Ride:- 188Date:- 13/14 Dec 2003Location:- Uthai ThaniHares:- Patricia Weismantel and AnnieScribe:- ?This hash was set in the wilds of Uthai Thani, a place not frequented very often by hashers. I traveled up from Bangkok with Snow White and Grunter and we made it in 2.5 hours. It was great to follow correct misdirections and not go wrong for once. The ride was scheduled to start at 1pm but at 12.30pm there seemed to be hardly any bikes or their riders to be seen. Karen Grossart broke the silence by blowing up her back tyre and then was inundated with kind offers of help from some resort workers and the ever helpful Peter Coeshott. Nancy managed to talk her way into borrowing one of Nigel's less costly bikes ( she promises there was no flesh exploded ) to which she added her own saddle, for extra comfort.With 5 minutes before the ride began, suddenly hashers appeared from everywhere. They had been carbo-loading in the restaurant. Many of the regular faces weren't around today, due to a bush hash clash and supposedly last minute frantic Christmas shopping. So it was a late set off (some were still scraping their plates). ON ON!The trail began with the most glorious views cycling alongside the Chao Phraya river. It led us through beautiful beech forests, quiet village roads and then a splendid zone of dried mud ruts. There were ruts on the left, the right and in the middle. Ruts, ruts, ruts. We had to pick a rut and go for it, then re - saddle and pick another. Nigel became stuntman of the day when he was catapulted off his bike, luckily with a nice pile of leaves to break the fall. At a check I noticed Karen was missing and had been for sometime. I called her on her mobile, she said she heard it ringing in her camelpack but couldn't get to it. She knocked it and heard me shouting out of her bag "Where on earth are you?".At the water stop I announced I'd been asked to do the write up and so informed hashers to do something eventful on their bikes. Then Karen rode in with more tales of punctures, wrong turns and more catapulting. She was obviously after the award too. Will had fixed up her tyre, Jock her pedals, and Tania provided the belly giggles watching all the commotion. Lunch was a Cornetto ice-cream. On On, Patricia and Annie had really set a formidable ride. We even followed paper through a WAT which cut off a dodgy dog corner. We hit the rice paddies and it was so different to usual hashing scenery. The sun was beginning to set and we were on the last 5km's but feeling it in the legs, plus starving hungry. At a junction, we saw no paper so went left instead of right and ended up doing a few extra km's ( "I told you to go RIGHT at the junction" chuckled Patricia later, well I wasn't listening obviously). The odometer read 50km's and I agreed with the description of the ride as being "Challenging flat"!It was getting dark as we rode into the resort, but we sniffed out the sarnies and grog just fine. The food got 12/10, there was even little swirly pastry things - they thought of everything. In the circle various sinners got their penance, some more than others. " I don't even like beer" said Karen on her 4th Down Down. It was a fun circle to end the perfect day in the big outdoors with fresh air, fresh smells and fun people.Finally, Karen and I would like to cheekily suggest a date change for the next hash, as we have a school thing on…how about the 31st?