Best Love Stories 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.
A trip to Vietnam taught me to tell lust from love. I went back to Thailand, met a woman 24 years younger than me, and I'm about to propose.
A 52-year-old Canadian, after mistaking lust for love on a trip to Vietnam, goes back to Tinder looking for something real and meets a Thai woman of Chinese descent 24 years younger than him. Three weeks together across Bangkok, Pattaya and Koh Samui become the start of a long-distance relationship that, bumps and all, is still going strong toward a proposal.
I kept coming back to Pattaya for thirteen years. In the third bar on Soi Honey I met Jib.
A 42-year-old Dutchman started visiting Pattaya in 2010 and never stopped coming back every January. In 2022, in a bar on Soi Honey, he met Jib, from Isaan. Two years later he bought land from her family, fully aware of what that meant.
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.
She gave me a free bowl of noodles at her mum's stall. The buffalo has never been sick.
A 50-year-old Brit, freshly divorced, met Nitia, a maths teacher in Khon Kaen who'd spent years keeping men at arm's length. Years of FaceTime, visits dodging COVID, and a first daughter later, the wedding is no longer a possibility but a foregone conclusion.
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.
A widower for ten years, I promised a stranger I'd come back. That's how I met Newt.
A 64-year-old New Zealander widower recounts his last three nights in Koh Samui with Newt, a woman he met by chance after keeping a promise made to another girl on the street. No drama, no requests, just company at exactly the right moment.
Nothing happened that night in Pattaya, just talking and falling asleep together. That was exactly what made me fall for her.
A 35-year-old Belgian sent to Pattaya for work met Nong, a woman working in a bar to support her sister. After a year of visits and video calls, they sorted out a visa and she moved to Belgium. Six months later, despite the family's doubts, the relationship is still working out.