“The Haircut” (The Waifs)

Well, it wasn’t all dark and depressing in Saigon and Phnom Penh… we did of course find ways to enjoy ourselves… There were the usual drinks and dinners (including a 2 litre fishbowl of vodka and sprite for one of our Irish contingent, and the invention of a drinking game involving picking up an ice cube with chopsticks and rotating it around your head) and a bit of shopping (at the most insane electrical store I have ever been to – pumping music and a massive crowd outside to launch the new range of… washing machines). There was a visit to a night market (“You like this t-shirt? It is my own design” – yet remarkably the next stall had the same designs), and an amazing seafood dinner in the markets where we arrived in a biggish group and resulted in some poor unsuspecting locals being told to move tables mid-soup. In Phnom Penh we visited the National Museum (which has a very nice courtyard, and a few exhibits which we were relying on Shinnick to take photos of) and also went to the Royal Palace to admire the beautiful architecture and decoration. We had lunch and a group game of Connect 4 (well, Rich and Maura were playing and the rest of us were oohing and aahing if we disagreed with any of their moves). The National Museum:

The Royal Palace:

Even monks take photos at the Royal Palace: Rich and Maura deeply engrossed in Connect 4: And for me, there was a visit to a hairdresser in Saigon for a long overdue set of highlights to sort out the somewhat dark re-growth that was making a mockery of my blonde-ness by indicating to others that perhaps I was not a natural blonde! As if! So I headed off to the same hairdresser that had finally sorted out Tim and Pete’s hair, and chose the blonde colours that he would put through. Every hairdresser does things their own way, and it is hard not to get a little worried as they work away, but I tried to relax and rely on the fact that he seemed to know what he was doing. After the foils were taken out, and my hair was washed, blow dried and straightened (what a luxury, although a little short lived in this humidity), I finally allowed myself a proper look… And found I was brunette! A bit of a shock, but something I have been meaning to do for a while, so it is all good! The new brunette me: