Back from Japan/South Korea/China/Thailand/Cambodia

[BostonGeorge]

Greetings friends,

I have not posted in a long time but I do lurk occasionally and I am glad to see this board is gaining in popularly as I think the people here do a great job in educating the rest of us on the topics of our mutual interest. I recently returned from a great Asian tour where I spent time in Japan/South Korea/China/Thailand/Cambodia. I had been planning the trip for a while, initially planed on meeting a woman that I had met online. I decided before leaving not to meet because I was not set up well enough to begin the process (thank you financial crisis). I ended up doing some volunteer work in China and did mainly tourist stuff in the rest of the countries. That being the case I will make this a short trip report as most people are interested in the female component of these reports. It was a good opportunity to do some scouting on the countries that I eventually hope to find a spouse in. I will save the observations for now but if any of you have general questions on traveling in these countries, let me know and I will answer them as best I can.

Cheers!

George

[Capstone]

Hi George,

It certainly sounds as though you had a wonderful trip. It's great that you had the opportunity to visit that many countries all on the same trip. Please provide us with some more details of your trip if you do not mind. Even though you did not go to meet a woman, I am sure that some of us may find the information and experiences that you obtained from your trip to me very informative. Thanks for sharing.

[Dave H]

Hi George,

Welcome back! It sounds like you had quite a trip!

Dave

[william3rd]

What parts of thailand did you visit?

[BostonGeorge]

Capstone-

Well I will share some brief observations on meeting women in each country.

Japan- sophisticated, intelligent and hard working women here. It is the Asian country that is most similar to the west. Tokyo is clean, almost crime free and has a great public transportation system. It seems to be a pretty male dominated society where the women a treated as second class citizens in many regards. One might assume that would translate to a good number of Japanese women seeking foreign husbands but I did not see that to be the case. I got a sense that if you did hook up with a Japanese woman you would be very lucky because they are beautiful, loyal and would treat you well, but they are not out looking en-mass like woman from other the countries. Their English proficiency is also very basic.

South Korea- could not see any reason to pursue meeting women from South Korea. They are often highly religions (no judgments here, just not my thing) and tend to be somewhat xenophobic when it comes to dating. I also did not find them to be very attractive. The quality of spoken English here was marginal. As a country it was a great place to visit, rugged mountains in the capital city Seoul made for interesting day trips and I found the people to be warm and friendly. South Korea seems to me to be a country that is on the right track politically and economically.

China- my least favorite, spent most of my time in Beijing. It was crowded, unbelievably polluted and the food was awful. People would stare at me on the street as if they had never seen a white person before (even though they just hosted the Olympics). Beyond the word "hello" not many people speak English. Government surveillance was an unwelcome annoyance and one got the feeling that they could disappear here very easily. Pretty good options for meeting women though as many are looking to improve their lot in life and I suspect they would take pretty good care of a man Family is very important to them and I did meet some very nice individuals. Overall I did not like the culture and would not recommend a trip here. (prices are very reasonable though).

Thailand- The best. Great weather, friendly people, beautiful women (with better then average English skills) A country that understands how to do tourism. Overall the best for meeting marriage minded women, I would guess it second only to the Phills because of their language skills. For all of the bad press it has received lately, I would still recommend it to anyone.

Cambodia- Interesting place, doing better then it has been for years. I found the people in the cities to be pretty friendly but the country itself is mainly rural and undeveloped. I didn't find the women to be that attractive and that interested in foreign men. Also not allot of people have computers so I suspect meeting and communicating would be an issue.
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William 3rd- I was mainly in Koh Chang this trip, beautiful place. Don't you have a house in Thailand somewhere?

[Jeff S]

Interesting observations, George. Thanks for posting your experiences.

My impressions of China are totally opposite of yours - but I've never hung out in Beijing much, have always been shown a great time by locals. And the food was fantastic. Maybe one of the advantages of traveling on business as opposed to as a tourist.

Japanese women wield a lot more power than the facade the Japanese customs dictate, but roles are far more clearly defined than in the US, for sure. Isn't that why we go abroad anyway? Japanese women display a shyness in public, so it's no surprise that many men feel like they're difficult to get to know. I'd wager there are probably as many or more Japanese/American mixed marriages than from any other Asian country, though. I go to a lot of Asian events, and at the Japanese ones, probably 15-20% of the couples are mixed - from 18 to 80 years old. You NEVER see that at Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, or Thai events. I haven't been to any Filipino, so don't have an opinion about that either way.

[Capstone]

Thanks for giving us your impressions George, I enjoyed reading them. Like Jeff mentioned, I was a bit suprised that you thought the food in Beijing was awful though - but we all have a different set of taste buds, that's for sure. Every city in the world has both good and bad restaraunts, maybe you were just unlucky on the ones where you ate. Thanks again for the report.

[william3rd]

Capstone-

Well I will share some brief observations on meeting women in each country.

Japan- sophisticated, intelligent and hard working women here. It is the Asian country that is most similar to the west. Tokyo is clean, almost crime free and has a great public transportation system. It seems to be a pretty male dominated society where the women a treated as second class citizens in many regards. One might assume that would translate to a good number of Japanese women seeking foreign husbands but I did not see that to be the case. I got a sense that if you did hook up with a Japanese woman you would be very lucky because they are beautiful, loyal and would treat you well, but they are not out looking en-mass like woman from other the countries. Their English proficiency is also very basic.

South Korea- could not see any reason to pursue meeting women from South Korea. They are often highly religions (no judgments here, just not my thing) and tend to be somewhat xenophobic when it comes to dating. I also did not find them to be very attractive. The quality of spoken English here was marginal. As a country it was a great place to visit, rugged mountains in the capital city Seoul made for interesting day trips and I found the people to be warm and friendly. South Korea seems to me to be a country that is on the right track politically and economically.

China- my least favorite, spent most of my time in Beijing. It was crowded, unbelievably polluted and the food was awful. People would stare at me on the street as if they had never seen a white person before (even though they just hosted the Olympics). Beyond the word "hello" not many people speak English. Government surveillance was an unwelcome annoyance and one got the feeling that they could disappear here very easily. Pretty good options for meeting women though as many are looking to improve their lot in life and I suspect they would take pretty good care of a man Family is very important to them and I did meet some very nice individuals. Overall I did not like the culture and would not recommend a trip here. (prices are very reasonable though).

Thailand- The best. Great weather, friendly people, beautiful women (with better then average English skills) A country that understands how to do tourism. Overall the best for meeting marriage minded women, I would guess it second only to the Phills because of their language skills. For all of the bad press it has received lately, I would still recommend it to anyone.

Cambodia- Interesting place, doing better then it has been for years. I found the people in the cities to be pretty friendly but the country itself is mainly rural and undeveloped. I didn't find the women to be that attractive and that interested in foreign men. Also not allot of people have computers so I suspect meeting and communicating would be an issue.
__________________________________________________________________________ _______________________

William 3rd- I was mainly in Koh Chang this trip, beautiful place. Don't you have a house in Thailand somewhere?

Udonthani. . .  In baanchonrada near the Loei and Ring Road Highways

[Marshall K]

I've never thought much of capital cities in the third world, and even though China is not the third world exactly, I haven't had much desire to spend time in Beijing.  Too bad you didn't get out of Beijing.  I have found most smaller cities to be friendly, and the food incredible.  It helps to have a Chinese wife to steer you from the pitfalls that abound for foreigners.
I agree that Thailand is great.  They really are more set up for tourists, and travel there is a breeze.  I would have to say that it also has a much higher percentage of beautiful women.
However, I really love the Chinese women (duh).  They are loyal, strong, resilient, and have endless energy.  They will defend and protect their families like a mother tiger.
 

[Bob_S]

I was a bit suprised that you thought the food in Beijing was awful though - but we all have a different set of taste buds, that's for sure.

I'll second that.  Growing up in America, my idea of Chinese food is Panda Express, so the more authentic cuisine of Beijing (at locations chosen by the Japanese Travel Bureau) was pleasant enough.  But my missus, who grew up on real Japanese food (organically grown in her mom's garden at that), found it excessively oily.

I'd wager there are probably as many or more Japanese/American mixed marriages than from any other Asian country, though. I go to a lot of Asian events, and at the Japanese ones, probably 15-20% of the couples are mixed - from 18 to 80 years old. You NEVER see that at Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, or Thai events.

Somewhere buried in the archives, I posted a link to some statistics, but basically you are correct.  Among all Asian-American ethnic groups, Japanese-Americans are most likely to marry outside their ethnic group.