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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, November 22, 2014
5 Globetrotter's Must-Knows  I've decided to share a few website and apps which I found absolutely useful (in my opinion) and you guys might just find them as handy as there are for me for your upcoming trips!
P.S If you've any other recommendations that I've not listed, feel free to drop me an email to share with me! :)
1. TripAdvisor
Info: TripAdvisor® is the world's largest travel site*, enabling travellers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travellers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools.
Whenever we decided to travel, the first thing we wonder would be where to go, what to do and what and where to eat the best local food. After some basic research and narrowing down the places you wish to go, or things you would like to do, TripAdvisor it! TripAdvisor is filled with people like myself, who shares our experiences about certain activities or company and even hotels!
For instance, I was thinking of taking up a tour with Manlai Budget Tour Group during my days in Mongolia and the first thing I did was to find out if the tour was going to be worth my money and time. Hence, I TripAdvisor it, and thank God I did. This was ranked one of the first few in the search engine, I'm pretty sure many are pissed with the service Manlai provided. (Read more here.) I understand that some travellers can be more petty than others, ending up leaving a more exaggerated bad review, but if in general, 9 out of 10 complains about XXX Company, maybe you should reconsider your options with them.
Info: ArrivalGuides is the world’s leading network for destination information, distributing high quality and up to date content and unique city break guides. More than 50 million travellers use our information annually to be inspired, plan their trip, to enjoy and get the most out of their vacation at the location.
ArrivalGuides is available on both iPhone and Android phones! It's one of my latest findings, and I must say it's the best thing ever. Nope, you do not have to pay for the app. If you actually visit their website, you can find out almost everything about your next dream destination - things to do, where to eat, where to stay (this is the part where I personally find is how they promote their ads for hotels and flights but no harm taking a look right). You can download the guide in PDF and get it printed if you're not planning to have any gadget with you during your trip.
Alternatively, you can download the app, which works even offline. Arrival Guides not only help you better understand your next destination, you can simply just browse through to kill time to find out about other cities and countries. It's the perfect app, you can read it on the plane, basically anywhere.
3. AirBnB
Info: Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodation around the world — online or from a mobile phone.Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 34,000 cities and 190+ countries. And with world-class customer service and a growing community of users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to monetise their extra space and showcase it to an audience of millions.
Gradually I find that I've been staying in bed and breakfast more than hotels. I personally prefer living like a local than being treated as an expat. AirBnB covers a lot of places in the world, and it works great for me for a few reasons:
Discount Code: Ateng57 ($68 off your next booking) 4. Agoda
Info: Agoda is one of the fastest-growing online hotel platforms worldwide, listing hundreds of thousands of hotels and providing services in 38 different languages.
Basically Agoda is a hotel booking website. The prices listed are cheaper than hotel itself, but you get the room type you book, no less than the penny you paid for. First and foremost, I must make it clear than Agoda's may not be cheaper than Booking, Roomkey or Asiarooms. But the only reason why I always book with Agoda is because they are the only platform with rewards' system. You get points for booking and points for reviewing after your stay. The points are credited into your account almost a month after you depart BUT the I've accumulated quite a bit of points since all my bookings, I've saved almost USD70 for my last few trips.
Upon check out, you get to exchange your points for credits to off-set your total bill. After some comparison, sometimes Agoda may be a few dollar more expensive than the other platforms, but for each 12,500 points, you will get a USD25 off. That works out better than other platforms, for sure! (It's easy to reach 12,500 points, you get 2000 to 3000 points depending on how much you've paid for the hotel. And for every review, you get 500 points.)
Lastly, most room deals come with free cancellation. You'll realized that only those heavily discounted deals come with no-cancellation policy. AND, the best part about managing your budget for your trip? Agoda offers the Book Now, Pay Later feature which the amount will only be charged to your credit card 3 days prior to your booking date. Any cancellation done earlier will incur a USD15 charge only.
5. Numbeo
Info: Numbeo.com was launched in April 2009. The research and available data at Numbeo.com are not influenced by any governmental organization.
You need to get on the site to understand the info. Numbeo provides cost of living, property prices, crime rate, health care, pollution, traffic and quality of life for all big cities. I've been using Numbeo to find out the cost of living in the country I'm traveling to. It helps me budget how much I'd need to spend on transportation, an average meal and groceries (if I'm staying in AirBnB, I get to cook).
It's pretty accurate I must say. It's always good to budget your expenses and not overpay for goods and/or services.
Labels: agoda, airbnb, arrival guides, arrivalguides, numbeo, recommendations, reviews, roomkey, singapore, tips, travel, travel blog, travels, tripadvisor Tuesday, July 1, 2014
8 Days in Sydney, Australia Previously I decided to post on my experience Skydiving in Sydney before I actually write on my other days in Sydney because I quote, "Without the skydive experience, this trip would have been nothing but a summer getaway." and I meant it. In all honesty, Sydney is a lovely city with friendly people around. You bump into someone on the road, they'll say sweet things like after you which I promise you'll never get in Singapore. Or if you're pushing a trolley saying excuse me in the supermarket, people actually apologize for blocking your way. I've never been to Australia, and Sydney was my first city in that wild country. It was a great experience, just not one of my favourite cities. Any other ways, here are some of the things I checked from my itinerary which may help you if you're travelling to Sydney :) 
Sydney Opera House
About: Sydney Opera House is a thriving hub of art, culture and history. It's one of the world's most distinctive buildings, attracting millions of visitors from all over the world.
Review: I didn't actually step in Sydney Opera House, there wasn't any good musical or rather, any musical or show I knew how to appreciate happening when I was there. Hence, I gave that I miss. But, if you're in Sydney and looking for a cheaper musical with good theatre system, check out Capitol Theatre. The Lion King was featured when we were there, we did not choose to give it a miss, but rather they were fully booked the whole week. They have 1200 seats available, and yet fully booked for all timing and days, hence if you're catching a musical there, BOOK IN ADVANCE!
Blue Mountain Day Tour
Blue Mountain Day Tour
We took a one-day Blue Mountain Tour with One Stop Adventures. Basically we trekked for 2.5 hours up and down Blue Mountain. I fell when we were about to reach the bottom, :( so I had to slowly climb my way up. It was a great view and we were really lucky because the tour started early and we managed to catch the clouds covering the rainforest - picture one.
After trekking, we had lunch which was provided in the tour. It was one of the hearty-iest meal I had in Sydney. I just have to show you..
 
Now you may continue drooling. It had ham, tomato, lots of corn beef and cheese with some leafy greens. And the bread, omg, the bread, crispy and soft at the same time. LOVE IT. And we were given brownies and apple too. What a healthy and hearty meal.. After which, we proceeded to Echo Point where we started trekking again - down to The Three Sisters and thank god we didn't have to climb up (background: I sprained my leg when I fell. I didn't want to continue trekking but Ben, our tour guide, told us that we will be taking the World's Steepest Railway back up, and... I cannot miss it for a leg!)
The Three Sisters
4 hours of blood and sweat to this
Honestly I do not buy the story of The Three Sisters. With all due respect for Australia's most visited by tourist location, but first and foremost, the story our tour guide told us was entirely different from Wikipedia. I didn't buy the story from Wikipedia any ways. Secondly, how can someone turn another person into a rock? Scientifically, it didn't make any sense that a Bogeyman-alike human was chasing after 7 daughters of a magician. And the magician saw and used his wand to turn his 7 daughters into rock which 4 collapsed after years past, and hence The Three Sisters. Put that aside, the scenery and view was fantastic though, and the steepest railway was really cool though, 52 degree! It was never in my bucket list but I can safely say I took the World's Steepest Railway!
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Nothing fantastic about the bridge, but you can climb the bridge though. It may cost you around AUD200, but I thought it wasn't worth it so I didn't went up. But, believe me, Sydney Harbour Bridge is prettier than London Bridge!
 
If you love seafood, or sashimi - you've to read the next two paragraph very carefully.
YOU HAVE TO GO TO SYDNEY FISH MARKET.
I mean it. We went to the fish market the second day we were there, and went back for more the last day before we headed back. They have the freshest seafood. And it's ridiculously cheap. 1 kilogram of sashimi cost you around AUD49. It sounds ridiculous, but the platter of sashimi I had was AUD11. Look at how many zillion pieces are there!! We had to go for the second platter. (The last day we went for 3 platter immediately, and we had sashimi coma; not kidding)
God bless you, fisherman.
As for the oysters, half a dozen cost around AUD7 and they've more which I didn't manage to try and was not a big fan of either - scallops, king prawn, lobster etc. Tip: Go on a week day, you can get seats around on a week day. We went on a weekend and we were sitting on the grass patch which we were very insecure about because the sea gulls seems to be eyeing our sashimi.
Background Info: Sydney Fish Market is the largest market of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the third largest seafood market in terms of variety in the world. Approximately 2,800 crates (around 50 tonnes) of the freshest possible seafood is auctioned each day through the computerised Dutch auction system to approximately 150 buyers.
 
North Head, Sydney National Park
Oh, this was a good day. We were tricked by Skydive Australia again. But we didn't let that ruin our day so we head off to Manly Beach. We took a ferry from Town Hall to Manly Beach and hired a bicycle for AUD46 a day to cycle around. From the ferry terminal to Sydney National Park, you'll need to cycle for around 20 minutes but our dear GPS gave us the wrong direction, we ended up cycling for 3 hours plus, 4 hours back and forth in total to North Head. It was still worth it, the view for breathtaking. I still remember the very moment we reach the top of the hill, I was panting from the tedious exercise, but when I saw the scenery, it literally took my breathe away.
We sat there for a good half an hour before we decided to ride back to town. It was great day, I built some real calves' muscle and my legs were hard like metal the next day. (The next day was the day we trekked for 4 hours..... It was no longer physically tiring, but very mentally challenging.)
Sydney Chinatown at Haymarket
I realized a lot of countries I've been to always have Chinatown. And that's where you find Chinese food, and Chinese of course. We love one particular store, 朱妈妈台湾小吃 Zhu Mama Taiwanese Food, they have very good soya milk with you tiao.
150-year-old Sydney Town Hall
Forgotten Songs
Rum Hospital
Yes, you get Free Walking Tour in Sydney too. They cover a range of places like Darling Harbour, Rum Hospital, Queen Victoria Building, Forgotten Songs, Sydney Town Hall, Sydney's CBD within 4 hours and end at Sydney Harbour Bridge. My favourite was Forgotten Song. The place commemorates the songs of fifty birds once heard in central Sydney before they were gradually forced out of the city. It was really artsy and pretty!
Background Info: I'm not sure exactly which country or state provides Free Walking Tour but I've been to London's and Sydney's. Basically the tour is free. You merely tip your guide according to their service. It's works pretty well if you're going on a budget trip because you don't burn a hole in your pocket with tour, and you pay whatever you're comfortable with. AND, you get better service because they live on tips only.
I didn't really enjoy the tour because I learnt that Sydney (I'm not sure about the whole of Australia) doesn't have much history and originality. The phrase that was most repeated was "They copied ***, they copied ***, they copied ***" Everything is copied. They've a huge clock copying Big Ben, they've a huge sculpture and hospital copying the Irish. Sighhh.
Hence I quote again, "Without the skydive experience, this trip would have been nothing but a summer getaway." And I quote again, "It was a great experience, just not one of my favourite city."
A few tips if you're travelling to Sydney:
Labels: australia, opera house, singapore, sydney, things to do in sydney, tips, travel, travel blog, travel tips, travels, tripadvisor, walking tour, what to do in sydney Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Phuket Experience 
Just came back from Patong Beach, Phuket! Well, we all need that one short getaway once in awhile - take a break from work, from the urban city. But I guess we went during the wrong time of the year, monsoon season! It did affect the trip a little, but I got to snorkel!
On the first day we arrived, it was already pouring, and we couldn't check in yet as it was too early so we went to Tantra Indian Restaurant (to be honest, they actually had more Indian food than Thai food). After our brunch, we proceed to check-in to White Sands Resortel. It's the worst hotel filled with cockroaches, in short, don't ever stay there.
After checking in, we had our massage and manicure at a few shophouse away from our hotel, Anahita Thai Massage. They offer full body massage at 300 baht an hour (around SGD12) and classic manicure at 200 baht (around $8)!
(Chicken curry & chapati)
(My ikea-ish look nail)
On the second day, we went to Phi Phi Island! It is really pretty, but quite overrated from the pictures you can find from Google. We bought a snorkel package from airport at 1500 baht (around $65) per person - it includes pick-up from hotel to ferry terminal, ferry ride to and fro Phi Phi Island, snorkel equipments and buffet lunch! So to summarize my day trip, it was a bumpy-long sea ride, and tiring tiring day!
(Phi Phi Island)
(Viking Cave)
(Snorkelling in Phi Phi Island)
On the third day, we kind of ran out of activities to do. It was flooding like mad!
 
You can see how bad the flood is by looking at the water level covering the bike's tyre. But later in the afternoon, the flood was cleared, so we went to Junceylon Shopping Mall! They're like the tourist one-stop heaven, with clothings from Adidas, Nike, to souvenirs like massage oil, scented candles and Thai food at the food court which you can find at the basement.
Later that night, we walked down to Bangla Street and we stumbled upon a street full of strip clubs! And let's cut the story short, boyfriend did not enjoy the atmosphere and surrounding of the club. So we headed to Monsoon for a bucket of Chang Beer. It was 300 baht for a bucket of beer with 2 complimentary shots - a price you'll NEVER EVER find in Singapore. Oh, and boyfriend bought me a rose! :D
(Their strip show is called the Ping Pong show)
 
(Our first fireworks put out together)
Behold, the pictures are going to make you drool.   
I've to give credits to the cook as the food tasted amazingggg!
Then we head off to walk around Bangla Road for the last time before we went home. We stopped at their food fair and had kebab and potato swirl (what I choose to call it, I don't know the term for the potato thingy). It was good though! Had our last massage too, and we asked the masseur where can we find the best Tomyum, and they actually recommend Royal India Restaurant (told ya, Indian servings). I've read about the reviews online before I went to Phuket, apparently they serve the best food, which I can't totally deny.
 
My first trip to Phuket - to be honest, it's not the first place in my mind I would want to go back to but I love the beach life, the food and the culture. I did came back missing it, and we're planning to go back again next year with our friends. :)
Labels: food, jungceylon, patong beach, phuket, reviews, thailand, travel, travels, tripadvisor, white sands resortel |
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xx
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