How did you meet your partner?

[MaeJoMTB]

So because I met my wife in a bar and we spent probably 5 nights a week for over 12 years in bars (or I did) in Pattaya then we are both low class?

Most foreigners in Thailand appear to be low class..

In fact the only non low class ThaiVisa member I have ever met is ME!

[davethailand]

Edited October 2, 2015 by davethailand

[JAFO]

You know what I'm curious about, how many are literally transferred by their employer to work in Thailand (yes they have a right to refuse) vs the ones that move here by their own accord and find a job? I think only that already makes a big difference in the type of couples as most younger people who have a decent life in their own country wouldn't opt to move abroad to live in a country with lower living standards. Most would argue Thailand is great for holiday but not as a place to live and I largely agree with them. It's just that I have very specific reasons to live here that you'll likely never heard before, no I'm not a fugitive lol.

Moving out of Pattaya

Where you suggest I'd go? Bangkok? I hate it. I don't speak Thai, I can't just settle somewhere that has very few foreigners and where hardly anyone speaks English, I think my life would become very isolated when I live in a non tourist area, also I'm gay, and most gays tend to move away to either Pattaya, Bangkok or Phuket so if I wanted to find a partner it would be so much harder in other areas in Thailand as well. Well moving from Pattaya to Phuket is just replacing one seedy area for another right. I have thought about Udon Thani though, however I'd miss the sea too much.

To top if off, on regular base I have friends visiting me who stay a few weeks, they love Pattaya, I think they would become real bored if they had to visit me up North, I also have friends I met in Pattaya that frequent Thailand once or twice a year, people of my own age that I hang out with when they come, so in high season I'm quite busy with visitors, in low season it sometimes bores the hell out of me and makes my life look quite artificial by only hanging out with bar workers so to say. However next May I move back to my own country and stay there for 5 months, my dad has some serious health issues and I like to meet up with old friends again so no more 365 days a year in Thailand, three years is enough.

Answering your top paragraph. I was one that came under a company umbrella. 10+ years back I was a Project/Transfer manager for a very large US company. I had been transferring US mfg operations offshore to SE Asia during the big tech boom downturn to allow the company to improve gross margins. I did a short stint in the Philippines, I was offered a position to stay on for 6 months longer and I declined because I couldn't stand the place. It was relatively expensive, there did not seem to be any interesting culture I could get interested in and the food was utter crap. Next up was SZ China. This was a year program to move our packaging assembly line. They wanted me to stay on after it was near done and I again declined. Again nothing interested me and at the time I did not like being bused across the border with a bunch of Chinese people with poor personal hygiene and always yelling when they talked. Coupled with that I hate Chinese food, do not like the language, the people were rude and seemed like every place I was housed was a 10 ft box. So I returned back to the mother company in the US and was handed the next division to move and this one was to move operations to Thailand. For some reason when I landed in Thailand it just felt better. This program was a 2 year transfer and by the 1 year mark I had really grown to like Thailand. The people were incredibly nice, the food was awesome, the history and temples interested me, the ocean areas were great and the language seemed easier for me to pick up. During the 2.5 years of the project I made some very good Thai friends and they always asked me to go places with them. I went all over Thailand. At the end of the project I was asked to stay on to run it and I took the offer even though it meant at the end I was out of a job. When it was done I decided to stay and just hang out for awhile. I never left. Well let me rephrase that, had not left until I met my GF in 2010 and we came back to the states and we have been here for a couple of years but for our own personal reasons. However we will move back in a few months to move into the house we designed and had built.

Do I plan on working in Thailand...... Probably not. I mean not a job job. I will work around our property and tinker with my motorcycle and truck, travel with my wife, go fish for Snakehead, go do stuff with my FIL etc. Its really an open book. This is all started for me when I was 38. I am just over 50 now and my wife mid 40's. I am still way off from retiring by US standards which is why we decided to build a house, pay in cash and leave with no debt. I could never do this in the US. Now I do say I have a few interesting business ideas and I may dip into them but not sure. It would be my wife's business and she thinks they would be fun, In the end it would be "Her" business not mine. I am JAFO....

Answering another comment you made about the age gap. I am with you and I have my threshold but you should keep one thing in mind, generally speaking western men do not seem to age well meaning they start to look old and conversely Asian women tend to age very very well looking much younger. Hanging in bars drinking all the time and laying in the sun does not help that at all. So in many cases its a visual perception versus the reality. My wife and I know a couple that this cases exists. He is 44 and she is 39. He is balding, is a bit out of shape and she looks like she is 25 years younger than him LOL. I razz his ass about it all the time. But they are a very happy couple and get on well. And to another point, I have found a great majority of the western men in Thailand(especially outside of BKK) do not keep themselves well groomed and the gals they are with seem to always dress nice. It is what it is.

As where to Move....Hmm. I moved all over when I was scoping Thailand out and wanted to see what it was all about and I am glad I did. You didn't mention Chiang Mai. Have you lived there? Find a place outside the downtown area. It too has become very touristy and has its seedy areas but the North is sure a pretty place. Good Luck.

[MaeJoMTB]

generally speaking western men do not seem to age well meaning they start to look old and conversely Asian women tend to age very very well looking much younger.

Totally wrong,

My MIL and I are the same age (60), if you were forced to make a choice and sleep with one of us, you would choose me.

Trust me on this one!

[thehelmsman]

generally speaking western men do not seem to age well meaning they start to look old and conversely Asian women tend to age very very well looking much younger.

Totally wrong,

My MIL and I are the same age (60), if you were forced to make a choice and sleep with one of us, you would choose me.

Trust me on this one!

Is this only in Isaan, I don't know, But the women don't age gracefully here.

[JAFO]

generally speaking western men do not seem to age well meaning they start to look old and conversely Asian women tend to age very very well looking much younger.

Totally wrong,

My MIL and I are the same age (60), if you were forced to make a choice and sleep with one of us, you would choose me.

Trust me on this one!

Funny that.

Do you have nice legs?

[nontabury]

We seem to have two completely different sets of men on this thread,those who have known their wives for some time, and are in a loving relationship, and those who possible would not know a good Thai girl, instead preferring to be bitter individuals, only seeing the worst in people.

[CharlieH]

We seem to have two completely different sets of men on this thread,those who have known their wives for some time, and are in a loving relationship, and those who possible would not know a good Thai girl, instead preferring to be bitter individuals, only seeing the worst in people.

you missed the other ones, the ones winding people up and having a laugh.

[MaeJoMTB]

We seem to have two completely different sets of men on this thread,those who have known their wives for some time, and are in a loving relationship, and those who possible would not know a good Thai girl, instead preferring to be bitter individuals, only seeing the worst in people.

you missed the other ones, the ones winding people up and having a laugh.

You also missed the guys that like to live a little, good girls = little & boring sex, bad girls = great & frequent sex.

[dennis123]

We seem to have two completely different sets of men on this thread,those who have known their wives for some time, and are in a loving relationship, and those who possible would not know a good Thai girl, instead preferring to be bitter individuals, only seeing the worst in people.

That would be sad.

I think there are actually a few more types

1) Happy old people that found a real love, like JAFO

2) Bitter old people with a young girl that dresses them out or perhaps already skinned and now single (I tend to think that's the majority at this forum)

3) Other that just try to enjoy their life here and that are open to a new relationship if it looks good.

What sense does it make to exclude people that you haven't met yet, never know what the future brings, got to admit that I'm definitely skeptical, if not I would be naieve.

[dennis123]

Answering your top paragraph. I was one that came under a company umbrella. 10+ years back I was a Project/Transfer manager for a very large US company. I had been transferring US mfg operations offshore to SE Asia during the big tech boom downturn to allow the company to improve gross margins. I did a short stint in the Philippines, I was offered a position to stay on for 6 months longer and I declined because I couldn't stand the place. It was relatively expensive, there did not seem to be any interesting culture I could get interested in and the food was utter crap. Next up was SZ China. This was a year program to move our packaging assembly line. They wanted me to stay on after it was near done and I again declined. Again nothing interested me and at the time I did not like being bused across the border with a bunch of Chinese people with poor personal hygiene and always yelling when they talked. Coupled with that I hate Chinese food, do not like the language, the people were rude and seemed like every place I was housed was a 10 ft box. So I returned back to the mother company in the US and was handed the next division to move and this one was to move operations to Thailand. For some reason when I landed in Thailand it just felt better. This program was a 2 year transfer and by the 1 year mark I had really grown to like Thailand. The people were incredibly nice, the food was awesome, the history and temples interested me, the ocean areas were great and the language seemed easier for me to pick up. During the 2.5 years of the project I made some very good Thai friends and they always asked me to go places with them. I went all over Thailand. At the end of the project I was asked to stay on to run it and I took the offer even though it meant at the end I was out of a job. When it was done I decided to stay and just hang out for awhile. I never left. Well let me rephrase that, had not left until I met my GF in 2010 and we came back to the states and we have been here for a couple of years but for our own personal reasons. However we will move back in a few months to move into the house we designed and had built.

Do I plan on working in Thailand...... Probably not. I mean not a job job. I will work around our property and tinker with my motorcycle and truck, travel with my wife, go fish for Snakehead, go do stuff with my FIL etc. Its really an open book. This is all started for me when I was 38. I am just over 50 now and my wife mid 40's. I am still way off from retiring by US standards which is why we decided to build a house, pay in cash and leave with no debt. I could never do this in the US. Now I do say I have a few interesting business ideas and I may dip into them but not sure. It would be my wife's business and she thinks they would be fun, In the end it would be "Her" business not mine. I am JAFO....

Answering another comment you made about the age gap. I am with you and I have my threshold but you should keep one thing in mind, generally speaking western men do not seem to age well meaning they start to look old and conversely Asian women tend to age very very well looking much younger. Hanging in bars drinking all the time and laying in the sun does not help that at all. So in many cases its a visual perception versus the reality. My wife and I know a couple that this cases exists. He is 44 and she is 39. He is balding, is a bit out of shape and she looks like she is 25 years younger than him LOL. I razz his ass about it all the time. But they are a very happy couple and get on well. And to another point, I have found a great majority of the western men in Thailand(especially outside of BKK) do not keep themselves well groomed and the gals they are with seem to always dress nice. It is what it is.

As where to Move....Hmm. I moved all over when I was scoping Thailand out and wanted to see what it was all about and I am glad I did. You didn't mention Chiang Mai. Have you lived there? Find a place outside the downtown area. It too has become very touristy and has its seedy areas but the North is sure a pretty place. Good Luck.

Ah one of the legit few

Well Thai women don't age well till a certain age, I've seen plenty of 30 year olds that look like 40-45 and the opposite as well yes, cause I've been here for a while I have a good look at it, though even I am sometimes terribly wrong. Once I saw a 48 year old 'boy', I swear he was like 25 or something, quite a shock lol and I've also seen 16 year old girls that turned out to be 32 but those are quite exceptional of course.

I visited quite a few places as well and I'm not attracted to Chiang Mai in any way, sure they have mountains but I consider the city an ugly old boring town (like going 20-30 years back in time), with the exception of some parts, sure the majority of Pattaya is also a shit hole, but it's a beach town which makes that a lot less. Nah Chiang Mai is a definite no go for me. I might reconsider Phuket/Krabi again, bit of a bad experience during my last holiday there but just bad luck I guess. When I drive south I love it, beautfiul surroundings, when I drive north it always feels depressing.

[Crazy chef 1]

Answering your top paragraph. I was one that came under a company umbrella. 10+ years back I was a Project/Transfer manager for a very large US company. I had been transferring US mfg operations offshore to SE Asia during the big tech boom downturn to allow the company to improve gross margins. I did a short stint in the Philippines, I was offered a position to stay on for 6 months longer and I declined because I couldn't stand the place. It was relatively expensive, there did not seem to be any interesting culture I could get interested in and the food was utter crap. Next up was SZ China. This was a year program to move our packaging assembly line. They wanted me to stay on after it was near done and I again declined. Again nothing interested me and at the time I did not like being bused across the border with a bunch of Chinese people with poor personal hygiene and always yelling when they talked. Coupled with that I hate Chinese food, do not like the language, the people were rude and seemed like every place I was housed was a 10 ft box. So I returned back to the mother company in the US and was handed the next division to move and this one was to move operations to Thailand. For some reason when I landed in Thailand it just felt better. This program was a 2 year transfer and by the 1 year mark I had really grown to like Thailand. The people were incredibly nice, the food was awesome, the history and temples interested me, the ocean areas were great and the language seemed easier for me to pick up. During the 2.5 years of the project I made some very good Thai friends and they always asked me to go places with them. I went all over Thailand. At the end of the project I was asked to stay on to run it and I took the offer even though it meant at the end I was out of a job. When it was done I decided to stay and just hang out for awhile. I never left. Well let me rephrase that, had not left until I met my GF in 2010 and we came back to the states and we have been here for a couple of years but for our own personal reasons. However we will move back in a few months to move into the house we designed and had built.

Do I plan on working in Thailand...... Probably not. I mean not a job job. I will work around our property and tinker with my motorcycle and truck, travel with my wife, go fish for Snakehead, go do stuff with my FIL etc. Its really an open book. This is all started for me when I was 38. I am just over 50 now and my wife mid 40's. I am still way off from retiring by US standards which is why we decided to build a house, pay in cash and leave with no debt. I could never do this in the US. Now I do say I have a few interesting business ideas and I may dip into them but not sure. It would be my wife's business and she thinks they would be fun, In the end it would be "Her" business not mine. I am JAFO....

Answering another comment you made about the age gap. I am with you and I have my threshold but you should keep one thing in mind, generally speaking western men do not seem to age well meaning they start to look old and conversely Asian women tend to age very very well looking much younger. Hanging in bars drinking all the time and laying in the sun does not help that at all. So in many cases its a visual perception versus the reality. My wife and I know a couple that this cases exists. He is 44 and she is 39. He is balding, is a bit out of shape and she looks like she is 25 years younger than him LOL. I razz his ass about it all the time. But they are a very happy couple and get on well. And to another point, I have found a great majority of the western men in Thailand(especially outside of BKK) do not keep themselves well groomed and the gals they are with seem to always dress nice. It is what it is.

As where to Move....Hmm. I moved all over when I was scoping Thailand out and wanted to see what it was all about and I am glad I did. You didn't mention Chiang Mai. Have you lived there? Find a place outside the downtown area. It too has become very touristy and has its seedy areas but the North is sure a pretty place. Good Luck.

Ah one of the legit few

Well Thai women don't age well till a certain age, I've seen plenty of 30 year olds that look like 40-45 and the opposite as well yes, cause I've been here for a while I have a good look at it, though even I am sometimes terribly wrong. Once I saw a 48 year old 'boy', I swear he was like 25 or something, quite a shock lol and I've also seen 16 year old girls that turned out to be 32 but those are quite exceptional of course.

I visited quite a few places as well and I'm not attracted to Chiang Mai in any way, sure they have mountains but I consider the city an ugly old boring town (like going 20-30 years back in time), with the exception of some parts, sure the majority of Pattaya is also a shit hole, but it's a beach town which makes that a lot less. Nah Chiang Mai is a definite no go for me. I might reconsider Phuket/Krabi again, bit of a bad experience during my last holiday there but just bad luck I guess. When I drive south I love it, beautfiul surroundings, when I drive north it always feels depressing.

Not for me...4 more days to work and I will drive 700 km north( of phuket) straight to home...gonna love it

[JAFO]

We seem to have two completely different sets of men on this thread,those who have known their wives for some time, and are in a loving relationship, and those who possible would not know a good Thai girl, instead preferring to be bitter individuals, only seeing the worst in people.

That would be sad.

I think there are actually a few more types

1) Happy old people that found a real love, like JAFO

Ouch....

I prefer the adjective version please...."Older"....I'm older.

So the correct phrase would be there are "Happy OLDER people that found a real good woman, like JAFO"

I am definitely not the bitter old coffin dodger with a 20 year old in tow that has numerous ailments. I have a clean bill of health and take no meds which is saying a lot being I am here in the Land of "Drug them up"....

[JAFO]

Ah one of the legit few

Well Thai women don't age well till a certain age, I've seen plenty of 30 year olds that look like 40-45 and the opposite as well yes, cause I've been here for a while I have a good look at it, though even I am sometimes terribly wrong. Once I saw a 48 year old 'boy', I swear he was like 25 or something, quite a shock lol and I've also seen 16 year old girls that turned out to be 32 but those are quite exceptional of course.

I visited quite a few places as well and I'm not attracted to Chiang Mai in any way, sure they have mountains but I consider the city an ugly old boring town (like going 20-30 years back in time), with the exception of some parts, sure the majority of Pattaya is also a shit hole, but it's a beach town which makes that a lot less. Nah Chiang Mai is a definite no go for me. I might reconsider Phuket/Krabi again, bit of a bad experience during my last holiday there but just bad luck I guess. When I drive south I love it, beautfiul surroundings, when I drive north it always feels depressing.

I will give you that on Thai women. I did generalize when I said Asian women. Clearly the Thai women that work in the fields or are farmers do tend to age quicker as they live a much harder life. The ones that age well are definitely a bit more on the HiSo side. They have access to better skin care products and out of the elements working conditions. Being out of the sun helps tremendously.

Fair enough on CM. I seldom went into town. It is as you say very old and packed with tourists. I did however like the fishing, motorcycle riding, hiking. What I also like about the north it basically has 3 seasons and it is refreshing when it gets cool during what I will call "Thai" winter. Albeit that is still only low 70's. We have a nice little piece of land to grow whatever we want.

2 other places I really enjoyed living was Ao Luk or as some spellings Ao Leuk. I also liked Pran Buri. Only problem with Pran Buri is your closest real city is Hua Hin and Hua Hin has really become a pit. Its for rich Thais and bus loads of tourists. The traffic is terrible and quite honestly the beach area is not all that nice. Ao Luk was way better. You sound like a beach guy. All good. One thing I really like about Thailand is there is an area for everyone. Wife and I decided on North (not CM north mind you but North) to call home. We decided beach life was not for us. We agreed we will go rent a place near the beach for a month or so when the urge hits to go hang around.

[ivan96822]

Drinking in public while playing Connect Four on a sidewalk at 3 a.m. in Sukhumvit and Soi 6 / BTS Nana.

She's from Isaan but lives in On Nut.

Lucky guy. Right?

[tomth]

Not current partner but an ex, met her on DIA and were together 5 years. We lived in a beachside house on samui while she worked in a hotel as part of her uni courses. The whole time she had another farang guy on the go.

Long story short we finished and when her mum found out she slapped her into next week!.

Very clever girl but a playgirl, shame as her family were fantastic people.

My Thai friends always say only bar girls are like that but plenty of these girls on the sites are just looking for casual encounters and playing the game. Same as many farangs I suppose!