Day of Pampering

Tomorrow is the Marine Corps Ball, so what's a girl to do but to do but head to the salon for the works. Today was great, an awesome experience, but a bit surreal for this Texas girl. I found myself with 3 others ensconced in our salon chairs, sipping diet coke and chatting about...well the things women chat about when their husbands aren't around.

While I was relaxing and enjoying conversation and talking to my friends a very nice lady was trimming, filing and buffing my toenails, removing callouses (not that I would have such a thing) and basically making my feet look pretty. She also provided an excellent foot and calf massage before painting my toenails a very pretty shade of dark sparkly pink. Basically she gave me a first rate pedicure. It was wonderful, but wait that's not all....

At the same time I was getting my pedicure another lovely lady was filing and buffing my fingernails, trimming my cuticles, as well as massaging my hands and arms all the way to the shoulder and then painting my fingernails to match my toes. In short, my first ever (but hopefully not last) professional salon manicure...wait still not done...

Now remember there are four of us. We are sitting close enough together to chat while we enjoy this treatment and getting manicures and pedicures all at the same time. Getting the picture yet? Each of us has her own chair, each of us has a woman at our feet working away, each of us has a woman working on our hands, we have the drinks of our choice and good friends to talk to. We are the picture of spoiled. What more could any woman possibly want? A cream bath, of course.

What's a cream bath??? Oh lordy are you missing out! If we could get something like this in the states for less than our weekly grocery bill women would go hungry just to have this done every week, if not everyday. First you get your hair washed, usually my favorite part of a haircut. Next a very nice lady plops a bunch of good smelling deep conditioner onto your head and proceeds to spend the next 15 to 20 minutes massaging your scalp. Then eventually she wraps your head in a hot moist towel and while the conditioner does it's job she massages your neck, shoulders and upper back for about 30 minutes. Next a quick touch up massage of the scalp just in case you have tensed up while she was rubbing your back. Then she pops one of those big old fashioned hair dryer things over your head but instead of blowing hot dry air this one gently steams the conditioner into your hair. Meanwhile she is now scrubbing your shoulders, neck, and upper back back with warm moist towels to remove any left over massage lotion, wouldn't want to stain the clothes later, would we? Eventually there is another round of hair washing followed by a blow dry and styling and a cut if needed.

So there you have it four women sitting surrounded by not 1, not 2, but 3 women each, all working on hands, or feet or hair plus a 4th each for the shampoo. It sort of resembled a well-oiled nascar pit crew.

What would you pay for luxury like this? Manicure, pedicure, cream bath, but no hair cut today. Well if you live in Jakarta the bill would be around 338,000 rupiah, plus a tip for each of the ladies bringing the bill to around 400,000 rupiah. How much in dollars? Well currently $1 = 9100 rupiah. You do the math.