I came to Thailand for two weeks. That was two years ago and I am not going back.

I will keep this simple because I am a simple man.

My name is Steve. Retired electrician from Portland, Oregon. 63 years old, bad knees, decent pension, and absolutely no reason to be this happy.

I came to Thailand for a two-week holiday because my youngest son basically forced me to book the trip. He said: "Dad, you have not left the house in six months. Go somewhere." He was right.

I landed in Bangkok, took a bus to a small town outside Kanchanaburi that nobody has ever heard of, and decided I was not going home.

I called my son from a guesthouse and told him to water my plants indefinitely.

I met Joy at a night market about three weeks into my stay.

She was selling handmade jewellery at a small stall, wearing that blue dress she still has, and she waved me over to look at her elephant earrings.

I bought a pair for my daughter back home.

I came back the next night to buy more things I did not need. And the night after that. And the one after that.

On the fourth visit she laughed and said:

"You do not want jewellery. You want to talk."

I had not felt that seen by anyone in years.

She is 28 years old. She teaches traditional Thai dance on weekends. And she has more energy and kindness than anyone I have ever met in my life.

There are 35 years between us.

I stopped explaining that to people a long time ago.

The night her parents officially welcomed me was in the garden of their house, on the outskirts of the village. A long table, food I could not identify but ate without hesitation, and an entire family watching me with curiosity but without hostility.

Her mother served me rice first. In Thailand that means something, though I did not know it at the time. Joy explained it to me on the drive back.

Her father barely spoke during the whole evening. At the end of the night he stood up, walked over to me, and shook my hand for a long time without saying a word.

He did not need to. There were things in that handshake that needed no translation. Thirty years of work. The question of whether this man would look after his daughter. An answer he decided to give me without words.

And somehow I understood everything.

I came to Thailand to disappear for a while.

Instead I found a completely new life.

My knees are still bad. But that does not matter much anymore.