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SARAH
GILBERT goes to Penang for a breast enlargement (not hers)
HAVE you been tempted to have your nose re-sculpted, but worried
about ducking into Barneys with a big bandage on your schnoz?
Dreamed of a bit of liposuction, but afraid you’ll be
laid up in your pokey little studio apartment for weeks, unable
to crawl to the refrigerator for some well-earned Haagen-Dazs?
Heading offshore for some lipo, a quick botox shot or a boob
job, followed by some R&R in an exotic and private location,
is the very latest in plastic surgery. And as stars from Jamie
Lee Curtis to Michael Douglas happily cough up their surgical
secrets, the stigma is fast disappearing.
Not so the price tag. But if you want a nose like Tom Cruises
and haven't got his budget, or you long for Pam Anderson's tatas,
but lack her bank balance, heading overseas might be the answer.
BIGGER IS BETTER
Jennifer Forrest, a 19-year-old fledgling model and would-be
MTV host from South Africa, is just starting her career in London.
Shed wanted breast enlargement surgery for ages. You do get
more work if they’re bigger, she explains. Nonetheless,
she was skeptical when a friend suggested she head to Southeast
Asia for the surgery, to avoid the astronomical London prices.
It all seemed very dodgy.Yet, only a few weeks later, she was
lounging by the pool perched on the shore of the Straits of
Malacca at the Eastern and Oriental, a 19th-century British
Colonial hotel in bustling Penang, the seaside capital of Malaysia's
western island province, and sporting a new set of hooters weighing
in at 1.5 kilos each. For the price of surgery alone in London,
Forrest had a boob job and a two-week holiday in Malaysia, where
she relaxed in her commodious suite until she felt like swimming
at the bayside pool, snorkeling in aquamarine waters among tropical
fish and baby sharks, and shopping for designer knockoff handbags
at Penang’s street markets.
The surgery was an unqualified success, and the scars in her
armpits are barely visible. “Now you have very nice big
boobs,” her surgeon remarked. The total bill: $5,545,
including the $3,000 operation.
In London, a pair of breasts would have run her anywhere from
$4,700 to $9,300.
The trip was organized by Beautiful Holidays, a Penang agency
that has partnerships with several local hotels, and the English-trained
surgeon, to cater primarily to the Asian market, and especially
to Hong Kong movie stars and models. Like everything else, cosmetic
surgery is becoming a global market, and businesses that pair
an expert surgeon with an exotic getaway are thriving.
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