Hashing in the Land of Not Quite Right

I finally own my first hash gear - in fact, I went from none to two t-shirts in just one weekend. I've got a fair number of patches too - I should really sew them on to something... or just pile them up until my next visit to mom in Canada. (That was a joke, mom. Sort of.)

Friday from work, I took the subway over to Seoul Station to hook up with Dirty, Countess and DSD (hash names, obviously) and head down to hash the 800th run with the Geoje/Koje-doH3. It turned out to be one hell of a long trip. First off, our train didn't even leave Seoul until 9:20. In spite of the fact that KTX is a marvel of high speed train technology, that still didn't get us to Gupo until around midnight. And oddly there was absolutely no soju in either of the convenience stores in the station, leaving us with bekseju, which I can now conclusively say that I hate. The reason we ended up in Gupo and not Busan is that Lunesta, another hasher, lives there. In her apartment, we managed to fit 8 hashers and her roommate. Those are some skillz, I tell ya.

The next day Thanx and I Pee Weigh arrived, along with three hashers from Hong Kong. We went and had do-it-yourself fresh spring rolls at a Vietnamese place for breakfast/lunch - incredibly delicious. Then we started the odyssey - cabs to Lunesta's to grab our bags. Walking to the local bus station. A bus into Busan. A subway to the ferry terminal. An hour long ferry ride. Taxis to Eager Beaver's place, where we were crashing for the night.

Finally, pizza and beer was procured and we were all able to chill out. After that we hit up with Koje-do night scene, which I have to say is not exactly exciting. We bar hopped a bit, one of the Hong Kong hashers got to talking with a British guy on the street and somehow that led to us singing Like a Virgin in a juicy bar. Yep, that's what happens when you hang out with hashers - the absolute last thing you'd expect!

We all woke up fairly early to shower and headed to the clubhouse to pay hash cash and grab t-shirts. From there all us Southsiiiider's were put into various cars and off we headed. The Koje-do hash was my first family hash and there were a few differences. First off, while longish, it was more flat than uphill, something I enjoyed immensely. Secondly, they didn't lay any false trails, so it was a relaxing meander through the countryside in the sun - damn is it nice to get out of Seoul! Secondly, the circle and down down are considerably more tame - no asking virgins inappropriate questions about their sex lives, for example. The songs were pretty lame, too. However, they aren't all boring - when you get called up to drink, after a few gulps, you are supposed to chuck a bowl of beer on your head. We were called up to sing a song of our own and the children were told to plug their ears, though we kept it innuendo enough that it was cleanish. And we all intended to actually down a beer, in Southsiiiide tradition. However, they sprayed us liberally, leaving everyone a bit smelly for the trip home!

Family hashing reminded me a bit of Scouting events, in terms of there being hiking with kids and dogs. However, it's considerably less organized and for sure, there is plenty of beer for the grownups. So, not as exciting as Seoul-style hashing, but the trail was fantastic. And I got to hear the Korean pop song, Nobody, played on a church organ while using the bathrooms. I had forgotten the rock star sensation of being a foreigner outside of Seoul as well.

After the down down, we made our way onto a local bus to the bus station, where the trip home stalled a bit. I guess we should have booked tickets in advance, because we had two hours to wait until the first bus with available tickets. We went for a bit of a wander and found some delicious soy ice cream, so it wasn't a total waste! Then we sat on a bus for four hours, taxied it to HBC and I decided it was time for some TV, being tired but not sleepy, so here I am, in a rather smokey PC bang. Time to get on the new computer buying, I must say.