Ok... I thought that title would get a few people's attention :)

Years ago in a resturant in Peru, I sat next to what was obviously a mailorder bride transaction. I listened to this American man ask the woman if she might get fat like her mother... & tell her he didn't like her clothes so don't pack many. Amoung other insulting comments. I ended up in the bathroom alone with this lady & it still haunts me that I didn't say anything...

That was 1 incident in 2 weeks... now I'm seeing similar things but several times a day... & these girls aren't desperate to keep their 7-yr old brother back in the village from starving to death but rather these are cosmopolitan middle-class young women that I can only guess are motivated by greed... I've seen too many 26yr old women in D&G jeans & Prada bags with 50yr white guys not to think otherwise....

And these guys are pretty clueless... one guy told me it was getting time for him to go back to England because, amoung other things, he's utterly insulted they have a word for "non-Thai" or "white person"...I had to ask what he thought the English word "foreigner" meant?!?

Then there are the married men... I overheard a couple at a resturant (what is it with resturants??) where the man kept appologizing because he couldn't do the things this Thai lady wanted to because "his wife would see the atm withdrawls." Maybe it was his bargaining angle...I doubt it... & then there's the guy across the hall in my hotel with a wedding ring on, that myself & this other guest have caught leaving the room with different Thai ladies... now he's embarrased to see us...I raise my eyebrow & stare...& love it!!

Not all the foreign men that come here are after Thai chicks & cheap booze, I have met a few truly nice guys interested in the beaches & even one here for the temples, but from now on, whenever a guy tells me he's going to Thailand, I'll look at him sideways & wonder~