Haircuts and Red Lights

Today was a productive day. We got an unusable vehicle towed back to our house from the mechanic still unfixed (hope that's a word) because the mechanic is taking 2 weeks off for the Chinese new year. Then Cameron and I went to get haircuts (see included pictures). That is a big splurge over here and frankly I spent twice what I had planned on spending. And for Cameron, even though he is just 5, his haircut was still half what I paid. I was shocked. Our total bill once we were all said and done, including haircut and shave for me and haircut for Cameron, was $3. See, I was planning on only $1 for myself but I had to go and include a shave with mine which doubled my bill to a whopping $2. Then tack on another $1 for Cameron and our whole haircutting budget was blown. From there we went to open up our new bank accounts. That took a while as most new accounts do even without language barriers. Our banker spoke pretty good English and we could say hello, good-bye and thank you in Khmai so that made things flow a lot easier. From there we had to run into the city to pick up some household necessities. Once in the city it began to dawn on me. I think this is the only place I have been where I feel out of place and a little like the odd one out when I stop at red lights and stay that way until the light turns green. I think traffic lights are viewed here as a loose suggestion or a courteous reminder rather than a mandate. At any given 4-way stop there are cars, bikes, motos, buses, vans, pedestrians, ox carts…etc coming from all 4 directions. And all yield way to the Escalades, Lexus and Mercedes that are driven by the wealthy upper class. Traffic over here truly takes a lot of getting used to. From there we went to pick up the girls from school and then home for dinner and homework. I will be having a conference call tonight with our CEO and chairman of the board tonight to discuss our new Hospitality House.