Planning a first-time trip to Asia can be a daunting task. Even more so when that trip is supposed to be your honeymoon.

While our first trip in the Netherlands taught us the importance of light traveling, our first-time in Asia taught us many different lessons. We’ve learned to laugh through exhaustion, embrace the tropical rain, to face our fear of lizards ( kind of… 🤫 ) and so many more which we’ll uncover next.

Why Bali & Singapore?

Why would you choose Bali nowadays when when the internet is full of complaints about it not being authentic anymore, being overrun with tourists, and just being an overall tourist trap? None of this mattered to me when I tried to persuade Lory to choose Bali as our honeymoon destination. I was fascinated with Bali ever since highschool, when HaiHui in doi planted a seed of wanderlust in my heart that pushes me to this day to explore new places.
The prospect of wild jungles, rice fields, waterfalls, and good food was enough to make us take that vital leap of faith into the universe of traveling.

Singapore was a late addition, and it was the kind of impulsive decision you can take much more easily when you are young and careless. It first popped up as an idea that I tried to scrap away as my wallet was screaming at me that it’s already working overtime. However, the thought of being able to take in the views at Gardens by the Bay or just marvel at the Jewel waterfall made it a very real addition to our first-time trip to Asia.

Planning phase

If you are remotely as much of an overthinker as me, you’ll probably spend weeks if not months planning on locations, hotels, flights, itineraries, and so on. If you don’t have experience, you’ll probably do just what I did: go to a travel agency and let them help you organize it. It’s not shameful to do that, even though it’s really frowned upon by people who travel a lot. It’s ok to be scared and to need some help from people who do this professionally. Do I use travel agencies today? Not anymore, I mustered enough courage to go anywhere and plan it ourselves, but at the time of planning our honeymoon, I didn’t have the courage nor the experience to spend so much money based on my own knowledge.
So, after many variations, twists and turns, our itinerary ( constrained by the budget, I must say) for our first-time trip to Asia was the following:

• 2 nights in Singapore
• 4 nights in Ubud
• 6 nights in Nusa Dua

Is this itinerary perfect? Far from it, but looking back at it, I’m proud of what we planned. We were going to spend 12 days in Bali & Singapore, and we were planning to make the most of it.

Singapore: stepping into the future?

Our first stop was Singapore. After a 3-hour drive, a short 1-hour flight, an all-too-short layover in Frankfurt, and an almost missed 10-hour flight to Singapore, Changi Airport welcomed us along with a beautiful sunrise, and it’s safe to say we were amazed by the architectural complexity of it. We needed to wait about 2 hours before we could see the Jewel waterfall so our first task was to ditch the luggage. Fortunately, there’s a luggage storage service right in the airport, so once we got rid of our trolley bags, we were free to explore this amazing ( and huge ) airport. One thing no one told us was that long flights will probably result in tired people, and tired people lead to tensions. So after a few minutes of chirping at each other about things we laugh at today, we were truly ready to explore.

And one thing is for sure: The name fits the place. The Jewel is probably one of the most superb manmade places we have seen to this day. The small train that passes in front of it just adds such a picturesque vibe to the whole picture that when we finally left for the hotel, we were about 500 pictures heavier on our phones.

💡 Be prepared to feel like you have entered a vacuum once you leave the airport. The humidity is off the charts in Singapore

Our hotel, while in a nice area of the city, was nowhere near the center of the city. We could’ve taken public transportation to our hotel, but due to us being very tired from the road, we decided to take a cab. Be prepared for cabs to be super expensive in Singapore. Oh, and also, you need an app to get a taxi, hailing doesn’t work.

Our time in Singapore was nothing different than the thousands of itineraries you will find online, visiting Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands, The Merlion, Chinatown, ArtScience Museum, and many more.

A few highlights for us were the light show at Gardens by the Bay and walking through some areas in the city that are part of the F1 circuit (really cool if you are an F1 fan ). Keep in mind to book your ArtScience Museum tickets in advance as they sell out fast.

Singapore can be quite expensive, but a few tricks to keep in mind is to buy the water at convenience stores and also that the food in food markets in ChinaTown or Little India are far cheaper than at the malls.

Overall, Singapore is a place we would love to return to, being an interesting blend of traditional culture and modernism, jam-packed in a city with friendly locals.

Bali: From the urban jungle to the green paradise

After 2 humid, action-packed days in the urban jungle of Singapore, we made our way to the actual jungle, landing at Denpasar Airport. The change of vibe, air, and scenery was present at every step. While a scary sight for the urban mind of ours, the wanderlust and desire for adventure were calling us.

The first thing we needed to do was pick up a driver at least for the first day, to take us all the way up to Ubud. We negotiated a price of about 50 Euros, we got picked up by our driver, Jonson. On the nearly three-hour drive up to Ubud, we got to talking, and since we liked him, we decided to stick with him for the trips in the upcoming days. In Bali, cash will be your most trusted ally. We tried paying with Apple Pay at one of the shops and safe to say, the shopkeeper was shocked that our phone could do that. We recommend carrying cash on you, as well as a physical bank card. Also, you should not exchange money at any random place. Ask at the hotel which exchanges would be good places, that won’t have hidden commissions or just straight up bad exchange rates.

We can confidently say that our highlight of the trip was the infinity pool at our hotel in Ubud. Padma Resort Ubud has one of the biggest infinity pools in Bali, and due to its sheer size, it never feels crowded with other people.
Early mornings in the pool offered us a way to disconnect from the digital world. It was just us two, overlooking the Balinese jungle in a peaceful, serene setting. We of course got to listen to the traditional Rindik songs that live rent-free in our heads to this day.

There are so many great things that make Bali a great stop for a first-time trip to Asia that I cannot describe them in one article. Tegalalang rice terrace, Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, Lempuyang Temple, and so many more might be Instagram sensations now, but we have to remember they are gorgeous sights to begin with.

While Bali is famous for its waterfalls and temples, the culinary scene here doesn’t disappoint at all. If you are a big peanut butter fan, as I am, you will truly enjoy traditional Chicken Satay. For fruit lovers, Bali has a wide offering, including Durian Fruit ( my personal favorite, although beware the smell ), Mangosteen Fruit, Mango, Guava, to name a few. Part of adventuring is taking a step into the unknown, so i can safely say that asking the waiter to bring me “Whatever he recommends” was me taking a leap of faith. And it truly paid off!

The day trip to Nusa Penida is a nice thing to do. Although the small island is oversaturated with eager tourists, at the end of the day, the sights are worth the trouble. We opted to see the West part of the island, including Kelingking Beach and Crystal Bay. Overall a good experience, although the roads and driver were a bit reckless.

Conclusions on our first-time trip to Asia

AMAZING. This word describes our trip to Bali and Singapore perfectly. A perfect blend of modern and wild, of natural and man-made wonders. It changed our brain chemistry to always search for the amazing, to take that leap of faith.
There are a few encounters with places in ones life that truly change who you are and how you view life. We have fallen in love head over heels with Asia after this slight taste, and Bali will forever be our first true love.

If you would like to read about our first trip together as a married couple, check out our article : Netherlands – or the importance of light traveling