Doctor808 Plastic Surgeon Honolulu Hawaii

Well ……I am sorry my dear and loyal readers I did not keep my blog up during my travels,  as time was so limited. So, I will briefly go over things here to catch my millions of readers up  (I think I have only  two readers ). I will probably have less readers after this post.

First as previously stated, I was going to Amsterdam which is one of my favorite haunts. The reasons are many. First are the people , I love the dutch as they are always friendly like the Thai people. They are straight forward and get along well. The other Europeans are so…. shall I say snobby (over nothing)  that I dont care for them as a whole. Of course many are quite nice and good descent people , but the Dutch it seems as whole are the way I like people.  Lets take the Swiss in Geneva which are a French speaking people. Some are very friendly,  but overall I would rate that town as a small town with small minded people pretending to be important. If it were not for the bankers hiding the worlds money the place would be just another dying European city in my view. No new life. As the first President Bush would say “old Europe”. They tell me that you have to live there to appreciate Geneva and perhaps,  as I only visited but…..not my cup of tea.  That is my simple minded dumb American view. In this blog I dont review the great history ( like Nazi Germans influence ?) but that’s my basic feeling.  What I do like about Geneva is the kick boxing which is why I went and I will tell you more about that later.

Part one Amsterdam

Well we arrive in Amsterdam and  get there at our usual time of 7 am in the morning from a flight from Seattle. We have to wait for the hotel as check in is at 11 am. This is no problem becuase we can get a great breakfast at the usual spot.  This time we also wanted to look at property for a possible retreat so we scout around. This place is easy to scout as there is one way to see Amsterdam –Bycycle. We rent a couple at 15 euros a day and start to scout around. If you go please rent a bike.

As you can see there is no shortage of bicycles in Amsterdam. In fact they number over 5 times the population but no one knows for sure. There are  so many and they are everywhere. Anyone and everyone old, young , crippled , athletic and entire families use them as their main source of transportation’s. The bike roads are great and easy to use. Don’t wast your time with any other means of transportation.

This is one thing I love about this place everything is so easy to do. No traffic jams, no crazy people or homeless that you can see in the central part of the city. Its clean, organized and easy to navigate around on foot or bike.

I like it because of the people I meet and the kick boxing. Rose likes it because of the Art and Museums and Food. There are great restaurants and since Rose is Malaysian Chinese she has a chance to get real Malaysian food and eats there almost every day. Below is a picture of that restaurant located next to the Red light District. That’s the famous place with hooker on display in the windows. Sort of a another type of take out menu.

The food at the Malaysian restaurant is authentic and quite good. Here you can study Malaysian Chinese, in their natural habitat eating good Malay food. This I believe  is their normal “in the wild ” behavior to eat eat eat.  Such are the Chinese…did you know that when you go into a Chinese persons home they don’t ask how are you,  but the first thing they ask is “Did you eat yet?”. If you find a Chinese person in the wild some day just ask them.  They will tell you its true. The couple at the Top are the owners by the way- her name is “Candy and his is Buddha” , I am not kidding.

Amsterdam is famous for legal drugs ( not hard ones) and everywhere you go are the “coffee houses” where you can buy either hash or marijuana cigarettes and smoke it right there while you drink coffee. Not that I would know,  but I was able to observe this. It appeared fun and seemed harmless enough. Yet I think it must appeal to a different crowd as I am a doctor. Everyone knows doctors don’t smoke pot. In case you want to know what these places look like I have several pictures below. They tell me that its cheap to buy and is high quality.

These establishments are everywhere scattered among the sex shops. I have a picture of one sex shop and of some of the evil weed that people smoke. Why people make such a big deal about a silly plant I can still cannot figure out. Its like anything else in my view–abuse it and it may cause problems. So I remind my readers that as I am a libertarian I am against government regulation of such. Amsterdam has no crime attributable to rampant drug use like we do in The States. The criminalization of this plant and other such drugs is why in my view we waste so much money. Libertarians believe if you want to kill yourself who are we to stop you, as a freedom loving bunch. We believe in a freedom to self destruct.

Well the above is only a very small part of Amsterdam,  there is something for everyone there. Art , Museums , food , drugs, sex, business deals, Muslim and Buddhist temples, churches and and a wide variety of everything. That sums up Amsterdam ,  which is a city of extreme diversity and more important— tolerance for diversity. I watched one night at 5 am the practicality of the place as the party goers were in one square when some drunken hell raisers started a fight. The police cleared them out in less than ten minutes with Horse Riding police they were there in seconds appearing from nowhere. They were professional,  efficient and cleared the crowd with out any evidence of brutality nor disrespect. They did their job quickly and the party on the street continued. I was impressed.

Bicycling around I looked over many properties and potential places to live. Signs were posted as shown :

Ideally one would not need a large place,  but some place to call home in Europe so you could have a home base. A base camp if you will.

Yet there are catches in the Amsterdam’s real estate market. Interestingly, one must be careful about what are some unusual laws.

If you buy a place and leave it empty , squatters may take over and inhabit there and you may have a ridiculous time trying to get them out. They in some case have more rights then the owners who they are not paying rent too. Crazy?  Well yes, but that is Amsterdam. I never saw such a bad deal for property owners. The original idea was that the city did not want empty buildings around by absentee land holders or something like that. Well it seems to work and the properties are all well kept. Yet maybe its been taken to far. I have more research to do in these laws.

Geneva

Well I went to a kick boxing place in Geneva where my old instructor from Thailand recommended as he was recruited in his younger years as a Swiss Muay Thai fighter. There he went on to be a Swiss national champion before returning to his home in Thailand where I first met him.

This gym was quite busy with over twenty fighter level members and huge intermediate level trainees in Muay Thai. They take their fighters to Thailand once a year for training. This gym is run by a Swiss fellow and his Thai wife. Very nice place I recommend to anyone. Unfortunately back in Amsterdam I could not find the Merijo Gym which is the famous gym there I trained at before a few times. This gym apparently moved location and due to time limitations I could spend too much time looking. So I trained on my own while in Amsterdam jumping rope , weights and shadow boxing and of course cycling hours a day.

That’s about it for Geneva to me that’s all the two itself offers. I did meet a few people and had brief conversations shall I say. The Swiss don’t speak much english There main languages are German and french. They also have that attitude of your stupid if you only speak french. As example I asked a cab driver to take me to the Hotel Savoy. He looked at me like I was nuts. I pronounce Savoy as most Americans would like rhymes with “JOY”. So he finally figured out what I was saying as he pronounced as Sav-0-aaa a definite french accent. But what I found most ridiculous was the scolding he gave me. “I have been driving a cab for 15 years and never once have I heard that way to say Savoy” he said in a most condescending manner. I could not help but tell him back—” I believe that you have not in your limited life experience of driving a cab in Geneva heard any other variation”  as I chuckled to myself. Score one for the American verses the Geneva Red neck cab driver with a “limited ” small mind. So it goes. I left Geneva vowing never to come back…well maybe I will for the Muay Thai.

Other than these issues of looking for property , relaxing and Muay Thai the most memorable issues was the Bicycling. I truly loved that around Amsterdam and I will do it again and again its a bike paradise. I also thought I will take a motorcycle trip around the country and maybe to others next time I go.  That will be fun. As far as business goes , well I did see some plastic surgeons in Geneva and was impressed but the Swiss are known for a long History of cosmetic plastic surgery. I also spoke with some Web Designers and found out about the local community in terms of Web design and marketing as well as in Amsterdam. There will be some of the best Internet and media conferences coming up these next few years like next fall which I will plan for.

Well my dear readers I don’t want to bore you with too much, so I will go over some other details in later blogs as I am still suffering from jet lag. As always enjoy.

Doctor 808

This is one route there are many path

As mentioned I will keep you abreast of my training progress. Today was an excellent day to incorporate into to my training schedule. I do not care for jogging or running so I need cardio work out another way. One is the monster stair master, which I am up to 15 minutes at level 10 now. Yet I like a more enduring type of cardio which is more pleasant. So today  I added another exercise to my weekly regiment. I cannot train Muay Thai on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I go to my Japanese class, so I decided to Bicycle to work. This will be between 5 and 8 miles one way depending on what route is taken.  The total time is about 45 minutes at a good clip. So riding to work, then to Japanese class and then to home is about 12 or 13 miles and takes a total time of 2 hours. This is because of significant hills.

The hills are fun and one must use their body weight to get up these hills. I am no Lance Armstrong,  but I  can take a hill fairly well. The cardio from this adds color to your skin and gives one the very healthy appearance as the blood vessels dilate up.

One thing that I note about such a ride is that you notice so much more around you then when driving in a car. Especially here in Hawaii the air is so fresh and evening is so peaceful with tropical breeze blowing. We will add this to our weekly routine.

Doctor808

In the training mode again

As I mentioned earlier in this blog I would keep my readers abreast of my progress after a rest I had taken after my last fight. I would like to update you now. I started back about 10 days ago. The first thing I did was start with cardio training. The easiest and fastest way is to simply get on my eliptical machine that I have back in my lanai (soon to be garden). I did 30 minutes with a setting at 8 which ramped up my heart rate to a steady 133.  Seemed pretty easy so I continued for a few days. I went back to Muay Thai and my trainer who I have introduced before,  gave me the usual deserved harassment , but very mild. Unfortunately ,at the same time I had the Korean Cosmetic Surgeon visit and he took up my training time which between that and Japanese class i was unfaithful. Yet allow me a moment to point something out about you and about me.

If you want something bad enough and your are really hungry for it —you will find your way.

This is true in physical training, as it is in life. So even though I tell you my Korean Doctor was here and I had Japanese class I was unfaithful to my love, Muay Thai training. I obviously did not want that bad enough. That is the case, now I regret that as I lost a full two weeks of training time. Since I regret I will go starting monday and quit playing excuse game with myself. This is the same advice I will give you my dear readers. If you want it bad enough you will find away.

On the other hand I was not completely lazy. I went surfing quite a few days, continued on my elliptical machine , my pull up bars and even did push ups and sit ups in my house.  kicked my dummy every day with 30 – 50 kicks per day.  I went to the Honolulu Club (our local overly priced gym) and did a few weights.  So I look at the last two weeks as a warm up and now its time to get started.

LETS GO !! YOU HAVE TO WANT IT !!

Today I did  the following in this order:

1. Stairmaster at a setting of 7 for 15 minutes ( by the way this is the first time I did this torture device)

2. Barbell bench press of 135lbs 5 sets and 10 reps each

3. Push ups 3 sets of 15

4. Chest Flys 5 sets of 30 lbs each hand and 10 reps each

5. Weight assisted dips 10 x 3 sets

6  Smith machine squats 70 lbs X 10 reps X 7 sets

8. 35 sit ups x 2 sets

35 kicks on bag each , push kick and lateral leg kick

I must say I did work up a slight sweat but compared to a year ago this was not even 50% of my normal work out. That means I will be ramping it up greatly in the next few weeks. This will be at a minimum 4 days a week and 3 days – 4 days of Muay Thai and sporadic surfing , bicycle and other activities. Its time to get back to my old self. If you stay tuned I may show you before and after photos. I do not want to show you before as I am frankly embarrassed at this point. So remember you like I said —if you want something bad enough you will find a way to accomplish that. That is todays key sentence.

doctor808

Well its been several months since my last Muay Thai fight. I was pretty banged up because of the unorthodox fight it turned out to be and probably my age is catching up to me. It takes much longer to heal and recover when your older. That I have noticed.  I have only been doing some basic cardio since the fight. So I have been very very LAZY. I went to Prague CZ and Amsterdam as well as Geneve as I previously wrote. I became very ill for 5 days there with a dental abscess, this virtually wiped me out. In fact,  I was so ill that I turned pale white, dropped my blood pressure and pulse rate of 144 at one point. Finally in I found a dentist after a root canal that failed earlier  in Praque and dentist who extracted the tooth. My training’s schedule was thrown off and well, the old laziness set in. So for the last few weeks I have been trying to gather up the energy to get going again and now I am ready.

Here I go again

I will share with my kind readers my training this time. I will show you details on how I transform myself. Although I am a plastic surgeon and have been accused of creating artificial beauty through unnatural means -plastic surgery. I do know one thing. The best transformation is through physical training and proper diet. If I document this maybe a few of my dear readers will see an interesting transformation and be inspired.

Well I feel rather anxious about exposing myself on the Internet so I better pull this off. If not you will see what a failure I can be or not. Then I suppose my dear readers you will not be inspired.

One can accomplish so much with exercise and diet in improving ones appearance that it amazes me. Yet of course exercise does not always work. for example a woman has had a baby and her skin stretches and will not retract,  a tummy tuck may be in order. Yet combined with exercise its always better. The results of a person exercise plus plastic surgery is very good.

Yet with pure exercise you can accomplish a lot. Take for example the two photos below which are of  the same person:

The above picture illustrates well what can be changed with exercise in about 12 weeks without plastic surgery. There is no magic only discipline. This was accomplished with 3 – 4 nights a week of kickboxing training. No weight training was done with this transformation. Yet diet played a huge role as well. The one on the left has hair and the one on the right does not but the difference can be still seen.

Not only does the body benefit but the facial features do as well. Lets look at the many faces of the same person as seen  below. Hairstyles, weight changes and of course lightening can enter in the picture all can change appearance a lot as well.

Different People or Different levels of exercise ???

These pictures of yours truly were not taken like ten years apart although some were a two years or so ago. Yet the surprising thing is that the younger looking pictures were taken after some of the older pictures. To really illustrate this look at the facial picture below:

Latest Picture less than 3 months ago

I was training for a muay thai fight in the above picture so my physical condition and shape were at the top in the scale. As you can  see the face is more youthful. The point of this is that good exercise and diet can make for great changes that plastic surgery cannot.

Well to give my readers an idea of my training to undertake I will begin tomorrow with 1 hour of surf & swimming and then to work. After work I will go to my Muay Thai training as noted in this blog elsewhere. The training will be about two – three hours of jump rope, bag drills and other normal activities like 100 sit ups. That will be enough for first day back. I will add weight training and other activities as I go along for the next few months.

Most important is diet. This has to be individualized for each person. What works for me may not work for you. So for example I am very carbohydrate sensitive so to lose weight I have to approach an extremely low carbohydrate intake. So I switched to complex carbs like oat meal in the morning. Resistance training is very important to lose weight as you have to shift to having a higher percentage of muscle. To build muscle you must use resistance training like weight lifting. The reason why this is so important to weight loss is something called Basal Metabolic Rate. That is the rate you burn calories when not doing anything. So since fat burns no calories in this basal state and muscle does burn calories when doing nothing. You want to keep your muscle up and your fat down.

Well we will let you know dear reader how this goes. I will make updates over the next 12 weeks or so. My weight now is 192 lbs and body fat is about 15%. I need to get down to around 9-11% and 180Lbs.

Plastic Surgery can do a tremendous amount as well. Liposuction makes the job of looking better easier. If men for example have that spare tire around the waist. They can loose that with proper exercise and diet. The problem is in some people when they do lose that their face is so thin or other parts of their body become so thin it does not look right. They look like a skeleton except around the waist. These people are the perfect candidates for liposuction in that specific area.

Well as stated I will keep you informed and hope I can inspire some of my readers to get up and exercise.

doctor808

American Eagle

Today we completed http://www.militaryplasticsurgery.com which is our newest web site creation for Plastic Surgery and Military Members ( yes including military discounts) . Appropriate I would say for the 4th of July!

Military Plastic Surgery Website

Many Americans hardly know anymore why we celebrate the 4th of July. This day in 1776 is thought (although there is some debate) that the Declaration of Independence was made and signed. The story is very interesting, in that the founding fathers of the USA were taking an extreme risk to  discuss such a thought as to gain independence from the British Empire. They easily could have been hung or drawn and quartered for such treasonous act.  We today in the USA forget how much freedom we have now ,to say what we want and to discuss freely ideas. This simply was not possible in 1776.  A person who spoke against the King of England at that time could have paid for his or her words with his or her life. It is unfortunate today we have taken our freedom for granted and there is high risk of  losing that freedom . President Reagen said we are only at any time one generation from losing our freedom.

Our military , the young men and woman who serve to protect that freedom seem to be a group who know well what freedom lost can mean. They have seen it with their own eyes and heard it with their own ears in Afghanistan,. Iraq and elsewhere,  the misery brought on by dictatorship and years of lack of freedom. We need to really look around and see the world as it is, learn history and current events and see what leads to loss of freedom to prevent that from happening here. It can happen and is happening as you read this. The Romans did not notice either,  until it was too late and they lost their republic. It seems a republic ( USA is not a democracy , never was but  a republic) like ours can only last maybe two hundred years…??

I just hope our young people will take the time to really learn something about our history, not just about what is cool or the trend of the day. I do both so can you. You can do cool things and learn history , keep current at the same time.

Plastic Surgeons 4th of July

On the fourth of July, this plastic surgeon does what many Americans will do, that is barbecue outdoors. In fact,  I just finished two of the most juicy hamburgers I have ever known. I cooked them myself on my lanai on a charcoal grill. I dont care for the gas grills which are popular, it just does not taste the same. Also we had pork-n-beans and potato chips with a side of pickles,,,hmmm good.

I don’t eat that way often,  other wise I would need liposuction myself,  but on occasional holiday its fine. Its a sorta of traditional issue on the 4th of July for this plastic surgeon in  Hawaii. I wonder if the military in Afghanistan and Iraq are having hamburgers and hot dogs too?

I think many are and we hope they are safe!

So for any of my readers who follow this blog either for Muay Thai Kickboxing , for Web design or Plastic Surgery in Hawaii—yes its cool,  but lets take a minute and really appreciate what today is. Take a few minutes and look up some facts about Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben Franklin and others who signed that declaration on this day in 1776. It a day that changed  the world.

doctor808

 As I mentioned last post,  I would give you some details on Thailand. specifically Bangkok,  instead of about my reasons for going. To review–I go to train in Muay Thai and to reassess my life and changes-much like a retreat. Yet many of you may not be interested in that. So you want to know more about Bangkok? Well allow me to be your eyes.

First Bangkok,  Thailand is huge population, Estimated people in the city during business hours is 15 million ( yes the official census is  8 million, not counting ilegals). Its a city of where you can find anything….legal, illegal, moral , amoral what ever your fancy. You want high class —well its there, you want low class scum its there too. Yet most Thai people are like anywhere else. They go to work , come home and see their families and then go to work again.

A lot has been written about the sex trade,  but that is probally less of a percentage than any other American or European City probably , its  just more open and visible. One of my plastic surgery colleques wife has claimed she will never allow her husband to go Thailand becasue of the sex trade. Well I have news for her, go down to Wakiki in Honolulu and anything you have in Thailand is right here. Even though that is what many times is written about, believe me its not what Bangkok is about. 

In the many years I have been going there,  I have met some of the most interesting people on earth. These range from local Thais,  such as our friend who is the daughter of ex-Thai diplomat who speaks 3 languages fluently, educated in the best American and European Universities to my Muay Thai instructor who has no education except Muay Thai and his one travel experience is to fight in Switzerland. Japanese business people to American retiree’s are all there. They come for the change and to do business in the Kingdom. A Kingdom it is ..do not speak in negative manner about the King or his family or you may end up in jail.

Yet I think the best way to understand this place is to see photos. A picture is worth a thousand words they say, so I will show you some with some comments.

Beggars are seen as with most of South East Asia on the street.

The poverty around is seen , yet when you think about it its not a “bad poverty”.Many of these beggars are actually brought in by Asian mafia to work and earn money from other countries. Sad to see, but at least they are not starving as you will see in some African countries. Most Thais have an excellent diet. Fruits and street food such as grilled chicken are abundant and very very cheap. No one starves in Thailand. The weather is tropical so no one freezes and did you know the government clinics provide health care at least  the basics. Yet at the same time there is no welfare as we know it in the west so everyone works or there is no help except from churches or the like. This I think is good, they do not have generations of welfare recipients who are dependant on the State as virtual slaves.

Overall to be a “poor person” in Thailand is not that bad from what I can see. Maybe you will not own a car, but people are happy for the most part , eat well and respect each other. Certainly most of us  would rather have that,  then be a member of some street gang in L.A. California. Life is simple and its a world of difference here to be poor than to be some inner American City poor. At least that is the way I see it.

The life in Thailand is easy going, land of smiles most happy. Seems it has never changed much in many many years. 

Little Fish drying in sun

There is food all over Thailand sold on the street and cheap. I calculated to survive you can live on about 1 us dollar a day. Not at Starbucks or the fancy places but you can live. That’s for food. Rent I do not know what the cheapest way to go is for living.

Communication is easy,  they are used to tourist and English is spoken by enough. Yet to accomplish something complex maybe need a good translator. Most activities do not require complex language. All the street vendors and sales people know how to tell you english numbers like “thirty two baht” instead of ”sahm-sip sorng baht” which is 32 in Thai. So that money is not a problem when you want to buy something. 

You can buy anything in Bangkok. They have the best department stores with all the brands if your into that or the weirdest stores and street shops in the world with everything from fried insects to your favorite flavor in ice creme. Its all there and if you look you can truly find anything you could possibly want.

One area which is easy for new tourist is called Kao San Road and this is shown in the picture below. This is one of the main “back packer” areas with all types of tourist. There are lot of hostels there and the crowd is mostly Caucasian hip types and a few from Korea and Japan. The Thais there are mainly to sell what they can to these tourist. I don’t care for that area much because its a tourist spot and I like the natural environment of the Thais.

Want to buy sunglasses??

Yet there is a lot for tourist to do. Temples are all over the place and historic places to see.  The textile industry with Thai silk is excellent as is the gold and precious stone shops all over.  You can check any travel book on Thailand and find the current districts to shop in for what you want. 

As for me,  I do not buy much so I can not offer such advice and if I were to buy gold or jewels I would probably be ripped off. I don’t know that industry so I stay away but for people who do know it can be a bonanza.

Its a circus like atmosphere in some places day and night

The places you go will depend on what you want to do. The tourist areas are like a three ring circus. So many people selling the strangest stuff and westerners drinking beer.  This will be 24 hours a day in some places as with so many people arriving at all times of day and night it never stops.

The night life as in night clubs and discos etc are endless as well. There are the “entertainment districts where you can buy ladies ( if they are ladies) such as nana plaza a real western man hang out for those seeking cheap female company.  There are traditional disco and DJ music places for Thais and westerners to enjoy music and drink. Personally when I travel I prefer the places that the local people go. There are two night clubs I have found suitable to my taste. One is the Q-bar and the other is Hollywoods. The Q bar is owned by a guy from New Jersey who opened his first club in Viet Nam until he was run out of there and now he is Bangkok. We have had drinks together a few times and his place does sport some of the best Dj’s in South East Asia. The HollyWoods is almost 100 percent Thai.  I go sometime and have been welcomed by the Thais. Its fun to watch the Thai Stage show with their version of go go dancers  ( not nude) and music and light show is very good . The most unnerving thing is to to the rest room. There a guy will come up to you as you stand in front of the Urinal doing your thing and he will give your back a massage. Its weird but apparently accepted by the Thais. You must tip him of course. For you that are less adventurous stick to the Q bar. Yet for me what is the point in traveling if your going to a place you could go to a similar place like in your home town.

HollyWoods Night Spot

There are so many bars and night spots in Bangkok ranging from the  most eloquent sophisticated to the most simple girly beer bars.  The variety in my opinion surpasses New York and Tokyo where I have spent a lot of time.  So like shopping in Bangkok, the night life is ….what ever you want to find its there–its there!

My advice to you don,t be afraid to check out some place which is not for tourist. You should be polite and when in Rome live like the romans not like the American ,Japanese or European that you may be.  Thais are very nice people but of course always use common sense as far as safety goes, I have found Bangkok safer than most American cities by far.

How to get to various places is the huge challenge for most visitors. Try to get some help to explain to Taxi drivers where your going. The sky train is excellent and easy to use, but is very limited on where you can go in Bangkok. The water taxi is little more difficult to use but its what so many Thais use and I found it cuts hours off my travel time.  The Thai people get a kick out of watching an American travel by Water Taxi.

Well there is so much to do in Bangkok and so much written on the internet I do not want to bore you with these things yet I hope I gave you a little insight into Bangkok. As stated the pictures tell more than my words So here are a few more….

draw your own conclusions

I will board a plane for two days in Japan and then on to Thailand,  tomorrow. First , is the night of panic before I go, this is routine before I leave, according to my spouse. Did I make sure I have a doctor to cover my patients? Yes. Did I make sure I have no other obligations to take care of like some last minute paperwork? Yes. Do I have all my patient care duties taken care of and no one needs me?  Yes. What about staff –does everyone know what they are suppose to do while I am gone? hmmmm  maybe.

Muay Thai Fight Thailand

I have tickets , passport and laptop. I have clothes clean underwear and what I need for living. Ok i think I am ready .

Well what I need to do when I travel is three things

1. Learn new techniques or discuss old ones with plastic surgery colleagues in other parts of the world.

2. Spend time working online with my web development company, serveral meetings planned in Thailand to hire some new employees. 

3. Check out some new gyms for Muay Thai training and attend my regular gym in Thailand.

A cosmetic surgeon in Korea who does botox in chin "a chemical chin implant?"

Many of my staff say well the doctor is on “vacation”. This is certainly not true , as all my travel is working time away from the office. I own a web development company so I spend much of my time meeting with people about this. I spend  time planning , catching up on company emails, with clients and our company employees around the world.  The techniques I learn about I bring back to my practice such as the one I learned from the above Korean cosmetic surgeon which is to place a small amount of botox in the mentalis muscles which relaxes it can gives the appearance of a larger chin. Thus a “chemical chin implant” . So these journeys are always helpful to my patients here in Hawaii.

Crowded Streets from High Rise View

This journey will be a little different in that I will write about my travel in detail on this blog and perhaps it can be if some use to other travelers. The secret to good travel in my mind is to continue learning and what i do most days here in Hawaii only in a different location. You become refreshed and your mind is stimulated. I suppose others take the complete vacation , get away approach to travel but somehow I have never been able to do that, I start to feel guilty i suppose. My way to travel works for me. 

Well now I have last minute things to get done as I leave in less than 15 hours. I will let you know as I go along.

doctor 808

Doctor808 Red trunks May 9 fight Tiger

This was my first fighting in over two years, so in that respect  I felt I “did ok”. I had a bad injury discussed elsewhere so I was out of muay thai  for a while.  It was at my gym at one of the now famous Muay Thai Smokers at TigerMuaythai.

My opponent was  equally matched, neither of us in ideal cardio- shape that would have made the fight  more interesting and both of us a  bit heavy. He the brawler, me with perhaps better technique. The referee judge awarded  the fight to my opponent.

I reviewed the tapes after my Kru Doug Owens told me where my big error was and as usual he was correct,  which I could easily see from the replay.

My opponent a very nice guy , local boy (twentyfive to thirty years younger than I ?) fought a very eclectic style. Spin fist, some power punches and some type of kicks which were not technically well done. As I predicted, he was using the Hawaii Style of a onslaught of barrage. I always have trouble with these barrages,  because frankly they wear me out quickly.  No damage or pain involved but just tiresome to defend. Then when I try to analyze how to counter another irritating barrage comes my way. The bottom line is I was not in shape for an onslaught Hawaiian style.  This means I will be working on my cardio more intensely. My coach said it best , you looked good the first round, but you were out of it by the second as far as energy goes.

Well he is right in that I did not have the energy to move my tree trunk legs for good kicks and relied on hands– but with a barrage there is no time to set up.  I saw so many openings for a good kicks,  but could not take advantage of that due to lack of juice in the latter part of the second and third rounds. 

The other energy I had lost was with the what appeared to be a continuing , almost mma grappling  thing , we ended up in. I am simply a stand up guy and we spent as much time on the ground or tangled up in the ropes as we did exchanging blows. This is simply not my style and I have to expend a lot of energy with this. Energy I did not have to spare. There is actually one point in the fight where he does a “piledriver”,  thats when he falls down backward grabbing me and drives my head into the ring  like seen on wild world  of wrestling (my god I am not a wrestler). 

The bottom line is my heavy weight and cardio endurance if better I could have taken advantage of  his wide open gaps for kicks but seeing them easily does no good if you no energy to take advantage does it?

Bottom line I lost , not by any slaughter  or significant gap. It was good,  but sloppy match. He landed more punches and some kicks , mostly blocked, but none had any power to do damage, I landed more powerfull blows,  but less of them. The fight may be  equally matched,  but I am too out of shape to endure his style of Hawaiian brawling. That will be taken care of , as I realize my coach is right. I am still not sure what to make of the piledriver move where he bounced me on my head—Yet this  is standup Hawaian style.

I will try to review some of the other fights in the next segment. I must say that these “smokers” at  Tiger Muay Thai are fun exciting and some great fighters and their skill are seen. I hope this will continue with support from other gyms. You should come to next one. 

Doctor808

Meet My Coach!! Or in Muay Thai language MY KRU—-

My Kru Doug Owens

My Muay Thai coach is a funny guy. It is 4:30 pm and I am on my way to my Japanese Language class and I see I have a voice mail on my iphone. I check that voice mail and its my coach. ….  “Give me a call”   -Ok I call him back and only a few words were said..”Doc I want you to fight next month”.  I answer : “Ok coach no problem” ,  that means I have 6 weeks to really turn on the training….6 weeks plenty of time.

Coach : ” how much you weigh now? “   “I weigh 190 lbs coach”- at 5 feet 10 inches…..not bad, but I fight at 180lbs. Next thing he says is  “ok doc lose ten pounds I want  you to fight at 180″ .

Thats easy I think,  ten pounds in 6 weeks not hard ?  Plenty of time , get ready for fight next month, June is 4 weeks away and the fight is about 6 weeks away. Right?

Now for the surprise. The inevitable twist in plot or the turn in events. I failed to notice one thing,  today is April 31st !!  So here it comes  ”Oh doc the fight is in 9 days , you know next month is May”–great great great—that is insane to get ready for a fight in 9 days. I mean when I was 20 maybe , but at my age now —-its going to be a challenge.  I have to lose ten punds in 6 or 7 days. @#$%^&*()_+!!

Let me think. What is ten poiunds?

Well here are two pictures. which come to mind.

Fighting weight of 180 lbs

The above picture is what I look like when I am in  fighting shape. The picture below is what  I look when I am fat like now–So I think the idea is to look like the guy above rather that the guy below—all in less than 9 days according to my Kru. He is a funny guy indeed!!

Me now at 190lbs

Coach being patient-Mr Nice

Well the recent troubles with Ushers wife going to Brazil and having a cardiac arrest make this a very topical topic. Many people travel to places other than their home towns to have  procedures. Here in Hawaii I have spoken to many patients who come to my office after travel for cosmetic procdures. Some go to Korea, Thailand and other parts of Asia. Recently a woman told me she was going to Mexico to have the procedure we discussed at half the cost. 

Basically there are good plastic surgeons all over the world which is not the problem. You can find good surgeons in Mexico or in any of the other countries I mention no doubt. The problem is when there is some difficulty. Not only are you miles away from family or any support, but the money you would have saved now is lost  and most likely has become so much more than the original cost quoted locally.

What comes to mind was doctor and her husband who went to Brazil to have the LASIk procedure done to correct some vision problem. She and her husband both had the procedure at a substantially reduced cost,  than they would have in the States. Yet she had a problem after surgery which she had to travel to London eventually to correct. As london indeed had the only expert in her problem. Although she saved money with the initial surgery it cost her over 8 times more and she is still receiving treatment.

This story has been repeated many times in my practice a girl who traveled to Thailand who had some rubber unknown sack used as a breast implant which I took out for example. She wasted her money. Even when people have quality plastic surgery done away from home if they have a problem they have to fly back to the place which cost additional money.  It can work but dont think you will save in long run , the numbers do not work out.

I have patients fly in to see me as well. Yet we require them to stay till everything is ok. Even then we tell them that if they are from Japan for example  we may have a doctor they can see there,  but it may require a plane trip back to Hawaii. Its not that I condemn the practice,  but I want to make sure they are appraised of the risk and know that in long run saving money will not be one of the benefits.

Well these are some of my thoughts Summary: You can fly far away to have plastic surgery and it may be good idea if you find the right surgeon. Yet do not think you will save money and you best be able to be prepared if something goes wrong to pay extra. The only reason I can see to take this risk is that you are traveling for special expertise. You pay for that, so going for cheap is not a good reason.

Doctor808