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Family Money: Selecting a Financial Advisor
By Leslie
Wright,
Managing director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd.
There are a huge number of investment options available
offshore, encompassing offshore funds and insurance based investments. You
should ask the basis on which the adviser’s range of options is
selected.
It may surprise you to find that the choice offered by
many brokerages is restricted, in some cases to funds or unit-linked
insurance vehicles from only one or two providers. This indicates your
brokerage is not a truly independent advisor, but either a tied or
semi-tied agent. (It may be an independently-owned firm, but which has
elected to represent or was able to obtain terms-of-business agreements
with only one or two providers, as opposed to a wide range of options for
its clients). It is therefore perfectly proper to ask how many firms your
prospective adviser deals with. (Less than five will restrict the choices
he can make, and thus the degree of ‘best advice’ he can offer you).
As you would expect, some investment companies have a
strong record of performance in some markets, but not in others; whilst
others are recognised for their specialisation in one type of investment
solution or another. It’s hard to argue against the merits of choosing
an advisory brokerage that offers at least a high degree of independence
and a wide – if not comprehensive – selection of investment vehicles.
While access to a full range of investment options is
an important factor, an adviser still needs to be able to accurately
assess your personal needs to provide the best options for you. Just like
a pharmacy may have a huge stock of pills and potions to cure a wide range
of ailments, from which you can select those you think might cure you, a
doctor will rely on his professional expertise to prescribe those most
appropriate to curing your particular illness. Similarly, a responsible
financial adviser, before making any recommendations, should fully
understand your circumstances and financial objectives through a detailed
and thorough fact find.
This may mean you need to answer a number of probing
questions about your circumstances and your financial objectives, but this
is a small price to pay to ensure that the adviser’s recommended
solution is the most appropriate for you. Of course, you aren’t obliged
to subject yourself to such an assessment, but it makes sense to do so.
– just like a check-up at the doctors.
A reputable independent financial adviser’s job boils
down to finding the best offshore products out there and helping you
select those that best match your needs, both now and in the future. Armed
with the appropriate information about your particular needs and
circumstances, he can also avoid recommendations that may not have the
risk profile or future flexibility that you need. He should, in fact, be
able to provide an almost perfect match of investment vehicles to each
client’s particular needs and circumstances.
It sounds an obvious approach to take and it is. But as
with many things, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes in order to
fulfil such a simple philosophy.
Determining ‘best’ in itself is quite a challenging
task. New investment products come onto the market all the time, and last
year’s ‘best’ may not necessarily be this year’s. Again, having
selected the most appropriate vehicle, the ‘engine’ that drives it –
the underlying portfolio – will, just like a car engine, need servicing
and tuning up every so often. A good financial advisor should therefore
arrange regular review meetings with you – at the very least twice a
year – to review both your investment strategy and whether there have
been any changes in your own circumstances. He should also make
recommendations as to any ‘switching’ that may be appropriate both to
changing market conditions and your changing needs.
One of the critical aspects of financial planning with
an international outlook is to ensure that you maximise the opportunities
for tax efficiency. Whilst it is always recommended that you seek advice
from your own specialist tax adviser, your financial adviser ought to have
a good understanding of the tax implications of any recommendations he may
make, and ensure that both your current and likely future tax status is
taken into account.
Last but not least is the way your adviser will earn
his money. Many investors don’t like the idea that their investments
will incur charges. But like any other professional, your financial
adviser or broker is entitled to earn money for his services. After all,
do you work for free? The traditional method has been for the institution
to pay the broker a commission for business placed with them. The
accusation has often been made that the broker will always recommend the
vehicle that pays the most commission. Sadly, in some cases this is true
and this has – rightly, in my view – become a thorny subject
throughout the financial services industry.
But financial service has become a highly-competitive
industry, and the rates paid to brokerages nowadays are very similar from
one provider to another. If the recommended vehicle matches your stated
needs and circumstances, and it carries with it the various bells &
whistles you may have stipulated – or were identified in the course of a
fact-finding discussion – then it is probably the appropriate vehicle
for you, and your adviser will have fulfilled his function of providing
you with ‘best advice’. The amount his firm and he as an individual
earns from providing that advice then becomes very much a secondary
consideration.
Some brokerages have moved to charging a fee for their
services, and foregoing the commissions to the benefit of the client.
While this moves towards greater transparency and does eliminate the cost
of ‘lost’ time when a prospective client does not take up the
adviser’s recommendations, in some cases it could end up costing the
client more money than if the brokerage earned only commission.
To ask your prospective adviser how he gets paid
(salary, fees, or commission) is nonetheless a perfectly reasonable
question, in my view. And if he receives commission, ask whether this will
be paid at the beginning of the relationship, or on an ongoing basis over
time. This will tend to indicate whether he works for you and your best
interests, or him and his firm’s best interests; and how interested he
will be in looking after you, not just now, but for many years to come.
Snap Shots: What do you really need
to get into
photography
 by Harry Flashman
With the range of cameras available these days from
budget film box with lens, through to thousands of dollars worth of
digital equipment, it can be confusing for someone who is just starting.
This article is a guide as to what I think you should have, and keeps an
eye to the future, so that you are not left in the position of replacing
gear with more expensive gear.
Firstly, you need a good camera - an SLR (single lens
reflex). The first pointer is to select a good brand. There are many to
choose from, but if you look at the pro’s who are out every day shooting
oodles of feet of film you will find the same names on the camera cases. I
make no secret of the fact that I use Nikon - bulletproof and quality
lenses. Others such as Canon and Olympus etc are also excellent brands,
all of which have interchangeable lenses too, so your basic system can be
enlarged upon over a period of time, and your original lenses will still
be good. An important feature.
The SLR is the centre of your equipment. It is this
camera that will allow you to be creative in your shots. It is this camera
that will win you awards and recognition. It will be expensive, so choose
wisely. For my money, the ideal “starter” SLR would be a Nikon FM2n. A
mechanical camera that allows you to make all the decisions. Yes, I do
have one. No, it is not for sale.
Now you look at lenses. The “standard” lens that
will come with your SLR will most likely be a 50 mm. Buy firstly a wide
angle lens. Around 28 or 24 mm is good, or even 20 mm for very dramatic
shots, but the distortion problem can be a little much at this wide angle.
The next lens you should buy is around the focal length of 135 mm - the
ideal lens for portraits.
No zooms? No, I personally do not like zoom lenses. The
sharpness is not as good as “prime” lenses (though the manufacturers
say they are much better these days), but even more importantly, zoom
lenses make for lazy photographers. Instead of walking in to compose the
subject, the photographer zooms in. The depth of field is lost, the flash
is too far away and the chance of a perfect shot is lost. Don’t be lazy.
Walk in close yourself.
You should also have a Point and Shoot compact camera.
Again, stick to the better brands if you want to get something which will
last, and even more importantly, one that will return crisp images.
Olympus make some very good small point and shooters, with excellent
lenses. This camera is for those situations where you don’t want to lug
all the gear, when you need something light and pocket portable. Get one
with a 24 or 28 mm lens and built in flash which can be turned off.
The next important piece of equipment is the bag you
carry your equipment around in. I like the soft padded camera bag with
adjustable divisions. Waterproof in tropical rainstorms is important, so
get one that has the zip fastener covered by a lip of material. Some
exterior pockets to carry batteries, a spare pair of fold-up reading
glasses (if you need them) and a pocket torch. Again, get a good one. My
bag is quite battered and worn, but is now over 20 years old and has been
round the world several times. It was money well spent.
Other equipment includes filters, and I would refer you
to previous articles on this subject - but do use adaptor rings to bring
all the lenses to the same size. Again a cost saving later. And a good
quality tripod.
Last but not least, always have some spare rolls of
film - there is nothing worse than running out of film just when you have
just stumbled across the shot of your life.
Modern Medicine: Some amazing medical facts!
by Dr Iain Corness, Consultant
When you research Evidence Based Medicine as I do (EBM
for short, as we medico’s love acronyms), you have to deal with many
statistics, that great pseudo-science where you can “prove” so much by
use of applied mathematics. For example, did you know that every child is
born within six months of its mother’s birthday? Or even more fantastic,
the date of your death will be within six months of your own birthday!
That has to be another good reason to stop having birthdays after the age
of 50!
Now while that sounds interesting, if you look a little
harder you will see that this is just a mathematical ‘truism’ and
nothing to do with biology or astrology. If you take any reference birth
date, let’s use June 30th for example, then any child born between Jan
1st to June 29th is within six months of its mother’s birthday, as are
any children born between July 1st to December 31st. In one case it is
looking forwards, and in the other it is looking backwards.
If you think that is an abuse of mathematical science,
then what about the fact that 99% of all people who died traumatic deaths
in London last year were all wearing shoes. Does this prove that shoes are
the greatest killers of mankind? An absurdity - of course not! Again, this
is ‘bending’ the parameters of science. Since about 99% of all people
in London wear shoes, you can safely predict that 99% of those who get
skittled on the roads will still be wearing their footwear.
Getting closer to home, I read just the other day of a
study in Thailand on varicose veins, and how tight underpants were
dangerous (as opposed to boxer shorts, I presume) because this study
showed that something like 30% of varicose vein sufferers were wearing
jockey underdaks. What was not stated in the report (in the popular press,
so it may have been selectively reported) was the choice of underpants of
those who did not have varicose veins, nor what percentage of men wearing
jockeys did not get varicose veins. Without these other figures, the rest
is hocus-pocus.
Pseudo-science also works the other way too. Classic
examples of this are when people will pronounce, with great authority,
that cigarette smoking does not bring about your early demise. The
‘proof’ of this is their great uncle Edward who lived to be 112 and
smoked two packs of cigarettes every day for 85 years. All that this shows
is that great uncle Edward had a wonderful constitution. Nothing else,
sorry.
If three of the four people in your office get the flu,
this does not mean that 75% of the city is in the grip of an epidemic. All
that can be assumed is that 75% of your office has a problem. Nothing
else.
There is a branch of medical science called
Epidemiology, which is a study of the incidence of diseases, and
epidemiological research requires the researcher to look at thousands of
cases, before coming to conclusions. Great uncle Edward alone is not
enough. The data we get from thousands upon thousands of cases, looking at
smokers and non-smokers, is now enough for us to say, quite categorically,
that smoking does put you at a very much greater risk of dying from cancer
- that is ALL cancers, by the way, not just lung cancer.
Forget the great uncle, give up now, before you too are
a statistic.
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
Are these letters you get from somebody called Mistersingha real? I am sick of
reading about Wee Nit and her elocution lessons. I get that steamed up about it
that it stops me reading the rest of the column. If there really is someone
called Wee Nit, then he should do something about teaching her English himself,
or send her to someone who can. Tell him to get back into his bottle, he’s
getting far too frothy.
Misterleo
Dear Misterleo,
I think you are taking everything far too seriously. If Wee Nit makes you throw
a wobbly, then you are losing the plot I fear. “Jai yen yen” - take it as
it comes. Mistersingha is harmless. However, he did promise me a Mars bar which
is still not forthcoming. On second thoughts, you may just be right. Maybe
I’ll not publish any more of his letters until the Mars bar comes. After all,
this month we are the closest to Mars that we have ever been they tell me!
Perhaps we should all duck? By the way, it would probably also be better if you
don’t read any further! He’s written again!
Dear Hillary,
In response to your query (6.9.03) I would suggest that you check out the
website of the lady in question (Janet Reger). There you will find displayed a
tantalisingly tasty, though inedible, collection of lingerie, which even the
dreaded batter-pudding hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea might have been distracted by.
Both Nit and Ying (les adorables) look most delightful in their matching sets,
especially when tittupping. Have you been known to tittup, Hillary, or is it
beyond your ken?
Mistersingha
Dear Mistersingha,
Please don’t think I have forgiven the lack of chocolate offerings, just
because I have published your letter. I have merely done so because I had space
to fill, so don’t get swollen headed. Now then, about this strange British
practice of titupping and somebody called Ken. I’m sorry, Petal, I don’t
know any Ken’s and I’ve never gone titupping, which my UK friends assure me
is a winter sport to do with turning blue tit’s nests upside down to get at
the eggs. However, I am glad to see that the dreaded batter-pudding hurler of
Bexhill-on-Sea is still alive and well. God bless Sir Neddy Seagoon and all who
sailed in her.
Dear Hillary,
Like so many “elder statesmen” from the UK I have settled down here in
Pattaya with a Thai lady many years my junior. Our association has been
mutually beneficial, with me enjoying her company and the attentiveness for
which Thai women are so famous, while I have helped her family out, including
educating her two children from a previous marriage. We have been together four
years now, but the requests for assistance have been getting more and more
every month. It appears that every cousin, sister, brother are putting demands
on my lady, and she just hands over what ever they ask for. I give her a
monthly allowance, but that is gone in a few days as she gives it away to the
“needy” relatives. If I had a huge bank account I would not mind so much,
but I am living (and supporting people) on a UK pension in addition to the
interest from my meagre savings account. I do know that the Thai people value
the family ties much more than we do, but surely there has to be a line drawn
somewhere, Hillary. What do you say? Should I put my foot down and say no more?
You will understand my position here.
George
Dear George,
Generous George, you are such a good man. I do understand your predicament and
I applaud your taking the education of your lady’s children as being your
responsibility. All very noble. You are also correct when you say that Thai
families do look after the members in it, but the correct direction is upwards,
towards the parents and grandparents, not sideways or downwards. Most Thais
will send money “home” every month to help support those left “at
home”. Now George, in all associations there has to be a degree of give and
take - and that’s not you give all and they take all. Having been with your
lady for four years you should be able to sit down and discuss this problem
with her. If there are language barriers towards understanding of finer
details, get someone in who is really bi-lingual. Explain that things are
different in the UK, and she has to see your side too, after all you have been
seeing life from her side of the fence all this time. Only by talking will you
get over this hurdle, and it can be a bit of a high jump for someone like you
who is obviously thought of as the family “cash cow” my Petal. My
suggestion would be to arrange regular payment each month to the parents and
everything else be subject to discussion between the pair of you before any
money leaves your account. When it becomes a little more difficult to milk the
cow, the buffalo will come to look after itself!
A Slice of Thai History: Jim Thompson, the man behind Thai Silk
Part One: Background 1906-1946
by Duncan steam
When the 61-year-old American expat Jim Thompson
disappeared while on a brief holiday in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia
over the Easter weekend of 1967, it wasn’t long before rumours as to his
fate began to emerge. Some of these were outlandish in the extreme, while
others bore the ring of plausibility.
At the time of his disappearance, Thompson had been
residing in Thailand for almost 22 years and had virtually single-handedly
turned the art of Thai silk making from a faltering cottage industry to a
major export earner.
During this time, Thompson had also become one of the
most famous foreigners to have ever lived and worked in Thailand and with
his disappearance - a mystery that remains unsolved - became a legend.
Born James Harrison Wilson Thompson in Greeneville,
Delaware on 21 March 1906, he was the youngest of five children. From a
wealthy and influential family, his maternal grandfather was General James
Wilson, a successful cavalry commander during the American Civil War
(1861-1865), and confidante of General - later President - Ulysses S.
Grant. His father, Henry, was president of the United States Finishing
Company and a respected amateur architect.
Thompson graduated from Princeton in 1928 and studied
architecture at Pennsylvania University, but failed the course due to his
inability to master calculus. However, he still managed to practise as an
architect, working in New York from 1931 onwards.
As an eligible and sought after bachelor, Thompson was
a regular on the party circuit, but by 1940 he had become disillusioned
with the frivolous nature of his life and suddenly quit his job and joined
the Delaware National Guard Regiment, as a private. He also changed his
political stance from Republican to Democrat.
When war broke out between the United States and Japan,
Thompson was commissioned as an officer with a coastal artillery unit,
based in North Carolina. He looked set for a quiet war, but about a year
later met Captain Edwin Black, a member of the recently formed Office of
Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner to the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA). Black encouraged Thompson to apply for the OSS.
The OSS had been founded by a former First World War
veteran, General William Donovan. It specialised in gathering
intelligence, subversive propaganda, and clandestine behind-the-lines
sabotage and warfare. Its ranks were filled with Ivy League adventurous
types, and included the journalist Alexander MacDonald, who later founded
the Bangkok Post newspaper. The OSS viewed Thailand as the perfect place
to establish a strong American intelligence presence in Southeast Asia.
Captain Black also introduced Thompson to an ex-model
named Pat Thraves. Apart from being tall and attractive, she also
possessed an artistic streak that drew Thompson to her. They were married
in 1942 but within six months Jim Thompson was posted overseas.
After campaigning in North Africa, he went into Italy,
and then France, working behind the lines for the OSS on sensitive
missions. Even after the war, Thompson never divulged information about
his activities in occupied Europe.
After the war in Europe ended, Thompson volunteered for
service in the continuing Pacific campaign and was attached to the
China-Burma-India (CBI) theatre. Here he was placed on standby to
parachute into Thailand and received jungle survival training on Ceylon
(now Sri Lanka).
However, the war against Japan ended just as Thompson,
MacDonald and the other OSS men were en-route for Bangkok. Their plane
returned to Rangoon and a few days later, instead of parachuting behind
enemy lines, they found themselves flying directly into Don Muang Airport.
A few weeks later, Thompson was appointed OSS station
chief in Bangkok. He held this position, serving with Alexander MacDonald,
until late 1946 when he was asked to return to the United States for his
military discharge.
By this time, Jim Thompson had developed a love for
Thailand and its people and determined to bring his wife back to Bangkok
and possibly establish a business in the country.
Sadly, while he’d been overseas, his wife had found a
new man and asked for a divorce. In some ways, this was a blessing in
disguise as he was now free to return to Thailand and attempt to carve a
niche for himself.
Personal Directions: Using mind and inner life to release the infinite potentials of life
by Christina Dodd
Lately I have been quite involved in developing and
delivering sessions on self-affirmation and auto-suggestion. I don’t
know whether you agree with me or not on this subject, but I believe that
the power of these techniques, if applied in the correct way, can bring
great and astounding reward to the individual, so much so that lives can
be changed dramatically and for the better.
I feel that one of the greatest discoveries of modern
times lies in the statement, “What the human mind can conceive and
believe, it can achieve.” Read this over to yourself and the mammoth
energy and truth in these words will reveal themselves to you.
Take things one step further and consider that all
things we are and achieve are centred around a mixture of belief and
faith. Wrap this with desire to inspire thought. The thoughts we have,
combined with a balance of emotions and feelings will create imagination
and energy. In turn they will create vibrations, ideas and actions which
will create results and the reality of our lives.
Having said that, take a look at this article I would
like to share with you. I don’t know the author - Sri Aurobindo - but
the message contained certainly is in tune with the infinite power of the
human mind.
“Most of us live our days habitually; repeating the
same routines over and over without much change. There is little freshness
and dynamism in those acts. However, if we wish to overcome the dullness
of habitual repetition, to consciously bring new freshness into our daily
routines, we can do so by organizing ourselves to a higher level of
functioning. We can do that my using the higher mental capacity of
conceptual thinking. By utilizing this capacity of mind we can consciously
conceive of new approaches and strategies to make the day more dynamic. By
utilizing the power of thought to conceive new possibilities and
approaches we can make our daily existence more alive, fresher, more
dynamic, more effective.
For example, we can begin by thinking about such things
as “how can I make the day better;” or “what can I do to improve my
life, myself, to make things better around me.” Then through this
conceptual power of mind to self-conceive new possibilities for ourselves,
we can devise creative strategies to do the same things in a new way,
bringing in new energy and freshness, enabling new possibilities to burst
forth from life. We can also use this “self-concepting” power of mind
to further our long term direction in our lives, by developing a vision of
what we want in life, establishing our priorities and goals, and then
carrying them out through well thought out strategies. In all these cases
we are self-conceiving that which we wish to be by using this dynamic
power of self-conception of the mind.
We can even go further. There are also levels of
consciousness that we can reach that may require us to use powers of mind
that are even higher than this conceptual power of mind. We can learn to
tap into a wider consciousness, enabling us to tap into the infinite
possibilities and potentials of life; where we can gain knowledge and
understanding directly and intuitively. To do this we must go beyond even
the conceptual and logical powers of mind, and come in contact with
greater powers of mind that border on the spiritual.
For example, one can learn to move away from living on
the surface of life, and instead learn to live in the depths of our being,
where we encounter a wider consciousness that provides us greater insight,
knowledge, and possibility for accomplishment. When one moves from the
surface to the depths, from the outer life to an inner life, one moves
away from a mere mental existence that is tied to the input of the senses,
where we live a reflexive and impulsive type existence, where we are
centred in our limiting habits, opinions, and attitudes, at the level of
the pushing and pulling of the surface.
As we learn to live in the depths, we experience a
wider calm; our consciousness expands, as we perceive a wider reality
around us, as we discover greater possibilities of choice, greater
insight, knowledge and comprehension in every act and situation. We feel
one with others, with the environment, with the unfolding of events and
circumstances.
This is true because when we go within we move away
form our ego-sense; the sense that separates ourselves from others and the
environment; a status that tends to reduce our field of awareness, of what
is possible.
As we move into the inner being we move away from the
ego that hardens us to our own opinions and attitudes, to our limited
perceptions and our limited claims to the truth.
As we touch the inner being, even down to the very
essence and soul of our being, we open ourselves to the great expanse,
where everything is possible, where life cooperates, where knowledge and
understanding seems to descend into our being in our silence, as light of
vision, as intuition. Stationed in the inner being, we open the floodgates
to the potentials of infinite accomplishment, success, and joy in life. We
stand at the threshold of our higher nature.
In summary, the logical and conceptive aspect of mind
can be used to conceive our world anew, to break old habits, and enable
new ways of living our lives. This is the organizing and conceptual power
of mind to help us grow and develop. At a further point mind can be
withdrawn by moving into the depths of our being to enable deeper, wider
comprehension, possibilities, truths, to fill up our moment to moment
existence. This is the connection to spiritual mind above the normal
functionings of mind. Here we touch the infinite powers of creation, and
thus the infinite possibilities in our lives.”
If you wish to talk further on matters of personal and
self development, or on matters that concern your business, the
effectiveness and needs of your staff, then please contact me directly at
Asia Training Associates - email: christina.dodd@asia
trainingassociates.com
For details on our programs and Asia Training
Associates, please visit our website: www. asiatrainingassociates.com
Until next time ... have a great week!
Social Commentary by Khai Khem: Disgusted tourists
I recently had lunch with a group of middle-aged male
American tourists who stopped me in the street to ask directions. Feeling
like a fool, I had never even heard of the hotels, restaurants, tourist
attractions and a number of other places they wanted to know about. As I
stammered that these were places I’d never been to, we stopped passersby
whom we thought could help. They didn’t know either. As luck would have
it, all the Thais seemed to be from “someplace else” and they ended up
asking me for directions to more places I never heard of.
Since it was around lunchtime, the Americans invited me
to eat with them and I took them up on the invitation since it would give
me a chance to find out if they were enjoying their holiday in Pattaya. As
it turned out, they were not. Their list of complaints was longer that
that of the items on the restaurant’s menu.
Unused to English as it is spoken by most Thais; they
had spent a couple of weeks in our fair city and declared they hadn’t
truly understood a word that was spoken to them during their entire stay.
As they put it, they comprehended about 10 percent and the rest was
guesswork. That, however was something they were ready to accept. The
rising crime rate and dishevelment of the general area was a bigger
disappointment.
The group had planned to rent a car and drive around
for sightseeing. They scrapped that idea in a hurry after one day of
observing how dangerous it is to drive here. In short, they were
horrified. I sympathized with them. I am also scared to death every time I
have to drive anywhere in this region. All foreign tourists ask WHY this
kind of mayhem is allowed on our public streets and roads. The answer is:
nobody cares and never has. It’s a longstanding problem that has never
been dealt with. I advised them to walk everywhere and take great care
crossing the streets if they wanted to return to their homeland in one
piece.
Our famous (infamous) nightlife scene finally came up
in the conversation. Surely these handsome, virile guys must have been
having a good time in mid-town, with its bright lights and ‘action’.
Well, not exactly. It seems they were unable to walk down the streets and
sois without bar-girls rushing at them and aggressively grabbing their
“privates” and shrieking at them like peasants in a fish-market to buy
them drinks or take them shopping. The group all recounted tales of
transvestites accosting them so blatantly it was all they could do to keep
from punching them to escape their clutches.
I felt it was time to speak up and remind them they
were spending their evenings in one of the world’s most notorious
“red-light” districts and if they frequent bad neighborhoods anywhere
in the world, they would be subjected to unpleasant episodes. Gee! I
though everyone knew that.
The group also said they went to a number of
well-publicized tourist attractions, but they felt it was a waste of time
and money since they judged them to be rather shoddy and not very
interesting. Well, I guess we can’t please everyone.
They did say nice things about the hotel they were
staying at. I recognized it as one of our first class establishments and
it registered on me that these gentlemen had money and good taste. Had
they stayed within the parameters of this famous 5 star hotel, they would
have had the perfect holiday. Unfortunately they wanted to roam around and
see the sights and were appalled at the sleaze and general bedlam.
So! Did these visitors have ANY enjoyable experiences
during their stay in Fun City? It turned out the best thing they came
across was the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. They all had complete medical
checkups and extensive dental repair. The hospital and its staff got rave
reviews. (The TAT slogan “Amazing Thailand” raced through my mind.)
This was turning into an enlightening afternoon of
conversation. When I asked how much longer they would be here, they said
when their medical appointments were completed they planned to book a
flight out of Thailand and finish their vacation in Malaysia. What? On the
eve of the September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in
New York City by Muslim terrorists; these Americans were leaving for
Malaysia - a Muslim country? My eyes widened in surprise.
“We have nothing against Muslims,” the group
agreed. “Malaysia is a pretty country and the people there know how to
behave in public. We feel safer there because we know laws are enforced
and the people are raised in a disciplined society. The chaos in Pattaya
has totally exhausted us and we came all this way for a relaxing holiday.
We are fed up with the noise, traffic, chaos and confusion. This city is
obviously out of control and for our money; we don’t have to put up with
it.”
The really sad thing is that this was not an indictment
of the whole of Thai society and the kingdom. These tourists were not
going away angry - they were just going away. I believed them when they
said they liked Thailand and the Thai people. A couple of the gentlemen
had been here before and had thoroughly enjoyed their visits to other
parts of Thailand. As we parted I wished them well and thanked them for
their hospitality to me. As they said goodbye, one man said, “Please
don’t take what we said about Pattaya personally. We just chose the
wrong place at the wrong time.”
Woman's World: I want to look like I used to part 2
by Lesley Warner
Last week I covered a few problems that can go wrong with
plastic surgery. Since then I have researched the subject extensively and
I have to say it can be most off-putting. But for all those disasters we
hear of, there are many success stories. The main piece of good advice
that I can offer is to research your subject fully, don’t leave anything
to chance, read, look up on the internet and visit surgeons, talk to them
and patients they have operated on. Do not be in a rush, no matter how
long you have anticipated this exciting chance to regain your youthful
appearance.
 It
can be worth it.
Decide why and what you need the surgery for, how much
do you really need to have it done? Have realistic expectations and
remember those words, “All surgery leaves scars”!
Here are a few good tips before you even consider
having the surgery: are you in good overall health, psychologically
stable, do you have realistic expectations about the surgery, do you know
the quality of your skin? Do you have good skin elasticity and bone
structure? (Asian skin does tend to differ greatly from Western skin and
heals at a much quicker rate).
 A
whole new shape.
Before surgery, make a list of questions that you want
to ask the surgeon, and a list of questions you think he should ask you.
For example, the plastic surgeon should ask you about your medical
history. When you answer, leave nothing out, be totally honest. Tell the
doctor any medication you take, either prescription or over-the-counter,
especially aspirin or other drugs that thin the blood. You should not take
any aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) etc. for two weeks prior to the
procedure.
It is relevant if you smoke cigarettes or use drugs.
High blood pressure could cause problems with blood
clotting.
Do you have any allergies? Think carefully.
Does your skin scar easily?
Have you ever had cold sores or blisters on the mouth?
Ask the doctor’s advice: do you really need surgery
or is there another way. For example, if the problem is mainly textural,
laser resurfacing can give you the best result. Whereas if there is a
large amount of excess skin, then a facelift of some sort with skin
removal and redraping is the best for long-term improvement. The average
time is about one month to heal although most of the swelling and scarring
will be much better after two weeks depending on individual skin type.
I would suggest that you make certain with your surgeon
where the incisions will be placed and that your hairline will not be
raised by the procedure (a particular problem with the old way of doing
facelifts). Also, there are often many ancillary procedures and many
different types of facelifts (depth and extent of the procedure). You
should make certain that the appropriate type is being planned for you.
The best way to do this is to have multiple consultations with qualified
surgeons.
Remember you are the customer, and remember the doctor
is still a human being - you are allowed to question his choices for your
body.
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