Malaysia

Rail Jerker’s Diary
KLANG H3 & HARRIETTES, Selangor, Malaysia
Friday, 9 September 2005 Hares: Hardy Boy & Penghulu

HARDY BOY’S BIG DAY OUT

The first engagement during my 3-week hash sojourn of the motherland of Hash was the Klang H4 Run at Putrajaya, put up in his usual flamboyant manner by Hardial Singh “Hardy Boy” Dhaliwal and his co-hare, Jacob “Penghulu”. The venue was Putrajaya, the spanking, futuristic, new, Federal Capital of Malaysia. It is located about 20 kilometers south east of Kuala Lumpur in the region where Cyberjaya, the Formula One Circuit and KLIA are located

Getting to Putrajaya was a problem for me. I came to know later that there is in fact a train and also a bus service from KL to Putrajaya, but it seems to be one of the best kept secrets of the bureaucracy. Probably, they plan to introduce flying saucers, which would be an appropriate means of transport for a dream place like this. However, Hardy Boy came to my rescue and arranged for Harbinder Singh to pick me up at 3 PM for the run to start at 6. We dropped in at the hare’s house in the entertainment and educational suburb of Sunway City to pick up some of the beer and a large dish of yogurt (the Sardarjis or Bhais as they are known in Malaysia, get their proverbial stamina from this).

With invitations sent out to all and sundry; the prospect of a good run, adequate beer and softies, T-shirt, and Bhai food; the reputation of Hardy Boy’s recent Full Moon run at the same venue; and for a few Malaysians the chance to see their capital for the first time, the turn out was about 160.

The run started and ended at a large hilltop park opposite the Shangri-La Hotel. And what a run it was – long, long and long! We went down the slope of the park, crossed the main road and did two loops of the jungle before emerging for what turned out to be a grand city tour. We left no corner or sight of Putrajaya unseen - the lake, the three bridges, along wide paved bicycle tracks on the boulevards, the mosque, the PM’s office, and many other magnificent seats of power. The roads and buildings were all brilliantly lighted up and with no pedestrians and very little traffic, and with the cool evening breeze, the place looked and felt like a fairyland. In the twilight, as our group of about eight stragglers played hide and seek with the paper, the Global Positioning System held by one of the veteran hashers came in handy. We had been out for about two hours and still he was announcing “two kilometers” to go. We made it together to the bottom of the hill park in two and half hours and then, with the end in sight, I let them pass and took a break. In another fifteen minutes the 100 Plus never tasted so good.

Klang H4 is one of the earlier hash chapters in the region having been running for 24 years. This was one of their regular weekly runs but it was also intended to promote KL’s bid for Interhash 2008. The multi-colour logo on the black T-shirt read “Kuala Lumpur Interhash 2008, 1st -3rd August, Genting Highlands, 70th Anniversary 1938-2008, Where it all began! http://www.interhashkl2008.com/.”

Drinks and snacks accompanied a rather long circle. Besides the run T-shirt and singlet for harriettes, various other T-shirts were given out for every imaginable misdemeanor. A sprightly hariette from Chengdu, China, and I, as the only overseas guests, were also awarded T-shirts with the usual drinks. I am yet to make out what she really meant when she modestly confessed to me at the circle her inability to sit on the kerb beside me because her skirt was too short. The food, as expected from a turbaned caterer, was great.

Around midnight, Kuljit ”One Shot Singh” and Rita dropped me back home. OSS is the GM of the elitist Royal Commonwealth Society H4. They run on the last Saturday of every month. One has to be a member of the Society to be a member of this chapter. It is indeed such variety of “rules” that make hashing around the world so interesting.

In organizing this run so ably Hardy Boy has lived up to his reputation. For me, it will remain a memorable event, as I am sure it will be for many other participants.

Juned “Rail Jerker” Choudhury
Dhaka H3
E-mail: nishatch@bdcom.com