 an alternative to the kind of de feminized over sized self centered mercenary minded lady available on the british singles scene glad to see american culture is making it s way into the british bars too god bless us uncivilized bastards every one still definately something not right about the below people are now cheaper then a decent laptop ok so we knew that already selling wedded bliss big business in thailand thu aug NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER am et by andrew marshall bangkok thailand reuters english dentist ken moylan came to thailand looking for a wife it took two hours to find her the first day i went out with wan she came back to my hotel and hung all my clothes up and tidied the room i thought it was marvelous he said i knew then there was something special moylan NUMBER is one of thousands of men who use introduction agencies to meet and marry thai women he lives in england now with NUMBER year old wan who is expecting their first child critics of marriage agencies say they exploit the grinding poverty of women in developing countries offering dreams of a new life in the west that often turn sour but moylan says he has no regrets about coming to thailand in search of a wife i got to thailand at NUMBER p m and by NUMBER p m i d met wan he said i knew i found her attractive i could tell straight away that she was very caring moylan spent a week in thailand and after returning to england kept in touch with wan by phone and mail six months later she came to england and the couple married mr marriage lawrence lynch NUMBER runs thai professional introduction services the agency moylan used to meet his wife lynch who calls himself mr marriage started the company after also marrying a thai woman through an introduction agency since then he has helped set up hundreds of marriages in the last five years we ve done about NUMBER he said to the best of my knowledge they have all been successful male clients pay NUMBER NUMBER for the service although men from countries that require them to handle some of the visa work on their own get a discount clients then get to view catalogs and videos of hundreds of thai women looking for a husband if they like what they see they come to bangkok clients are introduced to several women in chaperoned meetings in lynch s office encounters that can often be awkward given mutual shyness and language problems we find that the gentlemen are usually just as nervous as the ladies lynch said but once they start meeting the ladies they soon relax after the first meeting couples can decide to go on dates to get to know each other better within two weeks of arrival lynch says almost every client has found a potential wife at the end of a fortnight it s very very rare for a guy to go back and think he hasn t made his mind up he said in most cases marriage follows usually within the next year roongthip kamchat managing director of thai no NUMBER connections a bangkok based agency says she has introduced about NUMBER NUMBER couples and less than NUMBER percent have broken up roongthip says she sometimes has a difficult time calming men who have just arrived in bangkok looking for a wife sometimes they are very nervous she said and sometimes they are very impatient and say give me a lady i want to get married now i say calm down ok we ll talk but if men are really in a hurry roongthip says she can find them a wife and get them married within a week lynch says clients he has found wives for include a blind man a man with one leg and a man with post traumatic stress disorder why similar marriage agencies can be found in many developing countries critics say they thrive on the neediness of lonely western men who are unable to form relationships in their own country and on the desperation of impoverished women who believe they can find a better life in the west but moylan says that if the arrangement makes both partners happy there is no reason to object if you talk about people who are needy i think everybody wants someone to love them and wants someone to love so yes i need wan he said thai women are dissatisfied with life in thailand i think there s no secret there they are looking for a better life i don t have a problem with that in return they are willing to give a lot of love and care to their future husband lynch says men are dissatisfied with western women too and that is why they choose to use his agency his brochure promises an alternative to the kind of de feminized over sized self centered mercenary minded lady available on the british singles scene and says he can make dreams come true even for men who are not god s gift to women roongthip said many western men found it difficult to meet women in their own countries and found thai women attractive they don t know how to meet women even if they go to pubs or discotheques or restaurants or department stores how can they ask people to marry them impossible she said many thai girls are slim have long hair black eyes small nose they are good at taking care and joking and laughing not strict different from ladies from other countries although many couples married through agencies have a considerable age gap the agencies say this is not a problem they say language problems are also not a major obstacle thai ladies are not ageist and they have no qualms whatsoever about having a husband who is significantly older lynch said when i met my wife she couldn t speak a word of english we muddled along with a phonetic dictionary the ladies are very keen to learn english and they pick it up very quickly many agencies also offer tuition for woman on what to expect when they move to the west we have kitchens we have study classes roongthip said we teach them how to eat and when to make tea pitfalls but not all dreams come true bee is a NUMBER year old thai woman who went to switzerland two years ago with a man she met through an agency now she is back in bangkok sad and angry he had no friends and i was so lonely she said i tried to make him happy but he just wanted sex and somebody to keep his house clean he never spoke to me bee came back to bangkok earlier this year i thought i would be happy there she said but it was the worst time of my life lynch says that while some agencies are badly run he makes checks to ensure unsuitable candidates are weeded out we are ethical and professional he said we will not take on all comers moylan says that despite possible pitfalls his own marriage is proof the arrangement can work wan s sister has just signed up with lynch s company looking for a foreign husband perhaps there are cases of women being exploited i m sure there are moylan said but in the majority of cases the women get a good deal 