Day 42- a day at the salon like no other

Kathleen, her husband Ray (God love him, such a patient
man) and I set off for the other side of Beijing this morning
on a quest to find Tony and Guy's Hair Salon at the Hilton.
It was a rather inauspicious beginning to our day...

Two trains, an hour's ride, and a twenty minute walk later, we found the place- good thing we left early.  However, not one of the stylists spoke English, and Kathleen needed her hair colored, highlighted, and cut.  They were all intimidated by her blonde hair; I guess they are used to working on only dark hair here. One of the stylists eventually called another on the phone who spoke English, and soon we were being escorted in a cab to another salon.  Yep, the stylist rode with us, to safely deliver us to the salon, AND paid for our cab fare.  This sort of thing happens in Beijing all the time. The kindness these people display to Westerners, how they will go out of their way to help us poor laowais, is something to behold.  I think of all the times I have traveled the world, only to see Americans display rude and boorish behavior to the locals- we should take a lesson from these folks, for sure.  These are the moments that keep me smiling in China :)

So we get to the second salon, and were greeted with handshakes and head bows by no less than six people, including the owner, David.  I felt like I was passing through a line of greeters welcoming me to their church.  And from that moment on, it was a salon experience, like no other, y'all :)))  Our sweaters and purses were taken to lockers for safe keeping, then we were offered our choice of coffee, tea, or wine and chocolates.  Ummmm, yes, please!

I then was taken to the chair for a shampoo, where a separate attendant was responsible for only that. I was shampooed, had my scalp, shoulders, face, and ears massaged- TWICE.  In my nearly sleepy, relaxed and slobbering state, I was escorted back to my chair where my cappuccino and chocolates were waiting for me. (I did that twice, too:)  Two new stylists combed through my hair, working out the tangles.  My hair was in dreadful shape.  Each time I was combing it, it was breaking off in bits.  I needed much more than a trim job and conditioning.

In came the next stylist, who cut my hair like I have never had it done before.  It took him one and a half hours.  He treated my head of hair like he was sculpting a vase or something.  He would comb, and comb, and comb, and look at it, and finally...snip.  Then he would stand back, run his fingers through it, do some lunges, and go at it again.  This haircut was a cross between yoga, barbering, and some type of martial arts.  As long as they fed me coffee and chocolates, I didn't care- this was entertainment!

Kathleen had three stylists working on her...David the owner
was blow drying her hair, the woman's job was to hold a
lock of hair up for David, and the guy's job was to catch
the fly that was buzzing around bothering David as he
worked so meticulously on her hair!  I am not even making
this up...it took him about fifteen minutes and several
missed swipes, but damn if he didn't catch the fly!

After my hair was cut, it was back to the chair for
another shampoo, and another scalp, face, ears,
and shoulder massage.  I could get used to this!
What I wasn't so sure about was the amount of
hair I saw on the floor as I got up to go to the bowl, uh-oh.

Shampoo guy then spent an hour putting a deep conditioning
hair mask on individual locks of hair that he would massage
in then finger roll and pin it.  After another hour in the chair,
I had to go relieve myself of a couple cups of coffee.
I'll be danged if another attendant wasn't waiting for me
when I stepped out.  She went in to clean the bathroom
top to bottom.  Seriously, all I did was pee.  Her other
job was to continuously sweep the hair off the floor
as the stylists sculpted their masterpieces.  Wow.

They then put me under this crazy looking space ship
thing that glowed red on top.  It was pouring steam
out all around me- I got a facial, too :)

Four hours later, when all was said and done, I spent 1,200 yuan for the most incredible salon experience of my life.  (That's $200 USD) This was one I will likely not ever repeat again, but it was so worth it!  The hair mask conditioning treatment I bought has enough left for six more treatments.  I can go back anytime to have that done, and it will only cost me 100 yuan. (about $15 USD, but I'll get more cappuccino and chocolates, too ;)  They recommended that I come back about every three weeks for that- well, alrighty then, sign me up.

Well I should have known it would be a costly affair when I looked
across the street from the salon and saw the Lamborghini dealership!

How Ray busied himself for four hours while we were tied up at the salon, I will never know.  He was a saint, and managed to also scope out some prime shopping spots and a TGIF's for a very late lunch.  We were all starving, and a burger, fries and Coke never tasted so good!  We did a bit of shopping afterwards, then I was eager to get home to start planning the trip to Phuket, Thailand, for this next week.  I already had bought the airfare, but needed accommodations.

Since we get in late the first night, we're staying near the
airport simply to crash.  The next day we'll board a ferry
to Koh Phi Phi island to stay here...

Tohko Beach Resort!  I've always wanted to stay in a hut,
on stilts, looking out over the water, in Thailand :)

I'm pretty dang excited at the thought of waking up to this view!

After a hike in the rainforest, a snorkel from the beach, and putting my
toes in the sand and face to the sun, the next day we'll catch the ferry
back to Old Town Phuket, to stay at Quip's Bed and Breakfast.
It looks like a pretty cool, swanky, boutique kind of hotel.

When I saw the old, open beams, I knew this was the place for me!  Old
Town looks like the place to be for restaurants, bars, and shopping.
It will be fun to explore; see http://www.phuket-info.asia/PhuketTown.html

And with that, Day Two of Golden Week was a rousing success! Tomorrow it's back to hike another section of the Great Wall- life is good.  No, life is GREAT :)

G'nite, y'all!