Run: 1953, 16 November 2020
Location: Lom Chai Restaurant, Lat Yao, Chatuchak
Hare: Tokyo Joe

As far as anyone could remember, this restaurant and the run site had not been used before by the BMH3. The restaurant is located on a soi off Ratchadapisek Road, mid-way between Wongsawang MRT and Ratchayothin BTS stations. As the FRBs were to discover later as they stumbled through it in the twilight, it is also located near the soon-to-be-opened Chatuchak SRT station.

Despite the good weather, the turnout was rather light. Present were the new GM Gringo, The Tickler, Malinee, Checkless, Spinning Dwarf, Penny Lame, Ga, Codpiece, Boobalube, Bullet, Tokyo Joe and Robert. We will distinguish him from other Roberts (for now) by referring to him as Welsh Robert.

At 5:15 the GM gave the word, and the hare Tokyo Joe issued the usual instructions and cautions. He noted that there were checks but no false trails and warned of an area at the end of a khlong with some nasty doggies and advised the pack to arrive suitably armed. Trail markings included arrows made with salmon-coloured chalk, a colour scheme which he hoped the pack would find to be aesthetically pleasing.

The first check was located near a small lake and a children’s playground in the middle of Moo-Ban Thai Cement. This was solved after a bit of milling about and then the pack went through a gate and into the Caltex and Burger King on Ratchadapisek. Down Ratchadapisek and through another gate, the pack was confronted by a second check on the edge of a large football field. The field was unusual for Bangkok in that it was actually covered in healthy-looking grass. The trail then followed Khlong Prapa and swung into another moo-ban with a long, leafy and uncharacteristically clean-looking canal. It then passed a large sports field and arrived at a third check located in a small park.

There were no marks for quite some distance, but the check was easily solved as there were only 3 exits from the park. By this time it was beginning to get dark and the trail moved out of the moo-ban and into a more down-scale neighbourhood, where it crossed the insalubrious waters of Khlong Prem Prachakon by a large rickety bridge decked with some dodgy-looking planks. It followed the khlong and then turned into a junkyard under the Ratcha-Vipa viaduct where, true to the warnings of the hare, some nasty junkyard dogs objected to the presence of our alien pack. This junkyard, incidentally, is the headquarters of the Khlong Prem Yacht Club. From here a flotilla of high-powered scows travel up and down the canal removing debris, combing through the unspeakable mess for treasure and sending the rest to the dump. The Khlong Prem Yacht Club is a beehive of human industry and canine sloth.

At this point, it was beginning to get dark. Front-runners Gringo, Checkless, Boobalube and Codpiece escaped from the junkyard-cum-yacht-club and headed south through the construction site of Chatuchak SRT station.

The remaining Hashers dodged Rover and Fido nipping at their heels and made it through the junkyard alive. There they took a short-cut over a road bridge over the khlong and straight back to the restaurant. Meanwhile, the front-runners had a bit of a hard time finding the trail. The SRT construction site was very busy and many of the trail markings had been wiped out. Their problems were compounded by the fact that the hare had mistakenly set the trail down a dead-end soi and when he realized his mistake he picked up the paper and re-laid it elsewhere. These diligent experts found a few strands of remaining paper on the incorrect trail and were further confused. Finally, they found the corrected trail, which led to Khlong Prem and another rickety bridge. On in was along the fashionable Right Bank of the khlong and under the Ratchavipa Overpass. Total length 8.2 km. The short-cut was a little under 6 km.

Charges were made mainly against the hare. Apparently, the visually appealing salmon-pink chalk was not appreciated by all. It was alleged that it became invisible at night-fall. In his defence the hare Tokyo Joe said that he loved salmon pink and this was his very first hare-set with the BMH3 anyway. For the write-up, he later supplied a photo of one of his highly-visible and very lovely marks on Ratchadapisek Road, taken about 9:30 PM.

All this talk of salmon pink and hare-sets evidently did not sit well with the highest Authorities. Following several more intemperate and ill-advised comments, the hare was unanimously voted the Prick of the Week. There was no real competition but Tokyo Joe wisely did not comment on his suspicion that the charges were Trumped-up and the election rigged.

He was heard to say that the rubber appendage attached to his loins seemed rather small to be an accurate representation of a willie.

Welsh Robert was heard to say that he would like to set a run. He was directed into the waiting clutches of the Trailmaster, Codpiece.

Dinner followed at the Lom Chai Restaurant. All but two of the Hashers attended.