Tandy girl - you are my world

So there I was, in a bar on my first night in Hanoi. I was still shattered from the 31-hour journey and was quite happy sitting alone watching the world go by.

I had almost finished my beer and was contemplating going in search of something to eat, when a woman with long blonde hair walked in and sat opposite me. She was carrying a huge day-sack and was more glam than your average backpacker.

She experienced some language problems when she tried to order a drink. As I looked over, she gave me a beaming smile. I decided to order another beer. A few minutes later, we made eye contact again.

I wanted to go and sit with her. But I didn't want it to look as if I was on the pull (although I obviously was/am). A few minutes later, she came over and asked if she could join me. As I can't remember a woman ever having done this before, I was hardly going to say no.

Tandy was a 36-year-old from Adelaide, who was travelling around Thailand and Vietnam on her own. She was heading in the same direction as me, although she had slightly more time. We had a really interesting conversation that went beyond the usual travellers' gambits of 'where are you from/where are you going/where have you been?'. Two hours had soon passed, but to my disappointment, at 22.00 on the dot, she said she was going to bed (as most Antipodean girls seem to). We never swapped email addresses, but I was fairly confident that we would catch up with each other again.

Over the next couple of days, I found myself thinking about Tandy quite regularly (and I don't mean the eletrical retailer). Although not particularly my type, and there hadn't been the chemistry I'd had with the Doctor (see 23/9/08), for example, she was a really nice person. And unlike almost every single thitysomething I encounter, she had no obvious flaws (she was attractive, intelligent, fun, successful and had no baggage).

A week later, I had moved on to Hue. I was pretty sure that Tandy had arrived in town the previous evening, and as there were only two bars in town that travellers frequented, I was confident that I would bump into her. So I had a shave and put on the least-creased shirt in my duffle bag.

I walked into the first bar and there was a hot-looking (in every sense - the humidity here is unbearable) woman sitting by the pool table. I thought it was Tandy, but she looked so different, I couldn't be sure. As I went to walk out, she called my name.

We sat down and the conversation flowed as freely as the beers. Tandy looked absolutely stunning. We were joined briefly by a couple of Kiwi girls who I had been spending time with (and whose ears I had been bending about Tandy) and they agreed that she was lovely. They left us to it. By 22.00, we were both quite tiddly, and decided to head for some food. We found a restaurant where the only free table had chairs side by side, so we rearranged the furniture so that we could sit opposite each other.

Although there was no overt flirting, there was a little bit of 'accidental' touching. A waitress came over and asked if we were married. We put her straight, but she kept on about what a lovley couple we would make. Although it sounds a cringeworthy situation, it didn't embarrass either of us.

We walked home very closely. When we reached her hotel, I leaned forward to give Tandy a peck in the 'corridor of uncertainty' (about an inch from the corner of her mouth) and she swivelled her head and puckered up, so that our lips met. Perhaps I should have pushed it, but ever the gentleman, I knew that we potentially had another five days together. I walked back to my hotel very happy with the world.