Kabupaten Bandung Barat

Here I am in Bandung, Indonesia . . . and what a day it was. I departed Pan Asia Hash on Monday morning, and the plan was to come to Bandung and see the sights . . . and find a couple hash clubs. Well, we arrived too late on Monday (after the 10 hour bus ride) to catch the Bandung Monday Hash, but I set out to find any other clubs in the city. There has never been a country page of hash contacts for Indonesia, but my plan on coming here was to figure one out. So scanning the HHH Genealogy, I found most of the clubs that were once here, had passed on to join G at the big old on-home in the sky. Fortunately, I did find a few hash clubs still active, and with a presence of some sort on the WWW. Case in point, today I was able to run with the Pola H3.

It was not easy to get to the start, as I had spent two days trolling their FB page in order to get a specific start location. After two day so of no luck, I extended my reach by friending the hasher that posted the most info, and asked her. Priscilla got back to me very quickly, and gave me a street address. Google Maps showed it was about 15 Kms to the north, on the edge of the city. Unable to read those directions, I just made a little placard of the address, and took it to the taxi stand in front of the hotel. I showed it to him, and hoped for the best in the true spirit of hashing adventure.

About 45 minutes to an hour later, and only 15 kms away, through the tiny streets and heavy traffic, we pull up this road until I see some people on the side of the road in brightly colored shirts. Ahhh, I figured these must be hashers. Good guess, well, at least one of them was. He spoke just enough English that he understood why I was there, and he told me he was just finishing trail, and on his way to the end. He took me down the hill until we hit the out trail, and he pointed me to it. Fortunately, at that moment I saw two hashers ahead in the distance, and ran forward to catch them. I told them I was just there to hash, and would follow along as I had no idea how the trail would be marked. They looked at me as some sort of Martian, and waved me along. 😊

What I could understand of the instructions on FB, were that there was three trails . . . short (5K), medium (8K), and long (12K). It was just starting to drizzle, so when they said they were planning to do the medium trail, I quickly agreed. They didn’t say much for the first couple KMs, but eventually one of these fine gentlemen started asking me a few questions. We chatted off and on throughout the trail, and by the end we had made enough headway that he offered to drive me back into town. Now that was good fortune, because we were so far off the beaten path that I had wondered how I would ever find a taxi this far out of town.

Fly the medium 8K trail along with us . . . https://www.relive.cc/view/v7O95y8ndLO

Anyway, we finished trail, and found a few hashers gathered at the on-in. Now, I should tell you that the Pola Hash is still following the COVID standard of setting trail in the morning, and allowing hashers to follow trail at anytime during the day. This explains why there were so few hashers seen on trail, and so few at the end. I paid my hash cash (~US $1.25), and had a few snacks, and some water. They serve no beer due to the current set up, but my new friend Nanang, said we would stop for a beer and dinner on the way back to town. Talk about the power of meeting and befriending local/visiting hashers. I should also add here, that within 10 minutes of us finishing trail, the skies opened up and it poured like Noah was just about finished with the ark. This gave me a chance to talk to a few other hashers, while we waited for the rain to settle before heading back to town.

After about a 45 minute drive back towards city center, as the streets are flooding from the downpour, Nanang pulls into a side street and parks. By this time, the rain has tapered off, but the flooding continued. We saunter into a happy looking pub, and order up the first round of beers. Looking at the menu, I respond to his questions with . . . I would just like some local food. I ended up with a lovely feast of soup and rice, along with some chips. We chatted for a while, and after a few more beers, he asks if I want to go hiking on Friday. BING, I waste no time in saying that would be awesome . . . so dropping me off at my hotel, he says he’ll send me a note on Friday for around a 1 pm departure for a hike in the mountains, along with one of his friends.

This is the power of the hash . . . and the wonderful friendships that form between hashers that were recent strangers, that a bond quickly forms. It’s a beautiful thing. Come back and see the pictures after the hike on Friday. On On.Læs mere