Dating in Thailand
Cross-cultural relationships, apps, and social dynamics as a foreigner in Thailand — written with a constraint most writing on this topic ignores.
This section is deliberately narrow, and the reason is worth stating up front.
Dating is the one topic here where writing honestly means writing about other people. Those people never agreed to appear on a website. That rules out most of what makes this genre popular. The anecdotes, the profiles, the specifics all go. What is left is only ever about me.
So there are a few pieces rather than a category. Each one is about a pattern I can own without exposing anyone else.
The editorial rule
Nothing identifying about anyone I've dated will appear here. No names, no descriptions, no stories that a person could recognise themselves in. That isn't caution, it's the same standard I apply everywhere else on this site: my own details are mine to publish, other people's aren't.
What that leaves is narrower than the usual version of this topic, and probably more useful. Patterns rather than people. How cross-cultural dynamics actually work. What a few years of expat dating culture does to someone. None of it requires exposing anyone.
The connection problem- First trip, 2024
China
Three weeks in Sichuan in early 2024. What China is actually like for a foreigner who does not speak Mandarin, which apps you need, and why I came back preferring Thailand.
- Base since 2023
Thailand
Thailand as a base rather than a trip. Why I chose it, what staying actually involves, what it costs, and how the rest of the country compares to the city I live in.
- The base
Chiang Mai Life
What it actually costs, where to live, what the burn season does to the year, and how the day runs. From someone based here rather than passing through.
- The hard part
Building a Life Abroad
Making friends, handling loneliness, and building routines that survive a move. The logistics of living abroad are solvable admin — this is the part that actually breaks people.
- The kit
Tech & Digital Nomad
The gear that travels, how to handle internet and banking before you leave, and the AI tooling that makes a one-person operation work from anywhere.
- It's not the culture, it's youMoving abroad doesn't fix what was already stopping you. How to tell a genuine cultural barrier from a confidence gap that travelled with you.
- The accept-anything phaseAfter something ends badly your standards drop with your self-worth. Why it lasts longer abroad, and what actually fixes it.