Hair braiding and lollipops......

As usual I have been taking a million photos of our travels...... hmmm, well over 700 at last count and that was just the first few days in Khao Lak.  I'm not going to post a blow by blow account of each day because we are mostly sticking to the resort with lots of swimming, beaches, massages and some fun activities like an elephant trek in between.  I will post a few little collections of photos that show what we have been up to though.

My Mum (Granny) had promised Astrid she could get her hair braided while she was here. Apparently it's a prerequisite for all Thailand visits.  A couple of days after we arrived, we headed down the beach for a play and to deposit some washing.  Astrid requested her hair braiding, so a hair braiding we got.

We picked some lovely ladies from one of the many beach-side hair braiding places to braid her hair and they set her up in a comfy chair with a cushion. Astrid got to select 3 colours of beads and picked blue, pink and red.  Then the ladies got to work. At first Astrid looked mildly terrified and we were waiting for her to decide it was a bad idea.  All of a sudden some lollipops appeared and she was all smiles again.

If Astrid looked mildly terrified, Soren was even more concerned about what was happening to his big sister.  He was hanging onto Anto for dear life and wondering if these strange ladies were going to do something awful to her.  Seeing the concern, all of a sudden another lollipop was produced and Soren was pretty quickly giving up his concern for his sister.  He has never had a lollipop before but seemed happy to give it a go!

The hair braiding was on in earnest. Astrid has very fine hair but with 3 ladies working on her hair it didn't take long for it to be plaited into tiny braids.  The bright coloured beads on the end of the braids were added and it was looking very cute pretty quickly.

About this time was where free bottles of water and plates of watermelon were produced for the rest of us. Apparently watching your child/grandchild/sister have their hair braided is a spectator sport and we needed to be nourished. Soren didn't complain as watermelon is his favourite food. You can also simultaneously eat a lollipop and piece of watermelon!

After about 10 minutes Astrid was all done and pretty happy with the result. We only had half her hair done as that is what she wanted but it looked very cute from the front, and would certainly now stay out of her eyes while swimming.

Full of lollipops and watermelon (and with a rubber toy chicken that apparently we also were gifted to help keep Soren amused) we headed back for a swim to test out Astrid's new sleek hairstyle when wet.  A few days later the braids are looking a little worse for wear but it was cheap entertainment for a 3 year old (and Soren is now going to hound us for lollipops everywhere we go!).