Behind the Noodle Curtain

The 100 baht haircut that will last a lifetime

I walked by Easy Cut dozens of times, tucked as it is in Metro Mall, within view of my daily walk to the Asok MRT station below and the Interchange Building above.

I always thought it an odd place. I always thought Metro Mall an odd place, an underground collection of shops offering coffee, internet terminals, hair salons (what mall in Bangkok doesn’t have 19 salons!), a Family Mart and not much else.

Easy Cut is  like an express barber shop. Put 100 baht in a machine, it spits out a ticket receipt and number, hand it to the young barber and presto!, 10 minutes later you have a hair cut.
   
Ugh! I imagined cuts with lopsided sideburns, patchy trim and misaligned neck line. Then I found out a friend of mine, Khun Miken, goes there monthly. But he gets a close trim. I have long hair. (Well, I did.)

I inspected the place a number of times, seeing what kind of people get their hair cut and it seemed like the barbers did all kinds of lengths. But, really, I couldn’t imagine sitting outside the three-pod setup, in the middle of a semi-busy corridor, waiting to join the assembly line of  hair-cutting stations. It's like I canot afford anything better, like the salons across the hall.

I was spending 250-350 baht for barely acceptable cuts. Just what would 100 baht get me. If it was really bad, I’d have to stay home for a couple of weeks to let my ragged hair grow back.

Then one day, after some subtle and not-so subtle pressure to get rid of the comb-over I was charged with having (er, um, maybe . . .), I just got fed up with my screwed up hair. I thought if I paid lots of money for a cut, it might get fixed properly.

A Thai friend recommended a pricy place in Siam Paragon, figuring a cut would be about a 1000 baht to fix my mess. Yikes!  But before I could get up the courage to go to Paragon, I had a Really Bad Hair Day.

Sick, I tell ya! There were some hairs so long they hung down the side of my head, completely mismatched to its neighbours. Some stringy hair flopped on top of my bald patch. In fact, it looked like my hair was merely parked on my head.

I was outside Fortune Town IT Mall when I’d had enough of this hair disaster. I marched downstairs, where I knew there were some salons, and told them in halting Thai and Thinglish to take it all off with a Number 2. They didn’t have a Number 2. So the “stylist” proceeded to freehand trim my hair down to a couple of millimetres off the scalp.

Shock!

No there were no pictures of the clumps of hair on the salon floor. Only my SMS to Miken announcing the demise of my “Power”. That message reached him at the Londoner Brew Pub momentarily. He said I must go there right now to show it off.  When I reached the top of the exterior stairs to descend to the smoking area outside the bar entrance, four or five friends spontaneously applauded and shouted  approval. Huh?

I felt like a superstar. Little did I know my friends were, to be kind, disapproving of my alleged comb-over. People couldn’t believe I’d done it and said the hair looked so much better. I swear I detected looks of  relief, but all was forgotten when they said I looked much younger. I’m a sucker!

Anyway, this is a long story to get to Easy Cut. I went back to the Fortune Town salon one more time a month later but never liked their job. I took the bit in my mouth and went to Easy Cut next time. I’m still going there.

First, what a great location, at Asok MRT and Sukhumvit BTS interchange station. They also do very good regular haircuts, too, from what I could see of other clients.
 
As I said, you give the barber your ticket, sit in the chair, they take your glasses and put them on a tray in the cupboard and take your backpack/briefcase and lock that in the cupboard in front of you. Then they proceed very professionally.

In the end, they vacuum your head and away you go.

Apparently, according to other forum posts and web pages, Easy Cut used to be called QB House, a Japanese outfit that has dozens of shops in Hong Kong and Singapore. None is listed for Thailand now. Other reports put Easy Cut shops in big Bangkok malls. But I could not find an Easy Cut web site.

I conquered two fears: getting a brush cut after an entire life of long, at times, very long, hair and going to a 100 baht assembly-line barber.

I’d got an atrocious 80 baht cut in Pattaya last fall and regularly had 250-350 baht barely acceptable cuts in Bangkok so price is no guarantee of a good haircut in Thailand. 

PHOTO NOTES: Picture of waitress was taken (by Khun G) in Saigon a couple of years ago. I've been waiting to find an excuse to use it. And look at that field-size bald spot and what looks like a dangerously close comb-over. Side picture is of me with a fresh cut this week.

Rogue immigrants will be costly for Canadian sponsors

A fresh Supreme Court of Canada ruling on sponsors of immigrants ought to throw a bit of a chill on anyone considering helping their new foreign-born girlfriend or wife establish a life in Canada.

Immigration regulations say that if your sponsored family relative, e.g., wife, ends up on social assistance, then you have to pay back all of it.  The High Court ruling says if you can’t, the government must try to collect every penny of it. In effect, it says that if the indebted sponsor throws himself on the mercies of the courts and governments, you have another think coming. There’s no forgive and forget on the debt.

“The risk of a rogue relative properly lies on the sponsor, not the taxpayer,” Justice Ian Binnie wrote on behalf of the unanimous court, reported the Canadian Press.

The issue was brought to the federal court by the provincial government of Ontario and Ottawa, which sought to overturn an Ontario Appeal Court ruling in the case of a group of eight visa sponsors.

The group, claiming hardship in one way or another, said that the governments should have the option of deferring the debts or absolving the sponsors from the debts. Their debts to the Ontario government ranged from $10,000 to $94,000, according to news reports.

A provincial appeal  court sided with the group in 2008, saying  the governments could even go so far as forgiving the debt if they wanted. The 9-0 Supreme Court of Canada landmark decision this week says, not a chance! There’s no free ride on the taxpayers.

Federal immigration  law has always been clear that the sponsor has to financially support the immigrant should things go wrong. What the new ruling makes clear is that federal and provincial authorities can recover social assistance payments from sponsors and that they be treated like an ordinary debt.

The Supreme Court does allow some minimal discretion in that the law provides for an explanation of the sponsor’s hardship circumstances before collection enforcement is begun.  

In a couple of cases, said the news reports, the fiancée or spouse of the sponsor  arrived in Canada and immediately took off, ending up on social assistance.  Of course, you enter into a contract with the Immigration Department to look after the immigrant relative and recognize that you are financially responsible over sponsorship periods ranging from  three to 10 years.

This ought to make you re-weigh the consequences of sponsoring your girlfriend or new wife  from Thailand, or Laos or Cambodia or Vietnam. Or anywhere else, for that matter.

Why make a fuss over this ruling?  As Canadians, we always think  authorities or regulators will use common sense in hardship matters such as joblessness and misrepresentation, and maybe ease off a bit on any orders or rulings, even to the point of erasing debts. The High Court says an immigrant sponsor is not absolved from repayment of welfare in any way, shape or form.

Justice Binnie, The Canadian Press reported, said Parliament has become “increasingly concerned” about the financial burden that is being shifted to the public treasury to financially support sponsored relatives in immigrant families.

The Toronto Star reported the lower courts had heard that some 7,500 sponsored immigrants were on social assistance in 2004.

“Family reunification is based on the essential condition that in exchange for admission to this country the needs of the immigrant will be looked after by the sponsor, not by the public purse,” Justice Binnie wrote.

“Sponsors undertake these obligations in writing. They understand or ought to understand from the outset that default may have serious financial consequences for them.”

Let the warning be heard.

I’ve known guys who have practically been engaged within weeks of meeting a girl in Thailand and hope to get her into Canada. I’ve known and read about guys who were taken to the cleaners by girls they’ve only known in Thailand for a few months or a year. Maybe this ruling will encourage you to take a lot more care in throwing open the doors to Canada to a girl you really, really hardly know. Your financial independence depends on it.

SOURCES FOR THIS REPORT:

Globe and Mail redistribution of Canadian Press report

Toronto Star staff written report

Montreal Gazette redistribution of PostMedia News report.

Blogger gets by on 200 baht a day in 30-day challenge

Get your digital butt over to Thailand, Land of Smiles -- that sounds vaguely suggestive -- and see how author Talen is Living Like a Thai for a month.

His personal challenge is to spend no more than 200 baht ($6.44) a day, which is a little bit more than what the average Thai worker earns.

Only problem is that he's now on day 9 and has spent 3705 baht out of his 6000 baht budget. Day 9 proved to be his undoing. Or did it? Think not of belt tightening but belt strangling!

Now some readers object to his title and/or his "stupid" project. Some say he's "making fun of Thais" or "he's not really living like a Thai" when he sits in his air con condo apartment by himself and enjoys the comfort of a fridge, TV, stereo and computers.

You can be the judge by reading  his first post and following ones on why he's doing the month-long challenge.

Having known Talen online for three years and about a year personally, I know that he's a keen observer and analyst of Thai culture and certainly is aware of its beauty and its warts, as all cultures have.  He would only take on such a project in a respectful, balanced and faithful manner. The seriousness that he's applying to the task makes any objections quite foolish.