I’m leaving for Thailand and Cambodia tonight.  It’s after 4pm and I leave in 3 hours and I’m not packed yet, which I know is stressing Simon out way more than it is me.

The first time I left the US was really the first time I traveled anywhere.  It was my first time on a plane since I was in the 2nd grade (apart from the time I went skydiving when I was 18 and a daredevil nuts).  I had no idea how to pack for a trip, especially a month-long trip to an entirely different country.  I was traveling to Qatar- the desert basically- and didn’t pack sunglasses!  I’ve learned a few things since then.  First of which is to not pack a week in advance because seeing your packed suitcase everyday will make that week seem like the longest week of your life, and it’s already bound to feel long in the first place.

The second thing I’ve learned is that French braided pigtails is a perfect traveling hairdo. My hair is thick and long and it gets greasy and gross.  I don’t like skipping shampoo for even a day.  French braids keep my hair clean and smelling good.  French braided pigtails mean that sleeping isn’t uncomfortable because there is no bun or ponytail in between my head and my tiny plane pillow.  Finally, French braids mean that when I land I can just undo the braid and have wavy hair that looks “good enough”.

I went today to see if this little salon by my house would do french braided pigtails for me.  The woman said she would but she didn’t know how much it would cost because they don’t have that kind of thing on their services list.  I, stupidly, thought nothing of this.  The woman braided my hair in about ten minutes and told me about how she’d always do this to her daughter’s hair and her daughter would hate it because it meant she had to stop playing and sit still.  Later, her daughter hated it because she was 16 years old and didn’t want her mom making her look like a little girl.  ”Aww what a nice and blog-worthy exchange I am having right now”, I thought.

Then it came time to pay.  I thought the woman would say 25aed ($7) and I’d give her 50aed ($13) because she had been so nice.  Nope, she charged me ONE HUNDRED DIRHAMS!  $27 to get my hair braided!  What could I do though?  It was my fault for not making sure to agree on a price ahead of time.  Swindled!  The thing is, if she had charged me a reasonable amount, I would have gone back to her every time I was about to travel somewhere.

No matter, I leave for Thailand in just HOURS!

Happy New Year!!!

(Gubbi, queen of Dubai tumblr-ing, just wrote an excellent post on how to survive long-haul flights, and that’s 100% responsible for me writing this post now.  Thank you Gubbi!)