthly female hash ‘to get into the beautiful countryside of north Taiwan’. Jean ‘Domestic Violence’ Peng is credited as founder. Taichung H3 was founded in October 1998 and had their 500th run on the first weekend in 2010, preceded by a Red Dress Pub Run on the Friday night. A few other kennels have been founded since then including The Taiwan Bear Hash and Hsinchu H3 With thanks to 'The Dump' and Vaseline Thighs |
Dushanbe H3, they like to call themselves ‘The Roof Of The World Hash’ - was founded by Michael 'Louseberger' Nyquist and Michael Kennedy on 05 May 2000. Alastair 'What's On' Watson, Gary ‘Burn Out' Burniske are listed as co-founders. The kennel folded twice to be re-established by MTM and a co-worker in January 2005. As of 2009 they were doing fine with weekly packs of 20 plus drawn largely from the diplomatic community. They often get one Ambassador - and sometimes two - running with them. Runs tend to be around the city streets. There is no website and little information but apparently you can ‘ask at the restaurant of the Indian embassy’. Updated July 2009 with special thanks to MTM
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For a link to all Thailand hashes go to the links page on the
It was Bill Panton who brought Hashing to Bangkok in1977, and Thailand, with good cheap beer and food, great terrain and a ‘social life’ to fit every taste was always going to prove fertile ground for the hashing way of life. As one hash senior hasher wrote, ‘Hashing fits Thailand as well as Thailand fits Hashing’. In addition the easy going Thai life style meant hashing was rapidly taken up by the Thais themselves, who make up a good percentage of most packs. The country has staged InterHash in 1986 (Pattaya), 1992 (Phuket) and 2006 (Chiang Mai).
Bangkok Bangkok H3 officially dates to 11th June 1977, when Bill Panton, who had just returned to Asia after a spell in Washington, moved to Bangkok and founded the kennel. It seems there had been an earlier attempt to start a Bangkok Hash around 1969 but this had failed, most probably due to Monday night traffic. Bill therefore picked Saturday as a more suitable day. Numbers started around 20 and rosed up rapidly so that after only the third run the decision was taken to meet weekly. Pitak “Pisstak” Chantong is the only survivor from Run Number 1 and was the first Bangkok Hasher to complete 1000 runs. Since then Bob “Bullet” Boulter and Tiradej Sukunwatna have also gone past that landmark. By 1982, the Bangkok Monday H3 and the Harriettes (Wednesday nights) had joined in and recent Hashing additions to the Big Mango include a Bike Hash, Siam Sunday Hash and the famous ‘Thinking Drinking Hash’ (see Thinking Drinking Hash). Bangkok Hashers have long enjoyed their out of town or ‘up-country’ runs and this has helped to spread the Hash rash to other parts of Thailand.
Up north In 1981 Bangkok headed north to Chiang Mai to celebrate their 200th run and they invited local expats for what proved to be a great weekend. As a result, Charlie ‘Radar’ Graham started Chiang Mai H3 in May 1981. Thailand’s second city has a very laid back feel and is the centre of the tourist trekking trade, obviously presenting some exciting options for trails. There are now five hashes in Chiang Mai including the Chiang Mai Underground Male (Cum) H3, founded in December 1998 by Scott ‘Suckit’ Rulka and Peter ‘Dyke Converter’ Van Loo. ‘The main theme is a good run a good circle and a great on-on.’ Further north the Chiang Rai H3 meet the third Saturday of every month.
The coast 1981 also saw the foundation of Songkhla H3 (Motto: ‘You're only young once, but you can stay immature forever!’) by Al ‘Crawlback’ Sigmund. Run 55 in 1992 is considered legendary and they are still going strong in this south-east corner of Thailand. Three years later Hashing spread south of Bangkok to the beach resort of Pattaya, with Pattaya H3 being formed on 7th January 1984 by Hans and Molly Kirgis (both Bangkok Hashers) with the encouragement and support of Tim Hughes and other members of the Bangkok Hash fraternity. The first run attracted 12 runners and in the early days Pattaya offered a monthly run that was virtually a weekend away for Bangkok Hashers. After Run 8 Hashing went twice monthly and from Run 21 they staged weekly runs. The success of Pattaya owed a lot to the arrival of two hash veterans, Jack ‘The Phantom’ Walker and Frank ‘Whorator’ Benfield. Another important influence on the early days was the presence of Bill 'BJ' Jones, an American of Vietnam War vintage who had never returned to the States. As a result of this enthusiasm Pattaya H3 was soon attracting packs of 60-70 each week and, only a few weeks after their founding, won the right to stage the 1986 InterHash. Despite a crippling drought this was a huge success and gave a great hash boast to the whole region with Phuket H3 being formed just a few weeks after the event. Alan ‘Dubai’ Cooke and wife Marie were the founders although it is possible that a few isolated and disorganised runs might have been staged prior to this. This Thai island in the Andaman Sea has beautiful Hashing terrain and the citizens of Phuket took to Hashing with similar enthusiasm as their Pattaya colleagues, capturing InterHash for Thailand in 1992 under the stewardship of Paul ‘King Klong’ James. There are now five separate hashes on Phuket Island, although many of these are rather strange affairs. Phuket Tinmen H3 for example, meets on the first April of every month. Phuket Island Southern Hash (P.I.S.H) started in 2003 and meets in Faulty Towers Bar to offer an alternative if the PH3 run is north of Talang. ‘Ambitions are to drink large quantities of beer and talk about the good old days when PH3 ran on the southern part of Phuket.’ Phuket Marauder’s H3 meets ‘when the GM decides, normally 3 - 4 times a year and is a male only Hash, for experienced hashers only that have been vetted by Marauder`s and deemed devious enough to take part’. Phuket Pooying Jungle H3 might be considered more ‘mainstream’ and it meets on the middle Sunday of every month. “Pooying” is actually the Thai word for women and this is a female hash. ‘It is also the most dangerous hash on the island, join if you dare’. |
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Tarry, AndrewUpdated Andrew Tarry was one of the hares involved in the famous KL Bandit incident. See Cheras Bandit incident. He was also Joint Master of Mother Hash in 1952 and 1953 while his wife, Veronica, founded the KL Harriettes. On returning to England Andrew founded Chichester H3. He run with them for many years, setting more than his share of trails until illness started to take a toll, Andrew passed away some time in the mid nineties. In his younger days he captained his University Boxing team. Onon Andrew!
A common hash name. There were five at Goa InterHash in 2002 (equal with Spiderman and Rambo). |
Faith ‘Teapot’ Tempest has been hashing since being introduced to the concept while a young girl in Botswana. Since then her postings have included Zimbabwe, New York, Delhi and Mozambique. Her commitment to the hash has varied from posting to posting, depending on the character of the local kennel. She has a particularly fond memory of hashing in Delhi in the 1990’s. The dangers of running in dark Indian streets with their open drains meant she might just possibly have been the first hasher to ever run with a headlamp! Mozambique, with the chance to get into the African countryside, was another favourite. Since late 2009 Teapot has been in Moldova, where she has been a driving force behind the founding of the New Chisinau H3. Her name comes from the American version of the expression ‘A Tempest (storm) in a teacup’.
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Texas (Steers and Queers) is the State that thinks it’s a country so they of course have their own InterHash. Held on camp sites around the state they can attract 200 hashers.
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Thames Hare and HoundsThames Hare and Hounds are possibly the oldest paper chase club in the world. They were founded in 1860 as a rowing club and took up paper chasing at a slightly later date. The first run to leave a record, although not necessarily the first to be staged, took place on 7th December 1867. It continues today as a modern athletic club with the emphasis on cross country and road running. |
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TheftTheft comes in two categories. Firstly there is theft between two hashes as a prank. For example the Launceston H3 beer trailer was once hijacked by Hobart and held for ransom. The Jakarta down-down mug was stolen at one InterHash and returned 2 years later at the next gathering. Providing such pranks are done with some commons sense, these can be comical and add to hash legends. More serious are real crimes. Now, hashers have a great reputation for hospitality that comes from hash brotherhood (and sisterhood) but occasionally people do take advantage. A conman was once reported targeting hash groups by claming to be a hasher who had lost his wallet and borrowing sums of money. The Kampala hash stopped hosting from homes for a while after new ‘hashers’ where found leaving with CD’s under their clothes! Care – thankfully less than in mainstream life – does still need to be displayed. |
Thinking can be a crime in some circles, as real hashers clearly do not think and should not need to think. In such circles comments should be worded in terms of
‘it is my opinion that Gobbledick is a total idiot’
or
‘it seems evident that Gobbledick is a total idiot’
rather than
‘I think Gobbledick is a total idiot’. |
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During the 1990s the Bangkok Monday Hash and the Harriettes travelled together for occasional outstation runs. Considering the state of Bangkok traffic, train was the preferred method of transport. The Hong Kong South Side had a special relationship with the Harriettes and would often send a contingent along. One night, around January 1991, Hymen Hacker and Tinker discussed the idea of doing this regularly, but without the run to spoil it. The circle could be held in the train coming up, leaving the whole weekend free for drinking and shagging. It would be ‘The Thinking Drinking Hash’ and those attending were expected to be able to master at least one, and preferably both, of those skills. Wichanee “Imelda” Charutas and Bill “Blobs” Hobbs arranged the first Thinking Drinking Hash away trip a couple of months later. Think Drinking runs are now a regular feature at InterHash and other big occasions such as Pan Asia Hash.
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Thursday ThirstyMalcolm ‘Thursday Thirty’ Lambert is approaching 700 runs with Manila Hash, placing him second on the all time run list. |
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Wearing neckties on formal occasions was an old Singapore legacy, taken up by Sydney and a few other hashes. The Singapore Hash tie was green with H3 in sliver. The Jakarta Hash tie featured Monas or the National Monument displayed in Merdeka Square and the central feature of the Jakarta Hash logo. Cairo also issued a hash tie in the eighties, showing three pyramids, each housing an ‘H’ but the idea is sadly out of fashion these days |
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Rachel ‘Tinsel Tits’ Scott was responsible for the goodie bags at Goa InterHash 2002.
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TongaNufu’alofa H3 date to June 1978, a remarkably early starting point for such a remote location, and they still meet outside the Bank of Tonga every Mondays. Thursday H3 is a break away group formed in 1996 when it was felt that the ‘Monday Hash was not Hash enough.’ They took the name Thursday H3 and the aim was that ‘every effort would be made to turn Thursday Hash into the Tongan social event of the week.’ Runs commence with registration at 5.30pm and offer both a run and a walk. It should be noted that the Nufu website is down and the Thursday website was lasted updated in 2001. That places a question mark over whether hashing is still taking place on the island. |
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You can almost see the captain, as the great ship slid under the calm Atlantic waters thinking, ‘one day they will make a movie out of this.’ Worse than that, they made a hash name out of it. Titanics exists on numerous hashes and variations include ‘Titanic Dick Head’ who is hash cash and hash stats for London H3. |
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Tonga, King ofIt is rumoured that Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, the former King of Tonga, joined the hash on one of their runs some time in the eighties or early nineties. It is possible, because although the king later became noted for his obesity, in his youth his had been a good athlete and holder of the island’s pole vault record. |
Small West African nation, a couple hundred kilometres from north to south and considerably less wide, which features great beaches and a fascinating culture. Two hashes, Lome on the coast and Kara to the north are listed but little is known about them. |
Too Tuff of the Quorn H3 was down-down champion in Cardiff in a very respectable 8.3 seconds. |
ToyboyHash name that can be given to young children or – sarcastically – to old fat bastards with young wives.
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Affectionate terms used by Bangkok Harriettes for the South Side Hashers when they attend the regular Bangkok away trips. |
Trail MasterThe official responsible for organising hares for the coming weeks. Sometimes offers advice, particularly to new hares. |
TrashSee Hash Trash Trash, of the year awardA Global trash award for the best ‘hash trash’. During the nineties it was regularly won by Bichester. |
Michael
Treefeller Brown is a landscape gardener by profession. He first
heard about hashing from a Woman’s Hour radio programme and later
contacted Chichester H3, becoming a lifelong servant to the kennel,
including serving as a long term On-Sec. At the moment knee problems
limit him to s |
Paul ‘T Rex Cock’ Davison is an Aberdeen hasher of 25 years experience. He started hashing in Qatar in 1983 and remained there for most of the eighties. Spells in Oman and Indonesia (Batavia) followed and he has been with Aberdeen since 2003 |
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Annual joint hash between Petaling, Mother Hash and Ipoh.
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Port of Spain H3 (POSH) was started in 1984 by Robin Foster-Brown. It claims to be geographically the furthest outpost from KL. There are two runs a week, Saturday is the main event and is usually out of town. Trinidad is not that big and you can go pretty much anywhere in an hour, allowing the trails to include terrain that might range from plantation to hills to beach. The Monday run is more likely to be in town. This is advertised as ‘men only’ but Trinidad women – at least those on the hash – don’t put up with that kind of ball shit and it is as mixed as the Saturday run. Trinidad society is still notably segregated and most of the hashers come from the middle class section of the population. The love of music and partying pervades all sections of Trinidad society, meaning circles are minimal with the GM – rotated yearly as a duty – trying to get some order by shouting from the back of a pickup truck. It is then on to a local restaurant for cheap curry, plenty of beer and non-stop dancing. On Monday hashers are more likely to end up drinking at the Squeeze Bar. Pack sizes are around 40 and they are a close group, many of whom have been hashing together for years. They don’t tend to turn up at world events in great numbers, but there is a fair amount of exchange between them and the other Caribbean hashes and there are regular weekend trips to Tobago.
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The devastating tsunami of 2004 affected many of Asia’s hash communities. Phuket H3 came closest to a hash disaster, as they had been having a picnic on the beach only hours before the waves struck. Hashes in Thailand and Sri Lanka did a great deal to raise money for relief, a cause the hash community in general joined in with.
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Each January members of the Belgium hashes stage a 'Trust Us Hash'. The pack pay their money and do not know where they are going until they turn up at the airport with their passport s. Recent venues have been Venice, Dublin, Porto and Duisburg.
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Alan ‘Tug’ Wilson started running with the RAN Fleet Hash in 1982, which was to prove the start of a long, and still continuing, hash career. He was founding GM of the Gold Coast H3, clocked up 550 runs with the two hashes in Kuwait, where he was GM of Q8H3. He moved to the Royal Peninsula H3 in 1985, where he is on 550 runs and still going. His travels included five InterHashes and 10 Nash hashes around the world. After the KL InterHash he was in the contingent of hashers who visited China and these veterans have a Ming H3 reunion run at every InterHash. |
TumblingTed ‘Tumbling’ Lutley was a veteran of Bahrain Hash, being present on run no 1 and still running with them as late as 1993. He is not related to Tumbling Bill Panton!
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'Tumbling' Bill Panton‘Tumbling’ Bill is considered one of Hashdom's true gentlemen. He first hashed in 1954, then took a long break until promotion in 1958 left him deskbound and feeling the need for some exercise. He became a Mother Hash regular and was joint-master in 1962 and again in 1970. A move from Malaysian Agriculture to the World Bank allowed him to become one of the earliest hash globetrotters and ‘Tumbling Bill’ was founder of both Washington and Bangkok hashes. Having retired to KL in 1993 he started work on the hash genealogy. He now commutes between KL and Washington, depending upon Hash requirements. |
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Carthage H3 is a kid friendly family hash. They were founded by Gene Fox in April 1979 and can get packs of over 50 for some runs.
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Phil ‘Turd Bird’ Kendro is a Marine Corps Captain and a Harrier jet pilot. He started the Survivor H3 in Pensacola and then the Al-Kutchee H3 and the Camel Humpin' H3 in US military bases during the build up to the Second Gulf War. He went on to organize the first ever Red Dress run in Iraq and is remembered for his naked fire jumping at camping hashes. Nominated by ‘My Lips Are Sealed’
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Turkey
Turkey is one of the largest, and in places, wildest countries in Europe (well geographically most of it is in Asia, but you know what I mean) and so offers some great hashing terrain. Attitudes vary greatly between the cities, which are extremely modern and forward looking, and remoter villages, but generally the place is relaxed and Efes Beer is of a quite acceptable standard. (In fact it is bloody good!) Istanbul, the place where Asia meets Europe, is the largest city by far (10 million to Ankara’s 4 million) and Istanbul H3 has been hashing since January 1985. The first run was at the Belgrade Forest, 16 turned up and Chris Skirrow was voted the first GM. Bill ‘Cueball’ Corloss took over as GM on run 100 and appointed Bill ‘Hans Fairy’ Anderson as the first RA. After run 150 these two switched position and it was this 100 run spell that saw Istanbul adopt more hash traditions, including longer circles, a wider use of hash names and tankards. Toot Toot, the first Istanbul hasher to reach 100 runs, also started to write the first real hash trashes. The great golden age of Turkish hashing was probably the nineties. Large construction projects such as the Istanbul-Ankara road project brought in an influx of ex-pats with hash experience and numbers peaked in both Istanbul and Ankara. The road camps hosted some wild runs and there were active kennels on the American airbases.
Ankara H3
numbers are down from those heydays
but they still attract a health 25 or so runners (actually mostly
walkers) to their Sunday runs. Numbers can drop on a cold winter days,
or go a bit Oran Forest and the near by lake are a favourite venues but they can travel further a field to use the stunning local scenery. This is hilly terrain and the going can get tough. A core of pack, including Blowhard, Go-Kart, Twinkle Toes, Go Kart, Brownsugar and Smiley are Turkish and veterans with many years of hashing behind them and there is a supporting cast of embassy workers, teachers and others who tend to come and go. The official hash pub is Dip Bar and this is the most likely on-on venue after the run. However Amarillo, owned by 2008-09 GM Rin Tin Tin, is a great favourite of the hash and it is customary to gather here on a Wednesday evening. A Full Moon Hash, on the traditional Monday night, started up in summer 2008 and is struggling along. Antalya H3 was officially founded in 1994, although surprisingly Magic mentions a hash here back in 1988. Starting as an ex-pat kennel, they are now 50-50. Their motto is ‘do it in any weather’ and they have a certain fascination with hashing up mountains, the 5165 metre scramble to the top of Mount Ararat being the most extreme example.
There is a recent
boom in hashing down south, largely inspired by veterans from the 1990’s
retuning to Turkey in their retirement.
Fethiye H3
was founded in October 2005 when Alan 'Wicked Willy' Prior moved
here from Istanbul, and they have been very active, making great use of
the coast with island and boat trips. They are, as you would expect from
a retirement community, something of an aged crowd, known efficiently as
the Turkey staged EuroHash in 1999, the profit going for earthquake relief., and will do so again in 2009. There has been a Nash Hash since at least 1990 and a Turkish Reunion hash took place at Box Hill in 1995. Picture above - Ankara H3 perform Father Abraham on a countryside run Picture left - what has an IQ of 160? Three Istanbul Gm's
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The Turkish Nash Hash is staged annually, although recent additions have been besieged with problems. In 2008 Istanbul cancelled the May date at late notice and rescheduled for November with a resulting drop in numbers. The following year Ankara staged a very good event but a lack of co-ordination meant the southern hashes had scheduled their own gathering for the same weekend and the Nash Hash was a largely Ankara event with token representation from Istanbul.
2006 Antalya 2007 ? 2008 Istanbul 2009 Ankara
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A split with two or more options, the Turkey Trial being for those who want an easy route home. See Eagle trail
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Turkmenistan is a large country – more or less the size of Spain of which 80percent is desert. For many years it was part of the USSR, gaining its independence in 1991. There have been problems, but none of which affects the hash. Indeed there are several things going for hashing in the country:
(1) There is little else to do (2) The ex-pat community is large enough to support a good size kennel, but small enough that there is something of a community spirit. (3) There is easy access to the desert. (4) The local international hotels are happy to let foreigners hold a circle in a corner of their car parks.
Bashi H3 was founded by a group of senior members of the diplomatic community, including the female US Ambassador and the DCM of the British Embassy. The always entertaining Sister Michael was another key member in the founding years. The pack averages around 30 - often going higher – and is about 80 percent ex-pat. The giant American Uzebek Airbase provided a few runners. Despite being a country of desert it can get cold in winter with the occasional run in the snow. Thanks to Andy and Sandie Smith
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Dilek Twinkle Toes Boke and husband Asaf Blow Hard Boke are core members of the Ankara Hash with over 1200 runs between them. Asaf ranks third on the run total table, while Dilek is fourth and the top ranking woman.
Blow Hard is long term
hash horn and leader of the weekly singing of Father
Both have had distinguished non-hash careers, he as a architecture and artist, Twinkle Toes as a ballerina.
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Twin Peaks is an American Emmy Award-nominated TV drama and a great hash name, usually given to Harriettes with large boobs.
Twin Peaks Paula ‘Twin Peaks’ Bunting is one of the most distinguished figures (no pun intended) on the UK hash circuit. She was founder of Sheffield Saturday H3, GM of both City H3 and London H3, and was involved in the Cardiff 2004 committee with special responsibility for the Hash Train |
Hashes occasionally wander across borders to run in two different countries on one run. Stockholm for example has a yearly hash in Helsingborg where they start on the Swedish side and cross the ferry to finish in Denmark, where the beer is notably cheaper. This tends to be more a European thing, where countries are smaller and border guards less likely to shoot you. In fact in Switzerland they do this kind of thing regularly. However Bahrain also has an annual hash camp where the run goes across the border with Oman. The most famous cross border run is perhaps the Gibraltar - Spain - Morocco hash that took in three countries in one day. |
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of weekend trips faded away. With traffic becoming a
problem, hares were increasingly reluctant to travel too far from the
town centre.
higher
on an advertised barbeque run in summer. They met at 12.30 (hash time)
and travel out to the venue by bus. 
‘Fethiye Coffin Dodgers’. 