Our honeymoon in Singapore and Bali

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We flew from Heathrow to Singapore with Singapore Airlines on 26 September 2023, at the start of our honeymoon. We'd booked through Trailfinders, with five nights in Singapore, six in Ubud and five at the beach in Nusa Dua. A busy start, then some time to slow down.

We had some fantastic days out, and the hotels in Singapore and Ubud treated us really well. We also made time for a few things we'd arranged especially for the honeymoon, including dinner on a sailing ship and a meal on the beach.

Starting in Singapore#

We arrived on 27 September and checked into JEN Singapore Orchardgateway. There were welcome chocolates and a little "Just Married" card waiting for us. We were still at the stage of holding our hands out to admire the wedding rings, so this was all going down very well.

Our first afternoon was down by Marina Bay, looking across at Marina Bay Sands and the ArtScience Museum. That evening we went to Clarke Quay for dinner beside the river.

The next day we spent hours at Gardens by the Bay. We went through the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, then up among the Supertrees. Inside the Cloud Forest, the walkways take you high into the glasshouse, around a planted mountain with a waterfall pouring down the front of it.

Later we wandered through the food stalls at Rasapura Masters in Marina Bay Sands. There were counters full of ingredients to choose from, with people carrying their trays back to the tables. Between the food courts here, Malaysian Food Street on Sentosa and Maxwell, we fitted quite a few food stops into our five days in Singapore.

Around the stalls at Rasapura Masters, Marina Bay Sands.

We went back to the gardens for the Supertree light show after dark, looking up into the blue and purple branches, and finished the evening with the view from Marina Bay Sands. We'd spent much of the day in the gardens below; now we could look out over the whole bay.

A day at Universal Studios#

We'd set aside a day for Universal Studios Singapore, which we'd been keen to try since our Florida Disney trip. I'd bought our day tickets before we left home, and we headed over to Sentosa for the park, starting with a photo together at the globe. A honeymoon seemed a perfectly good excuse for a theme park day.

After the park we sat down at Malaysian Food Street, beneath strings of lights and painted shophouse fronts. Dinner was prata with curry and a plate of satay, spread out across the table between us.

We stayed on Sentosa into the evening, going up SkyHelix with our feet dangling above the trees. Then it was down to the waterfront for Wings of Time, with fountains and projections over the water.

Feet dangling on SkyHelix Sentosa.

Chinatown after dark#

Back on the main island, we went for a walk through Chinatown. The night bazaar was busy, with lanterns strung across the streets and people still browsing the stalls. We stopped outside Sri Mariamman Temple to look up at the figures covering its entrance tower, then carried on towards the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

There was a dragon dance beside the temple, with a crowd gathered under the lanterns. We stopped to watch before walking round to see the whole building lit up. We'd started the day at Universal Studios and were still out exploring Chinatown after nine that evening.

Maxwell, Little India and the Night Safari#

The following morning we went on the Singapore Flyer, looking out across the bay from the capsule. Afterwards we walked over the Helix Bridge and back through Marina Bay Sands, including a look inside the glass dome of the Apple Store.

A different view of the city from the Singapore Flyer.

By lunchtime we were back in Chinatown, this time at Maxwell Food Centre. We had a look around the stalls, including Ah Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice, and stopped for fresh juices. Sitting down with a cold drink was a welcome part of a day spent walking around Singapore.

In the afternoon we headed to Little India and walked along Serangoon Road, stopping outside Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple. Its tower was packed with figures, with red and white stripes running along the walls below.

Then we sat down for food again. Lucy had a dosa with curry and chutneys, so large that it hung over the edges of the metal tray. We were making good use of the gaps between attractions.

That evening we headed to the Night Safari. We saw lions, hyenas and an elephant, and watched part of the animal presentation. The transfer timings made it a shorter visit than we'd hoped, so we left with plenty still to see.

At the Night Safari.

A spotted hyena at the Night Safari.

Afternoon tea at Raffles and the Royal Albatross#

We had made quite a day of 1 October: afternoon tea at Raffles, then a sunset dinner cruise on the Royal Albatross.

For Raffles we dressed up and sat beneath the chandeliers in the Grand Lobby, with sandwiches, little cakes and teapots spread across the table. A fairly different sort of afternoon from dangling our feet over Sentosa.

I'd booked the cruise before we left home, including a table for two at the bow. We sailed at six, so dinner took us from daylight through sunset and into the evening. There was rigging overhead and the city lit up across the water on the way back.

Back beside the water after our evening sail.

Our villa in Ubud and days out around Bali#

We moved to Bali on 2 October and stayed at The Ubud Village Resort & Spa. The villa had a four-poster bed, an outdoor bathing area and its own pool, with palms and rice fields around the resort.

They'd left a handwritten note congratulating us on the wedding, towel swans on the bed and a heart of flower petals in the bath. We had gone from a room looking out across Singapore to a villa surrounded by greenery. Both hotels treated us really well.

Rice fields beside the resort on our first afternoon in Ubud.

The Bali tours were fantastic. On our first full day we went to Monkey Forest, where a mother sat on a railing holding her baby and other monkeys were scattered through the trees around us.

We carried on to the rice terraces at Tegallalang and then Tirta Empul. People were bathing beneath the water spouts, and a ceremony was taking place in the courtyard. We stood watching people move through the temple buildings in white and orange.

The rice terraces at Tegallalang.

There was time around the resort between the days out, too. We spent the fourth there, then went out again on the fifth for waterfalls and paths winding between the rocks.

A slower day around the Ubud resort.

Sunrise on Mount Batur#

On 6 October we were up Mount Batur in the dark, wearing headtorches and waiting at the summit before five in the morning. There wasn't much of a view to begin with.

Then the sky started to lighten. Mountains appeared beyond a layer of cloud, and the sun came through as a small red disc. We sat together watching it rise, with the clouds still below us.

Sitting together and watching the sunrise.

Later that morning we stopped at a terrace looking back towards the mountain. By then the sky was clear and blue, and we could see the outline of the volcano across the landscape.

Finishing by the beach in Nusa Dua#

The final five nights were at Nusa Dua Beach Hotel & Spa. After Singapore and our days out around Ubud, we had left this part of the trip for the beach, the spa and dinners together. I'd booked a honeymoon dinner on the sand before we even left home.

We arrived on 8 October to welcome drinks, another decorated bed and a room looking into the gardens. There were paths through the grounds to wander along, a swing on the beach and the sea just beyond it.

One morning a member of staff walked across the lawn with a line of white geese following behind. They made it into the film, alongside the gardens and our walks around the resort.

We did have a problem with one of our dinners, which Trailfinders helped us raise with the hotel. The next day the hotel offered a refund and dinner that evening, and I felt much better about how it was handled. A small part of a trip with plenty of good things to remember.

For the last few days, the beach and the resort gardens were our surroundings, with dinners together in the evenings. A different pace from climbing a volcano before sunrise.

We flew home from Bali via Singapore after sixteen nights away, arriving back at Heathrow on Saturday morning.