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In three seconds she went from fine to screaming at me through the streets of Chiang Mai. Her cousin explained why.
A Finnish man became a regular customer of a massage girl in Pattaya, and after a lovely trip to Koh Chang and two years of Line contact through the pandemic, one boozy night in Chiang Mai ended in screaming, a packed bag, and a revealing explanation months later.
She told me once she has a man's heart, she can get anything from him. I fell for it anyway.
A 52-year-old American looks back on his ten-month relationship with Tan, a Phuket bar girl who was honest from day one about how it worked. Knowing exactly what he was getting into, he fell anyway, until she told him she was marrying someone else.
It sounded exactly like the scam I'd been hearing about in Thailand for twenty-five years. Instead of sending the money, I got on a flight.
A 54-year-old Austrian had been travelling alone to Thailand for years when he met Aom, a pregnant woman, with no expectations between them. Months later she asked him for 60,000 baht for her mother's hospital bill. Instead of sending the money, he flew to Kanchanaburi to check it out in person.
She called it being her boyfriend. Over time I realised I was actually her sponsor, one of several.
A recently retired American looks back on his relationship with a Thai woman he met in Hong Kong. What began as a romance with visits to Bangkok turned into a growing list of monthly payments, until he discovered he wasn't the only man supporting her.
I had over a hundred matches on a dating app my first night in Asia. One crossed a border to meet me, and turned out to be married, with three kids.
A 26-year-old Australian engineer, freshly arrived in Asia for a hydro power job, downloads a dating app his first night in Vientiane and racks up a hundred matches in hours. A Thai woman crosses the border from Nong Khai to meet him. Days later, a Facebook search reveals she's married to a wealthy European man and has three kids.
Ryan wanted to build a life in Pattaya. He ended up sleeping rough and died of a heart attack back in England.
A fellow expat remembers Ryan, an Englishman in his late 40s who opened two bars in Pattaya, lost his savings in both attempts, ended up sleeping rough, and died of a heart attack shortly after returning to England with nothing to show for it.
I fell asleep without locking my phone on the last night of the holiday. She saw my Line history, and that was the end of it.
A 54-year-old Frenchman meets Amara, a 39-year-old chef, on his first day in Phuket, and within 24 hours he already has a holiday girlfriend. Months later, in Koh Samui, an unlocked phone reveals his Line history to her: dozens of conversations with other girls that put an end to something that, until that night, had been genuinely special.
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.
Six hundred thousand baht. Eighteen months. And a 29-year-old American I never met.
A retired teacher thought he was building a future with Lek. Eighteen months and six hundred thousand baht later, he learned who he was really funding.
I threw up on the pavement outside a hotel in Phuket at one in the morning. A stranger sat with me until sunrise and wouldn't take a single baht for it.
Divorced and burned out from work, a 42-year-old Lebanese man booked two weeks to Thailand with no real plan. On his last night in Phuket, food poisoning left him vomiting on the pavement outside his hotel at one in the morning. A stranger who worked at a nearby spa sat with him until sunrise and refused to accept a single baht in return.
12,500 baht for two bottles of wine. As I got out of the taxi, I watched the manager get in with her.
An Austrian met a woman from Thai Friendly in Bangkok: an expensive dinner, a shady venue, another bottle of wine, and a 12,500 baht bill topped off with a guilt trip about losing face. The final scene outside his hotel made everything clear.
For a few hours I felt like the most interesting man in the room. It took me a while to understand why.
For a few hours, a 62-year-old American felt like the most interesting man in the room. It took him a while to see what was really behind it.