Forgot to mention, you gotta be careful with the skin lighten creams, read the ingredients because some of these products still use mercury, especially in the Asian countries.
when i first got to laos everybody thought i was Japanese or korean.. even at the Thailand airport.. i was hit on alot.. and our plane made a stop in japan before going to thailand.. alot of ppl spoke to me in japanese.. haha.
and on my way back to the states.. i guess they thought i was cambodian.. i was really tan.. nobody spoke to me in japanese anymore haha..just thought it was funny, how skin color totally matters over there... but my friends in the states loved my tan.