{"id":984,"date":"2016-01-04T07:16:09","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T14:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/?p=984"},"modified":"2016-01-07T05:03:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T12:03:24","slug":"the-price-of-luxury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/the-price-of-luxury\/","title":{"rendered":"The price of luxury"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"$6.12<\/a>
[$6.12 sushi (drinks included).]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I finally did it. I got a Thai massage. Today has been a day of hedonistic debauchery. I went for my usual breakfast and gourmet coffee at a local sculpture garden ($3.77).<\/p>\n

Then I went to get my first non self inflicted haircut in 6 years ($2.79). Let the record show that I overpaid for this. While I was sitting in the barber chair, I noticed there was Thai writing next to the English price, with what I quickly surmised was a list of prices for the locals. With the help of google I was able to determine that I was being gougued an extra 56 cents. I let it go….just this time, but I did point at the list upon completion and winked at the barber. He knew I knew…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Getting
[Getting gouged by tourist haircut prices.]<\/figcaption><\/figure>On my way back home I passed by the Thai massage ladies to which I finally succumbed. The massage started quite well, with a beautiful woman carefully caressing my back, but after 5 short minutes, there were hushed whispers behind me, and a sleight of hand happened by which my pretty masseuse was swapped by what I could only surmise (by the wrinkly hands I could sporadically see) was an older small woman. I was about to complain when I realized that the 90 pound woman fiercely bouncing on my back had the full on Kung Fu Grip. This woman caressed and tortured me for a whole hour, only to request $5.59 for her services. I gladly paid her that and a 10% tip which she profusely thanked me for.<\/p>\n

Seeing that I was on a roll, I asked for a manicure, and then a pedicure, none of which I’ve ever had in my entire life. The nice lady was polite enough to only smile at the sight of a small army worth of dead skin she removed. There were some smiles and Thai rumblings exchanged that I could only guess expressed disapproval at my lack of extremity hygiene. Total price for an hour worth of pedicure and manicures…$11.17.<\/p>\n

When I returned to the hotel ($25\/night includes pool), I had a message from friends inviting me to sushi. I took my only non t-shirt to have it ironed for $0.25, seeing that I was in full-on pamper mode. I finally joined my friends for food where I dropped another $6.12, beer included.<\/p>\n

We capped the night at a cafe\/pub garden at which the expats were dancing Tango. Two beers ($4.47). Taxi ride home ($0.56). I did have to share it with some strangers, so that was mildly offensive and financially crippling.<\/p>\n

There was a lot of tipping going around which likely threw my entire finances off. For that matter, I may have to ask to come back early from my leave of absence if I keep spending like this.<\/p>\n

Total for the day including pad Thai lunch and hotel for one night…. $61.28. \u00c2\u00a0I couldn’t keep this level of spending even if my nails grew on demand.<\/p>\n

p.s. Yes, I’m a little behind on my posts. \u00c2\u00a0I’m actually en route to Vietnam now (yay buses with WiFi).<\/p>\n

\"With
With views like this, who needs a pool?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I finally did it. I got a Thai massage. Today has been a day of hedonistic debauchery. I went for my usual breakfast and gourmet coffee at a local sculpture garden ($3.77). Then I went to get my first non self inflicted haircut in 6 years ($2.79). Let the record show that I … Continue reading The price of luxury<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1133,"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions\/1133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quesejoda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}