Intercultural marriage in Thailand
An Australian messaged me to say the woman I'd fallen for was his girlfriend of a year. Today she's my wife.
At 44, divorced for a decade, an American meets Tay on Facebook. A month later, already in love, he finds out she'd spent the past year with an Australian man who'd visited her village in Isan. She confesses everything honestly and asks for one chance. Years later, they're married and building a house to retire in.
Om never asked me for a penny in two years. Now she runs Thai nights at our pub.
A 26-year-old Brit met Om in a bar on Soi Buakhao, Pattaya, then found her again months later serving coffee off Beach Road. Two years of her never asking for anything, a complicated visa and a wedding later, they now run a pub in England with Thai theme nights.
I told her I wouldn't send a single baht until we met in person. She accepted without arguing.
A 61-year-old American recounts how, after a failed relationship in Vietnam, he met May, a refreshingly honest Thai civil servant. Years of video calls and a temple wedding in Kanchanaburi with nearly 50 blessing strings later, he gained an entire family.
I found her dancing in a Soi Cowboy bar. Nine months later our daughter was born in Thailand.
A 31-year-old Romanian recounts how a cheap flight booked on a whim sent him back to Bangkok alone, where he reconnected with Jit at a Soi Cowboy bar. A pregnancy, months of paperwork and a wedding later, they're now a normal family in the UK.
The reason for the visa rejection nearly made my head explode: she couldn't pronounce my name.
A 55-year-old Australian recounts how, after walking out of a relationship in Hua Hin in a bad mood, he wandered into the most boring looking bar in town and met the woman he'd marry in Perth years later, after a visa rejection for the strangest reason.
350 guests, a village chief consulting his charms for the date, and years later a message asking for a divorce.
A 50-year-old Australian recounts how a 350-guest Thai wedding in Phuket turned into a guest house in Patong, an affair with another woman, bar fights involving the police, and a final message asking for a divorce.
Her mum had always planned for her to move to Germany and run the family business. I showed up two weeks before that was meant to start.
A 25-year-old British English teacher met Nisa in Khon Kaen, a university graduate from Isaan with zero interest in the nightlife scene. Her mum, living in Germany, had other plans for her daughter. This is the story of how he won the family over and decided to stay in Thailand.
Her dad had supposedly been in an accident and the hospital wanted money to release him. Months later I met a woman who never asked me for anything.
After a separation, a 41-year-old Belgian tried south east Asian dating sites and ran into scam after scam, starting with a Filipino woman who always had a new family emergency. He then met a Thai woman who never asked him for anything, and married her on her fifth visit to Europe.
I went to Pattaya to forget a divorce. I ended up proposing to her at Bangkok airport.
A divorce sent me to Pattaya on holiday with my brother. There I met Nat, a single mother who'd lost her partner before her daughter was born. I fell in love, started doing bike deliveries at night to support her, and months later proposed at Bangkok airport. We've been married four years now in London.
I went to Thailand on holiday after an eleven-year breakup in Scotland. Nineteen years later, I live with twelve in-laws under one roof.
Graham, a 51-year-old Scot, first came to Thailand at 32, on holiday after a long breakup. In the bars of Koh Samui he met Dao, the woman he'd later marry. Nineteen years, a Thai wedding, and a house built in Isaan later, he lives surrounded by her family and wouldn't change a thing.