And we’re all doing Hash in the Mountains.

Last Saturday, Maya and I joined a running group called the Yogyakarta Hash Harriers. Hash, as I’ve come to understand, was first started in the U.K. and is now internationally infamous; wherever there are expats you’ll find some Hashers. Pretty much, it’s a group of people who find trails to run and after the run circle up to chug beverages and sing songs- not too far off from Rugby it would seem. While this particular group used to be comprised of 80% foreigners, 20% locals, it is now reversed-Maya and I and were two of the three foreigners. This weekend we went up to Merapi and ran around 7 km at a leisurely pace. We ran through farms and forest, and even crossed over streams on rocks and bamboo bridges (bridge is really quite generous here). Every weekend there are three courses, and Hash becomes a family event. All the mothers and their kids walk the short course, some of the men do the medium, course, and the older experienced hashers run the long course, which meant Maya and I ran with all the men who debated every turn in the course in Javanese. All in all, it was beautiful and entertaining. I ran by tropical flowers, banana plantations, rice patties, soybean plants, peppers, corn, and a bunch of stuff that I asked the name of but have no idea what it actually was.
After the run, we circled up and chugged iced tea in the middle of the circle (there was some beer as well, but mostly just tea and soda). People were made to drink if they had committed such crimes as being newcomers, visitors, not wearing a hashing shirt (we qualified for all of these) crossing your arms in front of you, not wearing a shirt at all, wearing green or blue shoes, and having a birthday. This weekend there is a normal hash run on Saturday and a super long run on Sunday (20k), I want to make it to one of these but I’m not sure which one.
Sunday, I went to my third Jahtilan. I think I’m starting to recognize dancers. This time, there were only men, but quite a few. It started at noon and ended around 6pm, I arrived around four. Interesting things to note at this Jahtilan: a dancer at one point was brought in on what looked like a slatted coffin. Towards the end fluorescent light tubes were brought out and mostly smashed about, though one dancer insisted on eating a couple. This time, I went with a friend who knew one of the shamans and explained a little more like how the incense lit were a special kind to attract the devil. I’d really like to do some reading on this, but I’m told most of the literature on Jahtilan is written in Javanese and what little else there written is in Indonesian. Hopefully, I’ll keep going and understand a little more everything. Luckily, there’s another next week. As far as I can tell, Jahtilan is unique to Java, though styles vary all over the island. I’m going to try to see as many as I can in this last month here.
Sunday night, I went to my first wayang (puppet) show. This was a traditional version based on the Rumainya. It was held at a community center and had a full gamelan orchestra accompanying the puppeteer. Because this was a traditional wayang performance, it started around ten pm and went on until early in the morning (sometimes as late as five am!). We stayed for about an hour as it’s really rather slow in the beginning- I think in a bit over an hour, three puppet came on and moved their wrists maybe five times. Like most events here, this was all in Javanese. Maybe someday there will be a Wayang on a weekend night and I’ll pack up my coffee and ambition and stay all night.