We complain about the dusty dry season until rainy season comes along

No matter what the conditions are we go on our runs anyway. We HOPE that it wont be absolutely pissing down with rain but if it is, we go anyway. It does complicate things when this happens because trails are normally marked with water soluble powder and we therefore have to use paper, which we would prefer not to.

During the dry season we complain about how dusty it is though, because we are a bunch of complainers that will complain about anything.

The dry season normally takes place in what westerners would consider to be summer and man can it be extremely dry. This is a rarity for a tropical country but for reasons that I do not understand it can be weeks or even months between rainy days in Chiang Mai.

During these times it doesn't really even feel like you are in a tropical country to be honest... ok, that's not true. It is still extremely humid and hot so it still feels like Thailand.

For many of us this is our least favorite time of year because it is blisteringly hot and the vegetation tends to be non existent. This is one of the times of year where the farmers bring in their crops and i guess have a break before planting again pre-rainy season, which can be expected around August or September and continue through mid Nov.

When that time comes, we complain that it is to wet.

At the end of every run we still do our best to try to find some shade and get our ice blocks set up and i think the ice is a bit more appreciated during this time of year because man, it just feels like a barren wasteland during the dry season.

No matter what the conditions are, we go if we can always. In the many years that i have been Hashing in Chiang Mai there have only been 2 or 3 events that were called off for weather and it is considered a badge of honor if you are one of the few that completes a trail that is done in a horrendous downpour.

Of course we are still not doing runs at the moment until we get the "go ahead" from the police. We technically are not restricted from running right now but really would prefer to not upset the locals. Everyone is kind of on edge right now and as awful as it sounds, people are looking for someone to blame and foreigners are likely targets for this sort of thing. We realize it would only take a few social media posts of us gathering in large-ish numbers for our group to be in big trouble that it doesn't deserve.

So for now, we will just wait and get some drinking practice done in our own neighborhoods.