X-factor

Forget about Simon C, who couldn't find his backside if someone shoved a carrot up it, the real place to look for talent is in waters around Thailand. As I mentioned earlier we spent a day snorkeling around Koh Lipe and had a great time. With us on the boat that day was a couple from Holland and a girl from Bangkok, who said that we could call her X. That same night we shared dinner with X and despite communication issues had a good evening. We exchanged emails and were surprised when X said that we could stay with her brother in Chang Mai.

After a day or 2 in Bangkok I checked my mails and found that I had received 1 from X, giving me all of her brothers details and asking if she could meet us for dinner. We were slightly cautious , remembering the warnings we'd read (everywhere) about friendly locals scamming tourists into paying for expensive dinners and worse, but decided to go with our gut. X seemed like a genuine person so we arranged fro her to meet us at our guesthouse. At 6pm we sat down outside and a few minutes later she arrived. She told us that we were going to a restaurant and we followed her to her car. After presenting us with gifts she zoomed off into the city and came to a stop a while later at a place near the river. We had a wonderful evening with X doing all the ordering and talking us through all the food. What impressed me the most was that she ordered me a bottomless Tiger Beer and a waiter to diligently monitor the volume in my glass.

The meal drew to a close and when the bill arrived X refused to let us pay for a thing, saying that she was going to charge it to her company entertainment allowance. I walked back to her car in a state of shocked inebriation and to round off the evening she took us on a drive through the city. We asked why she had been so generous and she replied simply that she 'liked our style' and was impressed that we had made an effort with someone whose English was poor.

My moral of the story: Put up with the self-concerned idiots you meet because when you come across someone with a heart of gold they will seem even more special.