BangkokReady

What does it even do? Don't you have to show all documents at the airport anyway? Seems like a typical complete waste of time.

Can you expand on this at all? According to many, Thai women would choose any Thai man over all but the richest and closest to death foreigner.

I have no idea. Reading the comments on this thread suggests that there are certainly two different types of foreigner-Thai age-gap relationships occurring. Certainly there are younger Thais with older men based solely on money, but there also appear to be younger Thais with older men where money is not a factor (although the guy would likely need to be fairly affluent). One camp seems to be pretty firm that the other camp does not exist and only money is a factor, while the other camp seems to acknowledge that both camps exist with the individual context defining which type of relationship is there. The second camp also seems to acknowledge that there are other factors, such as culture and the individual experience or life goals of the woman, that make her want to marry an older foreigner. I'm a little surprised at the lack of acknowledgment of cultural differences in the way that a Thai or foreign man might treat a woman or what they expect from her. I've certainly heard things like Thai men always cheat, the woman has to focus only on the Thai man, Thai women have to tolerate XYZ, etc., which I think would be a factor, since men often treat women very differently in the West. Many commenters seem to be in denial that a foreigner can even bring anything other than money to a relationship with a younger Thai. Perhaps many users aren't actually exposed to as much Thai culture as others? Why do you think your wife chose you over a Thai man her own age? Is it just that you have more money than she could hope to find in a Thai guy? Or is there something in how you treat her or something you bring into her life?

He certainly seems to be a bit of an odd duck. You do get all sorts in online communities and there are those that seem to simply want to disagree or tell others that they are wrong, regardless of the actual context or whether they end up contradicting themselves.

Do you honestly think that the type of 20/30 something Thai woman that would marry a 60/70 year old foreigner is going to appeal as a wife to an affluent 20/30 something guy back home? I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think that if they were going to choose a Thai wife close to their age, they might look for something different. Simple cheating would be more of a concern here, I think.

Jo, what would someone do if they spent their life living and working in Thailand? How could they meet the "transfer from abroad" condition? Could you send money "home" over the years and then transfer it back? Or do they need proof it was earnt abroad?

Well, depending on the industry, being forced to pay their workers the same rate as they do back home might remove the incentive to have their business in poor countries in the first place. Obviously somewhere like McDonald's is more difficult, as they want access to the local market. Food in McDonald's appears to be similarly priced in Thailand as it does in the West, but the cost of running the business and food supplies must cost more due to the location, so perhaps the wages are a factor in keeping the price low enough that people can actually afford to buy their food. So if they paid their workers the same wages, again, it might not be worth running their business in Thailand. I Realise that some Western fast food businesses might be franchises, but I think the above still stands.

Me too. Normally when an article has the headline "How does...?" it doesn't end by saying "we'd like to know too".

"Why can’t the Thai government reduce the prices at the pumps?" Not enough tourism money to subsidise the Thai people's lives right now?

What about if that isn't an issue, for whatever reason? Two people meet, there is a mutual attraction, they have similar interests, the older one still likes to socialise, the younger one is a homebody, both want to start a family and focus on that? Is that OK? (That being said, I do realise that being at two completely different stages in life could be an issue.)

What is an acceptable age-gap for you? Hmmm... Well, paedophilia is a sexual attraction to prebubecent children, so I'm not sure if any age of man dating a woman of 20+ would fit that description, but I would think 70 and 20 would be quite unusual anyway.

I was thinking more that he's he's kind of guy that would kill his girlfriend's mother just because she asked him to. She may have got some negative vibes from him.

Because the psychopath with the knife might have stabbed you to death?

In my opinion, it isn't that, it's the fact that some people have their ego heavily invested in living in Thailand and Thailand being better than other countries is part of that investment. When people say anything negative about Thailand, it's like they are attacking their identity, so they feel they have to defend the place and attack Western countries.

I wonder why... ????

All my own work. I always cite my sources.

So if the original commenter had said: "Thailand might be wealthier than her neighbouring countries, but she still has an abundance of poor women that would enter into an age-gap relationship with an older man in order to improve their standard of living", would that be more accurate?

Isn't that part of the identity of a traveller? Super relaxed bum type of look? I dare say many of them turn up looking like a homeless but really they're wearing designer clothes. I understand that immigration officers like to see people dressed smartly, as they think it shows respect, but even though a tourist in shorts and a singlet might appear scruffy, they could still actually be wealthy and ready to spend a lot of money in Thailand. ????‍♂️

Minsk.

The problem is that the people in charge of this don't seem to be to bothered by the lack of tourism. Maybe they will after a couple more years without it, but there doesn't seem to be any hurry to get tourism back so they must not value tourists at all. As you say, the fact that immigration seem to hate foreigners coming to Thailand is beyond absurd. The kind of thing you expect to see in a farcical comedy novel.

True. And the only mafia that is big enough to help is not on the side of the average Thai.

I'm afraid Richard from England disagrees:

So many stories about not only the police being corrupt and involved in criminal activities, but also people really having no respect for the law or police whatsoever. I know people will say that the police need to change and make people respect them, but laws exists independently to the police. What it points to is that there needs to be significant change in the way the law is viewed in Thailand, by all parties, to make things like this a rarity rather than a regular occurrence.

Hardly seems like the time to be making things harder for the very few tourists that actually want to visit Thailand. Is there some other issue, like nationality or previous entries, that might be making them demand so much?

Wow. WHo would have thought that China would do the exact same thing it always does?!! ????