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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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Saturday, April 29, 2017
Diving in Anilao 3rd post this year, I'm on fire. Not sure if people still read blogs, hello ghost readers.. I finally was able to enjoy diving the way it is. Backtrack a little to 2 months back, I quitted smoking. Not sure if it was related to the fact that nicotine probably has already left my body entirely and the oxygen level in my body is higher now but I wasn't feeling sea sick at all during any of the dives, even when most of the dive sites are easily 20 minutes boat ride away. Anywho, on top of that, I started diving without my wet suit - just a dive jacket & Nike dri-fit pants :P The whole diving journey from boat ride to gearing up and the actual dive, I was feeling 100%. I thought I wouldn't be able to enjoy diving more, couldn't be more wrong. Anilao is widely known for macro diving. You know they say small things but I was like how small, pygmy seahorse small? That's super cute, I totes don't mind. But nope, it's smaller than pygmy seahorses. I did see a lot of pygmy seahorses though, a pregnant one which everyone was debating it was fat but I googled, it's definitely the one I saw, pregnant af you cute lil thang: 
You've no idea, they're really v v v v v v cute. They range in length from 1.4 - 2.7 cm between the tip of the tail to the end of the snout. Do you know how small that is? Like superrrr small ❤❤❤
That aside, here are some photos taken by yours truly. By the by, I started using red filter so the photos are much better now.
Snorkelling on the first day we arrived :D
This is the trip I fell in love w Nudibranch! Too pretty!
 
Mazel tov!
Hello you, from Bali to Anilao.
My favourite, taken from a wreck dive.
    
Not sure why my blue spotted ray doesn't have a tail :(
And the highlight of everything is this, a pregnant male seahorse. No words could describe how wonderful it felt to watch something so beautiful. I gave up trying to get a good shot & just started staring at it. He was just laying there, probably waiting to give birth. So peaceful, I just wanted to watch it while only hearing my bubbles - truly a moment to live in, to feel so alive.
Well, that is 10 dives for me - also my 45th dive, my 35th hour underwater. Comparing Anilao to Bali, most of the corals in Anilao are much livelier. I mean in Bali, certain sites we get a seabed of dead corals & there's that. While in Anilao you get a lot of pretty, colorful corals around and if you're patient enough to look into every corner, you might find some small macro stuff.
Most of the photographers on this trip took much better photos. I mean they're there to shoot for an underwater competition so my photos definitely don't do justice to the actual sites.
BUT, here comes the but. After my first dive, I was checking with the resort on why the dive guides are so touchy underwater. Not to me of course but they were just flipping the corals around, picking up every other stones to see if they can find something under.. I get it. You're my guide, you're supposed to find stuff for me to see. But I very much rather it not be at the expense of destroying nature. Well that's for me.
I can't speak for the rest of the people who allowed it for their own selfish reasons but it wasn't acceptable to me. To a certain extend, I can forgive people for not protecting/saving things they don't understand. In this case, non-divers. But for divers, if we love what we do and yet at the same time we destroy the things we love, then what does that make us?
Practice what you preach. If you love diving, you love the ocean & the sea, learn how to protect it.
Back to me checking with the resort.. Apparently all the dive boats & guides in Anilao are not tied to any resorts. In another words, they can't be fired. So what we can do on our end is we can stop the guide, we can choose not to tip them or change the guide even. Since they are freelance and not tied to the resort, we have the option of not using the same guide which was what I did.
All in all, was this a good trip? Yea sure, I enjoyed my short stay in Manila. It was a good break. Though it was muck dives for macros, I thought it was a good opportunity to work on my buoyancy skills & to visit a new place for a change. Would I go back or recommend diving in Anilao? Nah. Not that the sites are exceptionally great, not that the guides have morals so.. No thank you.
But of course feel free to look up other reviews based on other dive centres & guide. Since they are not tied to any resort / dive centres, whatever I've said are based on my experience with Jun & Aladdin (both my guides during my dives in Anilao).
RESORT & DIVE PACKAGE
I stayed in Acacia Resort and the place is great. Everything you need for a beach getaway is there. Managed by Oliver & Cat who are very hospitable as well. This dive trip was a kinda a package deal via Scuba Institute. The package is USD1200 which includes 10 dives (excluding equipment), food & beverages (served in buffet style for all 3 meals), accommodation.
Not sure if the price is considered ex or no, but it was worth it.
Adios!
Labels: anilao, dive, diving, diving in anilao, diving in phillipines, philippines, scuba diving, travel, travelbyanna, travels Sunday, January 1, 2017
Winter in Russia 9th day into my Russia trip and here I am, waiting for the clock to strike 12. This is the first time I spent Christmas through New Year overseas. Not sure what went into my mind when I decided it'll be Russia but I did it and I'm so glad I did. While I can't speak for many, I've checked Russia out of my bucket list. Yay! Okay honestly I can't remember exactly what I did on which day. The day light in Moscow is limited to 6 hours and in St. Petersburg, we had 5 hours only. I avoided staying out before sunrise and after sunset for safety reasons (but yolo because one of the nights we stayed out till 9pm for Starbucks, #badassalert). The remaining time is spent eating and sleeping. I think I slept more here than what I had in the entire year combined. Not even exaggerating when I say we slept for 15 hours on one of the days? And most of the other days, we slept in for at least 12 to 13 hours before we crawled outta bed and convince ourselves we need to head out to see something. And that excluded naps. I googled, it says that due to the short day light, our brain produces more melatonin thinking it's night time that's why we feel sleepier. But I prefer to call it hibernation. St. Petersburg It was one of the St. Petersburg cathedrals photo that Inez stumbled upon online that got us here. We spent a good 5 days in St. Petersburg and we rented this bed and breakfast. For $30/night, you get the entire huge ass apartment. Getting around was easy as the metro was a 10 minutes walk away? It was quite confusing at first but we used our maps to navigate and after the first night, kinda got used to it. Here are the list of places we visited through our walking tour: 
(Winter Palace & Hermitage)
(St. Isaac's Cathedral)
(Peter the Great Monument)
(Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood)
And also these which I didn't get a good photo out of:
It's almost impossible to get a good shot most of the time because the sky is always gloomy. It looks like 5pm whether the sun just rose or about to set. Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood was one of the prettiest we've been to and it took me close to 30 shots to get one that looks like I could still savage it with photoshop lol!
Chose a really bad day for walking tour because it was snowing and then raining. Halfway it got so windy that it was actually painful to continue with the tour. And I'm normally not one who uses the heat pad because it's so small, it's as good as useless but during the tour I grabbed one of those and placed my life on it hoping it'll warm me up a little. Damn.
Moscow
Ahhh, this I like. I like Moscow more than I do with St. Petersburg mainly because there are more and prettier things to see. Moscow is the capital of Russia, but it was moved to St. Petersburg for a period of time before it was moved back to Moscow. I'd have thought they're on par but nope. The only thing I liked about St. Peterburg more than Moscow would have to be the fact that they've more English signages around. That's it, I said it.
Back to Moscow. There's walking tour as well, which we covered the following:
 
(St. Basil's Cathedral)
(GUM)
(Tomb of the Unknown Soldier)
(Between GUM & Tomb of the Unknown Solider)
(GUM)
And also the following which I can't seem to match to my photos:
Here are some of the other photos taken in Moscow:
   
Drum rolllllll please.. My favourite shot of Moscow has to be this:
It was taken from the back (exiting Red Square). Most tourists were crowding in front of the cathedral trying to get a shot. I kinda gave up because there were too many people and I dislike it when my "tourist shot" is filled with other tourists. Prft. This was the best I could get out of it and I'm happy so yay!
Now the practical part.. Here are some of the tips to get by:
Well, we got through Russia safely. And IMO, it's just as safe (and dangerous) as any other cities. It's not how we see them through the western movies. We've met nice people who offered help, or hold the doors for us, help us get around. Though there was a major communication break down, but we still made it through with hand signals and google translate.
In summary, I don't think Moscow & St. Petersburg made it to the list of places I'd revisit. I don't mind coming back to Russia to visit Kamchatka, or even Kazan, but probably not in winter again. This is one of the few trips whereby I'm home sick. I forgot how warmth feels like - that being said, I'm definitely heading to the pool once I'm back. I feel like I'm getting fairer due to the lack of sun exposure and gosh it took me so long to get to a shade I like and bam, one week, it's gone.
Also, it's 11:15pm here in Moscow, 45 minutes more to 2017 so technically I'm not late for my annual travel compilation. My 3rd year doing so and the hashtag shall be #AnnaualTravelLog. You got the pun? :P
Now, 2016 has been a great year for me, it flew passed before I even realized. Life is filled with ups and downs, so was 2016. I just want to count my blessings and work towards a better tomorrow. I've scrapped the idea of the new year new me and all the cliche resolutions for awhile now. I believe that change should take place whenever we are aware of the need to change and it doesn't need to take place only during the start of a brand new year.
And instead of hoping for a better year, let's work towards a better tomorrow. It really should be an every day thing. To you reading this, let's make a pact. Let's make every day a fulfilling one for 2017 so by the end of 2017, we can sit back, tell our stories and count our blessings before we strive again for the following year. Deal? Deal.
Labels: annateng, moscow, petersburg, russia, singaporean in russia, st petersburg, travel, travelbyanna, travelling, travels, winter 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 Monday, February 9, 2015
Beijing & Hong Kong After my solo trip to Mongolia, I went to Beijing to meet him to start our Beijing & Hong Kong trip! Technically I've been to Hong Kong, so it's just Beijing for me. I'm not sure why I was told 3 to 4 days is enough for Beijing, I felt like 6 days wasn't enough to cover though. Of all the popular historic places, the only place I didn't managed to visit was Summer Palace. I'm glad I did not as I overheard a group of Indian tourist saying how boring Summer Palace is, well it's not for me to judge either. On the first day, we met in the evening hence we took the night off to a nice dinner and rested early to prepare ourselves for Forbidden City the next day.      
It was huge and it felt endless. We didn't finished touring the whole place because HE forgot to feed me lunch. We were contemplating if we should have lunch before Forbidden City or after, trust me, it's always BEFORE. It took us around 45 minutes to walk into the palace, and God knows if we walked till the end of the palace.
P.S Someone please tell him he's supposed to take a landscape photo of 毛泽东 and I, not portrait.
On the second day, we headed to the Temple of Heaven, also known as 天壇. It is considered the most holy of Beijing's imperial temples. It has been described as a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design.
It is indeed beautiful and breathtaking. This requires a little bit more of energy as you're climbing flights and flights of short stairs. But each view at the end of the stairs is breathtaking.
Then I don't remember what happened. Here are some moments worth sharing..
He promised an advanced Valentine's Day Peking duck lunch, so I took this opportunity to have peking ducks on two of the days!! It's amazing how tasty Peking duck is in Beijing than in Singapore. The skin is crispy, followed by a thin layer of fats and the tender meat.
We had both Peking duck lunch at 便宜坊. Apparently they're one of the top 10 restaurants in Beijing that serves the best Peking duck. A meal like this cost us around RMB250 (appx SGD60) but it's super good, that explains the second trip back. The serving is huge, hence we shared the fried rice and the duck. Trying to control my drool describing this moment.
 
Street shopping in Wangfujing! We stayed in 3 regions during our stay in Beijing - Dong Cheng, Wangfujing & Chao Yang. We both loved Wangfujing better. It has a lot of shopping and street food to offer. Compared to Chao Yang (the second most popular region that offers only malls), Wangfujing was way better. And of course, my 臭豆腐. I didn't liked it previously, but after I tasted a really good one in Yunnan, I loved it.
The second last day of our trip, we went on a tour that includes 八达岭 (The Great Wall of China), The Ming Dynasty Tombs and Dr. Tea.
The Great Wall of China was his favourite part of the tour and Beijing. I'm just thrilled it's my first out of the Seven Wonders. The view was magnificent. It is indeed much beautiful in real life than it is in pictures. Way too crowded, but I've nothing to complain except the cold. It was chilly-cold-in-your-bones. He kept saying he can't feel his legs anymore, I can't either! Haha, we literally did not think of how cold it'll be on the mountains.
You can actually see from the picture that the Great Wall goes all the way back from mountains to mountains. Pretty amazing, I wonder why pictures weren't taken or drawings weren't illustrated on how it was built. It is really a piece of art.
Ming Dynasty Tombs has nothing much though.. It is literally a museum with artefacts and the Yin-Yang door which you enter to see the tombs. And upon stepping out of the gate, you've to say 我回来了 (I am back) to claim you're back on Earth because apparently the Yin-Yang gate to the tomb is known as hell. And also, the palace is built without nails, and lasted for 600 over years without having to rebuild or touch up like the other historic places (some got burnt and destroyed by mankind).
That was the end of our 6 days in Beijing, and we headed off to Hong Kong. The transition was tiring! To wake up at 5am and that morning was exceptionally cold, around -10 degree while the wind shows no mercy.
I was feeling vexed about leaving Beijing for Hong Kong. On one hand, I love Hong Kong (anytime over Taiwan) but on the other, the trip was coming to an end.
     
My first stop was obviously 許留山's A1! It's Mango pulp with sago and juice. HKD38 for a cup, but totally worth it. It's not as thick as smoothie (which I have love-hate feeling on), just perfect. He slurped the whole cup without leaving me a tiny bit :(
And we headed for local Dim Sum at Canton's Kitchen. I think he overestimated the power of 流沙包 (custard bun), it's my favourite dim sum. Out of the 3, he had 2! And came back asking for more. Coming from someone who judges my taste all the time, I'm certain this 流沙包 scored.
Then we headed to 女人街 to shop! He bought a torchlight again! And I must say he suck at bargaining prices. While the lady was real pushy to start with, I managed to secure a win-win deal for him! For myself, I bought a lot of redundant stuffs. Well, women. What do you expect. At night while we were chit chatting, I realised he didn't like Hong Kong because everything they sell is for the females. I felt bad, for sure but was laughing a little because I didn't realised he just followed me wherever I go, not realising that 女人街 when translated, is actually Women's Street. Oh well, he then got a little irritated why I didn't brought him to "Men's Street". Couldn't be bothered telling him there's no such place as Men's Street in Hong Kong! Even if there was, chances are the lady, myself, is still going to 女人街.
I had one of the most fun. I strongly believe that traveling is about the sightseeings of course, but how the trip went totally depend on your companion. And I truly enjoyed my companion. His shoulder was there when I'm sleepy, he's there to carry a bottle of water for me, rubbing oil on my tummy when it aches, and watching our tv series before bed. I couldn't ask for more. Am looking forward to my next trip already!
Labels: badaling, beijing, china, forbidden city, great wall of china, hong kong, hongkong, temple of heaven, travel, travel blog, travels |
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xx
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