Bai Bien Cua Toi (II) TRUE dventure: My first haircut in Vietnam

5:00 enough sleep....

Still early enough to make a phone call to the Scottish Money Man in Vancouver to secure the funding for Grandma's Nurse service until I get back there in a month....

OK, time to do it.  No point in delaying the torture anymore.  After NOT ONCE cheating on my Vancouver hairdresser of 15 years , I am going to get a haircut in this village.

It's about time for a haircut !

Maybe you've seen the episode of No Reservations in which Anthony Bourdain gets a haircut in Phnom Penh and afterwards can only hiss "I look like I swam too close to Three-Mile Island"  (Site of one of the worst Nuclear Reactor incidents in the US for those of you who don't remember).   

This in front of my mind's eye when I take a shower and prepare to scoot to the hairdresser, LOL

But having Zu along makes it easier..... at least I won't be the only one being mutilated by Viet scissors LOL.

There is  a women's hairdresser right next to the men's hairdressing 'salon'.  Zu doesn't have to wait, while my torture continues. 

 At the men's coiffeur: there are young guys ahead in line.  

The first one gets a haircut, a shave, a facial mask under a Hannibal-Lecter-like face mask (pimple combat?) AND he is getting his ears cleaned (For this the coiffeur places a coal-miner-lamp on his forehead and sticks various implements into the patient's ears.

While all this is going on, I wonder why the hairdresser looks so familiar.  His smirk finally gives it away.  He is a Viet look-alike of James Franco !

The next kid only gets a haircut.  And he looks much better AFTER the haircut than before.  My fear in waning slightly. 

NO getting out of that chair now, Zu !

Only ONE colour hair on the floor, LOL

OMG, it's my turn.  I'm willing to bet that I am the VERY FIRST Westerner who ever put his butt into this barber's chair, but this doesn't seem to phase him the least.   

At first he tentatively clips around with scissors while giving me a questioning look but when I make the clipper motion, he smiles, and continues to give me one of the very best haircuts of my life.  

How much does it cost? 20,000 VND or US$ 0.88.   

WHY would I go back to the West?

And YES.... I have to admit ....

....the fact that this guy is smoldering HOT does not hurt ;-)

When I'm on my way over to Mathias to sign an LOA, I see Zu & Tua fussing over a huge pile of something at the water's edge.   I even have to ask to finally understand what this is all about.

A fishing net crawling with LIVE crabs washed ashore.   Tua picks them out of the net and drops them in a big bag.  Muoi will take these babies apart and we will have fresh crab soup tomorrow morning.   

See why I LOVE this country ?

struggling crab at bottom left ....