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with anna
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A.nna
 anna // singaporean. my dream is to some day live in a countryside and have a lot of dogs. reach me on
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Thursday, March 2, 2017
Why I Love Bali? My love for Bali goes to the moon, orbit one round and back.  I first set foot in Bali in December 2014 and since then, I've been back and forth Bali at least twice a year. That's when I started #AnnaInBali. I love everything there - the food, the people, the swimwear outlet, the beach, diving, the sun. The list goes on.. I sell Bali and I'm gonna share with you the things you can do (and where it can be done), places I've stayed and food places I'd recommend. FOOD FOR THOUGHT For starters, there are many food & beverage which Bali is popular for. I'm gonna use we because I feel like I belong there already. We are better known for bali guling, nasi campur, bbq pork ribs, kopi luwak and mie goreng. 
(#thisislife: $2 local beer & mie goreng, served under the pavilion)
I had to google and yes mie goreng comes from Indonesia. Unlike the local mie goreng we have in Singapore, their mee goreng is superb. I can eat mee goreng at least once a day when I'm there. In the easiest way I can bring this across, it's a less preserved (imo) and tastier indomie mie goreng. You feel me now? Every place has that one signature dish, kopi luwak was one of it for Bali, but personally I'm not a fan of it. It's too bitter for my liking. Also I didn't read much into it but it looks inhumane to me. Here's a civet cat at one of the local farms I visited:  Not sure if it's worth the try because honestly it's not like it taste any better than our usual cup of joe, but just wondering what are we really supporting if the demand is still there for every tourist. It was not until my 5th trip I tried babi guling. I don't remember which we went to, it was an on-the-way and recommended by our local driver kinda thing when we were on our way from the airport to Candidasa (guess you can narrow down which outlet I went to from this route I took). I'm not a big fan of carbs so whether is it babi guling or nasi campur, I can only say it's a definite must-try local specialty but still, give me my mie goreng and nobody will be hurt. I think both of these are the kind of food which are easily found around Bali, so don't bother traveling out just to find a "recommended" one because they taste more or less the same. One of the restaurants which I really love is Ultimo in Seminyak. A 3-course dinner for two cost around $70 and you get a dozen of oysters for starters, two main course, dessert and 2 rounds of drinks. Trust me, you don't get that anywhere close to $70 in Singapore. The food is amazing and to top that, there's live band and the ambience is to die for. Forget about Potato Head & Kudeta, Ultimo will do the job if you're looking for good food, reasonable price and great ambience. Ask anyone who frequents Bali and I'm pretty sure they'd agree. Reservation is not required but I've seen people queuing really long to enter so no harm booking in advanced. 
Another restaurant which has been deemed by all food bloggers that you have to visit is Merah Putih. I don't deny the food is good, but unless you're willing to spend $150/pax for dinner, I suggest you try Mama San instead. If you look at say TripAdvisor, they've got 4.5 out of 5 stars which is still on par with Merah Putih, so.. Anyway, call it thrifty/stingy, I wouldn't pay $xxx for a meal. I think it's a ridiculous way to spend your money but you do your own math.
Lastly, forget about all the raved hipster cafes, you can have them back home. Seriously just grab some Bintang and chill by the beach, live the Bali style. ACCOMMODATION I am forever spoilt by the number & types of villa Bali offers. From one bedroom to a whopping six bedrooms villa, pool villa, water villa - you name it, they got it; not forgetting hotels as well. For villa, I'd recommend Bracha Villa. Huge age bedroom, private pool, both outdoor & indoor dining, spacious living room for the price starting from $230+ per night for one bedroom. It's definitely not the cheapest I must say, I've stayed in 2-bedroom villas at the price of $170 per night as well but you pay for what you get. My take is still Bracha Villa ftw. They've fantastic location as well. A short 5 to 10 minutes walk takes you to restaurants like Ultimo & malls like Seminyak Square.    For hotels, I'd recommend Golden Tulip Devins Seminyak. Again not the cheapest but definitely reasonable. Price starts from $120, but normally I'd pay for deluxe room where I get jacuzzi in my balcony. Wahaha, this is how you should spend your money. Hotel comes with an infinity pool and a really nice blue restaurant which makes breakfast merrier. Relatively centralized as well given that it's right next to W Seminyak. A 5 mins drive takes you to Mama San and a 5 mins walk takes you to Merah Putih.   
I've stayed in both Bracha Villa & Golden Tulip Devins more than once and they're still my top choices. I am the kind of person who is not the most willing to pay for better quality so you can trust me 102% when I say the price is reasonable.
THINGS YOU CAN DO
Saved this for last because 4 out of 5 times in Bali, my purpose was to dive. Which if you do dive, then of everything in Bali I've already recommended, please forget about them and only take this - dive with Gangga Divers @ Lotus Bungalows. Not going to elaborate on this because I can go on for days but if you do dive, do try them out. They made Bali home for me and if it's not for them, I'm not even sure if I'd fall in love with diving.
That is also to say I didn't explore Bali like most people did visiting Tanah Lot & Uluwatu Temple. Can't share much about that but here are some other activities which I did that doesn't take me 30m underwater.
Read my previous posts on Bali here, here, here & here. Labels: activities, agoda, annainbali, arrival guides, bali, beach, dive, dive spot, food, indonesia, sea, sports Thursday, November 3, 2016
Diving in Nusa Penida
Oh well well well, of course we gotta start this with my face. Yes.
So Inez and I went back to Bali for diving. Yup, Bali again. There's just something about Bali that I really love. The place, the vibe, the people, and of course, diving. It didn't matter to me if I was seeing the same stuff or how most would react, wa buay sian ah? (not sick of it yet?). Nope. I figured everyone love their hobbies for different reasons, and I love diving for the serenity. It didn't really mattered to me what I see during the dives.
BUT.. Guess what we saw this time? Manta Rays! Here's a video proof :P
During the briefing before we descended, Jan was telling us what to expect bla bla bla (I really need to start listening to the briefs). And he mentioned that reef mantas are commonly seen, they're around 3m long and the rarer ones would be the oceanic mantas which are around 5m long. The key words he said were, if you're lucky, you get to see the oceanic mantas.
And we did, we got lucky! We saw a few of the oceanic mantas. They were gracefully swimming above and below us. If I said it took my breath away, I would be lying because I was so nauseous from the current and I had to forced myself to endure a good 30 minutes before I ascended to puke.. But minus the nauseous drama, I guess it took my breath away.
They are really gentle and graceful with each movement. So far manta rays are the biggest sealife creature I've seen and I must say it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. In fact it made me feel really small. As in this <---> small. Not just literally but the thought of how big the ocean was, me being in it, with creatures that are 3 times my length - simply amazing.
And of course, the usuals which we normally see in Bali. A few highlights must be the turtles (seen them many times but they're still as cute as always!), octopus, squid and jellyfish! We saw quite a few jellyfishes during our last dive and after the dive, I got some rash across my chest. Not sure if it's from the jellyfish (didn't get stung, I wore a 3mm full wetsuit) or if the water was just particularly dirty at that site.
I really enjoyed this trip. Though it's a short 5 days, but 5 days in Bali is never enough. We were so close to
Anyway, enough of my rants. Here are the video and photos from this trip:
    
If you haven't, I urge you to follow my trips on #TravelByAnna. Not that it's interesting but it's the only platform I'm most active on. So.. Till my next trip! I'll definitely write on the go for my next trip because it's Russia and I need to pen everything down before I completely forget about it lol! It's Inez and I again (the only appropriate time to say buay sian ah), and we are heading to St. Petersburg and Moscow! So if you've any recommendations, please feel free to comment below or drop me an email.
Lastly, I've been receiving emails and DMs from readers from both my blog and Instagram - please do so more often! I love it. I love exchanging words with fellow travellers and how we have these platforms to share tips and I even convinced a new "online friend" to take up diving, which he did and I think he's going to pursue a career out of it.
I started this blog as a travel log for myself, but later I found it handy whenever I want to share an itinerary with a friend, I'll be like - check out this post and that post. And now it's becoming a tiny community where I have these platforms to meet travellers and talk about traveling.
xx Labels: annainbali, bali, beach, candidasa, diving, ilovebali, indonesia, kuta, seminyak, travel, travelbyanna, traveling, travels Sunday, December 27, 2015
Tulamben Shore Dives 3 days after I came back from Phuket, I headed to Bali to dive! This time not with my usual Inez, but with trigger-fish magnet, Darren! We headed to Tulamben for our planned dives and stayed at Ocean Sun Resort. It was a dive package he secured with Aquanox Scuba from Singapore. We clocked 6 dives at sites including Liberty Wreck, Coral Garden, Seraya Secrets, Drop Off and one more which I don't remember the name. It was sort of a secret site the DMs found. My first official dive with GoPro I took too many photos which mostly I don't remember which was taken at which site, brilliant. You're still in for a treat though, here you go! 
(Taken at Liberty Ship Wreck)
(Taken at Drop Off, Tulamben)
(Taken at Seraya Secrets)
  
(Taken at Seraya Secrets)
This is my favorite photo of him! Sigh, if only he didn't photobomb all my photos, that would have been great. Not fair that he now has a new DP and yet I'm stuck with him creeping in every solo shot of mine..
That aside, here are some of my
But this has got to be my favourite-favourite, taken by our DM.
I came back wanting to be a fish and I can't wait for next February whereby I'll be back in Bali for two whole weeks worth of diving! This time we are taking our AOWD with Gangga Bali Divers and extending the trip to Nusa Lembongan for more dives. Wheeee! :D
Ending this post with this photo as a thank you to my buddy who took really good care of me underwater. Thanks for laughing at and never taking eyes off this tunnel-visioned girl. This photo because I was laughing out loud when Jan, my Bali instructor, asked sarcastically if he actually dove with no regulator and mask, haha! Oh well, that shows how vain he is when the cam is on him 😂
And oh, here's a compilation for #TravelByAnna, 2015! Thank you for following me through my journey via my platforms, I've gotten a fair bit of enquiries and encouraging comments through this year's travel and I'm thankful for everyone I met on this wanderlust journey, I cannot count my blessings enough. Here's to a splendid 2016, xx
Labels: bali, dive, diving, indonesia, shore dive, travelbyanna, tulamben Sunday, September 6, 2015
Certified All-Diver Technically there's no such thing as certified all divers but I just got my OWD (Open Water Diver) Certification + I've got a skydive certification so logically I'm an all-diver right? Enough of the bragging, let's read into my experience. I took my OWD with PADI and associated my pool and open dive with Gangga Divers @ Lotus Bungalows. You actually have to select your school before you take your course so that they have access to your training records. 2 months before I took my pool and open water dive, I was taking the online theory lessons with PADI. You don't actually need 2 months per se but I watched a few videos every night so I need not rush to finish it closer to date. I estimated that if I were to fully watch the videos and finish the assessment at one go, it will probably take around 1 to 1.5 working days. But anyways, crap aside. I did my theory assessment and scored a 80% if I'm not wrong and headed to Bali for our pool and open dives. The second day we arrived, we started our pool session. In all honesty, I don't remember what was taught specifically but it included like how you wash your mask underwater, buoyancy, dropping your wet belt during emergency, fastening the oxygen tank should it move when you're underwater so on and so forth. We were taught how to set up our equipment and test them too.  During my first open dive, I was freaking out like mad. I was so sure I'm claustrophobic, I actually diagnosed myself with it. It was only for the first dive, the next few was totally fine. The first few dives was at Padang Bay Jetty. The water was not extremely clear, that could be one of the reasons why I felt claustrophobic because for the first time, I'm relying on an equipment to give me oxygen + I'm in the sea, 10m deep with limited visibility (it was sand-based.) I've never imagined a jetty could be a diving site. I always imagined being thrown into the deep sea in the middle on nowhere and start descending. But anyways, we did some drills which we practiced underwater and it went well. During the two dives, we spent around 10 minutes on drill and 20 minutes on diving. We do have video footage but let's just say the Emperor Prawn diving The next day, we did another 2 open water dives at Padang Bay and head back to finish up our pool session. Honestly if you ask me what I saw, I would say many fishes and corals but I don't remember much of their names. But those that I remembered were frog fish, super mini scrimp and clownfishes. Till the 4 open water dives, I've to add on that I'm sea sick and it was terrible. I gave up one of the dives and slept on the boat instead. I woke up with 4 mens and I was all alone. They're the crews but can you imagine waking up on a boat, in the middle of the sea and see 4 unfamiliar faces? I can safely say I've experienced that.   The 5th and 6th dive was the best. We went shore diving at Liberty Wreck. The ship sunk in 1940 and has been there since. But according to our dive masters, it was broken into 3 parts through the years. There were lots of coral and marine life shit that grew on the boat and here are a few main point I'd like to highlight for these shore dives at Liberty Wreck:
Here are some pictures which are not taken by me, so credits to Google:
This is a barracuda, one of the deadly fishes.
The pretty flying gurnet, flying around.
Stupid fire coral that stung me :(
I found you, Nemo!
On the topic of nemo, clown fishes are really small. Seriously, SMALL. I'm not even exaggerating but they can be as small as 2cm to 3cm + they are super cute. Because the plates of coral are their home, when you swim pass them, they will all swim back into the corals to hide. From far you see them on the coral and the next thing, all disappeared.
It's safe to say that my salary will be going into my dive funds from now onwards. In fact, after just getting our OWD in July, we have an upcoming Bintan Trip this October and another one in Phuket this December.
+ I've bought almost all the equipment except fins and dive computer. I've got my own suit, mask, lobster tickle, torch, gloves and boots. I'm not even sure if it's necessary to buy your own BCD and regulator. I know it makes a difference if you buy a good one, but how many people actually travel with their full set of equipment? So I've decided to let this sports grow on me before I invest anymore.
Conclusion: It is really another world beneath this land and I've never thought I'd enjoy it so much. The only hand sign I want to see from now onwards is this because it means descend.
If only Singapore has dive spots... Actually our dive master did mentioned that some ship wreck are intentional in the sense that they sank a boat to attract marine life. Maybe I can write in to our government to propose this idea so 5 years down the road I can say like, oh I'm busy this weekend, gonna dive at Jurong or something. But before that nonsensical dream comes true, I shall save more money by shopping less so that I can dive more!
Labels: bali, dive, dive spot, diving, gangga divers, jetty, liberty, liberty ship wreck, lotus bungalows, owd, padang bay, padi, scuba diving, ship wreck Sunday, December 7, 2014
Jimbaran, Bali Recently I just came back from a 6-day Bali Trip. For beginners, I've never set foot on Bali, it just didn't occur to me to want to visit the beach paradise every one raves about. Among all, we chose Jimbaran as it's less happening. Yes, we're young at heart but physically we are all tired out and just wanted a relaxing holiday with our loved ones. This is the Jimbaran Beach which apparently is the best to watch sunset at. When we were there, it was the low season (it rained 2 out of 6 days, that explains the gloomy sky).  We did not try the seafood along the beach as we've heard too much on how overrated and overpriced they are. Instead, we got our housekeeper to grocery shop and cook for us every day instead. We stayed in Sea Shanty and I'd highly recommend this villa. It's walking distance to Jimbaran Beach, and yet not too close to it to feel the crowd. The villa has 4 bedrooms, and they've in-house housekeeper who cleans up the villa, cook and greet you every day. How nice is that! That's like the ultimate way to kickstart this holiday. We chilled at the cabana by the pool every day, nap after lunch and decides if we wish to head out only when we felt like it. During this trip, I did visited Kuta Beach and Nusa Dua. I didn't liked Kuta the way every one raves about. It's filthy, and there's almost nothing to do around Kuta. Again, for beginners, I'm not a very hapz person. Sometimes I'm not even sure what amuses me. BUT, we headed to Nusa Dua for water sports and I'd highly recommend everyone to head over for their water sports. We paid $180K rupiah (apprx. SGD18) for banana boat and donut float per pax. I added on Flying Fish for $150K rupiah (apprx. SGD15). Didn't get to parasail as there wasn't much wind that afternoon. For those who has never tried Flying Fish, forget about banana boat. 
This is the ultimate game. I LOVE IT, and no it's not dangerous at all. As long as you do not let go of the grip, you won't fall. (No, there isn't any safety belt. If you fall, you'll fall into the sea.) It's the most fun, but a very short one I must say.
Another one of the 6 days, we visited Waterbom Park. If you've been to Adventure Cove, you'll realize that you spent half the time queuing for your ride. But at Waterbom Park, there was almost zero queue. The most we had to queue was 3 minutes? It was fast, and not packed with tourist. Not only that, it actually has more rides than Adventure Cove, and cheaper too!
Oh yes, they have this. But I have no intentions to share about how I gave up twice. Let's move on.
Overall, I enjoyed my Bali trip with my family. During our annual family trip, we always have hectic plans with itineraries planned ahead for every day. This year, it was something simple and relaxing. There was no rush for anything, and we could really bond and talk through late nights.
Labels: bali, beach, holiday, indonesia, jimbaran, kuta, nusa dua, travel, waterbom park |
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xx
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