Then why on bloody earth is hashing in Asia so damn expensive?
Seriously, across the U.S. and even most of Europe, hashes were rarely more than 5-8 dollars. Here in Thailand most trails are closer to 12. I mean, I don't know the economics of hashing in Asia as I haven't been here long enough, but last night I paid the equivalent of a night in a hotel to hash the trail. Granted you are generally fed along with the beer, but it still doesn't add up.
A bit of simple math if you want to calculate the prices as I write them. $1 is roughly 35 baht, give or take a couple baht. If you do the math, you'll see why I am pissed off.
It should be noted, that despite the very negative tone of this post, I was incredibly composed during the event and outside of feeling like my wallet was raped like the cellmate of a guy named Bubba in a maximum security prison, I met many very cool hashers and saw some great trails.
I just felt it wasn't worth the couple hundred bucks I had to cough up for it.
Ok, on to Mekong Indochina 2008.
I caught a bus up to Sukothai after spending a couple days in Bangkok. I was unable to hash with them as finding my guest house took me exceedingly long, but I did get to meet a few of the Bangkok hashers at Noriega's, a bar owned by a hasher named... Noriega. We kicked back a few beers and chatted for a couple hours before I called it a night, got ripped off by a taxi to the guest house (he wanted 500 baht, I talked him down to 350, turns out it should have cost closer to 200...). Then headed up to Sukothai the next day.
Arriving with roughly two hours before the first night's events, I walked into registration and was basically assaulted for not rego-ing on the website months ahead of time. Well, fuck you, it said in plain english on the website that we were more than welcome to rego on-site after the online registration closed.
I even e-mailed the presiding GM before leaving Switzerland 3 days prior to let her know I was coming and if there was anything I should know, to which I never recieved a response.
This only compounded the fact I was missing the Red Dress Run that I paid 800 baht for on my way in. Sure, we'll take your money, never mind that we've already done trail and are having circle now... Whatever, charity, right?
Anyways, I with rego a complete clusterfuck (from people I talked to, even the pre-regs were having trouble at sign-in), I saw a hasher saying that if anyone needed a room, to go to him.
I walked over, and he (very lucky I don't remember his hash name because I have never been treated so rudely) asked if I had pre-registered online. I said no, he said, "Well, why not?" Then continued that since I didn't register yet he couldn't help me before basically telling me to go away.
Ok, so this guy is a complete dick, whatever. I finally get up to the registration/sign in desk and they give me a form to fill out and take my...
3500 baht.
I see a spot at the bottom of the rego that says if I need a room (great, I do!) I can pay an extra 500 baht and they will get one for me. I ask if they can still do this, they say, "yes." so I fill it in and they take another 500 baht from me.
Total event cost so far (including the 350 baht bus trip from Bangkok) is now 5500 baht.
They send me over to asshole hasher running the hotel stuff and he AGAIN tells me that since I didn't pre-reg online I am basically shit out of luck and then asks me AGAIN why I didn't pre-reg.
Sorry fuck-tard, but I ONLY FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS EVENT 3 DAYS AGO. I know I am in Thailand, but your dumb ass obviously speaks english well enough to understand the words coming out of my mouth if you cared to remember them.
Then he shows me a map of the area and says I can "try here, but you better hurry because the bus leaves in 20 minutes." Then tells me I SHOULD HAVE PRE REGISTERED ONLINE.
At this point I am ready to punch this dick in the throat and beat him over the head with his laptop.
Mind you, they never bothered to refund me the extra 500 baht I paid for him to show me a fucking map.
So, I put my bag on, haul ass down the street and run into a couple hashers who point me in the direction of a better and cheaper place that is also much closer. I go, pay for 2 nights (cost, 500 baht), throw on my red dress under my clothes and run back to the welcome site only to find the RDR circle had finished only a few minutes prior while I was getting my room. Woot...
I go to the beer area for a much needed beer, only to discover they are CHARGING FOR BEER!? 50 baht a cup.
Ok, it's day one, I have already spent 6000 baht and I am getting charged for beer? Class, can anyone tell me what's wrong with this picture?
So, still wearing my red dress under my clothes I get on the bus to the first night's event. If you attended the train to Chiang Mai for Interhash 2006, it was the same thing. Great traditional Thai food, a spectacular showcase put on by the city, speech by the mayor, etc.
This had the chance to improve my mood with only one flaw. No beer at the event. I guess regs were changed recently that barred alcohol from the old city site. Here I met Hasher Eliah (sp?), a chap from the Carolina's who had only started hashing a couple months prior. Having the being young and from the U.S. thing in common, we took a seat and watched the show. Much like Europe, almost every hasher I have met so far is over 40. Unlike Europe, there are a lot of expats with younger Asian ladies for girlfriends or wives. It's a cultural thing, I am not dismissing it, but just making a note. Please don't take those past couple sentences as a negative.
Ok, back to the event.
We arrived back at the welcome site where the beer was flowing, this time for free. There was a trio of singers/dancers on a small stage (including an incredibly cute Philippina of Spanish descent named Francesca who I got the opportunity to chat with later), and things seemed to settle into standard hash mingling, with the one exception being that when the dancers/singers left and the hashers took turns on stage, the crowd just didn't seem to care about being involved.
As people left, Eliah, Bimbo, a couple other hashers and myself were sitting around with the last of the beer in pitchers on the table just chatting into the night. The taps were closed by the Tiger Beer girls earlier in the night. As we ran out of beer, Eliah went to take a piss and on his way back discovered that the kegs were not untapped, only turned off. So, without an inkling of guilt (6000 baht, remember), we turned the taps back on and continued to drink until the early morning... At some point in the night someone asked the now drunk and heavily swearing Eliah where he was from.
Before he could answer, I jumped in and said he was from Canada. This began an entire weekend of Eliah pretending to be a "fucking Canadian, eh!" I will get back to that later.
Bimbo also recognized that we were the only ones left, so he suggested I create a group on Hashspace to celebrate those who continue to drink, even after everyone else has left. I thought up the name, L.O.St (Last Ones Standing) and made a point to create the group next time I was on Hashspace.
At roughly 4 a.m. we all parted ways back to our hotels to ready for trail at 1 p.m. the next day.
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