Thai Stuff In Belgium

Hello I am a 33 year old man from Belgium and have travelled to many exotic locations all over this globe as a backpacker. But of course as many off you can guess, LOS is my favorite destination and this is also due to the fact that I am married to a
lady from Buriram. I met my wife in 2005 in a restaurant on Karon Beach where she worked as a waitress. I've been wanting to post a submission on this site for a long time because I'm a very big fan of this site and its many great stories
and good info.

Now what I really wanted to write about was forums on the net that provide info for fellow Belgians that seek info about marriage to Thai women, visas etc.. and some Thai Belgian couples I've met here in my country. Now some of these
guys are former hardcore Pattaya party boys and some of the ladies very clearly come out of "the business".

This site has given me a very different view of Thailand's culture and its people which on other sites and forums can not be talked about and I think this is wrong. And do not get me wrong, I just love Thailand and its people. Some of
these Belgian guys I have met on forums and even in Thailand are on the road to disaster but it's there problem and not mine.

You see, Stick, the things I have read on your site I have seen with my own eyes. One day in Buriram I visited a net cafe and it was full of young Thai women chatting away on MSN and Yahoo Messenger and this one girl next me had different
windows open and peeking over my shoulder I could see some of the farang at the other end had their cams open. So my conclusion was that the dating scam is real.

On my first visit to Buriram I expected to find a dirty old town in poor rural Thailand but too my shock it was reasonably developed. It has a Big C, Marko, W-mart, KFC etc and especially round the Prakonchai distirct where houses are popping
up like mushrooms and you all know where the cash for that came from don't you? Wink wink! The houses are really nice and had brand new motosais and cars parked out the front and I talked to some expats about the net café and
the development in the town and one told me the girls are really doing good business in the bars and on the net looking for sponsors. He had a real funny grin on his face when he told me this but I got the picture.

Now this week I have just read a submission from a fellow Belgian that I told myself on a forum to post it on this site and look for some advice about a lady he met on a Thai dating site. I told him myself that his story was full of the classical
red flags. Asking a guy you have known for 3 weeks for 500,000 baht sin-sod is seriously over the top, I think. Guess what! He is going back to Thailand to stay with her for a while and to arrange this! Another one bites the dust!

A few months ago the Belgian minister of foreign affairs paid a short visit to Thailand and the Belgian embassy and in this same time period somebody posted on a forum that the tourist visa for his girl was turned down. Apparently after asking
why somebody there told him there are about 600 bar ladies working in the city of Antwerp in Thai massage parlours (brothels of course).

One doesn't have to be a science whiz to conclude that the minister of foreign affairs gave the embassy a slap on the wrist about this during his visit and this is being looked in to by the police here. You see, here massage parlours
like this are popping up like mushrooms and two Belgian Thai couples in my town of Bruges have already been arrested for activities like this because the girls working in their parlours came here on tourist visas and didn't have work permits
which is illegal here. They didn't pay income taxes for this etc.. One of the girls that worked there is even missing and probably took a runner back to LOS. When my wife came here the first time she and I where also approached by a Thai
lady, one of the above, who was later arrested for working in one of her parlours. I basically told her to f**k off.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against prostitution as long as it's done out of free will.

My conclusion:

* I will never help somebody with info about visas and such any more here in my country, period.
* Many bargirls marry morons here to continue their activities here.
* Some of these things has human trafficking ring written all over
it.

* Some of these morons are probably the people that go on yapping about the bad reputation of Thailand and its women.

Stickman's thoughts:

600 Thai women in Antwerp? Wow, it sounds like they're invading!