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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've been going to Thailand since 1986. Nobody had ever binned my gifts before Som.
A Norwegian who's been travelling to Thailand since 1986 met Som, a Bangkok professional, on a dating app. One evening of drinks on Soi Cowboy was enough to trigger twenty missed calls, a bag packed in minutes, and months later, harassment reaching his own daughter.
I arrived in Bangkok convinced I would be the one helping her. I was wrong.
A British man arrived in Bangkok carrying every prejudice about Thai women intact. What he found instead was a woman who did not need saving at all.
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.
I worked coordinating joint exercises with the Thai army in Korat. The official who handled my paperwork ended up handling a lot more than that.
Frank, a 58-year-old American veteran, works as a civilian contractor coordinating joint military exercises in Korat, home to one of the Thai army's largest bases. Gift, the base's liaison official, becomes far more than an administrative contact.
Someone stole my motorbike right in front of her and she just shrugged it off. It took me a year to understand that it wasn't that she didn't care — she just carried it differently.
Marcus, a 41-year-old German, gets frustrated when his Thai partner Fern responds with a calm 'mai pen rai' after his motorbike gets stolen. It takes him a year to understand the phrase doesn't mean indifference, just a different way of carrying a problem.
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.
I coordinate logistics for Thai fruit exports to China along the Mekong from the Golden Triangle. She's been running that same port for fifteen years.
Nathan, a 50-year-old New Zealander, coordinates Thai fruit exports to China along the Mekong from the port of Chiang Saen, in the Golden Triangle. Orn, who's managed the port logistics for fifteen years, becomes something more than a work colleague.
I came to Thailand for two weeks. That was two years ago and I am not going back.
A retired electrician went to Thailand for a two-week holiday. At a night market, a woman said something to him that changed his entire life forever.
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 ate alone at her noodle stall every night for four months. By the time we finally talked, her kids had already decided I was a problem.
James, a 60-year-old Scottish widower, retires to Hua Hin for the golf and starts eating dinner every night at the same noodle stall by the pier. It takes him four months to exchange more than two sentences with Nok, the owner, and much longer to win over her children, who've already heard too many stories about retired farang like him.
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.