Posted on 12/23/2006 5:15:33 PM PST by Dallas59
BANGKOK (AFP) - "I could not find anybody in the States. There was nothing in America for me. That's why I'm here," says the clean-cut 52-year-old bachelor, who bears a passing resemblance to Hollywood actor Michael Douglas.
Sullivan, an emergency nurse from Florida, is one of a growing number of foreign men seeking young and beautiful Thai brides via the Internet.
Speaking at the Bangkok office of Sweet Singles, a Thai bride-by-Internet company, Sullivan says he has decided to "go beyond boundaries" in his search for a wife after a futile quest in the United States.
"American women in my age are, basically, a wreck. They are physically and emotionally beaten up from relationships and life. They are untrusting," says the well-built Sullivan, sporting a pink shirt and white pants.
"I think the feminist movement in America in the 60s really trashed American feminism. American women lack a certain femininity about them that women of other countries have," he laughs.
Sullivan contacted Sweet Singles six months ago and was introduced to Yoshita Tongsalee, an attractive 27-year-old teacher of traditional Thai dancing.
After corresponding with her via e-mails for three weeks, Sullivan decided to meet her and flew to Bangkok in early December.
"Just from e-mails, I knew she was the one. I just knew," says the American, his emerald earring dazzling.
"I find Thai women in general to be less self-centered and more family-centered than I find in western women," he says. The couple plans to marry next year.
John, a 43-year-old Briton who got married to a Thai woman four years ago via an Internet bride agency, also has grievances about western women.
"English women are very demanding and they expect you to be good-looking and have plenty of money and give them lots of attention. They drink a lot and they smoke a lot and they eat a lot," says John, who declined to give his last name.
"I am not very good at getting women anyway. I'm not the best-looking guy in the world. I'm quite short and it's very hard for me to find an English woman who is shorter than me," he says on the telephone from London.
Before marrying his Thai bride, John dated six British women, but his relationships with them were anything but happy.
"I'm just fed up with British women. They are not so loyal," he says.
When he met six Thai ladies in Bangkok via the Internet, including a 32-year-old business woman who later became his wife, John says he was struck by their kindness and family-centered values.
"I think Thai women are more loyal to their husbands. They are not just 'take, take take.' Also they have old-fashioned family values, which we used to have in this country," he says. John and his wife now have two young boys.
John and Marc declined to say how much they paid to get their Thai wives. Sweet Singles says it can charge a foreign man up to 1,700 dollars for a three-year membership to meet Thai ladies.
Some 10,000 foreign men have signed up with Sweet Singles over the last decade, and nearly half of them were previously divorced, says Bee, the company's customer service manager.
Some 80 percent of them get married to Thai women through the agency.
Americans account for 60 percent of the company's male clients, with the rest mostly from Australia, Britain, Germany and Scandinavian countries. Their average age ranges from 55 to 60.
Some 20,000 Thai women have also joined Sweet Singles, with their ages ranging from 20 to 40. The company charges a Thai woman 700 baht (20 dollars) for membership.
Bee, a petite 40-something, says Thai woman often have a favorable impression of foreigners.
"Many Thai girls were disappointed by Thai men who are famous for womanizing, drinking and gambling. Thai woman believe Caucasian men are more responsible and sincere and not playing around with other women," she says.
Thanitchaya Buaban, a striking 26-year-old beauty from Thailand's northern tourist spot of Chiang Mai, says she used to have a Thai boyfriend but he cheated on her many times.
"I was heart-broken. After I joined Sweet Singles, I started meeting foreigners and they were very kind and polite," she says at the firm's office.
Thanitchaya says she now has many American suitors who are trying to win her love with diamond rings and necklaces.
"I'm going to choose the best one," she says with a big smile.
For Sullivan's fiancee Yoshita, her experiences with Thai men were more traumatic.
"I was planning to marry my first Thai boyfriend, but he did not show up on our wedding day. He embarrassed me and my family," Yoshita says. "My second boyfriend cheated on me and impregnated another woman."
But Yoshita, who wears a golden heart necklace, says she is looking forward to living in Florida with the man of her dreams -- even if she still refers to him by his last name.
"I believe Mr Sullivan is a gift from God. He is really a good man and respects me. Every day I pray and thank Buddha for giving me Mr Sullivan," she says.
Sullivan nodded and held her hand.
"I have to step outside my own culture to find someone with whom I am compatible. I am not narrow-minded in that regard," he smiles.
Exactly what I had in mind, having seen my mother do it. But of course, it's a dying skill not worth the trouble most of the time except as a proof of dedication to... dying skills, which in a grand scale of things is worth more, as you said, than a law degree and certainly ma lot more than Monica Lewinsky's masters degree in something called "social psychology" applauded here a day or two ago..
Remember in a few years she will say, "I want half!" even if you found her naked on a zebra.
Amazing, you figured that out and you haven't even met me.
Congrats.
I'm thinking about a trip to Hanoi in Mar/April, depending on work. I have a new job, but may be getting another overseas soon. Just need the time off.
I like to use BKK as a base, its such a fun place for a few days. I love to go to the muslim area on Sukhumvit 6 and grab a chicken shawerma off the grill.
I really love Phuket and Krabi and Koh Samui. More Phuket and Krabi, the waters there are great for liveaboard diving. I was there 3 weeks before the tsunami and went back 2 months afterwards.
Its such a wonderful country, as is Laos and Cambodia and Vietnam. I'd love to live there.
Didn't read my response, did you? I know most of the needle arts, so, as I said, I COULD darn socks if need be.
In the US, homosexual men are no longer the group with the fastest rate of new infection, but women of child-bearing age. Just one more reason to worry about our daughters.
Get a couple kids. You'll spend enough time in an ER to know entirely too much about emergency medicine and its practitioners...
A personal experience??
Cammie...I just Googled "Cogadh na Sith" and it means "Toes So Foul."
Of COURSE he would need someone to mend his socks!
However, I would NEVER work on that bacteria-laden thread!
Your plan seems far more reasonable.
No he doesn't. If he was a perv, he would just visit Thailand and partake of the sex trade.
He might be an unattracted, not wealthy, no social skills dude. He is trying to find someone.
This is what I do with that big salary people have been commenting on I was bragging about earlier.
There, fixed it.
Hahaha! One of those fat leftist female therapists with the dog-chewed-on-it haircut!
It's a nice Christmas present!
Oh, well: I'm going back to wrapping presents. Have a Merry Christmas and I hope you get all the things you want this season (sincerely, not snarky)....
Post something you know something about, otherwise, cease replying to posts.
Nope...my men would never be wimps.
Ever get to Larry's Dive bar on Soi 22? Very touristy, but its a scuba shop and a bar.
Way too expensive to drink in though.
I prefer the tiny little places with the bug carts outside. Some bugs taste pretty good.
I buy cheap socks and throw them away when they wear out, but that is not what I notice the guys who most impress women do paying more for a pair than what I pay for a six-pack. I am ashamed of my socks (I think.) (A good candidate sentence for a tagline.) I do think that Western women judge men by the quality of their socks (among other superficial things.)
Art Bell has interesting shows most likely because his life is so screwed up.
You're so nasty, baby....
Just stating is bragging? Jeez, I didn't get the memo.
But Cogadh na Sith wasn't bragging when he talked about his salary?
Right, got it. Women shouldn't mention these things, even if a man brings up the issue. But OK if a man does.
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