Beverly Hills 6750 Multi-Specialty Aesthetic Institute’s vision is to be a premiere center bringing world-class aesthetic services to Asia and to promote the Philippines as a new destination for medical tourism. Traversing the Orient gets beneath the scalpel Beverly Hills 6750’s range of aesthetic services includes: aesthetic plastic/ cosmetic surgery, skin care and rejuvenation, cosmetic dentistry, cosmetic gynecology, weight loss management and surgery and endovenous laser varicose veins treatment. It showcases the fusion of high technology and facilities with high-caliber medical professionals and staff who deliver quality service and results. Beyond the technology and staff, however, is the prevailing culture of excellence, unity, interdependence and independence - characterizing the “esprit de corps” of the Beverly Hills 6750 team - which is the indelible trademark of its success. Another key highlight of the Beverly Hills 6750 brand is its strategic partnership ...

Songkram Jutjarat has a love of dogs, he takes them off the streets and away from the danger of landing on plates in Thai and Vietnamese eateries - he tells Traversing the Orient it’s a tough battle. Amid loud growling and gnashing teeth, dog catchers round up the homeless hounds in Thailand’s Lopburi and sell them to the butcher’s knife in Vietnam. Any­where from 40 to 80 dogs at a time are crammed into trucks, their destiny priced at around US$10 a portion, unless the trucks cross paths with the Thai police first. A legal spot fine of a mere US$60 per truckload sees the thieves release the stolen dogs, only to return another day or move on to another territory. Songkram Jutjarat – nickname Golf - is from Lopburi, for the last ten years he has co-run/owned a small restaurant called Mali in Bangkok’s Sathorn Soi 1 district. Three years ago ...

Tom Cockrem explores a religious festival that blends icons of Catholicism with the ancient tribal traditions of the Ati-Ati people History in the Philippines is never far removed from the people’s daily lives. It’s intrinsic in their artworks, reli­gion, cinema, and especially their festivals. It is doubtful that any country in the world puts as many days aside for celebratory events as do the Filipinos. And they do it in grand style, with an energy and passion that can leave the visiting observer literally breathless with excitement and with awe; as I discovered in Iloilo on the central Visayan island of Panay. This was my second visit to Iloilo. The first time I came to do the city plazas and their churches – grand old Spanish colonial survivors. This time I had one of those festivals in mind – the Dinagyang. ...

India’s growing network of laughter clubs are aiming to take over the world. Grumpy old man Ben Hopkins reports My legs buckle, my jaw aches and as a weight slips from my shoulders I’m freed from the gloom that has consumed me since having my wallet nabbed from a cheap joint in Mumbai. “Laughter is the best medicine, my friend” bellows a corpulent phlegm sprayer to my rear. “Welcome to the Cowpatty Beach Laughter Club.” With that he wallops me on the back and yeehaws like a donkey. Every morning of the year around 60 ‘Mumbaikars’ gather for an hour of communal games that includes impersonations of  donkeys and tractors, kicking imaginary footballs, group back patting and the occasional burst of the hockey-cokey. All of the activities are designed to produce as much laughter as possible – a huge spiritual and ...