August 25, 2010 (Wednesday)
When I was young, I remember going to school with a well-maintained net bun. Under the bun was a perfectly braided ponytail I missed so much. While walking along the beachfront, you would notice a lot of locals offering services such as hairbraiding, henna tattoo and massage services. I decided to take up the braiding offer and do a colored cornrow on my hair for P300.00. I spent a good part of my morning talking to the people while waiting for the braiding and henna. It’s a good practice for your bargaining skills and to clarify and go into detail about what you want before agreeing to anything. I think that the friendliness and the easy going nature of the locals living there is largely due to the relaxing atmosphere and tourism status of the island. It’s very common to find vendors inviting you in your native language (sometimes English, Korean and even Chinese if you look like one) to engage in their services like sailing or water sports. Not before long, I was surrounded by other henna tattoo artists, boatmen, braiding and massage ladies and bystander locals even security guards wanting to take part in my bantering, storytelling and picture taking with my chosen braid lady and henna artist. Questions like what to do in the island, what they eat, what they do and who they meet came up. They told me I looked like a Korean over and over. I was endeared to them by the time my braids and my two hennas (P100.00 for a big one already plus I convinced the artist to give me a small one in the arm for free) were done. I had a really really nice experience talking and sharing some humor with them even for that short hour. I wondered if I stayed in Boracay a little longer and had exchanges like these, if their worry-free smiles will rub on me.
