Wednesday, August 1, 2007

A day to pamper myself

Crawled out of bed at 2pm today and decide to go to the mall and see if i can find the stroller that Anna was eyeing on. Unfortunately Myers didnt have a nursery section and so i have to look elsewhere for the pram.

While window shopping, stumbled upon a manicure place (Pearl nail) and guess what, it's $20 for manicure and looking at my stubbly unkept nails, i decide to pamper myself for today. Would have gone for pedicure too if i wasnt wearing the wrong shoes...

Anycase, starting chatting with the therapist. I thought they were from Thailand but they were from Vietnam. The lady asked me where i was from and I told her singapore. They went "oh that's a lovely and pretty city." I thanked her and told her i thought vietnam was lovely too. She was surprised I have been to vietnam and i guess she got warmer.

She told me that they thought I was vietnamese. I laughed and told her that even when i was in Vietnam, the immigration officer and the locals thought i was vietnamese too. The custom guy actually squirted his eyes and asked me "You are not vietnamese?" I firmly shake my head. She commented that I can easily pass off as one because my features are like one except my skin colour.

I told her that when i was in Ben tham market in Ho Chi Ming previously, the local woman at the shoe stall actually slap my leg and shoo me away and told me in viet' "not to block her business". I didnt know what she was saying until the young girl opposite maning the bag store looked at my expression and asked me "You are not local?" I shook my head and said no. They spoke to each other and when the shoe lady realised her mistake, she warmly welcome me back.

When i finish recounting my experience, my nail therapist laughed and laughed loudly. She was sooo amused and she told my story to my colleagues in local language and they laughed. She said "You poor girl. She so bad." I laughed and told her its ok, I thought it was quite funny actually. My therapist asked me if i was wearing long sleeves and the pointed hat and i nodded my head. Then she asked me "But you are too fair." I told her I was coming from cambodia back then and was in the sun the whole week so i was really tan. So i was much darker than now. She went "Oh oh! Yes yes, that is why! You darker, even more vietnamese."

We went on the chat more about food and her life in sydney. I thought she did a really nice job on my nails and I am happy.

It is a good day. next week i shall do my pedicure. Happy.

4 comments:

Ah Dom said...

the way u wrote it reminds me of my encounters. the places that i can enjoy multi nationalism is while having foot massage or hair wash in China. if i tell them i am malaysian, they believe. if i tell them i am koreans, they believe. last but not least, if i tell them i am from beijing, they believes. Haha..

Nomad said...

alamak you! haaa. well, i can only pass off as viet, thai, or taiwanese, but i can never pull off as china nationals or korean or jap. Somehow i just stick out too differently. as for msia, somehow i dun look like one either (esp if i start talking without the accent)

Anonymous said...

What accent 'lah'? Got 'meh'? Really 'kah'?

Nomad said...

Haaa haa "dun beh-date"