...and what the pack did with the run

This is the HH3 track that the paper was laid on, and was more or less followed by the pack of long runners; at least until the scent of the beer truck was detected and there was a headlong rush to the beer, by all or most of the front runners, with a list of short cutters redacted.
The long run had an overall distance of 7.5kms with a total ascent of just over 400m. The medium run was also challenging with a length of 4.7kms and an ascent of 260m. The short run was just 2.2kms, which by all accounts was completely bypassed by all in favour of doing the much more interesting medium run. A wise choice.

HH3 Sunday Run

This map shows the general directions to the HH3 run today, as per the directions published earlier by the sub-publisher of online scum.

The ‘I wanted to screw it up somewhere new’ run

The hare advises:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1862, Saturday, February 25th, 2017, 4:30: p.m.
Hare: Gan Yao
Misdirections: From Songkhla:
From the Kao Seng intersection take the Old Yala Road. At 23km bear right on the slip road and at 23.1 go right at the 'T' junction. After 400 meters at the traffic lights zero your trip meter. Go 2.3km along the highway. Turn left at the sign and go 500 meters to the runsite.
From Hat Yai: From the Klong Wa intersection (Near Makro) take Highway 43 East, passing Na Mom traffic lights at 8.2 km. At 21.4km turn right (at a conveniently located U turn. Ed.). Go 500 meters to the runsite.
From the Trappist 1 Solar System (If the newly discovered planets can support even single celled life there may be hashers)
You need to set out early, if your Toyota Starship is equipped with a light speed drive you should have left 40 years ago. Head to Songkhla, Thailand, 3rd planet from the sun and follow directions as above. And don't forget that Saturday is annual erection day so try to get along to the runsite a bit early and make your vote for the new committee count. The erection gets it on at 4:15 'ish.
Hatyai H3's run on Sunday 26th Februaryis a virgin lay at HH3 for Inch Dick and the directions are: From Songkhla, proceed to the traffic lights at Ang Thong, at the NYR / OYR intersection. From the traffic lights proceed south on the Old Yala Road (OYR) for 8.3km then turn right just before the road to the small mosque on the west side of the OYR (just past the large microwave tower on the east side of OYR). Proceed 2.8km along the concrete road through the village following hash signs or paper, then turn right onto the dirt road for 200m and right again to the runsite.
If coming from Hatyai, proceed along the New Chana Road for 20.6km from the overpass on the Sadao road, or 7.8km from the Phichit Road junction. Turn left at the Hash sign for 2.7km along the concrete road, then turn left onto the dirt road for 200m and right again to the runsite.
Finally, closer to home and to the present, there is a quiz night on Friday 24th February at the Office Bar. when yours truly will be setting the quiz (as he is apparently no longer able to set runs with the sudden influx of new hares at both hashes!). The newly victorious Hash team will be defending their title so come along and help put a stop t that! The fun starts at 8:00 p.m. probably next door in the Cosmos, but if that doesn't suit then come along to the Office Bar and do the quiz instead.

Assorted pix

Click 'em to see 'em big!

Erection flashback

Yes, it was a whole year ago that we had our last erection, at the runsite between Wat Khao Raam and the football field by the old school (which no longer exists, so don't go looking for it). This is Egghead announcing the candidate nominations, though I'm not sure what The Cube is doing here.

If you've never seen this bizarre annual ritual, be sure to come along to the hash this Saturday. And even if you have, come anyway or else you might get erected for something in absentia. It's happened to me more than once!

Short Screw gives us some length

A big long one yesterday from Short Screw: 9.78km on my GPS, though that includes just about every false trail and checkback. I had total ascent at 320m, but my watch always reads a bit low on that, so call it 350m. Everyone except Egghead got back within a couple minutes of 1:44. Even apart from the fact that it left Egghead wandering in the wilderness and almost caused an off-paper Sex Sprinter to miss the beer stop, this was a great run, certainly the best so far this year. Encore, please, Mr. Screw!

The short one sets a run

Geddit? Huh? Huh?

Saturday's hare is Short Screw and the run site is behind the Gor Sor Nor on the OYR. Full details are: Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1861, Saturday, February 18th, 2017, 4:30: p.m. 
Hare: Shorts Crew
Misdirections (as provided by the hare): From the Kao Seng intersection, go 4.3k along the Old Yala road, turn right (just after the Artillery wall) for 750m, before forking left along the track for about 400m. Bear right, then look for the runsite on the left.

If coming from Hat Yai direction: from the Ang Thong (Old/New Yala rd) intersection, go 6.4k north along the Old Yala road before turning left at the hash sign, etc.

Earlier information about Sunday's HH3  run suggested that Beavershot's plea (Same hill, different torture, below) might have fallen on deaf ears, but his agony has been heeded and the run site has now been changed and will now be on the Khun Thong-Big Tree road, on the left, 1k from Khun Thong (if heading for the big tree) or on the right 2.5k after the big tree (if heading for Khun Thong). From Songkhla the turning off the OYR is at 16k; if coming from Hatyai, get to Tha Kham and head east for 6k to the big tree then go straight ahead. There is still the possibility of an on-after at Thung Jaeng for those with a taste for southern Thai food and an ability to withstand torture by karaoke! 

Finally, first official notice of the SH3 AGM, which will occur next Saturday, 25th February, when it seems likely that we will be asked to elect a new GM. For once we have a couple of fairly obvious candidates, but all nominations are welcome and should be communicated to the On-Sex (Throbbin' Hood) or in her absence to any other committee member you happen to run into (see side-bar for details). All other offices are also notionally up for grabs so if you have developed a sudden lust for power and glory, get someone to nominate you or just nominate yourself!

Same hill, different torture

Since Egghead asked, here in blue is Jim's long tortuous SH3 run of January 7th. In yellow is yesterday's shorter tortuous run from Stick Insect & co. You can see that the former ran pretty much the whole length of the hill and back, while yesterday's just went over the bottom end of it. OK, can we now give this hill a break for a while?

Beyond the water tower

Directions (with apologies to JC):
JC: Go to Napong, to the water tower.
You: Ah, water?
JC: Yes, water, in tank near Napong.
You: Napong?
JC: Look  (fill in your name here) this is not a proposition from Wittgenstein. Napong. Water, on tower.
You: Ah si, si, water tower. etc. etc.

Or if you prefer it:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1860, Saturday 11th February 2017, 4:30 p.m.
Hares: Stick Insect and handsome assistant (from a short list of Kan Kai and Little Tool)
Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai Road for 4km and turn left at the Kuan Hin traffic lights then go about 6.2km and turn left for about 700m to the run site in the rubber (200 m beyond the water tower) on the left. From Hatyai, take the old road for 13km beyond the Ko Hong intersection and turn right at the Kuan Hin traffic lights etc. Coordinates are 7.071036N 100.611987E. in swish new digital format

HH3's run on Sunday is being set by the Egg family under their Hatyai avatars, Kai Jeow, Moo Sahb and possibly Full Moon if she can be levered out of bed in time. The run site is that which has already served HH3 (on New Years day) and SH3 (2 weeks ago) well this year: From Songkhla, take the Old Hatyai Road for 4.7 km and turn left. Proceed about 10.3 km (i.e. 2.3 km past Wat Khao Kloi) and turn left again. Bear right after 150m and carry on about 2km to the runsite, From Hatyai take Poonakan Rd.from it's junction with Kanjanawanich road for 11 km to Wat Khao Kloi then turn right and go 2.3k, then turn left etc. Coordinates are: 7°0'50.00"N 100°36'18.44"E. in tired old minutes and seconds.

The train option

A few sharp intakes of breath at the prospect of paying almost 7000 Baht to get to and from Ubon yesterday. So I've been looking at the possibility of doing at least part of the journey by train and getting up there works out quite well with an overnight train on Tuesday evening leaving Don Muang at 21:00 arriving early on Wednesday morning, A first class sleeping berth would be about 1200 Baht but a second class a/c is only 691/761 Baht (upper/lower berth) which could shave up to 1700 Baht off the cost.

Coming back by train is also possible but the train only has 2nd class a/c seats which are 551 Baht and would involve a 10 hour plus journey on Sunday slated to arrive at Don Muang on paper in good time to  connect with either a Thai Lion flight at 19:50 (575 Baht) or the last flight on a Sunday to Hatyai at 20:00 (Air Asia: 1340 Baht). So the cheapest option is as follows:

Tues. April 12, HDY - BKK, Air Asia, 17:40 -19:05; BKK - UBL, Thai Rail, 21:00 - 07:30 (Wed)
Sun. April 16, UBL - BKK, Thai Rail, 07:30 - 17:38, BKK - HDY, Lion Air, 19:50 - 21:10

This works out around 3000 Baht depending on your choice of bunk position on the train up, with a 1st class berth  adding another 500 Baht and the Air Asia flight instead of Lion Air on Sunday adding another 750 Baht.

Food for thought.

Ubon facts and figures

I've had a look at flight availability and cost for Ubon in April and as things stand assuming travelling up on Wednesday 12th April and returning on Sunday 16th April, we could get there and back for about 6800 Baht per person. Softy and Temp are going to check out a resort for us all to stay in so they will give us a price later, but looking at what's available on Traveloka the likely cost on a double room sharing basis is unlikely to be more than 500 Baht a night so the travel and accommodation will be well within 10,000 Baht per head.

I'm happy to make flight reservations for all those who want to commit to going now and are ok to fit in with those dates (or suggest alternatives that will have us in Ubon for Songkran as well as for the Friday and Saturday when there will be runs. I don't think the flights are going to get any cheaper so I think if we are going ahead we need to book by about the middle of this month. but of course if you want to you can always make your own arrangements later.

For the record, my price for the flights is based on:
Wed. April 12, HDY - BKK, Air Asia, 09:55 -11:20; BKK - UBL, Nok Air, 13:20 - 14:25
Sun. April 16, UBL - BKK, Air Asia, 09:15 - 10:20, BKK - HDY, Air Asia, 12:15 - 13:35

So could you let either Only a Yolk or me know by Sunday 12th February if you want to be included and I'll make the bookings.

Plain fare

From the road where the pack were dropped, the long run crossed the hill at the low point of the ridge (138m) formerly known as Fat Belly Pass, then followed a fairly economical route back to the run site, covering 6.8k in the process without the F's. Sex Printer ate this in an hour even with a 10 minute beer stop, and the rest of the pack weren't far behind. Gan Yao made it over the pass but then suffered a double blow out and trailed in 30 minutes behind everyone else having abandoned the paper somewhere after the beer stop, which he didn't make, in favor of the road, so probably adding another kilometer to the run. Meanwhile Ha Roy Rupee, who did make the beer stop. sensibly decided to call it a day there; a brave effort nonetheless. The short run started at the beer stop, the walkers taking all the Leo with them leaving the long run only a case of Chang to consume. No reports on how long it took them but the length was about 3k.
Stick Insect offered faint praise: a good run for visitors with nice wide trails allowing him to pass the fat guys who somehow managed to get ahead of him!
A lively circle conducted by Throbbin' Hood ensued at which Adam narrowly avoided being named Puppy Pimp in favor of the less complementary Trailer Trash much to the amusement of his wife. Then it was on on to Thung Jaeng and a racially and age segregated dinner with most of the Thais heading for the Karaoke room, the kids opting to pet the Egg family's newly pimped puppy and the Farangs, in some cases accompanied by their loving wives opting to appreciate the beer and food without the distraction of Squealer and Super Pig's dulcet tones.

Pussy power

This week's hares are those lovable characters, the SH3 pussies who will be setting out on Saturday morning to lay a run with a vague notion of where they are going and only Harram (a.k.a. Lucky) to guide them Will they make it? 

Details are: Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1859, Saturday, February 4th 2017, 4:30 p.m.
Hares: (From) Crackwurst, Only a Yolk, Meals on Wheels, Temporary Relief, Throbbin' Hood and All Black, and of course Harram who is the only one likely to know where she is!
Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the New Yala road for 6.5k then cross over the road and take the unused section of carriageway for 500m to the runsite. (For more comprehensive directions including the ex-Hatyai route and a map see here.)
Warning: This will be an A-B run so please try to be at the runsite by 4:25 p.m to be sure of getting on the transport, or give someone a call to let them know you are coming.
The adjacency of Tung Jaeng suggests that there will probably be an on-on-after featuring great food, passable beer and appalling Karaoke!

Sunday's HH3 run is not as previously advised, in Poonakan, but is now near Nam Noi School on the Old Hatyai road: From the Ko Yo intersection go 10k and do a U turn at the Nam Noi traffic lights then come back past the school (about 500m)  and look for a sign on the left The hare is still Robocop. Map below.