Most Read Stories
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 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.
The bill said 6,000 baht, no breakdown. The real one was 2,194, and she was already gone.
Before a trip to Bangkok, I met up with a woman from a dating app. She said it was her birthday and took me to her favorite restaurant. The bill came with no breakdown: 6,000 baht. When I asked for an itemized version, she got up and vanished. The real bill, from the kitchen, was less than half that.
We'd been together a year before she officially introduced me to her family. She chose Songkran on purpose, because she said everyone would be in a good mood.
Callum, a 36-year-old Scot, is formally introduced to his Thai partner Praew's family during Songkran, a deliberate choice on her part so the first real meeting would happen in the most relaxed atmosphere of the year.
I came to Chiang Rai to buy coffee for a week. Eight years later, I still negotiate prices with the same cooperative, though now I'm also part of the family.
Sam, a 39-year-old Canadian coffee buyer, travels to Chiang Rai to negotiate with a cooperative in the Doi Chang mountains. Kaew, the quality-control manager, corrects him on a lot he thought was good. Eight years later they're still cupping coffee together, now as a married couple.
Her mother wanted a $35,000 dowry and $2,000 a month just to prove I was serious. I still don't know if I dodged a bullet.
A 50-year-old Australian met Mali in Bangkok, a highly educated woman he spoke to every day for months. When she finally told her mother about the relationship, her mother demanded a $35,000 dowry and $2,000 a month. The story of a breakup nobody considers normal, not even Thai people themselves.
They sat us at the same staffroom desk because there was nowhere else free. Two years later, she's the reason I never asked for the transfer to Bangkok.
Daniel, a 35-year-old British teacher, moves from Bangkok to a bilingual school in Udon Thani. He ends up sharing a staffroom desk with Waan, a social studies teacher, by pure furniture chance. Two years later, he turns down a promotion in Bangkok for her.
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.
I gave up my accountant's job in Cardiff to go climbing in Krabi for two weeks. Five years later I'm still here, living with the woman who taught me to belay my first route.
Tom, a 34-year-old Welshman, takes three months' unpaid leave to climb at Railay, in Krabi. He falls for Fon, the Thai instructor running the climbing school, and five years later he's still there, making a living from climbing instead of accounting.
I gave her 400,000 baht and two years of my life. One day she went to a temple and never spoke to me again.
A 51-year-old Canadian recounts how he went from a tense relationship in Pattaya to supporting Lek for two years as she built a food stall in her village near Prakhon Chai, until she vanished without explanation after a temple retreat.
I dodged financial disaster with Charm. With Gop and her daughter I ended up as Papa without ever planning it.
A 54-year-old American recounts how a two-week trip to Thailand stretched on indefinitely: first dodging a woman with escalating financial demands, then building a life in Bangkok alongside Gop and her daughter, who ended up calling him Papa.
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 fiancée June. He discovers she had her own, quite different, reasons for wanting one too.