WHEN I met Ms Bui Thi Tuoi, I thought the 21 year old was rather bright and attractive.
The beer promoter comes from a middle class family where dad is a businessman and her elder brother is a dentist.
Given her respectable credentials, you would think Ms Bui would have no problem finding love and romance in Vietnam.
So it came as a surprise to me during the course of the interview that she is among the hordes of Vietnamese farm girls hunting for a Singapore husband.
The men they are likely to marry are often virtual strangers old enough to be their fathers. And they are not usually not Prince Charming material.
Like others before her, Ms Bui admitted to buying into the whole 'Singaporean men make good husbands' line of reasoning.
A friend of hers who wed a local guy had told her that Singaporean men were 'good' and life here was 'good'.
What about love though? Isn’t love important in a marriage?
In reply, all Ms Bui and two other women at the Vietnam Brides International Matchmaker’s office at Orchard Plaza just smiled. 'All I ask,' said Ms Bui, 'is that he treats me well.'
It didn’t seem to bother them that their matchmaker, Mr Mark Lin, is trying to get them hitched by slashing his match-making fees by half to $4,000. That sum includes the cost of travelling here, accomodation, food and Mr Lin’s fees.
Business, apparently, has dried up in the wake of the financial crisis, said Mr Lin, hence the 'special promotion'.
But will these unions last?
Apparently so.
Only about one in 10 of the marriages he has arranged ended in a divorce.
The question is: Will the couple find happiness?
For a $4,000 price tag, it's understandable why they'd pay to find out.
Read Theresa Tan's full report on foreign brides in The Straits Times here.