Those infamous words from The Eagles' song 'Hotel California' -

My best mate, of more than 20 years, moved to Australia about 9 years ago. He and his wife have just returned from their first trip abroad. Their desination - Bali.

It started to rain as I set off from the house in Kanchanaburi. The D Max fully loaded with our belongings. The rain was steady enough to make me switch on the windshield wipers. The first time I had done so. You have all experienced what happened next. The view through the windshield became completely obscured. The wiper blade needed replacing. It had moved the dust and crap alright, but had just smeared the whole screen. As luck would have it, an Isuzu dealership lay within easy reach.

I guess that some cross cultural issues are the same no matter where you are in the world. How many weddings take place every week throughout the globe? I have no idea but it’s safe to say there are many. The scene I was now part of was not unique. Many a bride or groom (or both) have been ready to retire to the privacy of their nuptial bed following the day’s ceremony and festivities. Yet, on this occasion it was me that was ready to call it a day. I had drunk a fair amount of beer and Thai whisky during the day but wasn’t drunk. I didn’t intend to get drunk now that we had returned to the resort hotel.

Who was the lucky guy who was going to marry this stunning looking woman? It was me, Ryan Hendry! Boy, I was so in love. I had never seen Noi looking as beautiful. The waiting around had been worthwhile just to see her walk out, hold my hand and take our seats at the ‘VIP’ table. There must have been a hundred people or so crammed into Noi’s father’s yard at the family home. Now all I could do was wait some more to see how the Asian wedding traditions would unfold.

We recently received a message from a fairly new member thanking us for introducing Security Photos to him. Of course, Security Photos have an important role to play on legitimate dating sites, but they should not be relied on too much. In some situations they provide a great deal of security, but in others they provide none.

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.