Love Around the World 02: Bangkok

At the reception, a mixture of Thai and Western traditions, it was rather formal to start with as we had a sit-down meal with the usual speeches. It was while I was speaking that I offered my hand to Chariya, helping her to her feet as she leaned back against me. Our right hands moved down to rest on her stomach.

"Not only is Chariya now my wife as much as I'm her husband, but I'm delighted to announce that we learned three months ago that she is currently carrying our first child," I announced.

Lawan almost fainted in her chair. Mum took the handkerchief from my father's breast pocket as she needed to dry her eyes. As for Chariya, she turned to face me, the smile on her face not fading for a second before we shared a long kiss.

"Now we're a family," she whispered, "I can't wait until we have some children filling our home."

I had a feeling we were going to end up with quite a large family.

*****

Epilogue

Our honeymoon was two weeks in Australia, landing in Sydney and spending time there with friends before we headed north. Chariya absolutely loved my homeland, but I knew I could never ask her to move there permanently. She was close to her family, and I didn't want to leave anyway. I'd made my life and home in Thailand with no intention of ever returning to Australia.

Instead, my parents mentioned that they were now closing in on retirement, and given that Sydney was so expensive, were tempted to pack it all in and join me in Thailand. Chariya heard about all of this and did her best to convince my parents to join us.

My parents did move to Thailand five years after we married, moving to within a reasonable distance of where we called home, and just like Chariya's parents, they loved babysitting their grandchildren once they started to arrive and were old enough that we were comfortable letting them go.

Chariya wanted a large family, and I couldn't say no to my wife. She sold me the idea by suggesting it also meant that I'd get to have lots of sex with my wife. Not that she ever said no as her libido matched mine perfectly. Even when she was pregnant, and I knew she wasn't feeling that great about herself, I'd worship that beautiful body of hers, make her smile, assure her that she was my beautiful wife,

We eventually had five children in total. Our first two were daughters and we agreed that, given they would be raised in Thailand, we'd give them names that would be considered traditionally Thai for females. Our two daughters were followed by our only son, giving him a Thai first name and an English middle name, and our last two daughters ended up being twins.

Then Chariya kindly suggested that perhaps I was a little too potent and should get the snip.

To say we're still stupidly in love with each other isn't an understatement. Every day with my wife is a good day, and to say she's still head over heels for her husband is still proven on most nights. We've slowed down slightly now that I'm approaching fifty and we're raising a young family, but she still gets my motor running without a problem, and everyone who knows us is more than aware that I'd sacrifice everything for her and our kids.

I'd arrived in Bangkok single, lonely and wondering what life would throw at me next. Now I was happily married, had a family to love, numerous friends and a life I wouldn't trade for anything.

Maybe I should call the ex-wife and thank her!