Most Read Stories
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.
I paid for her whole day out in Pattaya. Half an hour before midnight, her Canadian boyfriend showed up.
On New Year's Eve 2023, a 44-year-old Dutchman spent the whole day with a bar girl in Pattaya, covering food, pool and beers at a Soi 7 beer bar. Half an hour before midnight, her supposed Canadian boyfriend turned up. Months later he found out the same setup kept repeating with other foreigners.
I went looking for four quiet days in Bangkok. I came back planning to move near Edinburgh for a 47-year-old woman.
A 43-year-old Welshman went back to Thailand looking for a quiet holiday around Bangkok and Pattaya. He ended up meeting, almost by accident, a 47-year-old Thai woman with kids in Scotland. Now he's planning to drive up to Edinburgh to see her and maybe move there with her.
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.
She came over just to tell me the rain was dripping on me. Ten years later I still remember her laugh.
A 56-year-old American recalls his first night in Bangkok in 2013, when a woman named Tuk made room for him beside her at a bar on Soi 4. A brief romance that faded on its own, but whose memory has never stopped following him.
I followed her one day instead of believing her story about the family visits. She didn't go to the bus station — she walked into a hotel with another man.
Retired in Pattaya since 2017, a 55-year-old Polish man falls for Apple, a 32-year-old bar girl with three kids to support. For months he believes he's the only man helping her out financially. One day he decides to follow her instead of believing the usual excuse, and discovers he was just one of several sponsors supporting her at the same time.
Before flying to Bangkok, I bought a fake Rolex for forty dollars in New York. It turned out to be the smartest decision of the whole trip.
Freshly divorced, I flew to Bangkok with a fake forty-dollar Rolex bought on a New York layover. Between bar nights and a reserved woman who set one strange condition for seeing her again, the trip left me two nights I'll never forget, a lesson in misplaced trust, and no plans to bring the real watch next time.
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 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.
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.
Seven months of video calls every night, and she never asked me for anything. Then I saw her pre-wedding photos with another man.
A 46-year-old Dane met Bun, a 26-year-old Thai translator, and they talked daily for seven months before meeting in person. They spent a month together between Bangkok and Pattaya with no red flags at all. Weeks after he got home, she vanished, and pre-wedding photos on Facebook were the last clue.
I spent my student loan on a week of heartbreak in Bangkok. I went back nine more times, and on one of those trips I met my wife.
In 2005, heartbroken and with a student loan installment just paid out, I spent a week in Bangkok trying to drink the pain away. I went back nine more times in my early twenties. On one of those trips, in Koh Samui, I met the woman I now live with in England, and with whom I have two daughters.