Travel Update 3: Halong Bay and Island Exploring!

Hey everyone! Eek so here is travel update 3, I'm getting very close to the end of my trip (boo) and I am currently in paradise at a beautiful resort which I cannot wait to tell you about in my final travel update! For now, I'm excited to share with you my time at the beautiful, Halong Bay. I'd say that this update is even more exciting than the first, as you might have seen on my Instagram (you can follow me @emshelx), I spent an incredible few days on a luxury ship, ahoy Captain, I'd like to invite you to join me on the trip of a lifetime... 

We knew that we wanted to 'do' Halong Bay whilst in Northern Vietnam, named the '8th' wonder of the world and also a natural wonder of the world, we didn't really know what to expect but we knew whatever we saw, would surely be pretty beautiful. We decided to do a 3 days, 2 nights tour with Paradise Cruises. We decided to go with Paradise because they ranked pretty high on TripAdvisor but also, because we wanted to do more of a relaxing, luxury cruise rather than a busy, loud, cronky boat.

We walked onto the boat and were greeted on a red carpet whilst rose petals were dropped on us, it was pretty cute and would be perfect for a honeymoon (so many people asked if we were on our honeymoon). We were taken straight to see our room, which was absolutely beautiful. We paid extra for a room with a balcony and we did just expect a little balcony, but actually, we had our own large deck. Our bedroom was beautiful with rose petals everywhere, much to my delight. I was in girlie heaven and the whole room was surrounded by views of the water - it was amazing.

Our deck - the photos do it no justice, it was huge.

Our view every morning

We were introduced to the fabulous and energetic crew

and then we started sailing

Me and Jack sat on our deck and took in the beauty surrounding us, it was pretty breathtaking, it's hard to explain how beautiful it was.

We were given our itinerary, Paradise had planned our trip for us with lots of exciting activies around the area. We jumped on their speed boat and we were taken to our first activity, a look at the caves/time to take in the views.

The view at the top of the hundreds of steps was pretty perfect, tranquil and beautiful.

We were then taken into a beautiful cave and explored - I won't bore you with those photos but it was so lovely to see inside the caves.

I looked down and took in the blissful view, away from social media, wifi and text messages - this really was a retreat with no stress, no worries.

Inside Halong Bay, we saw many floating villages.

But we got really excited when we saw a beach in the distance, we had arrived at TiTop island, just one of the many beaches on Halong Bay.

We were dropped off on the island and told to explore. Me and Jack climbed to the top of the mountain/cave first to get some more views of Halong...

The views from here were truly immense.

Dress C/O 3WiseClothing 

However, as we stood at the top, we couldn't keep our eyes off the beach. We raced down to the bottom and jumped in.

Lots of hair action shots. My gorgeous bikini is C/O Triangl. So many of you have asked after seeing my bright orange one here and on Instagram! You can find their bikinis here - truly gorgeous. I want the whole collection. I need to decide which colour to get next for my Summer holidays!

We dried off, it was time for a cooking class...

We were taught the art of spring roll making, apparently in Vietnam, a man will not marry you unless you can make a spring roll. The pressure was on, everyone was watching me and I was congratulated when they realised that I make a fabulous spring roll, yes, I am marriage material. Poor Jack was asked so many times if we were married. Pressure or what. I explained that I am very young.

For dinner, I wore my gorgeous new jeans from Topshop which I can't find on the website, but they are this style here, sandals are crazily from Primark!

I put on my gorgeous ring C/O Links Of London to match my gold sandals. It's so beautiful and a luxury ship seemed like the perfect opportunity to show it off. 

I got my nails painted at the Next New In event in London the day before I flew to Vietnam - they match my jeans perfectly.

Sorry about the messy hair. Serious humidity = holiday hair disaster. 

We watched as the ships put down their anchors and lit up ready for the night ahead.

Dinner was served. We had a set menu which was lovely.

The dessert, which I actually didn't get a photo of because I was too busy eating it, was egg plant with chocolate truffle and I don't even know what else, but both me and Jack can't stop dreaming about it, possibly the best thing to ever touch my lips. I wish I took a photograph.

After dinner, we went late night squid fishing. Nothing went to my rod so instead we cheated a little and used a net. Bingo, within a minute we had caught a jelly fish. We promptly put it back into the water.

Bright and early the next morning, we were ready for the day ahead. 

Cardigan: All Saints (old), Playsuit: Sabo (old), Sandals: C/O Crew Clothing, Bag: Primark.

I love my sandals from Crew clothing, such good quality and the perfect sandal for an active holiday, we did a huge bike ride and these didn't let me down at all. Such good quality and such beautiful colours.

Like magic, Halong Bay turned into a black abyss, within an hour, it was fully black and there was a crazy storm. I felt like I was in a horror film, a cold, wet and windy one but within an hour, it was bright, sunny and we were cycling around the bay. It was exciting to see Halong Bay in both extremes of weather.

This was just when the storm begun and within minutes, there was a black out. My life flashed before my eyes.

Once the rain cleared, we hired some bikes and cycled around what can only be described as the most perfect place I've ever seen, it was like a rain forest - a rain forest with goats on the road too, which made it all the more surreal.

We stopped for a break in a nearby fishing village.

We met a 95 year old lady who let us see her house.

We went to a local school.

and then headed back on our bikes for another dose of heaven. I hope these photos capture just how perfect the scenery was...

I couldn't look anymore bare faced if I tried but I love the background of this photo.

Back on the boat we enjoyed some sunshine

After this, we were given some kayaks and went out in them. We went through caves and then, we were told that we could jump straight off them. We jumped off the Kayaks into the most amazing water, only surrounded by water, mountains and a few monkeys on the rocks. I didn't take any photos because everything got very wet, but it was one of the most care-free moments of my life, I had no care in the world. It was so exhilarating. I felt so alive. Then we saw a jelly fish next to us, lost the oar to our kayak and realised we should probably head back...

and we watched day light, turn to night

We got dressed and ready for another dinner date. I wore gorgeous and new favourite maxi skirt C/O Crew Clothing - so simple but lovely even if I do say so myself.

It was BBQ time!

After a lovely dinner, it was time to sleep.

The next day we got up at 6am for Thai Chi. My dress is 3wiseclothing again. I love the amazing open back. I put a skirt from Topshop under it just because I didn't want to be too naked!

I love this photograph.

It was worth getting up so early because Halong Bay looked truly beautiful.

After Thai Chi, it was time to take a dip again. I wore this underwear top from Triangl as a bikini. It works just as good. Again, excuse my no make up face.

I took my Aspiga bag with me on all my travels - I can't get enough of it. It was the perfect mini beachy bag.

Next we went out in a biggggg boat, right back to the secluded area that we jumped off our kayaks into. I was happy because it meant I could take a photograph of it for my memory wall.

We saw another lady, this time selling chocolates from her boat with her baby. 

I nearly cried when we headed through here.

Back to the boat, it was nearly time to say goodbye...

Playsuit, again, C/O 3wiseclothing - You've probably noticed that ALL my clothes are from 3wise basically, it wasn't planned but they're so so perfect for travelling as they fit inside my bag easily and I really wish I had a case full of their stuff, it's really all you need for this kind of trip. I need to stock up on their clothes for my travels this Summer too. 

We kissed goodbye to the beautiful view but vowed to come back in the near future...

I caught a final few rays...

and took some panoramas...

I enjoyed the view one last time... so beautiful it almost looks fake. I must bring my Mum and Brother here with me one day.

We got off the boat and were taken to Paradise hotel for lunch before we headed back to Hanoi.

Like the boat, the hotel was beautiful, I couldn't not write about it.

The street was more like something you'd see in LA or Paris.

We filled up on Summer rolls

Fresh apple juice

Soup

fruit and more.

Our trip to Halong Bay was over and we still can't get over how amazing it was. Paradise cruises are an amazing company and I would highly recommend them, the whole trip was pure luxury, better than I expected and well worth their 5* luxury yacht status. Everything was perfect, we were lucky with the weather, 95% of the time it was perfect but what made the trip even more amazing was our incredible room, the best room on the yacht. The luxury boat made the trip amazing, but the natural scenery was obviously incredible too. It was just so tranquil and perfect, it was amazing to see something so natural and beautiful in all its glory. I can't wait to bring you travel update 4 and after reading this one, I already want to go back again. PS, Don't worry, I've got some beauty posts coming too for you but I do hope you're enjoying my travel updates!

Have you heard of Halong Bay? Have you ever visited Halong Bay? Do you like the look of this?

Lots of love, Em x

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