On March 11 I flew up to Chaing Mai from Bangkok on yet another ginormous plane (I was in row 72 and it had nine seats across!).  During the entirety of the two-hour flight I chatted with the girl next to me, Por.  Por is a Thai girl who married a British man when she was 17 years old.  He was 54.  They met online and he basically purchased her as his wife.  She said they chatted online for a few months before he came to Thailand to meet her and her family and make the marriage official.  After they got married, they moved to Dubai for the guy’s job. They lived there for seven years, but eventually moved to Thailand.  She has never been to his home country of England.  They have been married now for nine years and have three children together.  She told me that she is happy, that her decision to marry him was a good one because now she has a better life, and that she loves her children.  She showed me numerous pictures of them on her phone. She is now 26 and her husband is 63.

I’m glad she’s happy with her decision.  She had no reason to lie to me about her feelings; her hubby was not traveling with her.  But personally, I find the whole thing pretty gross.  But who am I to judge?