I used to travel a bunch around Asia a bunch for work, a observations
In the Philippines, it's completely normal for a family to try and marry a daughter off to anyone with money to advance the family status. Thailand was pretty much the same as the Philippines, but the women were hotter ( or were they really lady boys ? ). In Thailand it was common to see grey haired white guys with young hotties. I got hit on more in Indonesia than any other country being a semi grey haired middle aged guy.
I really liked the people in Thailand and Philippines, they are generally super nice but both countries are very poor by western standards. Anything from Russia would be way more scary, that's a different culture. No one I know has done the mail order bride thing, doesn't make much sense to me since you could fly over and meet all the girls you want in places that are not meat markets.
