So holiday-starved Aussies could enjoy lavish trips to the Thai island by July 1 with no quarantine – but there’s a catch!
Although currently experiencing its highest rate of infections and deaths due to COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic, Thailand is still going ahead with its plans to reopen on July 1. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has confirmed that from next month, the country will allow quarantine-free entry to vaccinated tourists from “low-risk” countries who enter Thailand via the island of Phuket.
While more details still need to be confirmed, including what countries are deemed “low risk”, for now the TAT says arrivals must be fully vaccinated or have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and must have tested negative not more than 72 hours before arrival.
Upon arriving in Phuket, visitors must stay in a hotel approved by the country’s Safety & Health Administration for the first 14 nights. While on Phuket, visitors are not required to quarantine and are free to leave their accommodation and travel around the island with few, if any, restrictions, visiting beaches, restaurants and entertainment venues as per normal. Visitors will be required to register at a government website and use an app that tracks their movements. After 14 nights on Phuket, visitors are free to leave the island to travel to other points in Thailand.
This news was first announced on the first travel industry event by Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in Sydney #AmazingThailand called the ‘Product Update’ Event May 20, 2021 #Restore #Refresh #Renew . It was hosted by the Ambassador of Thailand to Australia , Consulate General, TAT Director. It gave industry professionals the Roadmaps to Recovery, The Latest Developments in this Recovery and It’s when we first heard the term “Sandbox” or Phuketsandbox .
There have been many changes since then but basically a set of stringent set of health and safety guidelines have been established to enhance tourism health and hygiene standards. These are known as the ‘Amazing Thailand Safety and Health Administration’, with the purpose is to restore, refresh and renew tourism in its recovery post-covid when international travel resumes.
It’s good news for international travellers hoping to resume their Thailand holiday plans. The Tourism Authority of Thailand confirms that Phuket will be the first destination to welcome visitors back. Visa rules and test required to board flights to Phuket remain the same, but for the first time vaccinated travellers can visit the island without a 14-day quarantine.
If you have been following the Thai news and travel it’s been in the news every day since with regular updates and some confusion about what this means and if indeed it’s going to still open. We have been sharing on our social media please follow to keep updated! Also TAT provides lots of information on their Facebook . For diehard Thailand lovers a private a I recommend a private Facebook group Phuket Sandbox – “Better Phuket” By I Asia Thailand
As I mentioned there have been changes and updates and some confusion, with speculation that Phuket will delay this reopening. The latest information however is a press release yesterday by Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha that has confirmed that Phuket will indeed reopen to vaccinated foreign tourists without quarantine requirements from 1 July, 2021, under the ‘Phuket Sandbox’ project.
Whats the G-O for Aussies?
But unfortunately for Australians, special exemptions are still needed to fly overseas since the international borders closed and will be until probably mid 2020 . Australians must apply for special exemptions to be allowed to leave the country.! But the rest of the world has reopened so if you are vaccinated, Phuket welcomes you!
NipTuck Holidays enjoy strong partnerships a selection of international hotels and resorts that are absolutely dying to welcome back Aussies! So much so they have offered us unbeatable discounts for travellers From July 1 to the October period! Doubletree by Hilton Phuket Banthai Resort is a luxury resort inn the heart of Patong Beach. Step into tranquillity when you check in to DoubleTree by Hilton Phuket Banthai Resort. Set in the heart of Patong, directly opposite the white sandy beach and turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea.
Our other partner is Phuket’s newest hotel the FourPoints by Sheraton Phuket This brand new beachfront, luxury resort two outdoor pools, five fantastic restaurants & bars and the latest facilities for the ultimate.
We are offering special discount promotional rates at the moment wanting cheap holidays in Phuket at luxury standards with special privileges and bonus inclusions! While we can’t travel from Australia just yet we are doing our bit encourage travel to Phuket for those can from the UK, US and Europe and other parts of Asia.
Upon vaccination and depending on where you live hopefully this initiative will revive travel to the resort island in Thailand, which is hoping to revive its dire tourist economy. In preparation for tourists, many of Phuket’s pandemic restrictions have been lifted, and the island’s tourist-oriented businesses have been allowed to operate more or less normally.
How Thailand as a developing country in an economic crisis and floundering economy and a significant H.I.V. problem managed to turn it all around and become a world centre for medical tourism is a fascinating, yet in typical Thai- style they did it in a rather odd and roundabout kind of way. If you know anything about Thai culture you will know what I mean, and this is what makes this story and this strategy cooked up by Thai tourist officials at TAT and hospital administrators all the more brilliant!
They came up with a strategy when Thailand found itself in the economic crisis of 1997 based on their strengths. Their strategy was to market Thailand as a place you would actually travel to for plastic surgery and maybe even other medical procedures as well (like dental) as well as other medical procedures. They started on the one plastic surgery procedure that Thai doctors have come closest to perfecting — the sex change operation.
They thought, Thailand had doctors who earned a fraction of what their western counterparts do, though many of them had studied in the U.S. or Australia. It had highly trained nurses who were paid around $600 a month, a culture with a tradition of massage and other spa-worthy healing practices and in Bangkok and Phuket, at least, a lot of high-tech medical equipment purchased during the economic boom and now sitting idle. Medical tourism would have a better rep than sex tourism, and it could easily be as lucrative. But the sex-change industry was the beginning of medical tourism in Thailand, as it make sense to start here and build on some obvious strengths.
Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) issued new directives to travel agents, suggesting that they offer their clients health-tourism and medical-tourism packages and offered Famil’s each year to agents. I went every year – it was a great!
And media was invited from the US and Australia including NBC, MSNBC and ABC veteran anchor and journalist and multi Emmy awarder Kendis Gibson who has worked for all three broadcasters — ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News & Stations, where they were advised and introduced to the ”fine hospitals” throughout Thailand at the hotels they provided.
Thai travel agents talked up the country’s medical bargains, and hospitals found new ways to advertise and the hospitals and clinics in Bangkok and Phuket pitches to attract foreign tourists, esp. plastic surgery and advertises itself as a ”breakthrough integrated medical rejuvenation center providing spa, medical and fitness facilities.”
Hospital’s websites began to target westerners, featuring opening page features a sun-dappled photograph of a handsome Caucasian couple, explains that ”in Asia, retaining that youthful look is important. This has, in turn, led to the development in Thailand of cosmetic surgical techniques that are the envy of the medical profession in many G7 countries.”
Plenty of people in Thailand — from government officials to hotel owners to doctors and nurses — banked on the country’s new status as an international capital of discount plastic surgery. All this investment to payed off as Thailand became the number 1 medical tourism destination by volume of care in 2014 and attracted over 2.4 million foreign patients in 2017.
Westerners, or Ferangs, as they are called in Thailand were a good fit for Thailand as medical tourists. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED- HUGE SUCCESS!!!!!!
But then, politics. It was the Chinese tourists that Thailand was now interested in woowing…… Some Western countries had downgraded their diplomatic ties when the military seized power back in 2014 and the Thai government was seeking to strengthen ties with Beijing. And of course, China is a top trading partner…..
And back on the Gold Coast Australia where we were based, it became a very competitive business where clinic’s offered ‘bargain boob job’ for less than $5000 to compete with medical tourism in Asia. This was the lowest price in Australia with a discount to compete as growing numbers of women flock to Asian clinics for cheap surgery. It was competition that Thailand didn’t count on.
What a ride that was! And a fascinating insight into how Thailand became number one. In 2023 there is an increase in inflation and a lot of global competition in medical tourism…….
But let’s think back. It’s a facinatinating insight thanks to the New York Times Magazine. It’s 1999, Thai Airways International, the government airline of Thailand, began offering travelers an unusual new package-tour option. Most tourists might still prefer the old add-ons: the river cruise, the round of golf, the Thai cooking course. But others, those who were part of a new market that government officials were calling ”medical tourists,” could now combine their Asian holiday with a comprehensive physical, including abdominal ultrasound, chest and barium stomach X-rays and a complete laboratory analysis of blood, urine and stool samples. They could get a written report sent to their hotel within three days. And they could get it all done at Bumrungrad Hospital, a modern medical complex in Bangkok that had all sorts of inviting, foreigner-friendly amenities, starting with a Starbucks and a McDonald’s in the lobby.
This might not seem like a plausible promotion at all except for the fact that thousands of tourists were already coming to Thailand to avail themselves of its best-known medical attraction, discount plastic surgery. In Thailand, you can get a $2,400 face lift or a $1,200 nose job. You can get tumescent liposuction, body contouring, extra-large silicone breast implants, a buttock lift, a brow shave, a laser resurfacing of the face — and pay a fraction of what you would pay back home. At the luxurious Bumrungrad, which offers high-speed Internet access and cable TV in every room, you can choose among precisely delineated packages: liposuction, ”the thighs and love handles” package; liposuction, ”the love handles only” package; liposuction, ”the under chin only” package; and on and on. You can find Thai plastic surgeons who market these operations directly to you on English-language Web sites, where you can book an appointment online if you like what you see.
How a developing country with a floundering economy and a significant H.I.V. problem managed to market itself as a center for medical tourism makes an odd, roundabout story. It depends in part on the Asian economic crisis of 1997 and in part on Thailand’s thriving cabaret culture. Most of all, perhaps, it depends on the one plastic surgery procedure that Thai doctors have come closest to perfecting — namely, the sex change operation. Without the international transsexual grapevine, which since the late 90’s has been spreading the word about the affordable talents of Thai plastic surgeons, the new campaign to bring hard currency into the country by touting its medical bargains would never have gained momentum. And so it makes a strange kind of sense to begin this story with somebody like Michelle Moore — somebody who, it is fair to say, had never given Thailand a moment’s thought before she flew there and changed her life forever.
Moore lives in Philadelphia, not far from where she grew up in the blue-collar town of Glenside. Back then, she was known as Michael Maier. She is now 36 and for the last 18 years has operated a moving company called Maier’s Relocation Service, which runs trucks between Florida and Pennsylvania. For vacations, she likes Daytona Beach, Fla.; in her spare time, she collects and repairs old televisions and radios. Her boyfriend is the cook at a nearby nursing home. In Moore’s previous life, the subject of what might or might not be happening in a developing country in Asia just didn’t come up.
Then last spring Moore heard from a friend about a doctor in Bangkok named Preecha Tiewtranon. Preecha is a talented plastic surgeon with an unusual niche: he and two other Thai surgeons perform the cheapest sex-change operations in the world. Even before the Thai government started actively promoting the country’s medical care, the work of Preecha and his students had made Thailand a pilgrimage destination for American and European men who could not afford sexual-reassignment surgery in their home countries, where it can easily cost upward of $20,000. Moore was one of those customers. Twenty thousand dollars was more than she could afford, but $5,000 — Preecha’s going rate, plus air fare to Bangkok — was a sum she could manage. She would even have cash left over for breasts and, as Moore put it, ”fake cheekbones.”
The good thing, besides the price, was that Thai surgeons didn’t set so much store by the extensive psychological evaluations that Western surgeons demand before they will undertake a sex change. In the United States, doctors commonly adhere to a protocol known as the Harry Benjamin standards, which require sex-change candidates to have seen a psychiatrist for at least six months. In Thailand, they don’t. As long as their foreign patients have passed the ”real life” test of living as a woman for six months, they seldom throw up roadblocks. Moore, who isn’t big on roadblocks of any kind, liked this a lot. As she put it, ”I don’t want to pay some psychiatrist money I don’t have to tell me something I already know.” The convenient thing was that Thai immigration officials were by now so accustomed to their country’s brisk business in sex changes that they hardly blinked when a foreigner in a dress offered up a passport with a name like Chuck on it.
Of course, it was a long way to fly — especially with some very sore nethers and probably some bleeding and, depending on how long you decided to convalesce in Thailand, maybe an inability to urinate normally or some sort of brewing infection. But then the whole operation itself was so extreme that, in some ways, the distance and the arduousness of the journey and the strangeness of the destination seemed fitting.
Once Moore had settled on a trip to Bangkok, her biggest difficulty was choosing between the three Thai surgeons who performed sex changes on foreigners at a rate of two or three a week. Suporn Watanyusakul in Chonburi was kind of new at it, but he had studied with Preecha and his prices were great. (Besides, effused one satisfied customer in a Web site posting, Suporn was willing to provide the giant-sized breast implants that other doctors discouraged.) Sanguan Kunaporn, whose practice was on the swinging resort island of Phuket, was known for laboring hard to make a sensitive ”clitoris” from a small chunk of penis he preserved during surgery. His procedure, however, took 11 hours over two days.
Then there was Savannah, The Canadian-born Australian that had our own Dr Sanguan who is one of the pioneers in male-to-female gender reassignment surgery, and among those who are still performing this type of surgery in Thailand. This has gained him a following from all over the globe in Phuket as her surgeon in male to female gender transition
Then there was Preecha — who at 57 and with 1,200 male-to-female sex changes to his credit, the old man of the business. Having studied plastic surgery at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, he started out back in the 1978 doing sex changes on Thais, but then many of those transsexuals moved overseas (a lot of them to Germany, he says) and married Europeans. These ”lady boys” abroad were admired for their beauty, and word started to trickle out that Thailand was a place to get sexual reassignment surgery done cheaply and fairly artfully. By the late 90’s, Preecha’s clientele was made up almost entirely of Americans, Europeans and Australians. Preecha was fast — in three hours, he could do sexual-reassignment surgery, add breasts and shave an Adam’s apple — and his fans claimed he didn’t sacrifice aesthetics or sensation. He did most of his surgery at Bumrungrad, where many doctors had trained in the U.S. and the decor suggested a new Hyatt in some prosperous American exurb.
Michelle Moore picked Preecha, who first operated on her last August. When I met her, on a March morning so humid my glasses fogged over the instant I stepped outside, she was back in Bangkok to get a bit of repair work done. ”I wasn’t real good about dilating the new vagina every day,” she explained. ”I didn’t do what Preecha told me, and it kind of like collapsed on me.” In the tiny, lace-curtained waiting room of Preecha’s clinic, into which several rows of plastic chairs have somehow been crammed, rangy, raw-boned Moore was a large and incongruous presence. She was wearing jeans and a faded T-shirt with a drawing of a Formula 1 car. Her brown hair was long and a little raggedly cut. She looked a bit like David Bowie as a Philly motorhead.
Normally, Moore is a friendly sort, but at that moment she was kind of ticked off because Preecha had told her that another surgeon, whom she did not know, would be operating on her. ”I want to know who is this guy, where’d he go to school and blah, blah, blah,” she said, gesturing with a plastic fork full of a street vendor’s yellow curry. ”I’m afraid, and nobody can blame me. This is serious stuff.”
The person patiently listening to her was Eddie Chaichana, Preecha’s young nurse. Eddie is from a poor village in the north of Thailand. After he earns a little more money in Bangkok, he wants to go home and provide some much needed medical care there. But in the meantime he lives above Preecha’s clinic and deals all day long and into the night with the requirements of transgendered foreigners. Some of them want a pizza; some want a better selection of cable TV; some want advice on the best beaches to head for when they are ready to strut their brand new stuff. Some of them have never been abroad and are scared to leave the darkened hotel rooms where they are recovering.
At the moment, however, Moore was making perhaps the one request Eddie had not heard from a patient before. She wanted information on how to become a permanent resident of Thailand. She likes the people, the weather, the fact that she can get tailored suits for practically nothing. Having surgery abroad had opened her eyes to a life beyond Pennsylvania. ”I like the United States,” she said. ”But there’s too much red tape, especially in long-distance trucking.” She asked Eddie to help find her a job, maybe figure out a way around some immigration problems. It was one thing Eddie couldn’t do. It is medical tourists he had learned to serve — the people who want a new body, for a good price, to take home.
These days, there are plenty of people in Thailand — from government officials to hotel owners to doctors and nurses — banking on the country’s new status as an international capital of discount plastic surgery. The sex-change industry is only the beginning, as they see it, though it certainly made sense to start there and build on some obvious strengths
Thailand, as it happens, is a country whose male-to-female transsexuals make up an unusually accomplished and accepted subculture. There are no legal sanctions against homosexual or transgendered lifestyles, and kathoeys, or drag queens, are everywhere. In the late 90’s, one of the country’s most popular celebrities was a cross-dressing kick boxer who kissed his opponents and wore lipstick in the ring. The second-highest-grossing Thai movie ever made, ”Iron Ladies,” tells the (true) story of a transsexual volleyball team. Drag-queens and lady-boys are stock characters on Thai soaps. And the country’s many transsexual cabarets employ performers who are delicately featured marvels of plastic surgery. I visited two transsexual bars and a cabaret in Bangkok one Sunday night; talking to Iman and Bam-Bam, two pretty, gum-chewing dancers with lustrous hair and matching mauve eye shadow, it was easy to forget that they were not genetic girls. It is true that the breasts they kept flashing genially at me were perfectly spherical and their hips exiguous, but then that kind of made them look like Victoria’s Secret models, who are genetic girls as far as I know.
Given the amount of reshaping transsexual performers require in order to increase their value in the tourist-driven entertainment business, it is not surprising that there are skilled plastic surgeons in Thailand. But in a country where the per capita income is $2,000, not even showgirls have unlimited money to spend on cosmetic surgery. And they had even less of it after the Asian economic crisis and the devaluation of the Thai baht in 1997.
By then there were 131 private hospitals in Bangkok alone, most outfitted with up-to-date medical technology. Somebody had to fill all those beds and pay all those doctors, and after the baht took its plunge, not even the Thai middle class could afford private medical care anymore. (Those who couldn’t pay out of pocket went to government hospitals.) That is when tourist officials and hospital administrators came up with a strategy: market Thailand as a place you would actually travel to for plastic surgery and maybe even other medical procedures as well. Thailand had doctors who earned a fraction of what their American counterparts do, though many of them had studied in the U.S. or Australia. It had highly trained nurses who were paid around $600 a month, a culture with a tradition of massage and other spa-worthy healing practices and in Bangkok, at least, a lot of high-tech medical equipment purchased during the economic boom and now sitting idle. Medical tourism would have a better rep than sex tourism, and it could easily be as lucrative.
And so two years ago, the Tourism Authority of Thailand issued new directives to travel agents, suggesting that they offer their clients health-tourism packages — trips that might include, say, laser eye surgery along with airfare and hotel. Thai travel agents talked up the country’s medical bargains, and hospitals found new ways to advertise. At the hotel where I stayed, a regularly broadcast message advised me that I could get CNBC at ”fine hospitals” throughout Thailand. And several hospitals and clinics in Bangkok started making concerted pitches to attract foreign tourists. The St. Carlos Hospital, where you can get a full range of plastic surgery, advertises itself as a ”breakthrough integrated medical rejuvenation center providing spa, medical and fitness facilities.” The hospital’s Web site, whose opening page features a sun-dappled photograph of a handsome Caucasian couple, explains that ”in Asia, retaining that youthful look is important. This has, in turn, led to the development in Thailand of cosmetic surgical techniques that are the envy of the medical profession in many G7 countries.”
But it was Bumrungrad that took the merging of hospital and tourist accommodation the furthest. Under the administration of an American C.E.O. named Curtis Schroeder, the hospital began showing travel agents a slide-show presentation to get the word out about its bargains: $205 for an MRI, $267 for a complete physical, $1,200 for abdominal liposuction, $750 for full face resurfacing. From a medical point of view, Bumrungrad was already well equipped, with coronary care and dialysis units and sophisticated imaging technology. Now Schroeder, who is 44 and the former administrator of the U.S.C. Medical Center, set about furnishing it with the kind of lavish niceties to which American tourists are accustomed.
After the hospital’s makeover, a foreign visitor could expect five-star hotel extras: meet-and-greet service at the Bangkok airport, a multilingual personal escort to take him from test to test during physicals. And the rooms themselves were luxe and, by American standards, cheap — some just $54 a night. There were 250-thread-count cotton sheets and complimentary toiletries in baskets woven by Thai hill tribes. The hospital brought in chefs from Bangkok’s most glamorous restaurants — a new one each month — to cook patients’ menus. For customers who found the cuisine too exotic, a McDonald’s was installed in the lobby’s food court.
To advertise all these attractions, Schroeder opened outreach offices in cities across Asia. He figured it wouldn’t be all that hard to attract elites from countries whose medical services lagged far behind Thailand’s but who had the wherewithal ”to shop around for Grandma’s heart operation.” Last year, he also opened an office in London, on the assumption that the National Health Service’s waiting lists could propel some intrepid Brits halfway around the world for medical care. ”I have a newspaper article from England right here,” Schroeder told me one day, ”that shows how people can wait three years for hip replacement surgery with the National Health Service. And it’s the same thing in places like Sweden. There’s got to be a market for us there.” Schroeder handed me a newly produced brochure aimed at luring British patients to Bumrungrad. It promised what sounded like a medical paradise of ”instant” care — a place where the people (read: nurses) are ”gentle, serene and gracious” yet modern and efficient, a soothing amalgam of Buddhist compassion and Western infrastructure.
All this investment is beginning to pay off. Bumrungrad saw some 165,000 foreign patients last year. Schroeder knows that the kind of people who can afford plastic surgery or executive physicals in the United states are not necessarily the most price-sensitive, but he figures that everybody likes a bargain, especially if it can be combined with a vacation to a warm, tourist-friendly country. ”We’ve got one couple from New York who comes here every year for their physicals,” he said. ”They love Thailand, and it’s just an easy way for busy people to kind of multitask.”
Walking through the lobby at Bumrungrad one morning, past the lush ficus trees and the splashing fountain, I ran into Ruben Torral, a bouncy American who is Schroeder’s right-hand man. We ordered two Starbucks lattes, and Torral recounted a couple of his sample pitches for surgical vacations. To promote the month’s special on Lasik surgery, which corrects near-sightedness, Torral said he told prospective customers, ”Have the surgery and see beautiful Thailand — get it?” And for face lifts and such, Torral said the anonymity afforded by a hospital so very far from home might be an incentive for some Americans. ”Look, you can come here, get a face lift and spend five days vacationing on the beach, and it’s still going to cost you 30 or 40 percent less than it would if you had the same procedure in L.A. or New York. And guess what? Nobody at home needs to know what you’ve been up to. They just say, ‘Wow, you look rested.’ And you say ‘Yeah, Thailand’s great!”’
Personally, I find it hard to imagine spending any vacation time in a hospital if I can help it, let alone flying 24 hours to a country where vaccinations are recommended, the H.I.V. rate is 2 percent and the nurses don’t speak my language just to get an operation I could get at home. I worry about surgical complications discovered in Economy Class somewhere over the Pacific. I envision having to ask a flight attendant for 9 or 10 yards of gauze and a shot of morphine. I think about less exacting imitators of the doctors at Bumrungrad trying to cash in on the foreign market and ruining, oh, say, your face.
And most American plastic surgeons would agree with me. They take a dim view of all the sun-and-surf-and-nip-and-tuck destinations: Central America, Mexico, Thailand. Follow-up visits are a problem, they point out, and cultural ideals of beauty differ — and more importantly, so do medical credentials and standards of care. ”These are third-world countries — what more do I really have to say?” said Daniel Morello, the president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. ”All the best plastic surgeons in those countries come to the U.S. to train. So why would an American go there for surgery?” Every year, Morello said, ”I am beset by 10 or 12 patients who went abroad for surgery and who have problems they want me to fix. These are people whose phone calls have not been answered, who have been abandoned by the doctor they saw.” Morello added that many plastic surgeons here are reluctant to take such patients on, because ”these are angry, disappointed people who tend to transfer that anger to you. You feel badly for them, but you feel they’ve been dumb, too. The notion of a vacation and surgery of any kind — they really shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence.”
There may, however, be less risky strategies for coaxing well-heeled Westerners into the Thai health system. After my coffee with Torral, I made a brief stop in a public bathroom where yellow roses float serenely in a marble bowl by the sink and then took the elevator to Curtis Schroeder’s office on the top floor.
Schroeder is a tall, well-tended man with sandy hair slicked back from his forehead and a youthful, pink complexion. The day we met, he was wearing a pearly gray suit and waxing enthusiastic about his latest project, something called the Vital Life Wellness Center, set to open this month. Schroeder leaned forward, elephant-print silk tie dangling. He thinks the center will be a big attraction for Americans into vitamin therapy, and he may be right. The lingo sounds spot-on, and ”wellness” sounds like a smart direction for medical tourism to go in: ”nutraceuticals,” prevention, treatments that are trendy and costly and nonsurgical — and, like plastic surgery, not covered by insurance at home. ”We’ll do body fluid assays, check for vitamin deficiencies, anti-oxidants, free radicals,” Schroeder promised. At the Wellness Center, doctors analyzing data about a client’s body would create ”custom compound” supplements for him. ”Some people now are taking 30-40 vitamin pills a day that they’re buying at the local mall, and they don’t need it,” Schroeder explained. ”It’s passing through them, and all they’ve got is the most expensive urine in the world. Well, we don’t want expensive urine here! We’ll give you exactly what you need to take and no more, and then you’ll come back and we’ll test you again.”
So savvy and so neat was this vision, so far removed from the messy work of turning a man into a woman, that I nearly lost sight of the fact that, so far, the most successful Thai medical tourism — the root of it all — was sexual reassignment surgery. Curtis Schroeder, it was made clear to me, did not wish to talk about sexual reassignment surgery. Before I interviewed him, I met with a woman named Yadda Aparaks, the business director of Bumrungrad. She is a petite, impeccably groomed and rather obdurate person with whom I had the following conversation:
Aparaks: ”We do sex changes, but we are not going to speak about that. We don’t want to be known for doing sex change operations. Sex tourism, sex change, nothing like that.”
Me: ”But you have a whole section of your Web site on sexual reassignment surgery at Bumrungrad.”
Aparaks: ”No, we don’t have that.”
Me: ”Yes, you do.”
Aparaks: ”Well maybe somebody looking at our Web site can pull that up. If they’re looking for that. But we’re not going to talk about that.”
It seemed fruitless to press the point, so that was that. But later that day I met a man who knows intimately just how important sex changes are to the whole boom in medical tourism, who has made quite a nice living on them himself and who just chuckled when I told him what Aparaks said.
Not much seems to bother Preecha Tiewtranon. He gives off an aura of quiet jollity, as though he had just heard a good joke or eaten a warm, tasty meal. And his vast and tolerant bemusement takes in all sorts of phenomena discomfiting to other people. Just for the heck of it and kind of expecting an oh-don’t-be-silly reply, I asked him whether something I had read in a guidebook was true: namely, that penile reattachment surgery was performed more often in Thailand than in other countries and that Thailand was, in fact, the international capital of penile reattachment.
”Oh, yes,” he said. ”We have many wives and girlfriends cutting off the husband’s penises here. A few years ago, you had that Bobbitt, and everybody in America was so excited. And in Thailand, we though what’s all the excitement? We have that all the time. We got very good at the microsurgery for reattaching the penis; it’s a specialty for us.” Preecha chuckled heartily. I joined in rather more hesitantly.
Long ago, Preecha said, he had thought ”transsexual people were kind of dirty people and I looked down on them.” But then he started seeing a few transsexuals as patients, people who came in with horribly botched surgery to be repaired, and he felt sorry for them and thought, If they are going to do this anyway, somebody good should do it so they don’t mutilate themselves. And after a while and to his surprise, he found that he liked his transsexual patients. Maybe even especially the foreigners — those blundering Americans who didn’t know the first thing about Thailand but who trusted him.
In the end, what he liked was that the sex-change patients were grateful, which ordinary tourists, and people in general, so often weren’t. ”You know, someone you do stomach surgery on, maybe it’s very hard for them, and you do a good job, but the patient is just saying, ‘Oh pain, pain, pain,”’ Preecha said. ”The sexual-reassignment surgery patients are always happy. They don’t complain! They say they are born again here in Thailand, and they are happy.”
Turkey is one of the top destinations for medical tourism. Home to ancient and scenic natural wonders and famous for its healthcare infrastructure. Being close to Western Europe, Turkey has been medical tourism hotspot for many Europeans seeking affordable cosmetic surgery. Hair transplaint’s have continuously gaining popularity.
There are many reasons why Turkey has become the rising star of medical tourism. The travelling distances to Turkey from the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa, makes it possible for people to cut costs. But it isn’t just about that. Despite the lower costs, the quality of procedures offered is world-class.
Affordable Treatment Packages
The medical tourism industry recieved $1.5 billion from medical tourism in 2018, Turkey received around 700,000 medical tourists, according to the Turkish Health Minister. And it has been growing every year since, with the huge influx of medical tourists is that many people in their home countries are unable to afford the treatment. That is why they consider going to other countries to get the same procedure done.
The quality of the procedure offered isn’t sacrificed because of the lower cost. The cost is low because of the Turkish economy itself. The exchange rate and low cost of living make many things seem very cheap to foreigners.
Moreover, the minimum wage is lower in Turkey, which results in cheaper labour costs. This means that surgery in Turkey will cost less than it will, say, in Western Europe. Moreover, having cosmetic surgery or a hair transplant is not available on National Health Service (NHS) in the UK.
No Long Wait Lists
Once you book a treatment package in Turkey, you can get the procedure done in a matter of a day(s). However, in the UK, waitlists can be so long that you might have to wait for almost 2 years to get some procedures done. So, if you want to get treatment without further delays, you can get it in Turkey.
Many people also find the aspect of including the procedure in their vacation time quite appealing. Turkey is a popular tourist destination, which is why many people can relax after or before getting their treatment. If you’re also avoiding unnecessary questions about the surgery by your colleagues, it’s a good idea to get the treatment and recover for a while in Turkey.
On any given day during high season, this popular Thai beach town would be filled with tourists from all around the world. Jet skis, longtails and speed boats roared through its bright blue waters. Some pulled parasails, their colourful puffs of nylon kites moving through the skies, keeping harnessed bodies afloat. Massive cruise ships could sometimes be seen anchored offshore.
The party lights, for the first time in a decade, had been turned off.
In the evenings, the streets adjacent to Patong’s beach were packed with travellers till long after the sun slipped into the Andaman Sea horizon admiring the famous Phuket sunset. The air typically filled with the shouts of taxi drivers, massage staff and restaurant workers, all in pursuit of the next customer.
Now, it’s a Phuket that is hard to recognise. The majority of businesses are shut, some with “For Rent” signs. Door handles are wrapped in chains and padlocks, while closed hotels have put up rope fences blocking the driveways to their entrances.Even American chain outlets like McDonald’s, Burger King and Starbucks are shut.
The pandemic continues to impact all over the world, and Phuket is no different. But on the bright side, we’re now seeing another beautiful side of this wonderful island – not its attractions or natural wonders, nor entertainment and nightlife, but its kind-hearted people and frontline medical professionals that continue helping others in need during these unprecedented times.
Patong Beach, Phuket is getting ready for reopening on July 1st in Patong Phuket and with a facelift! No more electric cables on the beach front and road resurfacing in progress! Patong Beach is almost unrecognisable!!!!!
Earlier this year for the first time in decades, a large leatherback turtle came ashore at Kata Beach in Phuket to lay eggs yesterday in January. A total of 29 baby leatherback turtles broke through the sand and made their way into the sea at our favourite Kata Beach.The nest site has been sealed off for protection and a thermometer installed to monitor the temperature in the nest.
Karon Deputy Mayor Itthiporn Sangkaew, himself a native of Kata-Karon area, was overly happy about the turtle as were the locals! “As far as I can remember the last time turtles laid eggs at a beach in Kata-Karon was decades ago. Certainly not in the past 20 years,” he said.
Marine life experts from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) reported that the first turtles surfaced at about 10pm last evening and began making their way to the water’s edge with 80 eggs in total in the nest.In addition to the 29 that made it into the sea last night, five were taken into care as they were too weak to make the life-starting journey across the sand.
During the lockdown and in anticipation of Phuket’s reopening on July 1, there have been beach cleanups all over the island . Hotels have continually joined the local community and municipality to keep kata Beach clean with regular beach cleansing during closures.
Director SIS, Mat Christie Hindmarch said his team joining many hotels for our regular beach clean.The SIS Kata – A Dynamic Young and Trendy Resort Situated about 300 Metres up On the Hillside A Few Moments Away Of The Award-Winning Gold Sands Of Kata Beach.
“Hotels have continually joined the local community and municipality to keep kata Beach clean with regular beach cleansing during closures.”
The once popular beaches of Kata and Karon have been hit the hardest are most definitely Patong, Karon and Kata beaches, according to Anthony Lark, president of the Phuket Hotels Association.
“These three enclaves were 95% reliant on international tourism. And it dried up.”For the few who decided to stick it out, life has been incredibly difficult.” It’s very bad for us, he said.
Not many people come. We have only Thai people but not so many. In one day, only one or two tables. Normally we are full downstairs and upstairs.”He says staff are only getting paid half of their regular salaries until international tourists return.
For the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, founded in 2016, closing shop till the tourists return isn’t an option. Whether visitors come or not, the facility’s 12 retired working elephants, which live in the sanctuary’s 30 acres of jungle, need to be fed.”It costs approximately between 20,000 and 30,000 Thai baht a month to feed one elephant,” says general manager Vincent Gerards.
With a dozen animals on hand, that’s about $7,500-8,000 each month. Prior to the pandemic, most of that money came from the many visitors that would pay to experience the sanctuary and observe the elephants for a full day.”Around 85% of the population of Phuket relies on tourism in some form or another, whether they’re working in hotels or taxi drivers, fisherman — it’s all connected and we’re very dependent on international tourists,” says Gerards.”
So Covid obviously had a huge impact when we talk about elephant tourism in particular. More than 150 elephants living in Phuket have left the island since the beginning of Covid-19 because the camps had to temporarily or permanently close, and those elephants were then moved back to their owners who often live in other provinces.”
Phuket SandBox Reopening July 1
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the approved plan will take effect on July 1.”Phuket will be the first destination to lift quarantine requirements for vaccinated foreign tourists under the ‘Phuket Sandbox’ program,” says a TAT statement. “However, they will be restricted to travel activities within designated areas in Phuket for seven days and will then be allowed to visit other Thai destinations.”The plan is reliant on efforts to vaccinate 70% of the island’s residents, with officials requesting more than 930,000 doses. According to a report in Phuket News, more than 70,000 Phuket residents have received their first dose of the vaccine.
There is much optimism that international tourists will begin returning with measures for entering Phuket officially released today June 25, 2021. This is the glimmer of hope and a shining light at the end of our very dark, long tunnel.
For now, Phuket relies on domestic tourists
In the meantime, domestic tourism is keeping some businesses afloat — but just barely. “It has literally been the oxygen that has enabled almost all of the tourism-related businesses on Phuket to continue to breathe and survive.” says Lark, who points to the Bangkok residents that have been flying down on the weekends and government holidays.”But it’s unsustainable. Phuket’s tourism can’t survive at 6% to 8% occupancy. These hotels were designed to run at 30% to 40% occupancy to break even. So it’s helped stem the tide of outgoing grief, but it’s by no means sustainable, sadly.”
It has been a tough time, as Phuket does need international tourists. Everyone has been doing their bit and very creative to try to make the most of the situation that we are in at the moment and somehow managed to find a way. But we need to open up now we are supporting the local community, and we were working closely with local government and central government to get ready, in order to re-open Phuket, and to re-open Thailand, and to be ready to welcome international visitors.
Ekkapan, a street food vendor at Patong Beach, specializes in dishes from Thailand’s northeast Isaan region. He says the demographics of his customer base have shifted but — in spite of being in an area so reliant on international tourists — profits haven’t dipped. “Before Covid my customers were 80% foreign tourists,” he tells CNN. “But now we are serving mostly Thai people. Same money but we have to work harder. Foreigners liked to order grilled dishes, which were easy to make. Thais prefer things like som tom (papaya salad) and larb (a spicy minced meat dish) which take longer.”
The Phuket Elephant Sanctuary has also had to adapt its programs to cater to the domestic market — shortening the time length of its programs and lowering prices while also creating remote online opportunities to connect with their many followers from abroad. It’s helping to put food in the elephants’ mouths, but what they really need is for international tourists to come back as soon as possible.
With the pandemic tossing out an endless supply of curveballs over the last year, a lot can happen between now and July, it’s great to finally see that light at the end of the tunnel and to have a pretty clear plan of what’s going to happen. We’re ready to welcome tourists again!
As the nation gears up to celebrate a muted Thai New Year, this year promises to be a very different Songkran Festival, Laughs, smiles and love are still there from visiting family and friends however the traditional water fighters and splashing thats famous in the scorching April heat with streets and bars spilling with tourists is missing. But…it’s better than nothing.
The Public Health Ministry have taken the ‘song’ out of Songkran for 2021 so there won’t be any foam parties, no water fights, throwing or water pistol battles. The government is promoting traditional Songkran celebrations for 2021 at odds with the massive water battles that have become the norm over the past few decades.
Many people have no plans to spend extra during the holidays, some even cancelling plans altogether and preferring to have staycations in the city with Mo Chit looking unusually quiet for this time of year with 26.5% out of 1,000 people interviewed by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) said they planned to stay home.
Our partnered hotel in Phuket partnered luxury resort in Phuket DoubleTree by Hilton Phuket Banthai Resort was full last night with locals and expats enjoying the celebrations!
Carparks are full right now- celebrating beachfront at the brand new beach bar at our partnered luxury resort in Phuket DoubleTree by Hilton Phuket Banthai Resort!
FTI vice-chairman Kriengkrai Thiennukul admitted that the ban on water-splashing activities — the highlight of the festival — will affect its joyous atmosphere. “We still have a positive outlook. with more money that will at least circulate during the festival because people have more time off than in previous years,” said Mr Kriengkrai.
It is expected Songkran to be less enthusiastic, but business leaders and state tourism authorities have said holding the festival with health guidelines in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is better than nothing.
Bangkok however authorities decided to prohibit celebrations, including water splashing, concerts and foam parties, in one of the popular destinations for Songkran revellers. The move aims to contain the spread of coronavirus, but could mean less of a party mood for the New Year celebrations. The news hasn’t been good with a second wave and infection rates up by around 900 plus per day.
We can’t help but to take a moment to reflect on this time in Thailand and all of the changes over the years! Songkran is one of our absolute favourite celebrations. Going forward we together with our partnered hospital and hotel teams, we are ready when travel does re-open even bigger and better than ever re-branded and expanded with a brand new website and more to offer our clients.
Today Nip Tuck Holidays is very happy to continue to work with our long-term hospital partners and new hotels as well as Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and government schemes to together stimulate domestic tourism. Together we will play our part in assisting in the reactivation and stimulation of Thailand’s cosmetic tourism and medical tourism markets and to help related businesses by promoting Thailand by offering our services to locals, expats and international travellers as borders open.
We love Songkran, and we are have some fabulous memories of our April Group Tours at Songkran! They were one of our favourite times as the hot April weather in Phuket and Easter was a time symbolic of transformations and new beginnings!!
Madeline was one of the ladies that shared with us how excited she was as we counted down for our April Group Tour in Phuket!!!!! Oh Goodness the memories feel like they were yesterday and thinking about Phuket we cannot wait for travel to re-open and host these Group Tours to Phuket again as well as other destinations!
“I am really excited about the trip and it’s crept up so quick I started to freak out a little for a moment with having everything organised but then I thought about it and all I have to organise is getting my bag packed!
So there has been no need to be stressed/freaked out/or whatever else!
“The best thing ever has been having Nip Tuck Holidays organise it all. I can say that if I hadn’t of had Claire to speak with and organise my trip, I definitely wouldn’t feel as confident as I do about it all and to be honest I probably wouldn’t be getting it done. “
Fun times with girls in raincoats post-op to protect their bandages from getting wet at Songkran!
The other girls on this trip agreed saying the service and standard of medical care they received as well as so much fun. “The service I have received from this company has been great, and hearing what she has to say and all her knowledge in the area of medical tourism, I feel great. “
“Claire is passionate about her job and you can tell this the moment you hear her speak about it which makes me confident I am in safe hands.
I’ve wanted to have breast surgery for a few years and now that it’s finally happening, I cannot wait! For anyone wanting this, I would highly recommend going through Nip Tuck Holidays!”
The focus of what we offer to our clients is the medical procedure and physical transformation and I would like to thank you for the opportunity of myself and our company being of service to you. For a lot of our clients it is something that you have thought about for a long time. We understand first-hand how you are feeling, because we have been through this ourselves! I have personally had breast augmentation surgery at our hospital in Phuket and I am happy to share with you my personal experience, just as many of our happy clients have.
We are all about making the way you look on the outside match how you feel on the inside.
Happy Songkran everyone and stay safe! We look forward to sharing more of our past client experiences on both individual and Group Tours while we await travel re-opening in Thailand. We have so much exciting news to come about new destinations and Group Tours scheduled when it does so please keep up to date or let us know if you have any questions or would like a free quote or assessment!
Phuket is planning to open their borders from July 1st, 2021 and cancel all quarantine measures for vaccinated international travelers.
We are happy to announce that we are open for bookings from July 1 onwards….📝
Travellers will need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 virus to travel overseas💉
Testing in Thailand for Covid-19maybe required💉
Thailand hopes the relaxed travel requirement will revive its tourism industry
Brand new Nip Tuck hotel partners
US clients can confirm
Australians must apply for special exemptions to be allowed to leave the country at this stage…..waiting to hear from June 17*
Travel to Thailand at this stage looks possible with the Thai Government warming to a plan proposed by struggling local tourism operators. It seems the online campaign has successful put enough pressure on appropriate Government bodies to re-open to international tourists on the basis that vaccination programs will be well underway by then.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha said on Facebook that a review of their vaccinations are important first are the first step so they are prepared, as it’s important that Thailand proceed in line with other countries.
‘Those in the tourism business would like to get certified soon. But there is still a lot to be uncertain about. “The main thing is we have to go along with other countries as well”
And this really is the main issue at the moment globally facing us all! We are seeing hopeful signs of the end to the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic and this is a HUGE FIRST STEP!
Tourism is one of Thailand’s biggest industries and major employers, accounting for an estimated 13 per cent of GDP. For our part, together with our hospital teams we are happy to announce that we are open for bookings from October 1 onwards.
AND….. We have a huge announcement to make!!! Nip Tuck Holidays we would like to introduce you to our selection of brand new hotel partners partnerships with a selection of international hotels and resorts for the ultimate recovery post-surgery!
Four Points Sheraton, Patong Phuket
This brand new beachfront, luxury resort two outdoor pools, five fantastic restaurants & bars and the latest facilities for the ultimate holiday in Phuket and recovery post-op. You will come home feeling rested, renewed , looking and feeling like a new person!
In Phuket we have the brand new Four Points Sheraton, Patong Phuket to provide our trademark hands-on approach to our business and clients as you recover in these luxurious surroundings with beachfront views, special privileges and bonus inclusions.
The Doubletree by Hilton Banthai Patong, Phuket is a luxury resort in the heart of Patong Beach.While you rest your body in these luxurious surroundings and ease of access to attractions in Phuket such as shopping centres and beauty clinics which are a favourite post-op for clients recovering from cosmetic surgery.
As our clients recover in these luxurious surroundings with beachfront views, we offer special privileges and bonus inclusions we provide options for companions and even suites to bring along the whole family. As NipTuck clients you will be treated like extra-special guests while you recover from surgery!
In Bangkok, our partnered resort Novotel Bangkok Sukhumvit 20 is the best choice for new hotels in Bangkok and so central just a few steps to BTS Asoke Station!
That means less stress and worry about getting around the city in the heat, especially in bandages and when you have stitches. Here you have all that Bangkok has to offer at your fingertips ensuring your best post-surgery recovery possible whilst recovering in Thailand and having an enjoyable holiday!
Four Points by Sheraton Bangkok, Sukhumvit 15 Relax and refresh- sleeping on the signature Four Comfort bed is like sleeping on a cloud, and doctor’s orders upon discharge from hospital.
Recover in style at this luxury oasis while you sample the best that Bangkok has to offer on this vibrant city.
We will be rolling out new surgery holiday packages and prices shortly so make sure you are on your newsletter so you have the latest news! Here are our contact details to get in touch! https://niptuckholidays.com/contact-us/
“The entire trip blew all my expectations I had out of the water. I was amazed at the quality of the hospital and it’s staff. Everyone made me feel so comfortable, in fact, I felt like a princess.
The Dr was so warm and friendly, but also professional it took all my hesitation I may have had.
I would recommend it to anyone if they were considering any cosmetic or dental procedures. I would do it again for sure…”
Donna Pope, Upper eyelid lift by Dr Pathom
“I am greatly amazed at the wonderful services provided by all staff. The hospital, doctors, hotel and not to forget the lovely drivers who transferred us from the hospital back to the hotel.
The beautiful manners and cleanness of the Thai people amazed me.
Claire, you are a truly lovely compassionate lady, I was not once at all nervous or worried because are very calm and a professional at your job.
The upper blepharoplasty (eyelid lift) was pain free, with only slight bruising and swellness but is healing fast.”
Annie had an extended tummy tuck, liposuction to the hips, abdomen, back and waist, and a breast lift/ reduction and implant with Dr Witoon“This was excellent!”
Claire was outstanding, caring, lovely, truly a beautiful person who put herself out of the way to ensure everyone had a good time and their fears were alleviated before they arose.
The customer service is 1000% outstanding!”
Our Group Tour from Brisbane
The day had finally arrived and dreams were coming true for eight exited ladies all over Queensland and one from Tasmania. Together, we were embarking on a journey-of-a-lifetime as part of the exclusive packages offered by Nip Tuck Cosmetic Surgery Holidays exclusive Medical Tourism Group Tour Package ex Brisbane.
There was an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation about the journey ahead, knowing this journey was going to change their lives!
Wow, what an awesome bunch of ladies having breast augmentations, breast lifts, breast reductions, liposuction, tummy tucks, eyelid lifts, Botox, Laser teeth whitening and dental procedures teeth cleaning, crowns and veneers.
The strength of the Medical Tourism Group Tours is having the support of other ladies in the same position, as well as me, which proved very valuable to clients in terms support and her for advice on hand for any issue that may arise.
For Carole and Donna, who were part of the tour and both partially deaf, obviously the language barrier at times proved challenging, so this support was invaluable with all communication with the hospital and hotel.
Prior to the departure, all the ladies had received their final documents with very thorough information including the medical component of the details of their procedure of choice, pre-operative advice, risks of surgery.
I was in touch daily with the ladies and available 24-7 to answer any questions or clarify any concerns including reassuring clients, husbands, mother and family members about the impeccably high medical standards of both the hospital and the surgeons in the global network, as well as the genuineness of their care and concern for all their clients.
The eastern philosophy and culture in Thailand ensures that you, as a client, are the primary concern of our surgeon and hospital. You will be made to feel like the most important person in the world, because, as a client of Nip Tuck and Bangkok Hospital, you are!
Our surgeons, hospital and we at Nip Tuck genuinely care about you, your physical and emotional needs and understand and empathize with the full emotions you are gone through, and take very seriously the trust you are placing in us. We will not let you down!!!
Day 1: Friday July 3
I was eagerly awaiting there arrival at the VIP area of Phuket airport with Maam and New, our very special hospital ground-care staff.
After an emotional greeting, our hospital staff loaded everyone’s suitcases into a mini bus, and together we went directly to the hospital for our consultations with the surgeons.
Seeing is believing- and everyone is impressed!
I love this moment, when the trust my clients placed in me was re-confirmed and my clients finally have the opportunity to see the hospital, meet their surgeons and experience the incredibly high standards of the medical and personal care we offer.
For every one of the clients, this surreal feeling combined with an overwhelming sense of relief and reassurance that this was the best decision they had ever made.
For everyone that has experienced a package hosted by Nip Tuck Holidays, all those negative thoughts and comments about the standards of medical care offered by our company were now laughable.
This view is supported by hundreds of testimonials from happy clients and the exceptional standard of results. We arrived at the hospital to the grandness of the hospital, and were warmly greeted by the hospital staff with cold towels, drinks and refreshments.
Consultation began with the surgeons at 11am. This gave our clients the opportunity to meet their surgeon and have a private and confidential chat about their procedures of choice and to have any questions answered and concerns addressed with an overwhelming sense of calmness and confidence.
We spent a long day at the hospital and were all becoming increasing tired. The medial testing at the hospital is very thorough.
A couple of ladies were having their surgeries the next morning early so had checked into the hospital, so now everyone else was ready to venture down to Patong Beach and check into our hotel.
Everyone quickly dispersed after checking in, some dashing for a Thai massage, others mesmerized by the buzz of the town while Claire accompanied some clients and made a quick dash to the Sea Smiles Dental Clinic around the corner for a dental consultation.
Exhausted and starving and in desperate need of a cocktail by this stage, we had one more job to do before we could relax. So….we went next to get a Thai number and some credit on our phones so we could all be in touch with our families.
We arranged to meet everyone in the hotel lobby at around 6.30- 7pm. So now, everyone had the option of joining us for dinner and a drink, or doing their own thing as we headed to a glorious spot on the beach and ordered a cocktail.
It was an incredible moment as the sun set across the beach and we ordered some dinner. Finally, after a long day, we relaxed. This is the moment were all waiting for, however by this stage we were all so exhausted that the conversation wasn’t as interesting as it possibly could have been……. But already, we all sensed that were had developed a very strong bond of having this experience together and a moment we will look back on with fond memories….
I confirmed with the hospital that all Neshamah and Maggie will be ready for their multiple procedures in the morning including liposuction, tummy tucks breast lift/ augmentation/ revision and reductions and face lifts all to be performed on the ladies the next morning.
I was adamant that the ladies go down to the beach for a massage and some dinner prior to their procedures arranged for them to be back at the hospital ready for surgery bright and early the next morning, while everyone else relaxed in their hotel after dinner.
Day 2: Saturday 3rd July.
Surgeries begin…
An early morning, I accompanied Shelley, with pick-up at the hospital at 6.30am. Shelley from the Gold Coast was scheduled for a lower eyelid lift, neck lift and breast revision surgery with Dr Pongsakorn.
As we arrived at the hospital, Shelley was whisked into her room and into surgery, as I went to be with Neshamah and Maggie prior to their surgery.
For both ladies, the reality hit, making this “very surreal” experience very real. I was there for them, holding their hands and wiping away any tears reassuring them that everything was okay.
It was a great honour and a privilege to have the chance to be there for my clients in their time of need. I understand the emotional and physical process of this incredible journey, and understand it from having the surgery myself. And I think its important to also have the perspective and empathy of witnessing it through the eyes of many other clients as well as the perspective of the hospital and surgeons.
“It is a pleasure for me to support someone else.”
The clients tell me the support is invaluable as they were whisked into surgery…. Mostly lol.
With everyone doing well and confirmed schedule and appointments for the next day, it was now time to enjoy Phuket with some ladies.
Together we ventured out for a little shopping and exploring in spectacular Patong, had a cuddle with a monkey on the street, then stopped for some wonderfully delicious and cheap Thai food and some cocktails and Thai massages.
Day 3: Sunday 4th July
Donna is having her upper eyelid lift today, Patricia is having a face-lift, Carole is having a breast lift and implant and Lauren is having her some liposuction to her abdominal area along with brand new boobs involving a reduction/ lift and implant.
I am very excited another lady is arriving from the Gold Coast today and joining our tour. So, I accompanying the hospital staff and met Lani at Phuket airport.
Very excited to have Lani here!!! I knew Lani from my gym on the Gold Coast! Together with Maam and New-our wonderful hospital ground-care staff, we went to pick her up at Phuket Airport and straight back to the hospital for her consult with Dr Pongsakorn and have her pre-operative tests.
Neshamah – WOW!!!! After an extended tummy tuck, liposuction to the thighs, stomach and hips, as well as breast reduction, lift and augmentation Annie looked amazing and complained a little about a headache.
UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!!!
Her breasts were a little tender she said she was feeling a little uncomfortable and restricted about her position and its awkwardness. That’s it!
Mentally and physically she was fine. I was amazed and so was she both physically and mentally. In fact, she complained about having a headache.
She did not look like she had just come through very major surgery thats for sure. This is a credit to her own strength and the incredible skill of Dr Witoon, coupled with the incredible post-operative care she received in the hospital.
Patricia had her pre-op tests and scheduled for surgery in the afternoon. She was scheduled for surgery at 3pm and could barely contain her excitement and patience as she tried to wait patiently in her room, watch some television and read her book, as her focus drifted….
Within a couple of days Lani was up and about and wanting to explore what Phuket had to offer. She had some friends here we caught up with and we went out to enjoy some Thai food and beer then we went for a Thai massgae, as you do.
Then had some wondered through the shops looking for the ‘secret rooms’ for some gorgeous Louis Vuitton handbags and Channel earrings and Calvin Klein knickers we simply could not resist, then back to the same little spot for more yummy food and beer with some friends from home we saw.
Day 5- Monday 5th July
The next morning I had the opportunity of meeting some clients of mine from Cairns that were there having their surgery. I had only spoken to them on the phone so it was great we had the opportunity to finally meet!
As she was whisked away, I hugged her and reassured her it would be over as soon as she knew it and I will call and check on her tomorrow.
Together with Dr Piyapas, I went to see Maggie post-op and was incredibly moved by Dr Piyapas’s very sincere compassion and empathy in his care of his patients.
He took the time to explain in detail and reassure her, as he held her had, and wiped her tears, and offered support and understanding and humanness rarely demonstrated.
I was there with Maggie as she awaited transportation back to her suite, reassuring her and mostly talking a lot to get to know her and distract her from her physical body to take her mind elsewhere……
Then Lauren, who was off the morphine after her breast lift, reduction and implant- feeling no pain and looking perfectly well.
No problems at all- she just breezed through it!
Next was Pat, who had a face lift. Again- major complaint as a headache. Probably due to the tight compression bandages from her face lift. She had the physiotherapist with her so I left her to it and would check on her later…..
Then Carole – breast lift and implant. Off the morphine, no pain, bounced back incredible with her bright smile and gorgeous sparkle in her eye…… No pain, no problem at all.
Shelley back to the hotel for her discharge at 1pm back to the hotel. She looked and felt amazing, if a little tired, so I advised her to rest and take it easy for the rest of the day. I on the other hand, had to make a mad dash to the Sea Smiles Dental Clinic to accompany some clients and also have some procedures for myself including crowns and teeth cleaning.
I grabbed a yummy coconut Gelato on the way home and had another Thai massage and checking on all clients at the hospital and hotel just to see how everyone was doing.
Lani was happy with the size of the implant and Maggie and Annie who were both doing pretty well. Maggie was sounding exhausted but good.
I called Pat who sounded a hundred percent better, and Lauren who was feeling great. I told all the ladies I would see them tomorrow and get plenty of rest and take advantage of the incredible round-the-clock care they were receiving!
By this stage, everyone had lost track of days completely. It was a blur and I have to say I was completely exhausted! A combination of the flurry of procedures, doctor’s appointments and keeping track of everyone’s process, this feeling of loss of reality was compounded.
Day 6- Tuesday July
I was up again at 5.30am, and again, the first for my big breakfast of eggs and fruit and coffee after coffeeJ I arranged myself and Donna to be picked up from the lobby at 11am so the ladies could visit their sisters. Donna surprised me by showing up with a fabulous tattoo on her left shoulder.
As we waited in the lobby, Lauren made a surprise entrance looking amazing!
I was in awe at the brilliance of these surgeons, and continually amazed at the phenomenal recovery process of each and every one of these ladies.
Donna and I went to see Pat, who after a facelift yesterday came out of surgery with a headache due to the tight compression bandages. I spoke to her last night and I was relived to hear her sounding much better. And today different lady today, as the bandages were off, and she sprawled out on the lounge with her feet up looking fabulous!!
Bruising around to her eye area and face was to be expected, but mentally and physically-WOW!!! She was really for discharge and feeling very pleased. She said there were heaps of people she planned to keep in touch with, but at this moment was feeling like escaping to her own private bubble and listening to her body and just detaching from the world. I completely agreed with her. After her procedures- I advised her is the perfect time to be entirely selfish and let her mind and her body rest, recover and rejuvenate!
Next, Donna and I went to see her sister Carole. So sick of her large breasts, she had a lift and implant to a smaller size which resulted in high, perfect results. She kept peaking at them, just dying to see the results. But Carole’s smile said it all- her face was beautifully lit.
So many success stories!
Next I went upstairs to see Maggie. Her flowers had arrived as a gesture of love and support from her husband Tim, and filled the room with a wonderful smell and warm glow.
Maggie was gradually feeling better- but after her extensive procedures, her recovery was to be expected. The biggest complaint for Maggie was being uncomfortable. In general, I think people don’t appreciate the freedom in their own body until this is taken away……
Her movement was severely restricted, the position uncomfortable, her appetite not completely restored. But she was looking, and sounding, and feeling better by the day. People’s rate of recovery, the pain and discomfort they experience and the rate of healing is so different for the individual. Like everyone else that had breast work, she was dying to rip of the bandages and see the final result!
With any cosmetic/ medical procedure, there is a high degree of swelling post-operative, and the immediate results are very drastic compared with the final results after the standard 6 weeks post op. But day by day, as your body recovers from the trauma, heals naturally and rests and recovers, in the fullness of time, the results are extraordinary- no exceptions.
I went to see Annie, who was dressed in her very glamorous yet comfortable night gown looking fresh and totally amazing, with a gleam in her eye and the due satisfaction.
Everyone was very pleased with her incredibly quick recovery both mentally and physically. Her energy was bright, with an aura of peaceful and surrounded by a healthy, orange glow.
All in all, very positive!!! Together, Pat, Donna, Carole, Lani and I all discharged from the hospital and we taken back to the hotel.
Everyone was very keen to check into their rooms and have the space to do their own things, whether it is just relax, talk amongst themselves in private or explore the streets of Patong.
The shops were a dream, with an abundance of everything you could wish for including handbags, wallets, t-shirt. It was endless…….
The heavy rain of the morning had stopped, and the humidity and heat was moderate. After we ate, we wondered around he shops and explored the markets, shops, and bought some Ed Harvey t-shirts and soaked in the atmosphere.
Day 6: Wednesday July 8
All procedures completely successfully- all done and checked out, apart from Maggie and Neshamah. Maggie was my primary concern at this stage, as he client who had the most intensive surgery and the one most need of my support and attention.
I spent the morning confirming schedules, appointments at the hospital for follow-ups and flexibility around all client needs.
Breakfast again at 6am and feeling very refreshed and rested after a good night sleep. So after breakfast I will call New and arrange a more suitable time.
Walked past the pool which looked way too tempting, so I grabbed my bikini and headed down for a swim and some sun for an hour .
I spent the day at the hospital with Neshamah and Maggie, catching up on emails and attending to client needs and back at the hotel by 4pm, and as I arrived back at the hotel I saw some of the ladies wandering about so I quickly dropped my things at the hotel and went out for a beer and some food and wondered around shopping…… As you do……
Checked on everyone before I fell asleep that night and fell asleep hoping the weather would be spectacular for tomorrow, as it had rained pretty much every dayJ
Day 7: Thursday July 9
The first day I have had an opportunity for a breather!!!! Because everyone had an individual process to their recovery and it is a good idea to pay it by ear according how you are feeling with any tours after surgery. Today, everyone wanted to take it easy so I went to Phi Phi Island for the first time.
It was a long and exhausting day, but WOW!!!! What a day. Pure magic!
Maggie & Neshamah were being discharged from hospital today, so all in all, everyone’s procedures and discharges have been completed successfully, starting on follow-ups- I could try to relax today.
We were picked up and crammed into a mini bus then to a meeting point where I grabbed some flippers and snorkeling gear and some bread to feed the fish and a diet coke to try and pick me up.
The boat ride took about an hour and the first stop was Phi Phi Island. I swum in the gloriously warm and crystal clear beach for about 20 minutes and then together with them quickly explored the island.
Next stop, Monkey Island. The tide was high so we didn’t get to stop, but stopped only inches away from these incredible monkeys in their natural environment where we could hand feed them bananas. I snapped and snapped away, getting myself labeled the “Paparazzi” by the very funny and lovely host of our tour. Oh well, I got some amazing shots!
Next we sailed to another island where I sat outside the front of the boat, snapping away and soaking in the natural beauty of the islands. Next stop, we stopped the boat and had half an hour to snorkel. I grabbed my flippers and put on my mask and jumped into the water.
As people fed the fish, I swum around and with them as they engaged in a feeding frenzy. It was surreal and magical and truly out of this world. I felt like a mermaid surrounded and a part of this beauty of nature.
I touched the fish as they swum around me, swum wish them and in the other direction, so they swum right to me. There were thousands upon thousands of the most beautiful fish I had ever seen. It was intensely beautiful, peaceful and magical.
Back on the boat they kept passing around delicious Thai cookies, and with a free flow of coke, 7-up, water and beer, and we were all starting to get very hungry.
Next we went to another Phi Phi Island for lunch for an hour and a half. The food was a buffet with Thai soup, and what seemed like high fat Asian cuisine. Next stop we had another bat ride to another island where we all sort of dozed a little after full bellies and the humidity.
As I awoke and we pulled into shore, my phone rung (on the island!) and I was delighted to hear from Maggie and Neshamah after their discharge from hospital and confirming plans for dinner tonight at 7.30pm.
What a day!
The wonderful host host kept us all very entertained and happy with his upbeat and genuinely lovely disposition, and we watched in awe as her made some beautifully crafted flowers out of straw. He made me one, and I offered him a tip for another one for both my beautiful girls.
Arrived back at around 5pm, where had a bath, and got ready for dinner at 7.30pm. I was a bit early, so I went for a quick walk down to Bangla Road for a cuddle and photograph with an Iguana.
I arrived at dinner with Maggie & Neshamah and had the most glorious feast and spectacular drag show I had ever seen. Very, very impressive.
I was in bed by around 10pm I think!!!
Final check-ups , finals and recovery and indulging in decadent Thai food and my favourite Mango, ice-cream and sticky rice desserts. I found DVDs for my kids and a couple of things before falling asleep early as usual.
Up at 5am packing, with check-out and pick-up from hotel foyer at 8am.
Due their multiple procedures, both ladies were required to stay a little bit longer. I had a tear in my eye as I left Annie. She was an absolute pleasure!
I learnt about Pat this morning. As we traveled to the airport she told me about her wonderful adventures doing volunteer work with Mother Theresa in India. Wow!! What an amazing woman.
It was wonderful and truly a pleasure to get to know all these amazing ladies individually, and sharing an experience that would have profoundly positive effect on heir lives.
We arrived in Singapore around lunchtime. I was so exhausted I spent the day sleeping, then went down to Chinatown to taste the local food. Shelley and Pat also relaxed and took in the sights of Singapore.