Young girls and Manicures… Sounds like a song

Lich's sister Chung

The generator is yet again broken. My nephew and I returned to the store where we originally purchased it and had a talk as what our options are. When I told them I was interested in them taking back my piece of junk and upgrading to a better machine, I was appalled when they told me that I would only receive 50 percent of its value towards a new one. NO WAY!!  I have told them that I will be calling them every time the machine quits for the year that they guaranteed. Their mechanic will be so busy fixing our machine that he would have no time to work in the shop. They have now come 2 times to service the machine and say they will finish tomorrow. They have replaced almost every electrical component to ensure the smooth running of the machine. I think now I will put it for sale and build my own

A good generator

 diesel generator or purchase another that I see the telephone companies using. We will see.

If your country is anything like mine, you are probably full of nail shops staffed by Vietnamese. I personally have friends that own nail salons in Canada and I have to tell you that they do a very good business. In Canada, a customer to a nail salon can easily pay 60 dollars for the service. I can not imagine. What is so special about somebody else cutting and cleaning your nails? With the exception of the fish at Ba Ho nibbling at my cuticles, I have never had a nail treatment. So, in my never ending quest of trying to inform

soaking my nails

my readers the truth of Vietnam, I went to the source. Yes, you read it right…… the source.

With the help of my friend, I found a school that trained young girls in the area of aesthetics.  I entered a shop filled with girls between the ages of 16 and 18. This was where young girls were trained to do facials, massage, pedicures, manicures, and hair design. I had two girls work on my dirty misshaped nails and with a serious demeanor to work they went. All of the girls were dressed in a tan and brown uniform and did not seem to be a happy and humorous bunch. Maybe the customers were demanding or the teacher hard. For that matter, I never was able to distinguish who was the teacher.

The treatment started by me soaking my hands and toes in water. After a short time one

The girls at work

 girl took a foot, and the other a hand. First the nails were clipped with a small instrument and then came out the cuticle cutter. This process took quite some time and the girls paid close attention to what they were doing. Only once did I yelp because of a miss and the poor offending girl was immediately chastised. By the teacher? No, but by other girls. I was determined not to flinch or yelp again. After the cuticles were removed, the nails were then cut again and lemons rubbed on my toes. A final cleaning and filing and I was done. Was it a pleasant experience? Well…… maybe… Perhaps I am a bit of a stick in the mud, but it seems to me that doing the clipping myself is almost as good a job. I have to admit, the dry skin around my fingers is gone and perhaps that

hard working gals

might be important to some people. What I did find pleasurable was the tiny hand holding mine while working. It was like holding the hand of a child. I am also happy that my toenails are cut even. It is difficult to do that by ones self. The process took an hour and the bill for both the manicure and the pedicure came to 30000 dong or about 1.50 US. Will I go back? Yes I think so. There are so many things I used to do on my own but with the low costs here, why not support the local people? I find myself doing that a lot now. I will buy lottery tickets from some poor person and give them as a tip in a restaurant. That package of gum I buy from a child I will give to another child that could not afford it. It costs me almost nothing but it is something that others cannot afford.

It has been a very unusual day at the hotel. We have had an extremely high number of drunken young men coming to rent our rooms for an hour. I had thought we had the problem solved, but still they come. This is the first that my new night man has had to deal with them. Lich, my former night man was doing pretty well at keeping them out…. And a sad note…. About my former night man Lick. He was involved in a collision and ended face first into some obstacle. His jaw was split and broken. He is back from surgery done in Saigon and I am told is doing better. Hopefully he will make a full recovery.

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