Cultural question

[bixaorellana]

I have a friend in her fifties who recently moved in with her boyfriend, who is over sixty. They are both Americans living in the States.

The boyfriend has a son living in Thailand with a Thai wife. BF has not met his daughter-in-law's parents and is planning on visiting Thailand in late August. He wants my friend, his gf, to accompany him.

She says she does not know the Thai culture and is uncomfortable going there as his girlfriend. I respect her sensitivity in this, but think she should grab the opportunity to visit Thailand. Another friend of ours thinks no, meeting the in-laws & her bf's son as "just the girlfriend" will not come across well.

I know several people here have traveled extensively in Thailand, & I believe some of you have lived there. What is your input, please?

[hwinpp]

It depends a bit on what social circles the son and his GF interact with.
The eldest sister of my Thai GF lives openly with a slightly younger man. She's a widow with two grown children. No stigma. The sisters in the family are all still on their rice farms, the brothers work in banks or have their businesses in the provincial capital.
I'd think the countryside folk are more conservative.
And, as an aside, I wouldn't really care about city folk. Most of them are hypocrites anyway. At least half the men I know in Thailand have minor wives and girlfriends.

[bixaorellana]

Wow, thanks Hwinpp! This is so great to get information from someone truly involved in the Thai culture. I will definitely pass this on to my friend right away.

I had to laugh at the phrase "minor wives and girlfriends". The abode of the mistress is known in Mexico as the "casa chica" -- the little house.

[hwinpp]

What I'd be curious about is what your friend's girlfriend would go as if not the girlfriend? She wouldn't be trying to go as somebody she isn't?