My Instragram Life: Fun in Rio and Argentina!

Hopping from one place to another sadly means it is impossible for me to provide live updates on my blog, however, my instagram - @dellydoll is a great way to keep up with my shenanigans! I'm currently sat in my hotel room in Argentina with serious Brazil withdrawal, especially Rio! However I have had an incredible 24 hours being completely drenched by the spectacular waterfalls in Iguassu. Until that blog post, enjoy the above!

Clockwise: (1) hanging out by the Escadaria Selaron stairs in Lapa, Rio; (2) Enjoying the sun in Ipanema beach wearing the Kimono from this blog post; (3) Strawberry Caiprinhas (my fave!) in Ipanema beach; and (4) Sunset at the beach.
Clockwise: (1) the famous Christ the redeemer statue, (2) My friend Lucy and I in Ipanema, (3) literally standing on top of Rio, we had just trekked through Tijuca Forest and had arrived at one of the highest mountain peaks in the city; (4) #Selfie with Sugar loaf mountain in the background and (5) 'Crow's nest mountain'.

Clockwise: (1) our gorgeous hotel in Iguassu, Brazil - Hotel Cataratas; (2) The hotel I'm currently relaxing at in Iguazu, Argentina - Hotel Amerian Portal del Iguazu; (3) the amazing view from the brazilian side of the waterfalls; and (4) the INCREDIBLE breakfast I enjoyed this morning at Hotel Cataratas.

Kimono in Rio

So in the space of one week, I went from Dubai to London and I am currently in the magnificent city of Rio, Brazil! See the bottom of the post to know why, in the meantime, here are some pictures of my outfit for my first stop - a visit to the famous Christ the Redeemer statue.
Outfit details: 
Kimono which has also doubled up as my swimsuit cover up - Primark (in store only)
Shorts - Topshop
Sandals - Primark (in store only)
Grey vest - Topshop

A lot has happened over the past month but the best part is that I am now a fully qualified lawyer in England, and even better, so are most of my friends! In celebration of more 8 years of steady grinding towards that purpose, my friends and I decided to take some time off to travel, explore and relax, after all, you have the rest of your life to work right? South America has always been on my bucket list so as soon as my friend Lucy asked if I wanted to do a mini tour, I said yes immediately! Our first stop is Brazil and of course Rio had to be our base.

I am so enamoured with this city, I'm not too sure where to start. It seems to be a city with everything from beaches with sand that dips luxuriously through your toes to lush rainforests right in the middle of the city! It might be a bit premature to say now, but Rio is very high up in my list of the top 5 cities I have been to across the world! Of course I cannot end this post without a picture of the famous statue! I didn't go all the way up the Corcovado mountain just to take 'outfit of the day' pictures, I promise! I will share all the deets in the next post, plus I have been vlogging too, and working on some more videos on this holiday so subscribe to my youtube channel - Allisbelle, to see more!

Oman - Glamping in Musandam (I)

I can think of no better place to have had my first camping experience than surrounded by mountains, dolphins and the most incredible landscape I have ever seen!

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Hotel Tour - Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi

So I've decided that every time I set foot in a hotel that is remarkable, I will blog about it! The most recent of such hotels was Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi. We had a bank holiday in Dubai and my friend and I really wanted a mini break so we found a nice deal for the hotel on booking.com and decided to drive down for an overnight luxurious treat.

Our friends had stayed there previously and gave really good feedback so we were keen to try the hotel out, and here are the top three things I loved about it, in order of priority.
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An INCREDIBLE New Year's Eve in Dubai!

My entry into 2014 was quite possibly the best new year's eve I have ever had! Since it was my first in Dubai, my friends and I decided to hire a yacht for the night and sail around the Burj al Arab and the Palm to watch Dubai's attempt at breaking the world record for fireworks.

We started off waiting for ages for our party of about 30 people to get to the yacht, traffic in Dubai on New Year's eve and New Year's day is usually crazy, plus, the Sandance Festival was being held on the same day so taxis were incredibly hard to come by!

Tip: If you are in Dubai for NYE and need to get anywhere, I would recommend hiring a car if you can. Life will be so much easier, trust me! Or you can just get a boat ;-) Finally we were on the move, it felt like being at uni again because we were having a crazy party on the boat with these sort of shenanigans! Name the movie? I love how beautiful Dubai looks at night especially at sea… How INCREDIBLE does the Atlantis Hotel look? I'm so proud of this shot! And then the fireworks started… first was the Burj Khalifa Then the Burj al Arab which looked spectacular as we were so close! At this point my camera died but my iPhone did a fabulous job with the picture below!

We could not have made a better choice on how to spend NYE… it ended up being AMAZING! I will be editing a video of the fireworks display shortly, but for now I need to get dressed for a wedding!

I hope you all had a great NYE too! x

Holiday Brunch at Al Qasr Hotel, Dubai - OOTD

Brunch is the 'done' thing to do in Dubai on Fridays and one of my favorites is by Al Qasr Hotel, set in the beautiful arabian resort of the Madinat Jumeirah. Brunch is usually all you can eat AND drink so I tend to dress very comfortably for the occasion!
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The Finale - Thailand Roundup

From parasailing in Pattaya, to undersea walking... Thailand was an incredible adventure!

I thought I'd round up my thailand dairies by sharing some more pictures of what we got up to in Coral Island and Bangkok!

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Beautiful Bankgok at night

I'm nearly done with my Thailand posts I promise! :-P

I've been enjoying practising my photography with my new camera and I hope you enjoy these pictures of Bangkok at night! To be honest, the city is not very pretty, but at night time it is astonishingly beautiful, especially when captured on the river like we were!

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Thailand Diary: The Reclining Buddha

The Reclining Buddha, or the 'Chilling Buddha' as my friends and I renamed him, is pretty impressive!

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Thailand Diary: Buddhas in Bangkok - The Golden Buddha

It seems like ages ago since I was traipsing around Bangkok visiting various temples and seeing Buddhas for the first time! Temple tours in Bangkok is a 'must do' for any visitor in the city and in this long overdue post, I'll show you the first one I saw - The Golden Buddha, a massive solid gold Buddha image located in the temple of Wat Traimit.

Despite the grey overcast weather, the temple housing the Buddha stood out in all its golden glory...

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Pure Luxury - Siam Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

For me, the best part of our entire Thailand adventure was undoubtedly the time we spent at the gorgeous Siam hotel in Bangkok. Before that, we had been parasailing in Coral Island, undersea walking, riding elephants and generally having a crazy time (check out my vlog channel to see the videos!).
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Birthday by the Dubai Fountains!

I mentioned in my last post that the whole of last week was spent celebrating my birthday. As indulgent as that might sound, it simply meant that I celebrated each day with thanks - I never expected to be able to visit any part of Asia this year nor did I think that I would enjoy my move to Dubai as much as I have! I am particularly grateful for the amazing new friends I've made since I moved! So naturally, on my actual birthday (20 October), I chose to have dinner with some of my favorite friends - new and old!

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Bejewelled

It was like stepping into Aladdin's cove...

As we wondered round Souk Al Bahar, my friend and I stumbled on Tahran Carpets and Antiques, a cute little trading store with lots of shiny bits and bobs! It was like a treasure cave! Don't the pictures make you want to decorate? I pretty much wanted to buy the whole store! We left the store and continued to be surrounded by pretty things...see why I said Souk Al Bahar is one of my favorite places in Dubai? The Souk is also home to a few bars, and Cleo couldn't help but be drawn to the house music blaring from this place! Although we pretty much live in Dubai now, we both couldn't resist acting like tourists! If you are planning on heading to Dubai at any point, visiting the souk should definitely be on your list!