hi everybody,
my name is colin, im 23, irish, living in oz on a holiday visa, and am in a relationship with a thai girl from udon for 6months now.i met anna back in october, when i first came to thailand, and spent 8 great days with her. i was travelling with some friends and we proceeded to phi phi and phuket but anna remainded behind as she had work commitments. we stayed in constant contact over the next no. of days, and we met up again in bangkok(she had travelled there for a friends funeral)on the 1st nov.i stayed with her untill the 22nd of nov and headed onto oz.
oz was difficult.although we spoke at least twice a day, i was faced with the galling realisation that i was going to have to remain there and gain new funds so i could revisit thailand and see her again.after 2 months workin long weeks and long hours, and spending very little, i finally returned to thailand on 29th jan.4 excellent weeks later, its the first of march, and i am standing in a line for customs in sydney international airport, with that same sickening feeling of desperate isolation burbling incessantly throughout me that i first encountered 3 months earlier, only with the prescience of what was to come over the following weeks would be no better.
as such, i have endeavoured to resolve this geometric conundrum,and reduce the relevant seperation over which our forces of attraction are required to act. after some hours of deliberation, i arrived at the conclusion that there are two possible solution to the aforementioned problem:either she comes to oz, or i go to thailand. Simple really.I was really rather chuffed when i managed to reduce the magnitude of complexity to two such unalterable definites. yeah, right!
i am due to meet with an immigration agent on tuesday, to discuss the possibility of getting anna a holiday visa for oz(i have a somebody willing to sponsor, so maybe im not too far off on this option).i have also started researching the potential for living in udon.anna owns a house in udon, which is the reason for my desire to move there.
here is my prob however, i am a painter and decorator!ive looked at the possibility of teaching english in thailand, but am not sure of its viability in my case. it is on this point, the tenability of a painter decorator being entrusted with the education of others, that i would request some info, and maybe some suggestions.
i love thailand, and i love anna, so i would prefer to be able to stay there with her, rather than for her to stay in oz with me. her english isnt great, and she is very suspect on reading the language, so i would be worried about her ability to adapt in a westernised country.
tnx for takin the time to read this diffuse intro(overview!),and tnx again if you could find the time after reading all this to leave a comment!!!
crokey

good luck to you and anna in the future.

tnx traveller,ill take all the luck i can get!!

23???You have time to try anything you want You could teach English if you have a bachelors degree!If not,I would give alot of consideration to what your future together will be like ,if you get bogged down in Thailand at such a young age,Sure ,she would be more comfortable here,but what about your future?Good luck ,with whatever your choices are

Let me understand this: You were in Thailand for 8 days, and during a few of those days, you were in the presence of Anna, and now you declare that you love her. Is that right?

Does this sound realistic to you? I think you have strong emotions about Anna, but they are most likely more based on feelings than on understanding.

At the tender young age of 23, this may have been your first trip to Thailand, and maybe you had not heard or read about the prevalence of Thai girls who are absolutely charming and who will profess strong feelings, even love for a complete stranger, with the hope of obtaining financial support.

Do yourself a favor -Google "thai girl scam" and "Thai bar girl scam" and educate yourself. Not all Thai women are entirely mercenary, but it is fairly difficult for a non-Thai to hook up with the right woman the first time out (I know of one fellow who did so, but he is definitely in the minority). Read these articles and try to think critically about your "relationship."

You sound like a pretty nice guy, and I would welcome you as a neighbor if you choose to live in Udon Thani. But I would feel sorry for you if you went the way of so many of us and had to pay your dues at "Buffalo College" before finding the right one.

As BKKSTAN said, you are young and you have plenty of time to experiment. If you come here and support yourself as a teacher, you might have a wonderful experience (check www.ajarn.com for info on that concept.)

To expand on BKKSTAN's comment on getting "bogged down" in Thailand, one problem that many young foreigners face when working in Thailand, is that the salary levels are scaled to subsistence levels, and it is very difficult to save for retirement. If you live in Thailand and have a family here, then you children will probably support you in your old age (though increasingly, children are ignoring their parents, as in the West.), but if you return to Ireland later in life, you would find yourself with very little in the way of savings and most likely no career. Think about it. You are young, and you can bounce back, but you would have to bounce at a sufficiently young age.

Proceed cautiously, with your eyes wide open, and of course , and most of all, enjoy life.

You have been warned.

heres a good read, maybe LOL ,,,anyway it makes some good points for a new guy in thailand

So you've heard all the stories about the Thai beauties that can be had for a few baht. You've probably just been through some form of bad relationship at home and all you really need is some fun and to regain your confidence. So a trip to Thailand is booked and finally your leave cold wet (probably) corner of Farangland behind and arrive at Don Muang. Before you left home you probably spent a long time working out just what you needed to take with you and how you were going to fit it all in your suitcase. But it seems to me that a lot of you blokes leave one important thing behind - your brain!

The chances are that if you are honest, you are a, wait for it.....sex tourist....no? Well call it what you want but I know which horse my money would be on. So why is it that you cannot accept that the 20 year old stunner that you took out of the bar on your first night did it for the cash? Why is it that the next morning you're sat in the nearest internet cafe researching just how you're going to get this little beauty back to Farangland? Could it be that you are absolutely convinced that she loves you for real, she's different from all the girls in the stories you've read during your pre-visit internet research? Could it be that when the subject of cash was mentioned the next morning, this little beauty seemed prepared to have done it for nothing - did she say "up to you teerak"?

First mistake - before your trip you might well have read many stories on this site and others that warn you about this but your girl was different wasn't she? Never, never do it this way - these girls work on the principle that for every guy that actually thinks he's won the lottery and doesn't pay them, there's another 99 that will give them far more than they would have got if the price had been negotiated before leaving the bar. Don't believe me? How much did you give her? Let me tell you here and now that despite all the things you have been told and the websites that give the average price for a 'Short Time' at various venues across LOS, it is still possible to have the company of a very attractive, young BG for 1,000 baht for the entire night. Did she happen to casually mention the Japanese tourist that had paid her 7,000 for the night or the Yank that gave her 4,000 for an hour? Sound familiar? It should do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2aHVING6XQ LOL

i think everyone has been down this road more than just ones,i know i did after my first trip ten years ago.

Here's a lovely old Aerosmith number

Perhaps they should make it a Theme tune for the Farang who's just been dumped

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oDAPtrsWSmk

crokey if you get anna to aus you will find she will soon meet many other thai ladies and adapt quickly ,my wife has been here over ten years ,very little english to start with and not much schooling ,she works now and only wants to visit thailand and not go back to live there at least untill our rug rats grow up, Im in WA and we have meet thais every where over here so good luck

hi redbeard, nice to hear a positive comment! im meeting with an immigration official tomorrow, and she reckons there should be no major issues as my boss has agreed to sponsor anna's holiday visa(now that was a bloody awkward question to ask your boss, let me tell you!). ive done a few googles for thai ppl in sydney, and have started emailing a girl from chiang rai who is living in sydney for nearly 6months with her boyfriend, and she has relieved some of my real worries about the problems she would have to overcome if she was to move to oz.
she is the same age as anna 27(and not 20 as has been suggested by some)and ive arranged for them to have a little chat some time this wkend(although "little" is a relative term, and relatively speaking, im relatively feckin sure it wont be a "little chat")
tnx again for the support

crokey,I don't think the intent was to be non-supportive with some of the comments.Some of us the are ''older'' and lived here a relative long time,have seen many young guys get ''bogged down'' in Thailand(lot of older ones too) and we are just trying to give you some awareness to what happens and could happen here!
The fact that you posted your feelings ,suggests that you might be one of us typical falangs that are guided by those feelings!Thais don't express those type of feelings with the same emotional weight and it is very easy to emotionally get far ahead of the Thai girl in that aspect of the relationship.There are some many obstacles to a falang-Thai relationship ,especially in communication,cultural understanding and equal emotional balance!
I personally am rooting for your relationship to be a positve experience in your life.Best wishes!

Hi Colin
I hope things work out for you...........

Chok Dee Hope it works out OK for you both........

Hello Crokey and welcome to the forum. I wish you and Anna all the luck in the world.

Take all advice including mine with a grain of salt. Most of the above posters have wives 2 decades or 3, 4, even 5 decades younger then them. In a lot of these cases the lady is looking for support first and love second. I remind you I said in some of them. Some of them are based on love first and security second.

I do believe that love is an overriding factor in young peoples romance. I am not talking about the bar scene. You ask a question if this romance is possible. The answer is yes. It has just as much chance as any hookup in the world if you work at it. If you don't then it will go to hell in a hand basket. Do long term Thai/Falang marriages work. It is about an even split, same as the rest of the world.

I have been married to a Thai for going on 35 years. Heck when I took her to Texas to my home town she was the oddity. There just was not many Asians around period. We went to Houston to look for an Asian market. They had one Mom and Pop store about 1500SF. If I wanted more I was told to go to Pier One. Pier one is just a place to buy Asian stuff for decorations for your home. You talk about being alone!!!

Well today Houston has one of the larger Asian populations and plenty of Asian Malls. You can buy stuff there that might be hard to find here.

My point in this is, if you find the lady of your dreams and she feels like she has found the man of her dreams, it really doesn't matter weather the romance started for love or love of money. If you both work at it,you will make it. There are two words to remember. One is WE and the other is BOTH. Use those words a lot and you will have a lot better chance than most.

Agian Luck to you BOTH.