Travellers' Tales

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I travel overseas a lot (primarily to Asia) and when I do, I always read the Far Eastern Economic Review as it keeps me current on the business and political happenings throughout Asia. I must admit though that the first thing I do when I get the magazine is to turn the section called "Travellers' Tales". It is stories and submittals by readers of stuff read and/or seen while travelling through Asia. There are often a lot of humerous little tales that are even more funny when you consider that they are true.

Here are a couple from a recent issue:

HAPPY ENDING: A softhearted pig-slaughterer in China has designed a spa in which his victims can die happy. Abattoir boss Guo Xianfeng of Mianyang, Sichuan province, pampers his pigs with showers and saunas. He also plays soft music to them to calm their nerves, and gives them massages. The happy pigs fall asleep after the sauna and massage and then are quietly trundled to a room where they are electrocuted and sliced into pork chops. Guo told the Tianfu Morning Post that he wanted them to have "a final treat." Nutritionists say the taste of happy animals differs from that of distressed beasts, so there may be benefits for the diners, too.

BIG GUY: A man in India has grown a moustache twice his own size. The growths on the upper lip of Badamsingh Gurjar Khatana are 4 metres long, or so he claims. The Rajasthan native spent 26 years cultivating what is likely to be the world's longest moustache. If its claimed length is verified, it will be 60 centimetres longer than the current record holder in The Guinness Book of Records. Khatana told The Asian Age that a moustache is a sign of masculinity, so it was natural for him to want a grand one. He lives in the town of Kemri with two wives and 14 children, which kind of says it all, really.

 

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SEE FOOD: Here's the ultimate product of globalization, sent in by reader Krisantha Weerasuriya. It's retailed in Sri Lanka, manufactured by Malaysians and made from seafood from Mongolia--a country with no coastline.