Lucky Barber

Now that I have been here in Cambodia for month. I had not ever went out in Phnom Penh to venture out by myself. Well, I woke up this morning at around 9 am. I pretty much failed at waking up at 6am to go running with Rothany around the Independent Monument area. She failed as well. So, it work out for both of us. When I woke up, I felt very groggy and just that icky feeling of ughhhh..... I also noticed that my hair was getting pretty long and very tough to manage. I knew it was time for a haircut. What to do? I asked myself repeatedly for 10 minutes. I could either do three plans. A. Don't get a haircut. B. Wake up someone to go with me and get a haircut. C. Go and get a haircut by myself. Plan A sounded really good, but I thought to myself that it would not do me any good to procrastinate and come home in August with a fro. Plan B sounded good, but it really got down to, do I really need to bother someone and make them go with to get a haircut. Plan C came along, and I knew I had to and I knew it would be good for me and also a good lesson to learn to do things by yourself. Well, it happened, Plan C was the option and it took me a good couple minutes to get the nerve to just walk out of my room and down the stairs and out the guest house. I took a left from the guest house and then took a right and landed on the main road, either norodom or monivong or something like that and walked a couple blocks down and took a left. When I turned left at the next block, I was lucky to find a barber shop, coincidently called Lucky Barber. Wow! What luck I had! Well, I went right in and an elderly man greeted me with a smile and I sat down right in the chair. Wow. Going to a Cambodian Barber shop to get a haircut is quite different than back at home. In the sense that the barber knows what he is doing and he doesn't ask you how you feel about the haircut til the end. So, it was free reigns for him, but I did tell him I liked to put my hair in fohawkish look. Lol, he laughed and he said, of course! It was interesting to observed how he cut my hair. He put white powder around my neck and he began cutting furiously with scissors in one hand and a red comb in the other. It was fun to watch, he was very particular and wanted to make sure my haircut was even. It was a good 30 minutes for him to cut my hair because he took his time and wanted to make sure the haircut was good. He used several tools, one being a electric razor minus the electric. It is hard to explained, but try to imagine that. Well, as soon as I thought the haircut was over. He pushed out the chair so I was laying back and little did I know he began shaving my face. Surprise. Ahh, it was an interesting experience and I was happy he used a new blade. Don't worry, I watch him switched blades. I felt like I was in Sweeney Todd and I had a feeling he was going to make me into a pie. But, thank god that didn't happened. I did get 1 or 2 cuts when he was shaving, but they weren't major or anything and he apologize immediately and felt bad. I told him it was all good! It was nice I got a shave that I meant I didn't have to do it back at the hotel. Well, when it came time pay, I asked him how much it was and it turned out to be 4000 riel (about a $1), but I got a 1000 riel knocked off because of the cuts. So, yay!!!! A haircut for 75 cent! Wow, what a bargain and a shave included.
Well, after that feat, I felt great. A haircut can do a lot to give one's self motivation and inspiration, as well as conquering my fear of going out there by myself. I guess, I got used to going around with people from my group to places in groups and doing this and that in group, I forgot how it felt to do things individually. I think I was stuck in a rut where I created a security blanket of keeping myself shelter and creating a sense of security that I became comfortable staying in my room when we, as a group, were not doing anything, in our recreational time, it felt really good to do this by myself, which is only a start and a beginning and heck July will be an awesome month in Cambodia. Lots of crazy things happening everywhere, going to Ankor Wat next weekend and hopefully the weekend after Sihanoukville and some beaches and Singapore and hopefully visit my Grandma finally. I hope she isn't too upset? Cross your fingers?