EVERYONE said we'd get Delhi belly. Three days, that's all most managed. But, no, all has been well. Except for one moment when I needed a rush for the loo.

We turned back and entered the John and Paul café, named after two Beatles and decorated with film posters and record sleeves. And a moment's distress turned into an evening of delight.

Chance encounters are what make bike trips and this was another. The young owner explained in excellent English that the business had just opened and that calling it John and Paul was homage to all things British, which he adored. That extended to learning English from films, records and wherever else he could find it and to spreading the word.

And so it was that not only did the café hold weekly English sessions, gatherings to chat not in Vietnamese but English, but that today was the day.

"Well, if you like...", we started tactfully. We didn't want to barge in.

But he guessed what we were going to say and, I suspect, was hoping we'd say it.

And so this evening we walked back through the damp streets and joined 40 kids, mostly in their teens and one as young as 13, who not only spoke English but were desperate to speak it a lot and to speak it better.

We split them into two groups as though we knew what we were doing and then got them talking. Could they, I asked, tell me a story by each adding a word in turn? And they tried, laughing at the improbable direction this variation on consequences took and because one girl had the luck to say "and" every time her turn came.

I don't know how long we were there. An hour and a half? Two hours?

However long, we loved it. And from the smiles and the reluctance to go home, I think they did to.

As I said, it's those happy encounters that make a bike tour.