The dream of a Thai Barber

-

What I loved the most about Thailand is the attentive and helpful people.

The Thais seemed to know how to be content and have simpler lives than the Japanese do, and I learned a lot from them.

Today I wanted to share my story with a barber shop I went to when I was staying in Bangkok.



Very good barber shop in Bang Chak area

The barber shop was a minute walk from where I stayed, and it had an average of 5.0 stars (193 reviews) on Google Maps, so I gave it a go.

The barber was really attentive, skilled, and friendly. His phone was ringing frequently, I can tell that he has a lot of regulars.

He was wearing a Boston Celtics jersey, with lots of things from the U.S. He told me about his longing for the U.S., especially San Diego.

My first and only NBA game I had a chance to watch in the stadium was Golden State Warriors vs. Boston Celtics. When I talked about it, his face fogged.

For me, it's just a dream..

"Wow, I envy you that you can see California. But for me, it's just a dream..."

That shocked me. I don't know how the travel visa works, or how much money he has saved. But the barber was in his home, and I saw his family there. 

It's probably tough and a less priority to visit San Diego.

All I could do is to have the Khao Soi noodles that his wife sells downstairs.



Education and mindset

I loved the haircut. He does his craft very well, and I think it was 200~250THB for the haircut. I really wanted him to keep reaching for the stars.

There should be a way. And if a genuine Singaporean business was in my shoes, maybe he might've said, "You want to go to the U.S. great. Have faith. So, how will you plan to get there? Let me give you some hints, and it's up to you whether you will follow through."

The struggles are what's beautiful

I think the fact that he is not in a stage where he can visit his dream destination can be a "struggle." But we become more creative when it's harder to achieve. 

A person that want to complete a marathon won't take a taxi ride to the finish line. His planning to be fit enough to complete the marathon is the actual fun part, when you look back at what you achieved after you made it to the finish line. 

Image from Unsplash


What I wrote for the google map review

So, I wrote a Goole Map review. Of course, a 5-star.

I loved having a haircut here. The barber was really pro in what he does. Hope you keep dreaming of San Diego, one day it might become a dreams come true. Good Luck!! The wife does the khao soi downstairs, that was lovely, too:)

I did my best to promote this genuine and unique barber shop. 

Then, the barber replied :)

Thank you so much one day I will be there San Diego


I hope he gets more fans like me. When I'm back in Bangkok, I don't have to search for a barber shop anymore:)

 

I probably said it to myself too

In Japan, the words that come out of your mouth mirror you.

Not only am I trying to encourage him to not give up, but I am also probably telling myself not to give up on mine.

Slam Dunk, a Japanese basketball manga is famous for the scene where the coach tells his player, "The game is already over if you give up."

So I think having faith is very important. It's not about whether you can achieve it or not. We should be thinking, "how can I achieve what I want to achieve?"

"You become what you say."

My goal is to be back in France, as long as possible. But what can I bring to their table? I think the fact that I've traveled to many foodie countries before I get there will enhance the experience there.

Inflation is the craziest in Europe right now, and France is a little farther what I planned.

But I will be in no hurry. I will enjoy my current ride, and figure out how I can manage my plan.

My travel plan can be read here:

I'll be cheering for the barber shop, and myself :)


Follow Ryu Aomi for more to come :) 

In this blog, I post my food trips worldwide, as insights into Japanese food in comparison to all the different cuisines I encounter through my journey. 

I also try to share information from Japan that fills our hearts or might help us think about how to better the world!

Here are the SNS channels I have, but I mainly focus on Twitter at the moment. I share my past car trip around mainly Hokkaido, and how it was living there!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I will continue to invest in gold

-
Image
   My favorite investment is gold. But my best reason might be different from the answer you get from Google. During the pandemic, my financial situation wasn’t very good and I needed money to pay my workers. I was selling my belongings, which were sold for a fraction of the money I bought them.  It helped very little. Looking back it was a good experience learning that my belongings I thought were a lot less valuable than I thought it was. But the only one that were priced more than when I bought it, was gold. Gold on an emergency In Japan we have a saying, "有事の金" which can be translated to “gold during an emergency.” I remember gold coming down like every other investments during the pandemic, but then there was a timing when gold surged.  So like I said earlier, many things I thought were valuable lost its value during an economic slowdown.  But one good reason you need to sell your valuables is in a financial emergency. Gold was the only thing that increased...
Read more

How my view towards failing changed

-
Image
  My first business didn't work out well. It did take me a while for me to recover mentally and financially. But 3 years in and I look back that it's not a big deal to make mistakes. It actually helps you to reflect on it, and gives you hints on how you could improve. Without failing it's difficult to improve and become better. It's about how you view and act towards failure that is crucial.  The more mistakes you make earlier in life the better Before starting the business, I always seemed to have the pressure that I had to succeed. Or to be right and correct all the time. But actually it's the opposite. I need to make a lot of mistakes, and learn to get back up as fast as possible for the next challenge. I realized this when my mother kept repeating that "I failed my business" every time we talked on the phone. My mom sounded like it was the end of the world while I was beginning to think it might be the start of something new. Well, when you lose a lot ...
Read more

The one habit you need to get out of debt

-
Image
Deciding I need to cut my losses and close my company was the worst day of my life. I lost a lot of things I thought were valuable, and in return I had debt to pay off.  But after 3 years, it's no joke that it was one of the best experiences of my life. The reason is that I was able to gain a good habit to stay out of debt for the rest of my life. And if it weren't for the failure of my first business, I probably won't have the habit of keeping a surplus every month. Today I want to share my story about how I picked up the habit of staying on surplus every month. What I learned in the live-in construction job I needed to figure out how to get cash to pay off the debt, but at the time was during the pandemic so jobs had limitations. When I was searching online, I found a job opening for a live-in construction job. Pay is daily　which was what I needed so I picked up the phone and applied. Despite what I imagined the president of the company had a generous voice and told me th...
Read more