Brunei, Day 10, April 26

April 26th , 2008

Today began by dropping RN off at the airport at the proper time to catch his flight to Hong Kong. He left and then we went back to the office to do some work. I went and began preparing extra training material to cover the things that are not going to get done during the run of the three day training session.

I notified the staff at SPC that training about run from 9-4 every day that would give 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. I was then informed by SPC staff that we'd have 3 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon because people in Brunei enjoy talking 2 hours for lunch.

I may need to modify the training sessions to run from 9 until 5 to get a full 6 hours in.

At about 4 pm the power at the office went out, in actual fact the power was out for ½ of the country. Just before 5 we pile into Puah's car because we can no longer take the heat and they go looking for a place with air conditioning. They say that we're going to Sharelle's girlfriends business, she owns a “beauty parlor”.

“Beauty parlour” is apparently code for something else.

We walk in the door and are greated by girls and Sharelle. I kind of look around funny at the room its setup like a parlor where you would get a hair cut, but it lacking anything to cut your hair. The girls introduce themselves and I sit down in a chair in the corner.

A girl walks up to me and from across the table says, “Would you like a shampoo? Ear cleaning? Massage?” I shake my head No.

In my mind I'm thinking, “What the f*ck is going on here. Where did they bring me? Ear cleaning? Who the f*ck goes to a slutty place to get wax cleaned out of their ears? Asians are fricken' weird.”

The guys are chatting and within 5 minutes we leave to go get some coffee. Partly because of the odd look on my face the entire time we were there, or the fact that all the guys I was with shoved girls off of them. When we got there Sharelle was getting a shampoo in the chair, when we left the coffee shop 35 minutes later he was still upstairs getting a shampoo. Boy must have been dirty.

Now, I know why I picked the single chair to sit in...

After arriving back at the house we discover that the power is still out, but the street lights are on and the houses 6 doors down still have power. It really sucks to be at the end of a power grid when you can see lights on outside.

The benefits of having no power in 25 degree night: sitting on the front step drinking a cold beer. That beer had to have been the best beer that I have ever tasted. Period.