Sao Lao

While I was taking photos of the Elephant Parade Rotterdam at Kop van Zuid last Sunday, a ship was heading to the docking area. Four sailors were waving at me and yelling “over here, over here” trying to get my attention. I though it was polite that I should wave back at them and then went on my business, taking more pictures of the elephants.

As I stood there between the elephants I heard them screaming something at me. I didn’t quite understand what they were saying so I walked toward Johan who was walking my way and asked what those men were saying. Since Johan was standing near the pier he was able to pick up the phrase “number 6 and fried rice” coming from the men just for me. Of course when they saw me talking to Johan, the sailors went silent. Later when the ship docked, the men were quietly working and didn’t even look my way.

I thought it was amusing that they thought I was Chinese and to associated me with a Chinese menu. I must have look just like any other Asians and therefore Chinese in their eyes. They were not Dutch sailors and it doesn’t really matter what country they came from. I can just easily call them a bunch of farangs since all farangs look the same?

According to NBC News’s coverage of cosmetic surgery in Rio de Janeiro, Americans spend about 12 billion dollars a year on cosmetic surgeries. It’s no wonder cosmetic tourism is a big business for countries like Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, and even Thailand.

Cosmetic surgery is the next big thing to come packaged with tourism in India. India promises cosmetic-surgery tourism for anything from hair implants, scalp reductions, rhinoplasty (reshaping or re-contouring of the nose), face-lift, cosmetic eyelid surgery, brow lifts, and sub-metal lipectomy for double chin, chin and cheek. Largely cost-driven and banking on international goodwill of Indian medicos, the initiative is hoping to benefit both hospitality and healthcare industry and become a standard in cosmetic surgery such as the Maryland Cosmetic Surgery already has become.