How I Met My Wife

I get really annoyed by some of your respondents in this series of submissions. These people just don't know what it is like to live in the village and live on 150 baht per day. Ok, I do not live in a village 365 days a year but I do stay there once
a year for a month so I think I have a fair idea what goes on. The village my wife comes from is not in the Issan region but is relatively close by and the wages for working in the fields were 150 baht per day so presumably similar to an Issan
village and no doubt similar to most villages in Thailand.

I can’t imagine many of you mongers living on 150 baht a day, why it probably wouldn’t even buy you more than a single drink in some Bangkok gogos. Why shouldn’t the women want a bit more money than just mere survival
money working in the villages. Why shouldn't the women aspire to more than just having enough money to feed and clothe themselves and their families?

Take for instance my wife. She is a gogo dancer from one of the gogos in Pattaya. Her ex husband went off with other women leaving her to provide for her and her child. She used to work in Phuket as a masseuse doing proper Thai massage and
she worked really hard for only a small amount of money. Luckily she went on holiday for the week of the tsunami in 2004. She then didn’t go back to Phuket and lived in the village. However with not enough money, having to borrow and beg
money from her parents to survive, she eventually (1 year later) went to Pattaya leaving as most women with children do, her child to be looked after by her mother.

After a couple of months working there she met me and soon after I arrived home in the UK she left the bar, we got married and she is now a happily married woman living in the UK.

When I met my future wife for the first time I was with another girl who was quite thin and petite who I had barfined for 1 day. As my rule at that time was never to barfine for more than 2 days so I couldn’t get too attached. Anyway,
I walked into a gogo in soi 13/2 in Pattaya and one of the ladies said to me "Would you like a drink?"

Being medium drunk at the time I replied to my ever-lasting shame, “You are too fat.”

She went back to sit down.

After I said it I realised how rude I had been and regretted it. The next day I went back to the same gogo and I had now barfined the same girl 2 days running so I had decided to find another girl to entertain me. As soon as I walked through the door
the same girl as the day before asked me if I wanted a drink. Because I was still embarrassed by what I had said the day before, the surprise that she would still talk to me after the previous evening plus the rather nice pair staring me in the
face, I accepted. One drink later, she was barfined and the rest is history. The wife tells me she had checked me out with two previous girls I had barfined and knew I was an ok type of guy and paid reasonably well.

At our wedding, I was getting Thai teachers and other professional women asking me if I knww of any falang for them to marry so there is plenty of demand in the villages for falang husbands.

As far as my wife is concerned, going to work in a gogo was the best thing she has ever done and she does not regret it one bit. She now is the proud owner of two houses, 2 cars, 1 motorbike, 12 baht of gold. As she says to me she has won
the Thai lottery several times over. She now owns six rai of land whereas before she owned nothing and had to farm some of her parents' land. She knows that as more land becomes available we will be buying more. We are continually
being offered land for sale so we can choose the best land. She also owns a shop as well with plans to have a much larger one when we finally decide to go and live in Thailand. As well as her child living and being educated in the UK, we now have
a son as well who she absolutely adores. She is still paranoid that I will go off with another Thai woman. Whenever we go to Pattaya I am not allowed out without a chaperone. There is too much at risk for my wife to allow it.

I know I am going to get some of you sceptics say she will take me for all my money and then leave me. Well I have read many Stickman articles over the years and contributed a couple myself and I will certainly make sure that I never leave
all my money and property in Thailand just in case. However I truly believe that she will never leave me. When and if she does I will let all you Stickmanites know so you can have a good laugh at my expense.

I am sure my wife’s case has meant a whole load more women going down to Pattaya, Bangkok and Phuket to find their fortune (i.e. rich falang husband).

As we go round the villages the wife points out the houses i.e. the brick built houses instead of the bamboo ones, where the lady has married a falang in the past, got divorced and now has a Thai husband so I am well aware that many Thai
/ falang marriages fail. But also there are several success stories too.

The wife has a few Thai lady friends married to falang in the UK and after seeing that they all have to go out to work except two, none own their homes outright, she certainly realises how lucky she got with me.

The wife has told me when she worked in Phuket she went to a fortune teller who told her that she would marry 3 times and be rich and live abroad. Well so far most of it has come true so let's hope the 3 husbands part is wrong!! Or maybe
fate can not be changed!