The day of the marriage arrived. It had all been arranged by Noi and Som, her sister. I drove Noi and Som to the small town near to where their father lived. First, we all three of us ate breakfast then the girls left me in the restaurant. They walked around the corner to the store that sold silk wedding dresses then the beauty salon.  I had about two hours to kill. That was made easier by the presence of a bunch of bikers in the restaurant.

Thanks to China’s rapid economic growth, the culture shock you are likely to experience in China's cities is much more subtle than in rural areas.

Yet again, my eyes cast down. I felt to be an awful clown, living in a land where there was now no purpose to be. Because of she. The woman I loved. Great God above. What was I to do? Staring disconsolately at the floor however gave me no answers. Life was never this simple, but rather, an intricate architecture of highs and lows, taunts and teases, tragedy and triumph.

As I was saying in the last instalment, one more important aspect of Asian wedding traditions, or in Thailand in any event, is sin sod. Noi had quietly mentioned the subject of sin sod to me before our village wedding. I decided to play dumb and pretend I had never heard of it before. I had. It was a topic I came across while researching the different Asian cultures. I feigned ignorance because I wanted to know what Noi had to say about it.

If I let you into a little secret, John has mentioned, on a couple of occasions, that recent blogs have had little to do with online dating. Let's fix that, shall we?

Nothing—not sex, not politics, not money issues—is more important to a relationship/marriage than communication. You might read somewhere that money issues are the single biggest reason for divorce, but dig down and you will find that it was not the money that caused the breakup but the inability to communicate about finances—and often anything else for that matter.

When it comes to Romance Scams on Online Dating Sites performed by third party internet scammers, or even organizations of third party internet scammers, the FBI seems to be all over it. As owner/operator of one of the very few dating sites that tries relentlessly to keep online scammers at bay, of course I am happy that the FBI is taking an interest in this at all.

On the surface, life in China seems to throw up very few 'social issues' when compared to life in the West. You don't see graffiti; no hooligans pissing up the side of cars at closing-time; no-one throwing rocks through plate-glass windows just because they are drunk and think it's a good idea; few people get attacked because of their race, colour or creed; and there is no cancerous PC.

This series unapologetically delves into the depths of the traumatic breakup with my former partner Lily and its immediate aftermath, including what happened in the fraught days and weeks following the separation. Writing it is providing a much needed catharsis, releasing me from many negative emotions associated with the galling break up.

We wandered around to the night market once more in Chiang Mai. A good excuse to drink another couple of Guinness. After all, I am a creature of habit. It had been a satisfying day. I could now look forward to collecting the D Max in two days’ time.