Over the past year I have traveled many-a-mile. Last year the family went to the Philippines for an extended month-long vacation. And just a few weeks ago, we traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, so I could indulge in my love of the Great American pastime, baseball, which in my case is Atlanta Braves baseball. After two days and two games in Atlanta, we then journeyed to the historic city of Savannah, Georgia and spent the weekend. That in itself consisted in approximately 800 highway miles round trip.

However, it’s the Philippines journey that entails dealing with going through numerous airport security searches followed by hours cramped up in a crowded plane. But, I’ve made that trip several times over the past few years; I did marry a Filipino lady and I love spending time in the beautiful islands.

However, just six days after we returned from our Georgia trip, we were presented with an unplanned but necessary need to return to the Philippines immediately. As for that scenario, I’ll leave it to Lynndee to share the personal circumstances of that situation.

Still, while there on this trip, I took the opportunity to pamper myself in an unknown way while allowing my wifey to pamper herself in the usual girly way with a mani-pedi. What prompted me to indulge myself in a new experience is the fact that right beside the salon I took her to there was a men’s barber salon that we had taken our son to just a few days earlier for a much-needed haircut, and while there, I had taken notice of their services and prices. So I decided then that I was going to do something I’d never done before: get a straight-razor shave from a barber.

I don’t know why I’d never had it done before; ’twas something I was totally unfamiliar with for I’d never seen my dad do it. But for some reason, I’d always been fascinated with it, having read about it in all the novels I’d read and seen it in so many movies over the years. Of course, there’s always been the tales of mafia barbershop ambushes, scores being settled by gunning down an adversary while they we settled comfortably in a barber’s chair with a towel wrapped around their neck. What surprises me is that those murders were always accomplished by gunfire, and not straight razor throat cuttings. Still, it is a part of the history of organized crime in our country.

But in my case, I had no such fears, though while sitting there I couldn’t help but wonder at the weak position one puts himself in in such a vulnerable position. What truly surprised me was the extreme service I received, something I certainly wasn’t expecting. All I assumed that would happen is that my face would be lathered and shaved. I did get the usual hot, wet towel on my face a couple of times to soften up my whiskers. But then came the unexpected: the barber began massaging my arm from the shoulder down to my fingers, gently pulling each finger when he got down to my hand. After doing both my arms, he then began the shave which he performed gracefully, paying great attention to each stroke and making sure he didn’t miss a spot. And after the completion of the shave, another unexpected surprise: a total massage of my head and neck, followed by my arms being massaged again then another hot towel on my face, and then on my hair with it then being dried and brushed out, making me a brand new man, totally relaxed.

And you may wonder what that cost me. Since returning home I’ve done the research on having a shave locally and found the prices run anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five dollars. As for getting a massage, I haven’t discovered if that’s included here in America, but I suspect not, and if so it would definitely drive up the price. But what I paid was absolutely astounding. My entire experience in the chair which took around thirty minutes cost me 195.00 PHP (Philippine Pesos). When I later did the math I was stunned to see the conversion to the U.S. dollar made that amount $3.64! Need I say anymore? I’ll certainly not pamper myself here in the States but you can sure bet that the next time I go to the Philippines, I’ll definitely give myself a treat.