P olice send a criminal to jail to change his vicious character, but to make

yourself prettier and younger you may need to go to a face lifting shop. In

Phnom Penh, there are a few available, including the largest SALINA near the

Pailin hotel.

SALINA provides all kinds of cosmetic surgeries for its

customers who want to have a better nose, eyes, lips, cheeks, chin, and so on,

claims Heng Yung the owner of the shop. Ideally, to make the ugly beautiful and

the old young.

Heng Yung said she had learned the skills from a doctor

graduated in Japan, and started to do the business in 1983. She has moved three

times already from a small shop to a larger, and finally to the biggest

second-floored SALINA, where she has been working for over four

years.

With its reputation for being the oldest shop, Heng Yung claimed

that 90 per cent of the Khmer film stars had come to have their faces shaped and

adjusted at her place. She said the number of her clients varies between four

and five daily, but most of them just come to get the massage of their faces.

The sitting room starts to be crowded while any of the major festivals,

especially the New Year's Days, are.

Controlled and recognized by the

Ministry of Health, the 55 year old specialist said besides the indigenous

customers, her shop still receives some occasional beauty hunters from overseas,

including the United States, France, and Canada, etc., where the cost of such an

operation is many times higher.

To get one's face lifted in Cambodia, one

can pay only 60 or 70 dollars or cheaper, explained Heng Yung, according to the

financial ability of the wealthy and the needy. A few dollars will also be

enough to get a face massage.

Aged between 20 and 40 years old, 30 per

cent of the customers are men who would feel jealous to see women more

beautiful.

While technology is getting more sophisticated, a man can get

as beautiful face as he wishes to, but he may still have to go to prison to

improve his brutal behavior.