Whenever Thais hear that I rent a house, they ask, “Why not buy house?”
“Farangs can’t own a house in Thailand.” I explain since they would never believe that a farang doesn’t have the cash to purchase a house.
“You can have wife buy house.” They suggest with feinted innocence.
“Good idea.” I leave it at that rather than relate countless unhappy endings to such a hopeful beginnings. The story is the same. man meet woman. Man fall in love. Man buy house. Woman have Thai brother take care house. Western man get thrown out of house.
It’s a tale told so often that you’d think it would never happen again, however there’s a sucker born every minute as evidenced by the 61 year-old Brit who sunk his life savings into an upcountry house.
17 million baht.
4 million gets you a two-bedroom condo in Pattaya, however the teabag probably thought here was too expensive for his pension, so he plopped down his nest egg in Ban Nok. His wife’s family thought she had struck gold until hearing that he expected them to live on his monthly remittance.
20 K a month wouldn’t pay her karaoke boy’s bar bill and she tossed out her husband without a satang.
Police said the house was hers. Papers were signed in her name. He had no recourse other than to cry into his beer as his friends say, “I told you so.”
This story was first told in 1967 and something tells me it will be retold in 2067.
ps the word for sucker in Thai is moo-sa-nam or pig stuck in water.
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