18.2.23
We didn’t wake up until 9.30am.
It was the first time I’d slept past 5am since leaving home.
We definitely needed it.

Our plan today was train street and the lake, but not time to do both as we’re meeting the Hanoi Hashers at 1.30pm.

Hash House Harriers are world wide.

https://images.app.goo.gl/EL35oMzqcLwfKiHw8

We belong to 1 of 2 local hashes in Turkey. Traditionally a hash group is a drinking group with a walking problem. They have punishments for various situations, wearing pink, new shoes, showing affection to partners etc. Rugby type songs with swear words are the norm.

Our group is an off shoot of a more traditional group. A shandy or water at the end, a rendition of happy birthday as and when, a joke or a funny story from hashmaster Chris, a civilised meal afterwards and a pleasant leg stretch is our norm.

Opting to visit Hokiem Lake rather than train street was a great decision.
It’s been pedestrianised since we visited in 2014.
It was lovely being out of the noise, chaos and exhaust fumes and it’s as charming as we remembered.

It was Saturday and just lovely seeing families having fun together, many wearing their Saturday best.

Small children in various electric vehicles caused me heart failure. Thank goodness these weren’t a thing when my children were small.
Most were being remote-controlled by the parents, but the little bike ones weren’t and they were being driven really fast and slung round bends and tipped sideways. Remarkably no one fell off.

The constant beep beep beep was clearly an induction into their adult driving life.
It was mad!

Time for brunch, we opted for the Bahn Mi rolls again. They were better than the other day but I’m not sure I’ll try them again. Lots of pork in this one, but I really can’t eat the fat, John loves it.
We are definitely Mr & Mrs Spratt.

We set off to meet today’s fellow hashers.
I’d already looked at lots of their photos trying to assess whether we’d be the oldest and how hard their walks usually are.
Everyone seemed friendly and we were soon boarding the bus for an hour and a half ride to the start point.

Hanoi is huge and sprawls for many miles before any walkable greenery.
A very international mix of people American, French, German, Korean, Phillipino, British and Vietnamese.

After circling up it was time for action.

The walk was very tough. Nothing like our hash walks and even tougher than our Wednesday rambles, although shorter.
There were very steep hills that went on forever, a bit of flat and of course the downhills were equally steep and slippery.
Everyone was super fit and I was glad Jan was as scared of the downhills as me. We tottered down like a right pair of old biddies.
A young lad was behind me at one point, he was holding onto a branch that snapped, he slid down and whipped me round the ear with it 😂

The views were disappointing.
Jan said they never see blue sky in Hanoi.
I’m very jealous that John met a herd of water buffalo.

The worst over, it was time for a beer stop.
John had already run that way and showed us that there was a wall to get over by the graveyard.
Some made it, on my turn the makeshift brick steps moved and I grazed my elbow.
A few metres away was an easier way to get over the wall.
Huge jugs of beer, large coconut poppadoms, fruit, wasabi beans and nuts greeted us. The popadoms were really good.

They can definitely drink, John did pretty well too.
It wasn’t much further back to the start point after that and all flat, by now it was dark. I thought they were joking when their page said bring head torches.

Then the fun started, depending on your definition of fun.
Punishment ceremonies, ice blocks to sit on, more snacks and various excuses to drink more beer and lots of sweary songs.

John was in full blown loud drunk mode, which continued with his rousing rendition of Yogi Bear on the bus.

I bought a hash t-shirt for our Hashmaster Chris and all of us first timers were given sew on hash badges and I was given a hash vest as a present.
Bit by bit people got off the bus on the way back, various pee stops, one young man 4 times, he will now be paranoid about his prostate from all the comments, and 7 that were going on for Chinese although it’s unlikely they’ll have any recollection of it tomorrow.

They were nice people but I’m not sure it would be for me every week.

We arrived back near the lake and walked the opposite way around it from the morning.
It was still very crowded. The atmosphere was so lovely, crowds watching musicians, dancers and singers at several points.

John was swaying quite a bit so I was careful to steer him through the middle path and not near the waters edge.

We stopped for food, pointed at someone else’s food and asked for the same, actually I think it was all that was left as everyone seemed to have the same, beef noodle soup.
It was very good.

A tough 8 walking kms for me, 16 running kms for John plus walking to meet the group and back.

We went back to our hotel via the night market. Our usb leads that we bought last night are useless, my tablet was on charge all night and only made it to 34%. Unfortunately there was no sign of the wire stall. Lesson learnt, only buy reputable brands.

It was gone 11pm by the time we got back.

Time to pack our bags and sort what we need for our trekking trip in Sapa.
Keypad hotel are kindly looking after our cases until we come back in a few days.
John had hiccups since getting off the bus.
As I was falling into a walk induced coma he was still hiccuping 😂