Finding happiness… But for how long and at what price?
Here’s a few Louis Theroux videos I found on YouTube. They all relate to the so-called mail order brides business, and are largely focussed on Thailand. They’re essential viewing if you’re interested in finding your own bride from Thailand or elsewhere in Asia.
Louis is a UK based documentary film maker best known for his documentaries covering some interesting subjects and people. Read more about Louis here.
The following two videos are quite short but I’ve put them on the site because they’re official BBC YouTubes so they’re far less likely to be taken down.
In this first video from the series Weird Weekends, Louis visits Anglo Thai Introductions. At the time they were the best known marriage agency seeking to match Thai ladies with Western men:
It all feels a bit awkward, and Louis is definitely doing a bit of trolling/baiting of the owner of the agency.
I think things have changed a lot in Thailand. When I lived there I didn’t find it that easy to get dates. Women weren’t exactly throwing themselves as my feet as this documentary kind of suggests. I think that since the documentary was first aired, the number of foreigners living in or visiting Thailand has exploded. And dare I say it but internet dating sites are making women (and maybe men) way more picky.
Here’s another video. This time Louis meets a guy who has a Thai bride:
This guy seems pretty sensible, at least on choosing a Thai bride who is clearly in the right age range for him. It would be nice to fast forward to today and hear how their marriage turned out.
So was the guy too quick to commit? He actually speaks a lot of truth:
if you see a bargain, do you let it get away?
For what it’s worth, the two Asian ladies I liked (but never went on to marry for various reasons) both subsequently went on to get married to other guys. I’ve kept in touch with one of the ladies and she is now living in the USA with her American husband. They’ve now had a baby as well.
So if you see somebody you like, then don’t hang around! If you see somebody on a dating site, set up a date ASAP. Don’t spend months talking to a lady online – book a flight and go see her. It’s especially important if you’re chatting to Thai ladies. So many Westerners visit Thailand these days that good ladies get snapped up very quickly indeed. With Chinese or Filipino ladies you have more time. But not with Thai ladies.
I guess we’ll give the last word on that to Beyonce:
Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it. If you liked it then you should’ve put a ring on it.
Here’s the whole video (1hr 47mins):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLssF25BJcU
Enjoy 🙂
This TV show was originally aired in the UK in October 2000. It’s quite scary to see how dated it looks, I mean it just feels like yesterday that we were worried about the millennium bug and looking forward to the 2000 Olympic Games.
I guess the main difference between then and now is that so much more of the dating industry has moved online. Introduction agencies still exist, but dating sites (and subsequently dating apps) have become hugely popular.
It could be a good thing, or maybe not. I used an Asian marriage agency for a while. It didn’t cost much more than a dating site. But the great thing about the marriage agency is that the ladies were individually screened. So you were 100% sure that the person you were communicating with was an actual unmarried Asian lady, and not a Nigerian fraudster or worse.
So by all means go it alone, but remember that introduction agencies are there to help.
If you have any comments about the videos, then post your thoughts below! Also let me know if any of the videos get taken down, and I’ll try and find replacements you can watch.
