HONEYMOON DAY ONE
Uluwatu, Bali marked the first location for our honeymoon! After the wedding, we had a Chinese banquet the next day, took another half a day to rest, then jetted off to our first honeymoon destination. After the hectic back to back celebrations, we strategically planned our first stop to be a more relaxing experience — spas, pool lounging, sunset dinners by the cliffside, and more. We definitely spoiled ourselves a bit and stayed at the 5 star Bali hotel Alila Villas Uluwatu. And oh, let me tell you, they spoiled us all right.
Stepping into the lobby, we had a direct view to the waters. We were greeted with warm smiles and a welcome box of chocolate madeline-like cookies, rice crackers, warm towels, and sweet honey drinks as they went over the check in process. Once we finished checking in, a golf cart was made available to take us and our luggage up the hill to our hotel room. Prior to our arrival, they emailed us with a “Personal Preference Menu” questionnaire where we detailed things like the fact that we were celebrating our honeymoon, how often we wanted our bedsheets changed, the type of pillows we preferred, down to the type of music we liked. They even asked us what level of service we wanted and offered options all the way from “indulgent” (aka a dedicated host who stands by to be exclusively to your service) to “environmentally conscious”.
Walking into the hotel room, I had heart eyes (like the emoji). Everything in the room was not only gorgeous, but also well thought out. They placed differently scented lip balms for us each on our side of the bed, and also an entire set of hand soap, natural bug repellant, lotion, body wash, shampoo, and conditioner set aside specifically listed as “for him” and “for her”. In the middle of the room was a vase full of flowers that filled the room with this sweet, honey-like smell that I just fell in love with. They also left us a snack basket in the room with infused coconut water, fresh tangerine orange juice, vegetable chips with balinese sea salt, mixed cookies, and local fruit. Our favorite feature was was the living room window that slid open to the outdoors to our private pool that overlooked the ocean. They also had a bath drawn up for us upon our arrival (wow) and the outdoor shower in the back was also a nice touch. I was in such shock and constantly swooning. I have never stayed at a place like this before!
After a bit of unpacking, we decided to head down to the Sunset Cabana in the resort to grab a couple of drinks and small appetizers to round out Day 1 of our Honeymoon!
DAY TWO
Our hotel stay came with complimentary daily à la carte breakfast at their hotel restaurant, the Cire. They seated us, handed a menu, and allowed us to order an unlimited number of items. So for our first day, you best believe we went a little crazy. The menu offered things both western-styled and local Indonesian-styled dishes. Everything was so delicious that I ate til my stomach could no longer fit anymore.
Afterwards, we wandered a little bit around the resort, found a path that led down to the beach and the crazy infinite pool that overlooks the ocean! Then we spent the rest of the day lounging by our private pool, enjoying bubble paths. Then we walked over to the hotel spa and redeemed our complimentary 60 minute spa treatment for two! It was both of our first times getting a professional massage so we had no idea what to expect. They brought a platter of available scents of oils for us to choose from for our massage and offered us iced ginger tea (which Harry liked so much he finished 3 glasses of) as we waited. We sprung for the Balinese massage and they mostly used their palms and thumbs for “long Balinese strokes”, which provided the perfect amount of pressure for me. It was sooo soothing and Harry rated it an 11 out of 10.
For dinner, we stopped by a different hotel restaurant, the Warung, and ate a fancy Indonesian meal with fish sauté skewers on lemongrass sticks, nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice), coconut rice, chicken curry, scrambled egg whites cooked in coconut milk, whole chicken roasted for 3 hours in a banana leave, and a plethora of spicy sauces.
DAY THREE
We woke up around 5:30AM due to jetlag and therefore were able to watch the sunrise from our pool and enjoy a morning swim in the wee hours of the morning. Shortly after we ended our morning swim, heavy rain started pouring, so we suited up and head down for another amazing a la carte complimentary breakfast, looking over the ocean. We packed up our items, checked out, bid farewell to our gorgeous villa, and took a taxi over to the jungle to Ubud for our next adventure!
I will say that while driving out of the luxurious resorts in the taxi, we got to take a glimpse of what locals lived like in what is considered to be a third world country. I started to feel unsettled and a sense of I guess…guilt from having lived so luxuriously the past few days without having been out to get to know what life truly looked like to live as the Balinese people did. That being said, our time in Uluwatu served its purpose of a haven of relaxation to come down from the craziness of all the wedding celebrations. We just noted that we wanted to come back to Bali one day to truly see the country instead. Til next time Uluwatu! Onward to Ubud!
