He almost sent 400,000 baht. The only good decision he made was not to.
A 41-year-old British man went in two weeks from a Soi 4 fling to talking dowry and house renovations. He almost sent 400,000 baht. He did not.
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He was 70 years old and his wife had died. His daughter booked him a flight to Thailand.
At 70 he became a widower after forty-three years of marriage. His daughter booked him a flight to Koh Samui that gave him back what he thought was lost.
I went to Bangkok to see the world. In Chiang Mai I found something I was not looking for.
A 45-year-old American arrived in Thailand with no plan at all. In a small Chiang Mai cafรฉ, one genuine smile changed the entire course of his life.
A 28-year-old Thai nurse and the 71-year-old German who came to Chiang Mai to die
A 71-year-old German man came to Chiang Mai looking for a quiet place to die. A 28-year-old Thai nurse gave him back his will to live instead.
We shared a room with separate beds and her family wouldn't let me pay for a single meal. My last night, she chose to sleep somewhere else.
After seeing plenty of bar scams in Thailand, a Swedish man was introduced online to a woman from Isaan looking for something serious. Months of daily calls and a visit to her family later, the relationship never quite came together. It wasn't the love story he hoped for, and it wasn't a scam either.
At 60, I flew to a village in Isaan for a wedding that wasn't mine, and for a few hours it felt like it was.
I was 60 when Kop, 37 years younger than me, brought me to her cousin's wedding in a village in Isaan. I met her parents, slept apart from her out of respect for her family's rules, and watched a full traditional Thai wedding, dowry included, feeling for a few hours like part of a family I barely knew.
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I only got the health insurance because the retirement visa required it. Eight months later, that mandatory paperwork was the one thing that stopped a heart attack from wiping me out financially.
Graham, a 68-year-old British retiree, reluctantly takes out the mandatory health insurance for his retirement visa in Hua Hin. Months later, a heart attack teaches him why the policy he saw as a formality turned out to be the most important decision he made moving here.
I was 27 and felt invincible, so I never bothered with health insurance. A motorbike accident on Koh Samui taught me exactly what that feeling of invincibility costs, in baht and in loan interest.
Jordan, a 27-year-old Canadian working remotely from Koh Samui, never saw the need for private health insurance. A motorbike accident leaves him with a hospital bill that takes over a year to finish paying off.
Our daughter was born in Chiang Mai on a Friday afternoon, and by Monday we were already arguing over which surname would go on each of her two passports.
Mark, a 34-year-old Canadian, and his wife Nam navigate the weeks following their daughter's birth in Chiang Mai, racing against the separate deadlines of the Canadian embassy and the Thai civil registry to secure her dual nationality.
The German embassy asked me for a DNA test to recognise my own son. It took four months, and for that whole stretch my son legally didn't exist for any country except Thailand.
Felix, a 41-year-old German, discovers that legally recognising his son born in Bangkok, since he and the mother, Ploy, weren't married, requires a DNA test demanded by the German embassy before citizenship and a passport can be processed.
My international driving permit had expired eight months earlier without me even noticing. A car hit me at a junction in Phuket, and that one piece of paperwork ate up every bit of my savings.
Derek, a 47-year-old Briton, has a motorbike accident in Phuket without realising his international driving permit had expired months earlier. The insurer refuses to cover anything, and his partner Ice helps him navigate the weeks that follow.
I failed the Thai written driving test twice. On the third try, she made me flashcards with her own drawings because she said I read road signs like they were abstract art.
Aaron, a 39-year-old Australian, fails the Thai written driving test twice. His partner Bell makes him homemade study flashcards, turning the bureaucratic process into something they end up laughing about.
I assumed the prenup would be my idea, to protect myself. Her father sat me down at the table and explained it was the other way around: it was to protect his daughter's rice land.
Simon, a 45-year-old Australian, assumes that if there's a prenuptial agreement, it'll be his idea, to protect himself. His future father-in-law explains he actually wants the agreement to protect family land that's stayed in his daughter's name for generations.
I had a divorce behind me and a flat in my name in London. I brought up a prenup expecting an argument. She pulled out a list of what she wanted to add too.
Richard, a 52-year-old already-divorced Briton, dreads the prenuptial agreement conversation with his Thai fiancรฉe June. He discovers she had her own, quite different, reasons for wanting one too.
I arrived in Chiang Mai burnt out, with dangerously high blood pressure at thirty-eight. She never once told me to calm down. She just said 'mai pen rai' so many times it eventually stuck.
Chris, a 38-year-old American in the middle of career burnout, moves to Chiang Mai and meets Toon, whose constant 'mai pen rai' attitude toward setbacks quietly ends up changing how he handles stress altogether.
I went to my first Songkran thinking it was just one giant water fight. I left that day understanding exactly why my mother-in-law made me kneel in front of her.
Owen, a 33-year-old Briton, experiences his first Songkran with his Thai partner's family. After hours of street water fighting, a quiet, formal moment at the grandparents' house teaches him what the holiday actually means.
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