Escape from Blighty

a travel blog by Michael Russell

Credit crunch (check)
Crap weather all year round (check)
Friends scattered across the globe (check)
Age 24 and still living at home (check)

Remind me why I haven't decided to leave earlier? Ahh yes money! Well I have saved up for the last 18 months so I can now afford to offski on my trip abroad

The order of travel is: 10 weeks in Southern India followed by Thailand and then vague plans of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and then who knows. Length of escape? Unknown, whenever the money runs out

Aims of this blog: Document my travels and activities. Keep my mum from worrying that I am eating well and staying out of trouble. Goad my friends who are sat behind a desk at work

This blog will be supplemented by pics from my flickr pages:
flickr.com/photos/mjfrusell and flickr.com/photos/mjfrusell1

(N.B - HTMLs aren't allowed so you'll have to add the www.)

Enjoy!!!

Hue, Vietnam

Hue was the last stop before Hanoi on our Vietnam trip and also the town in which I celebrated my quarter century b'day.

Hue was the capital of the Vietnamese royal family in the 19th Century and as such has a royal citadel within another citadel in the town.

Our 2 days spent in Hue involved lots of walking in and out of the citadel in blistering heat, no change from the norm here.... The b'day meal was a lovely French restaurant where we both indulged in steak and Vietnamese red wine... very tasty..

Next stop Hanoi and a nasty overnight bus ride.

written by

Michael Russell on July 2, 2009 from Hue, Vietnam

from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty

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Cat Ba, Vietnam

Halong Bay

So we have reached one of the stand out highlights of the trip! Ever since the infamous Top Gear moment of drinking G&T's from a floating village while the sun was setting; we have been looking forward to this! Halong bay is a gorgeous area off the north east coast of Vietnam, it consists of around 1000 limestone islands which protrude out of the sea. It seemed fitting for such a location to treat ourselves and splash out on a gorgeous boat for sailing the ocean seas. I have to say we were not disappointed!

After lots of internet searches and shopping around, we settled on the Columbus Cruise, we even received a nice free upgrade Surprise. Our boat consisted of 3 levels, rooms on the lower deck, restaurant on the middle and an amazing open air top deck complete with beds and sun loungers! This is definitely an occasion where pictures paint a thousand words. The bay itself is amazing, we had perfect sunny weather which helps. There were lots of picturesque scenes, including, caves, floating fishing villages and kayaking around the islands.

Before finishing off this entry I have to mention the food! We spent 3 days gorging ourselves! Each meal was like an endless procession of dishes! I think the average was about 10. One night we even had a FREE birthday Surprise cake for Mr Michael Russell and some champagne thrown in for good measure!Hurrah!