Valentine’s Day is no D-Day

PHUKET: Hundreds of couples are lining up to marry in Phuket on Valentine’s Day and the message for couples who want to divorce on February 14 is: Please don’t. “I don’t want any couple divorcing on that day because it’s a day of love and happiness,” Sirinee Leelanont, Chief Registrar at the Thalang District Office, told the Gazette. Last year one stubborn couple insisted on untying the knot on the most romantic date on the calendar. “Officers tried to persuade them to divorce on some other day but they insisted,” K. Sirinee said. Any couple who refuse to take “No” for an answer this year will be vastly outnumbered. K. Sirinee expects 70 couples to marry in Thalang on Thursday, while Palad Siriphan Maneesri, of Muang District Office, believes up to 150 couples could wed there and Nittaya Chayaapichart, a registrar at Kathu District Office, is expecting about 38 couples. It pays to get married on Valentine’s Day. Couples who wed at district offices will each get a surprise gift and some lucky couples will win restaurant discount vouchers.