Malaysia draws tourists with 'big' dreams

Malaysia draws tourists with 'big' dreams

Jalil Hamid , Reuters, Penang, Malaysia

Nice tan. The young woman in the pink bikini smiled knowingly as
she soaked up the rays by the poolside of a luxury hotel on the
Malaysian resort island of Penang.

Corina van Leeuwen, a bubbly 25-year-old, would be taking more
than just a glowing complexion back to the Netherlands by the end
of her holiday.

"It's gone from a small B to a big C, it has grown one and a
half in cup size," she said, surveying her breasts with pride.
"I'm very happy with it, with them."

Corina is just one of a growing number of Westerners who have
booked a holiday in Malaysia packaged with a visit to a plastic
surgeon.

A Penang-based company called Beautiful Holidays is offering
sun and sea along with nips, tucks and implants.

Most customers want larger breasts, but there is also demand
for facelifts, nose jobs, botox injections and liposuction.

"They get to combine a holiday and the surgery together which
would mean a faster recovery, they don't have to cook their own
food, clean their own house," said Marloes Giezenaar, the Dutch
owner of Beautiful Holidays.

"We have 45 clients so far. About 60 percent of them went for
breast enlargement," said the 25-year-old businesswoman.

Other clients were shy about giving their names but Corina,
who runs her own communications company, was up front about why
she came to Malaysia.

"It's much cheaper," she said stirring the ice in a glass of
tropical fruit juice.

"I paid around US$4,000. If I have breast enlargement in
Holland, it would cost me 4,000 euro ($3,530) -- only for the
enlargement. Now I have a two-week holiday with it."

Giezenaar said ordinary women sought breast implants to boost
their self-confidence and "feel and look good".

Larger dimensions were for show biz types, she said. "I think
people don't want breasts like Dolly Parton, Pamela Anderson."

Breast enlargement is a big business worldwide. In the United
States, more than 300,000 women had breast implants last year,
according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

The most common types of implants are saline- or silicone-
filled. But the U.S. banned silicone implants for most women in
1992 amid controversy whether they caused chronic diseases.

In the early 1990s, many women alleged that implants filled
with silicone gel led to serious health problems.

But a 1999 U.S. Institute of Medicine study found silicone
implants did not cause cancer, lupus or other chronic disorders,
although they can rupture and present other problems.

Since 1992, silicone implants have been available in the
United States only through clinical trials.

Saline-filled implants remained on the market, but plastic
surgeons say many women prefer the look and feel of silicone.
In Malaysia, surgeons offer a choice.

In Southeast Asia, Malaysia lags behind Thailand in tapping
the fast-expanding market for cosmetic surgery.

Faridah Stephens, publisher and editor of Cosmetic Surgery and
Beauty, Malaysia's first magazine devoted to issue, said more
Asians were now willing to spend money to look better.

"There are a lot of choices out there. And getting beautiful
is getting easier and easier," she said.

Dr. Mary Quah, of Loh Guan Lye Specialists Centre in downtown
Penang, said foreigners, most of them from neighboring Indonesia,
account for 20 percent of her patients and the number is growing.

One London doctor told Reuters there had been cases of Britons
who had suffered after going for cut-rate breast surgery in Spain
and in some Asian countries.

"Many have been seduced by cheap deals," said the doctor, who
declined to be identified.

Giezenaar listed reasons for setting up shop in Penang.

"The medical facilities are great, the infrastructure is OK,"
she said. "And English is widely spoken here."

But she believed Malaysia should come up with do's and don'ts
to help ensure a proper growth of medical tourism. "The first
case that goes wrong would be the end for medical tourism for
Malaysia."

Corina said she was nervous but had no regrets about coming to
Penang. "The procedure went very well...I feel it's part of my
body now."