One of the things that I really like about the Hash House Harriers is that if you try, you can find events that are happening all around the world and take part in them and then use this as a method of making some sort of vacation for yourself in the meantime.
The difference between going to Bahrain for a Hash event and just going there is that if you get in touch with the local Hash before the event the local people are going to bend over backwards to give you insider information that regular tourists would never have access to.
I have honestly never really contemplated going to Bahrain but as it turns out there is a rather large expat population there because of the energy industry and well, people with jobs that get near the age of 40 or above tend to drink beer and also a few of them tend to exercise here and there. When you combine these things you inevitably end up with a Hash House Harriers group if you are lucky.
Not only does the Bahrain Hash exist, but it is very active and they even have a website that is maintained and that is already a step above what we do in Chiang Mai.
I am planning on going to this "inter-Hash" even and reached out to some members of the local group and man oh man have they been super cool to me as far as helping me out with knowing the ins and outs of visiting there. When you normally visit a place what do you do? You probably jump on some website and find a hotel that is near the sites and pay too much for it just like everyone else but after just a few convos on a FB page that they maintain I was invited to a whatsapp group and the guys in a gals in there were really giving me high quality information about where to go and what the price should be if it is fair and they told me all sorts of things that you would never get from a google search. Some of them even offered to let me stay in a guestroom and this says a lot about the Hash House Harriers. These people don't have any idea who I am and they are already willing to put me up for free in their house? That's pretty awesome.
I declined of course because I wouldn't want to impose but now I am really looking forward to traveling there because I know that as soon as I hit the ground I have a group of people that are going to want to meet up for food and drinks and just be as helpful as they possibly can be. The Whatsapp group answers all of my questions and everyone has been super-nice even though they don't have to be.
This is the community of the Hash House Harriers that I think a lot of people need to take notice of. This is one of the largest international groups that exists of any sort. We are literally on every single continent including Antarctica. What other group can claim that?
It is nice to see another Hash Chapter that is as dedicated as Chiang Mai is and while it was around a decade ago, the international Hash event was hosted here a while back. We had close to 500 people attend and it was really something else. It took a lot of organization on our part and we were nervous that people weren't going to enjoy themselves but everyone did. We also got to rest easy knowing that a ton of people just met other like-minded people from all around the world and exchanged information and many of those people are folks that I still keep in touch with to this day.
This is just another reason to be involved with the Hash House Harriers if you get the chance. Not only do we tend to be rather active people but we are also completely willing to help people out with insider information for anyone that is going to come and run with us locally.
I am looking forward to going to Bahrain for this series of runs because honestly, If it wasn't for this event I can't think of any particularly good reason why I would ever plan on going there!
On On!
If you want to get involved with the International Hash this year you can get all the details at the Bahrain official Hash website