20 minute shampoo? Yes, please!

The last time I attempted getting my hair done in Asia, was when I was living in Shanghai in October 2003.  My hair was a mess, and I needed serious color and a cut.  My roommates and I went to a very expensive salon, and expected, well, a fairly good outcome.  My roommates did ok.  I, however, ended up coming out looking like a banana- the skin of a banana.  At first, they tried to give me highlights, but somehow they bleached me in such big chunks and so badly, that when they combed my hair out afterward, it literally looked STRIPED (horizontally, not vertically!).  And the color was awful.  The only answer was to simply bleach it all- which is what they did.  But somehow it still ended up yellow, instead of, say, blond.  It was AWFUL.  I wish I had a picture... I just spent a few minutes scouring my files, but I don't have one.  The next time I had my hair done was back in the States at Christmas 2003, and although they did their best, for some reason, after whatever they did, when I went back to China, my hair turned orange in parts!  I did find a picture of that... you can notice the orange along the side of my forehead on the left of the picture, and at my ends on both sides of my hair.  It was weird. 

Eventually I got all that orange cut off, or colored out, and I spent a few more years very blond- until I had a baby.  Well, actually, I went darker before that, but when Beni was 6 mos old, I decided I was done with coloring my hair for the meantime.  It's just not maintenance I want to deal with!  

So fast forward, because I'm getting lost in the point of my story... oh yes.  So here I am, now, in Laos, and it had been about 6 mos since my last haircut.  Now, I pretty much get a bob of some sort every time I cut my hair, so, letting it grow out for 6 mos doesn't necessarily look horrible.  But my hair is very thin, and the longer it gets the more useless it is.  So, I was dying for a haircut.  It was just driving me crazy! 

So I asked my SIL for a recommendation on where to go, and I booked an appointment, hoping for the best!

Now, when I was living in Shanghai, I remember people always saying that they would go get their hair washed and dried just for the massage.  I don't recall getting any massage at that expensive salon in Shanghai, and since I never dared set foot in another salon while I lived there, I never experienced this.  

Well, today, I had a 20 minute shampoo.  I got to lay down on this almost fully reclined chair- like a leather office chair, except, it's reclined, and has a foot rest- and rest my head on a slightly slanted back headrest, while the shampooer soaped me up twice, massaged with the shampoo in my hair for a good 10-15 minutes, and then did a conditioner as well, and massaged a while longer.  I love head massages, and she got my neck too, so it was WONDERFUL.  

After that, I went and sat in the chair, and the stylist asked what I wanted.  I said, about chin length, a bit longer in front than in back, and slightly layered, just to add some oomph.  And this is what I got: 

  Chin length, slightly longer in front than back, a slightly layered around the bottom for oomph! 

Of course, I didn't have any color done, and I am happy with that- I'm enjoying the ease of being natural in that sense these days, not having to worry about roots and whatnot.  Skipping the color definitely took a lot of the fear out of this experience.  But, I tend to be a weenie about my hair.  It's very thin and not that impressive, so I like to keep things simple and easy.  I'm NOT a do my hair every day kind of person, and I need a haircut that looks good without having to be "done".  So, I'm always a little anxious going into a haircut, especially with a new stylist, and even more so when language might be an issue.  But alas, it wasn't.  

And the best part?   It only cost me $15!  

So I'm thinking, I won't be shy about going to get my hair cut anymore here!  Between the head massage and how well she cut it... I'm in! :)

Have you ever had a haircut or color nightmare?     

Picture tour of our new house before we move in

The lease was signed today and we've agreed to meet again at the house on Saturday to get the keys!  This gives them time to finish cleaning up, and for us to just wait til Saturday to move!  Woohoo!!!  So here are the pictures I took today of our empty house!
(And yes, I am doing these pictures straight down the middle, all the same size so I don't have to deal with formatting!)

You remember...this is the house! 

When you come through the front doors, you find this open foyer area, and directly ahead the living room. 

To the right of the door (when you're standing in the doorway) is the stairway 

This is what the front door looks like from the living room

The kitchen (off the dining area, which is next to the living room)
We will put some kind of a work space island in the middle.

Right now this is the stove.  We will be pricing an oven/stove unit, and it will  come as part of the rental contract.

This is the other side of the kitchen... yes, the fridge is small.  It's a shame.
We will also need more shelves and stuff.  

The backyard, which you can access through a back door off the living/dining rooms

The house comes with this cute little kid. 

Beni liked shaking her hand. 

The downstairs bedroom- the room we will turn into a playroom.
The landlord is taking the bed away, and we're moving the wardrobe upstairs.

Downstairs bathroom- next to the kitchen, but actually tucked nicely away into a corner.
(Yay for a private main floor bathroom!!!!)

The dining room- you can see the kitchen door on the right, the living room on the left. 

Coming up the stairs

The view at the top of the stairs- directly ahead is where Joel might put a desk,
because that window looks directly out onto the Mekong.

Upstairs sitting room- we plan on changing things up here to make it much more comfortable.

Guest room- the door on the left is the balcony on the front of the house. 

Second bedroom- none of the beds are pushed against the walls, so the rooms look smaller than they are.

Master bedroom- door is the door to the bathroom

Wardrobe in the master

Master bath- not up to "western standards" for a master bath, but, it'll do...

Second bathroom upstairs

View out the window where the desk will be.

View out the windows in the sitting area.

The full sitting area

The stairwell from the sitting area

Looking down the stairs

Sitting on the front steps- you can see that lovely  floral tile there....

The driveway on the side of the house leading to the backyard

Carport in front of the house

I was kidding about her coming with the house.  She is the daughter of the landlord's granddaughter-
we had a few visitors stop by while we were handling things tonight!

The backyard from ground level

The sala

Back of the house- the back door which leads into the living/dining room

That's it!  I'll try to post photos of the finished rooms as we get to them!  I assume it will take a while! :)

Welcome back to Asia!

After a wonderful three weeks spent in Latvia, our family has finally arrived in Asia.  We're already in Laos now, but, this post is just going to be about being back in Asia... about our first stop, which was Bangkok, Thailand.

We knew we were back in Asia when....

Beni started attracting more attention than ever before!  We knew it would happen... but, as soon as we got here and out of the airport, people have just been ALL OVER her.  She's blonde, and let's face it, she's cute- and she's very white.  When we got to our hotel in Bangkok, just as we were checking in- actually, before we even got up to the desk- we had a group of men come up and comment on how cute she was, and ask if they could take a picture of her.  I said that they could, but I was carrying her in the Ergo- so when they extended their arms as though they wanted to hold her, I said no.  So that meant that I had this greasy, smelly strange man sidling up to me, putting his arm around me, pressing his HEAD AGAINST MY HEAD (ICK!) while his friend took a picture of us.

I was left wondering where in the photo album one puts the random picture of white people in Bangkok.  It's not like we're local, tribal people.  It's not like we're part of a show.  We were just random people in a hotel- and he's standing next to us like we're best friends.  Anyway... like I said, back in Asia...

And then, we went out for dinner at a restaurant a few blocks from the hotel.  As soon as we sat down we got swarmed by waitresses, one of whom simply grabbed Beni up from the table and carried her away! Now, many of you may not know, but, Beni has only ever been left with one real babysitter- who was a really good friend of ours, and it was only for a couple hours.  Otherwise, when she's away from me, she's been with either her dad, or my mom.  Needless to say, I'm not big on leaving her with just anyone, so having a waitress just swoop her up and carry her away was pushing the limits of what I'm comfortable with!  Of course, she was fine, although, it took her a bit to get used to it as well.  The attention didn't stop at the restaurant, at the hotel, at the airport the next day, or at any point since.

At the restaurant I had another experience which reminded me I was back in Asia... I carefully looked over the poorly translated menu and found two items called very similar names- something like fried vegetables mix.  The other I think was called stir fried vegetables.  So I chose one.  When it came out it was a plate overflowing with different seafood (mostly unrecognizable to us, although I spotted one prawn), and a few bits of green veggies. Huh, ok.  Something got lost in translation. ;) So I tried to explain to the waitress that I wanted ONLY vegetables... no chicken, no pork, no fish.... it took three waitresses and a lot of pointing to other items on the menu and pictures and such to figure out exactly what I wanted.  I did finally get a lovely plate of vegetables and some rice which suited me just fine.  We paid for the seafood plate, but neither of us touched it.  Ah well.

When we got back to the hotel, we came across the last thing that really made us go, "oh yeah, we're back in Asia!"  It was the bathroom... or I guess you could call it the showerroom.  It had a toilet, a sink and a shower... and by that I mean, a shower head.  It's just up on the wall in one corner of bathroom, not to close to the sink or toilet.  There is no shower curtain, no shower base.  The bathroom is simply tiled and you just shower in the open bathroom, and let the water run into the drain in one corner of the room.  Of course, not all Asian bathrooms are like this, and telling you we had a bathroom like this in our hotel, would also let you know that we only paid $20 for the room for the night...but, I'd say you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a hotel room in the States, no matter how cheap, that had a similar shower.

The good news is the weather is lovely and warm- er, hot- (if a bit rainy, but the middle of the night thunder storms are ok by me), the food is fantastic, it's great to be here with family (especially to meet our nephew who was born in March!)...in general, it's great to be back in Asia.  I look forward to sharing with you as we settle into our new host country and find our what it's going to be like to be a mother, a wife and a woman here in Laos!