Friday, November 7, 2008

the wedding: honeymoon

Here's a tip, free and for nothing. My favourite part of the wedding planning so far was researching, dreaming of and deciding on the honeymoon! It's my happy thought when I get down and the big pay off at the end of the year's work.

Of course I'm looking forward to the actual day and to marrying my wonderful man and I absolutely expect to have a brilliant wedding filled with meaning and love and all the things a wedding should be, but come on. Don't tell me two weeks in Bali is not something entirely different to look forward to? Yep, two weeks in Bali baby.

BB and I went through a whole virtual trip around the world together to get to Bali, and it was fantastic. I know a lot of grooms organise it all on their own and it's meant to remain their secret, but this was just too much fun for me not to participate.
Confession, when BB started muttering phrases including "hiking trips through the Amazon" and "climbing expeditions in Machu Picchu", I also felt compelled to intervene! I'd love to do something really adventurous, challenging and character forming like that one day, but not straight after the busiest year of my life, please?

In order to find a happy medium, we then investigated medium-adventure destinations like Costa Rica, Belize, Guatamala, Madagascar and such, but nothing seemed a perfect fit. We were also super keen to see Brazil but the travel agents we approached didn't seem very interested in helping us find anything out of the ordinary. No, they just kept pushing the same big resort, all-inclusive package deals to Mauritius, Seychelles and Thailand onto us... Fabulous vacations, I’m sure, but not what we were looking for.

So what were we looking for? We can be quite the picky couple let me tell you. I wanted: warm sun, mild sea, sandy beach, nice pool, a little luxury, some privacy, good food, shopping and the option to explore some night life. BB wanted mild weather, good swimming, tropical scenery, exotic culture, exploration, fab food and no anonymously huge hotels.

I spent days on tripadvisor and eventually we found the concept of Private Villas in Bali. You can get your own little one bedroom villa, with your own little pool in your own little backyard for the same price or less than the big resorts charge for just another room like any other. (You have to contact the villas though and check their package rates. Their advertised rates are much higher than what we paid!) My own pool? I don’t care if it’s the size of my living room rug, I like quaint and cosy, it’s my pool! I can lie around in tiny bikinis and roll into the pool and splash and play and do handstands and no one’s there to appreciate it except my new hubby? I was sold.

There are many different villa developments and each one is more luxurious than the next. When we contacted a few of them they offered us honeymoon packages and stay-longer specials and threw in massages and meals and day-trips and in the end we feel we got a fantastic deal on the perfect place for us.
It’s in Seminyak, the allegedly trendy, smart shopping/eating suburb neighbouring touristy Kuta and while it’s not on the beach, they do offer free transport around the area. We can go out to shop, eat, lie on the beach, sip cocktails and if the crowds get too much we can just retreat to our private haven. Sounds like heaven to me.

To satisfy BB’s more adventurous needs we’ll visit the markets, go snorkelling and parasailing, take a surfing lesson or two and maybe rent a moped to drive around the island. The last couple of nights aren’t booked yet, so we’ll pack up and try somewhere different then. Go inland to seek out more culture around Ubud in the rice paddies, or take a boat over to the pristine, car-free little island of Nusa Lembongan.

Oh goodness, can we get there already?

Oh, I nearly forgot. The catch.

Apart from the very reasonably priced accommodation, we also found fantastically cheap flights on Qatar Airways. I’ve flown with them before and they are a perfectly good airline. The only little niggle is that their flights are so cheap because they want to lure you into Doha, their capital. So all flights on Qatar Airways go through Doha, and the layover there is usually at least eight hours. When we first considered Qatar Airways, it was widely publicised that the airline will provide travellers on a long layover with a visa and hotel voucher. Perfect! We could spend the first day on honeymoon shopping in their humongous malls or chilling by a nice hotel pool!

We booked our flights. All was set. Then I discovered a few more recent posts on tripadvisor forums describing how only certain passport holders are now allowed to obtain visas to enter Qatar and as usual, South Africans are not on this lucky list. When I phoned Qatar Airways to get confirmation, they told me that we could only obtain Qatar visas by booking accommodation at a four or five star hotel in Doha. Our layover is actually during the daytime, so we just don’t feel it’s worth spending the money on an expensive room in Doha, when we’d be out and about anyway. Not to mention that those Riyals will be worth a fortune in Balinese Rupiahs!

So our first day on honeymoon will look something like this:



Except we can't leave the airport, so really more like this:



Which is not the end of the world, as we’ll finally get to this:












Oh, I feel so much better already.

20 comments:

EliandMe said...

Wow, looking at those pictures I can almost feel the sun beating down on my face.

We are not having a honeymoon so I am very jealous!

Em said...

Great choice going for a private villa with a private pool - lucky you! It looks very stylish.
I've heard great things about Ubud - there's a number of lovely looking hotels up that way so you'll be spoilt for choice.
Shame about the long layover, but hopefully you two will be still on a big wedding high so you'll barely notice it.

cara said...

Oh I hate you. We didn't have a honeymoon and I regret it so much. Nobody tells you this but you NEED a honeymoon after having a wedding. People talk about it as if you just deserve some luxury and a reward for the momentous achievement of getting married but you actually NEED it to take it all in. Bali looks absolutely perfect. Did I mention I hate you?

Janine / Being Brazen said...

That sounds AWESOME!!! you are going to have an absolutely brilliant honeymoon :)

Brittany said...

wow, wow, WOW!!! that is amazing! I want to jump right into that little pool right now! What a great find after a little research, BRAVO!!

beka said...

Those photos are so awesome!!

Kimberly Julie said...

Stunning.

I am insanely jealous!! What a wonderful place to escape to with your new husband. :)

Jamie said...

Yeah, I'm going to have to stick with Peonies on this one....seriously...I'm a hater. But WOW. What an amazing honeymoon you're going to have!!!

Anonymous said...

I wanna go!!

Kristy said...

8 hours in the Doha airport is a small sacrifice, I think, for that luscious villa. I'm a little jealous. ;)

Had I "known" you when you were researching Brasil, I could've given you lots of recommendations on where to visit. If you ever do end up planning a trip there, let me know and I'll tell you about some of my favorite spots.

Hannah said...

Oh wow. That bed it so die for.

Cate Subrosa said...

Sounds amazing. God, I can't believe our honeymoon is in five days. And our wedding is tomorrow! Eek!

(I know, I should stop blogging, but I can't help it, I wonder what you guys are up to!)

~abi~ said...

oooh! the final destination looks absolutely fabulous!!! :)

Cyd said...

Your honeymoon sounds so perfectly dreamy! Really, it just seems like such a perfect way for you and BB to kick off married life.

Amy@Fiancé Meeting You Here said...

You are going to have the best time. Our friends stayed at a very similar (if not the same?) resort and did NOT want to leave. They loved everything about it. Yay for private pools!

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you're going to have a fabulous honeymoon - we're all so jealous! Ok now, I really really don't want to put a dampner on your excitement but please be very careful about where in Bali you hang out. http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/a-torrent-of-rage/2008/11/09/1226165386706.html

Modelmental said...

Thanks so much for all the excitement and jealousy... I do realise I'm a VERY lucky girl and promise to enjoy, appreciate and savour every second of paradise!
Sorry to the ladies who had no honeymoon, as Peonies says, it seems a necessity just to let it all sink in. I think it's a lovely way to reconnect after the planning craziness and being surrounded by 110 closest family and friends. Sheesh.
And Anonymous, thanks for the tip, we have been keeping an eye on that situation and while it is a little bit distressing, we are from SA where things are rough at the best of times, so we're a bit cavalier when it comes to danger! We might just spend ALL our time at our pool though, that might decrease the risk? xxx

Anonymous said...

oh goodness, Bali looks sooooo breathtaking! So jealous as I am in the middle of a landlocked state in the U.S...it looks like I'll be here for awhile since the state of our economy is going down a hole right now!

I can't wait to hear all about you & BB's fabulous time!

Bad Kid Productions said...

Oh good LORD! I am soooo excited for you. My sister leads yoga retreats in Bali and absolutely loves Ubud. Bali Buddha is supposed to have good food there. I love the concept of the private villa! H and I want to go to Thailand or Bali for our one year anniversary so you'll have to share the best tips afterward!
Eep, congrats!

Modelmental said...

Thanks twinkle... thank goodness we paid for the flights and some deposits on accommodation before our currency went into a freefall!!!

Thanks for the tip Broke-ass! We were also torn between Thailand and Bali but decided Thailand deserves more time than we have right now. Spoilt travellers, us? Oh yes. Will share tips and treasures with pleasure! x