I think I speak for all the few remaining Hashers in Chiang Mai when I say that going nearly 2 months now without a single meetup is not going to great for us. For a lot or perhaps all of us, these get togethers 3 times a week was most of our social interaction with really anyone.
We have decided at the top level here in Chiang Mai that we will not resume the runs until we get the green light from the government and a good indicator of when that time is will likely be when the bars are allowed to re-open since other than the running, that is basically what every Hash is.
We suspended operations during the lockdown only because we don't want to buck the system since much of the time our runs happen on private land and we actually are trespassing in many of those situations. If we were to combine this with the fact that it is still generally frowned upon for mass gatherings to take place and also combine it with the fact that most of us are foreigners, it could be bad for the organization as a whole.
In the meantime we have been doing our part to help out in a charitable fashion to give away food for those who are less fortunate in our community. As you may recall we gave away 200 meals for a day about a week ago, and it was very much appreciated by the local community and the police took notice of our work as well as they were there to help encourage social distancing.
We have also been holding regular Zoom meetups complete with beers for those of us that can manage to coordinate our time zones to hold such a thing. It is nice to see one another's faces and hopefully when the gathering ban is lifted we will be able to have a triumphant reunion of sorts. It does remain to be seen about how long it will be before some of the snow birds are able to freely come back to Thailand. As of now, getting into the country is nearly impossible and international leisure travel ban has been extended to the middle of June.
Hopefully we will get some good news soon. In the meantime I am sure everyone is getting a bit fatter because for a lot of us (including me) the thrice weekly runs were pretty much the only exercise we ever got. I suppose the first meetup might end up being more of a walk than a run.
Let's stay positive and hope for the best. The Thai government is making frequent announcements about what is and isn't allowed and as soon as we know something we will be certain to tell everyone about it.
