Travel Update 2: When In Hanoi

I arrived in the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, Vietnam just over a week ago and I promised you all lots of travel updates. Whilst I've been able to Instagram (@emshelx) and tweet (although Twitter is currently not working on my phone or laptop?!), it's been hard to get a strong wifi signal out here for a good amount of time so that I can really update you but finally, I've got wifi so I thought I'd share with you the first few days of my trip. Get excited, there's lots of food, sunsets and I'll even take you for a dip in the pool...

We started off our trip the right way and stayed over in London the night before we flew, (read about that part of our trip here), and even though we flew at 10am, we decided that we'd have some champagne and naturally, I wanted a cosmopolitan cocktail too - it would be rude not to!

After a 12 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur and then a further few hours to Hanoi, we were finally in Vietnam. We were taken to our first hotel, the Intercontinental Westlake and wow, were we impressed.

We were greeted with pink macaroons... (the way to my heart)

and a pretty epic room... trust me, the photos do it no justice. The rain fall shower was perfect.

However, what really won us over, was the view outside on our balcony...

Now that's pretty special ey?

We enjoyed the pillow menu too. We rested our heads here for 4 nights, lucky us because it really is a luxury hotel in comparison to some of the hostels that we saw in Hanoi. The service was incredible too.

Even though we were pretty jet lagged, we headed into the city. We sat high up and watched everyone go by. 

Obviously we tried some Vietnamese food too.

As we got even more tired (poor Jack stayed awake for 17 hours) we decided to take one final look at the bridge before heading back to the hotel.

We retired to an outdoor double bed which over looked the lake (arguably the best bed I've been on) and sipped on a few cocktails to get over our jet lag.

We watched the sun set and realised that we should probably try and get some sleep but we both realised that we were in paradise. 

The next morning we headed to the Temple of Literature.

I love my playsuit, it's from Shine Boutiques, an Australian website. 

We watched the local students graduate...

Had a look around...

Posed

and admired the beautiful dresses.

 

Some girls asked for a photo with me at this exact spot, it was really lovely - hello if you're reading this now!

Not sure the person who took this photo had it on the right setting, blurry but I like it.

I spotted some fruit trees and took a photo for my Mum, she loves fruit trees!

We then went back to Hoam Kiem lake and just enjoyed the view away from the loudness and the street sellers.

After enjoying a tranquil moment by the river, it was time to find some street food and head back to the busy streets.

Me and Jack got a map and found Bun Bo Nam Bo, we chose to eat here because it's ranked number one for street food on Tripadvisor. It was packed full of locals so we squeezed in. 

The food was absolutely delicious, we ate, used the wifi and then quickly moved back onto the streets. Every single cafe has wifi, it's amazing - unfortunately not good enough for blogging though because I haven't been taking my laptop out onto the streets with me and I haven't really been staying anywhere long enough to blog.

I can't stop admiring the beautiful, HUGE flowers in Vietnam.

Crossing the roads in Hanoi is scary, you basically just walk out and the traffic drives around you.

It gets quite fun though dodging traffic but please don't try this at home kids.

Next we decided to get onto a cute little bike and be cycled around the city by the cutest Vietnamese man who even got a bike selfie with us - I'll Instagram it soon.

After, we stopped off for a drink. I got a green tea frozen yogurt. We met my good friend Top who flew over from Thailand to visit me and grabbed dinner with him.

This was seriously good.

The bridge looks so beautiful on an evening.

We finished our night in the beer quarter, I don't like beer, but it's around 20p for it, unfortunately wine is really expensive here so I had to go for a beer. The beer quarter is full of travellers as you can see below, it's such a good atmosphere.

Walking home I kind of wanted to capture how manic the traffic is...

My friend Top joined in.

Then Jack wanted to play too.

We decided it was too early to sleep and headed to a busy street market. People sell fruit everywhere.

Prawns

and these chip/potato things taste incredible

Naturally I got some waffles.

It was time to get away from the crowds and get back to our gorgeous idyllic hotel. 

The next morning we decided we'd head to the French quarter. I love Paris so when I heard that there was a French quarter I knew we had to visit. Please excuse my no-make up face.

First we visited the opera house

I thought I'd get a photograph of my accessories, sandals from Primark believe it or not and bag c/o Aspiga which I love so much.

We had a little shop.

 

We wandered down the side streets and found that in the French quarter, street food is more tucked away and a little less manic.

We did fancy a drive around in these cars, whilst eating macaroons obviously.

Then I found a mall full of my favourite brands, Dior, Shu Uemura, Chanel and even MAC. I practically died and went to beauty blogger heaven.

We ate more food and Top taught me how to properly use chop sticks. 

It was getting really hot, so me and Jack decided to abuse the pool.

We dried off and went to catch the last of the sun. My beautiful dress is C/O 3WiseClothing. 

We found the perfect spot.

We kissed goodbye to the sun and headed out for a dinner date... a very special one indeed

Dress C/O Motel Rocks, Necklace, C/O Little Ghost Jewellery. 

I couldn't love this dress anymore if I tried.

We headed to the top of the Little Black Duck restaurant - another place we visited after reading amazing tripadvisor reviews. We snook right to the top and basically had our own roof top private dining experience. 

I tucked into chicken skewers 

Whilst Jack went for some crispy duck.

We sat at the very top of the building and looked out onto the whole of Hanoi, it truly was perfect.

It was time to say goodbye to my darling Top, after two years we were reunited for an evening of laughs, drinks and noodles. It was an emotional goodbye. We cried.

Me and Jack ended the night with a traditional puppet show, it was erm... different. 

However, I did drag him into The Note Coffee after for a peppermint milkshake, I couldn't resist the cute post-it note restaurant. We wrote some notes too, it was all very cute.

We did a lot more travelling the next day (we got up outrageously early, hence the no make up face again) and saw so many more sights. Trousers: Vietnam market, Top, Topshop, Shoes, Topshop. I won't bore you with all my photographs of monuments.

We ate another Vietnamese meal...

Swam a lot more...

(Dress: 3WiseClothing again)

and generally took in the beauty of Vietnam.

I realise that this was a really long post and I'm so sorry for that, I've cut a lot out but I wanted to give you a really big update, I've literally covered so much ground in my first week and this is only a small percentage of it. I've been making a vlog of my travels and I am currently at Halong Bay on the most beautiful luxury boat, I cannot wait to post my next travel update. Obviously there will be some beauty posts inbetween as well! So far this has been an incredible trip and day by day, it just keeps getting better. Don't forget, you can keep up to date with me via my links below too, I've been regularly Instagramming and using my Facebook page! 

Do you like the look of Hanoi? Have you ever visited Vietnam or anywhere similar? Would you like to visit?

Lots of love, Em x

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