Typical Thailand
Today I needed to meet Anita at Central Bang Na at 2 pm to catch up on her life (and her on mine). True to form, I ran on a late schedule.
About 11:00 this morning I walked to the little hair salon 2 minutes from my apartment to "hide those grays" again.:) (I know, I know, get over it Sharon!:) When I got to the salon, I waited maybe 20 minutes til the hairdresser finished up with another customer. I knew already that I would be late to the mall, so I sent a text message to Anita.
Sure enough, about 2 pm, the hairdresser finished up with my hair after coloring it, letting it set in for a good half hour, rinsing, conditioning, massaging my head (ahhh, wonderful!), and then blow drying my hair straight. Now my hair color is "chestnut burgundy". Or something like that.. It's really not that far out. I'm amazed at how brave I've gotten at trying new colors here.:)
After paying my friend for the good job she did, I caught a songtaew to the intersection, took a bus as far as I could, took a motorcycle taxi to the walkway across from Central, and walked the rest of the way to meet Anita. This is typical transportation here. It's kinda fun to learn what connects where and what all the options are. Anyway, I met Anita about a half hour late at 2:30.
Anita and I had a great time catching up and then praying together at Au Bon Pain in the mall. We parted ways about 5:00. Lo and behold, when I walked out of the mall, the sky was gray and overcast, and it was sprinkling.
I don't like to take taxis because they are the most expensive form of transportation here, but I considered it and opted against it. BAD CHOICE! I boarded a bus instead, and got off about 2 bus stops down, where I needed to walk across a "saphan loi" (walking bridge) to cross the road and to the next bus I needed.
It was still not raining too heavily in the 10 minutes I walked to the bus. However, once on the bus, the heavens opened and water GUSHED down upon us. Traffic slowed immensely, and the rain kept pouring down. The rain was still coming down in sheets when I needed to get off the bus.
Ugh, I had been hoping to catch a motorcycle taxi to take me home. But I was instantly drenched after leaving the bus, so conveniently a car taxi was sitting nearby--going the wrong direction--and I jumped inside, thinking I'd be home in 10 minutes or less.
Wrong again! The nearest U-turn was eons away, or so it seemed in the stop and go traffic, and people kept butting in front of us in the U-turn lane. But....I finally made it home, my new (temporary) hairstyle completely ruined. That's OK, I like straight hair just for a couple days and then it's nice to have my wavy/curly hair back again.:)
I got home soon after 6:00; it took me about an hour to get home instead of the usual 30 minutes. At 6:30 I had some new students coming to my apartment, so I rushed about my apartment getting ready for them to come.
All in all it was a good day in spite of the rain and traffic. Tomorrow I will do another string of transportation to go teach at The Shelter in Don Muang 2 hours away. I will probably take a songtaew to a bus to the sky train to a van to a motorcycle taxi to The Shelter. Can't get too bored that way.:)