augustdinersfoodblog: Augustdiners Travels: Bali, Part 1- Annora Villa

I find writing harder and harder. I don’t know how bloggers keep up with it. I’ve been distracted with my japan, and singapore post so many times I’ve lost count. Almost finish writing but too lazy to upload the photos yet. Though I can’t wait to share, I decided to jump the wagon and write about bali instead, mainly because it’s still so fresh in my mind.

We were there for a weekend getaway. It was a short short trip but there’s no way we were willing to sacrifice more of our annual leave, so we stick to 3 days 2 nights. (4 days would have been perfect)

There’s so many resorts and hotels around Bali. So I would recommend for exploring when it comes to hotel picking for different experience. People either stay in Kuta (very touristy where hard rock hotel is), Ubud (quite seemingly untouched area filled with beautiful resorts catering more for couples), and Seminyik (where we stay). Seminyik has gained a lot of exposure over the years, foreigners has flooded the place with higher end local design boutiques and cafes/bars. I was told by a local that it has been increasingly popular for tourist and its popularity has already exceeded Kuta. Personally I don’t quite prefer Kuta for its constant traffic jams, and overly packed beach. We happily stayed in Seminyik for the past 3 days with 2 main aims, sunbathe and drink. No sightseeing this trip just pure relaxing trip to get away from the work related stress.

Crazieapple chose Annora Villa, Seminyik for this trip. We booked a 2 room pool villa, with a nice private pool and spacious deck with sofas, tv, and dining table. It is located at a convenient spot, walking distance from the main shopping roads (about 10 minutes), and 5 minutes walk from the beach. Annora Villa is a boutique resort that only houses 13 villas. Exclusive with extremely helpful friendly staffs.

As soon as we landed, we got our driver to bring us to the nearest supermarket to stock up on alcohol, and food for the night- we were planning a BBQ at our villa. You can rent them from the resort at least one day in advance. We didn’t, and Annora said they couldn’t prepare in time at first, but after our disappointing whine and all, they went all their way to find one for us. Thank you Annora =)

Some photos to share:

Reception area! Oops spotted my duty free bag :)

Our private pool villa

Our room

And their adjoined bathroom

Directly Outside our villa is the common pool and a shaded cabannaarea , which is seemingly untouched. It's almost like we had the whole resort to ourselves. During our trip there, i've only seen one couple sunbathing at the leisure chairs. The rest of the guest must b hiding in their own retreat because everything can be delivered to you- it's too convenient.

Our complimentary welcome massage lasted 15 minutes, however it was pretty good that some of us went back for a full course 1 hour that cost approximately RM50.

'nuff said. Let the party begin. Bintang Beer Mou?

One whole carton of 24s cost us approx RM150 odds?

Well worth it. And this is what we do to it.

Woohoo! i've always wanted a floating beer pool!

Oh Boy, perfect way to chill our beers as the water was a lil too chilly for skin comfort

Of course we would not be contented with just beer. We stock up on some Smirnoff ice (yummay!), Belvedere Vodka, Hendrink Gin (i only drink gin and tonic with this now. I can't settle for anything else.hehe) Put in some lime, and tonic Wahla! it's good to go.

And last but not least. A quick Thrill would be Tequila. We chose the cheap ones from the airport. Like i said. Cheap.Trill.

Look at the amount of food we stocked up in our fridge, enough to feed a village

Whilst the rest of the guest were there for a retreat, we treated our pool villa as our party house. Bought really cheap Music CDs by those pirated CD shops- RM3 per disc?, and blast it out from our outdoor TV which has a dvd player. Few hours of fun in the sun and water, the friendly staff of Annora came by as per scheduled time to set up our bbq pit.

Oh yes, we were well prepared with pool beds, and beach ball too :) The problem we had to release the air at the end of the trip and stuffing it back to our luggages sigh

Say Hello to Chef Jazz

Sloppy Sausage Sizzles the aussie way

So next day, it was beach day, time to hit the sun and get some tan (not)

There is complimentary breakfast, either continental or local (nasi/mee goreng)

Again you can order via phone and they will bring it to your villa and do the whole set up

I eat a lot during breakfast. So i also ordered ala carte from their menu. Food prices in Annora is very reasonable and taste quite good that we ended up ordering plenty of food during our stay there.

James Patterson may not be the best Beach Book, But im very hooked with him. I have his full collection novels. As well as Josh Grishams, Jackie Collins, and Sophie Kinsella (dont ask)

You'll find a lot of these in front of all the commercial shops. I think for prayer purposes?

BEACH BEACH BEACH! (with air asia umbrellas everywhere)... Perfect Marketing Idea!

Oh Hello Crazieapple! It's been awhile

Blue Sky and Sea Breeze, i can stay here whole day.

The sun behave well throughout the trip. We've got plenty of love from it.

But the waves were crazy Strong that it was pretty hard for us to go Surfing. Especially Noobie Surfers like us that will get eaten alive by the wave.