Honeymoon Spotlight: Bali & Hong Kong

By Abby Foster On July 2, 2012 · 1 Comment

Where are our featured wedding couples honeymooning after their amazing weddings? Here’s your opportunity to live vicariously through some of Chicago’s stylish, fun-loving and adventurous couples as they share tales of their trips to exotic locales, including Bali, Hong Kong, Hawaii and more. These couples share their most romantic experiences, favorite cuisine and most memorable adventures. So dive right in and enjoy these real-life honeymoons. And if you’re traveling to any of these destinations, take note!

This week, Chicago’s “it” style girl (and a Be U Weddings fashion contributor), Samantha Saifer Berngard, shares her recent honeymoon to Bali and Hong Kong with her husband, Jason. Their 13-day trip was beyond incredible. Also, check out their amazing wedding video created by Fig Weddings, and stay tuned for Samantha’s special bridal fashion post on winter trends- August 3rd on Be U Weddings.

Villa in Uluwatu

Beach at Padang Padang (where a lot of “Eat Pray Love” was filmed)

Where did you and Jason go for your honeymoon?

Jason and I went to Bali and Hong Kong for our honeymoon. We did it the perfect way, too! We were so tired after the entire wedding weekend that all we wanted to do was be on the beach and relax. So we flew to Bali and went to straight to the beaches on the Southern Peninsula. There were some of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever seen there! We stayed in a very isolated part of the area called Uluwatu at an insane resort called the Alila Villas – by insane, I mean – the most beautiful place I have ever been. It was so nice to just be with my new husband and not worry about a thing!

After a few days, we traveled to Ubud, which is about a two hour drive in the jungles of Bali. It is what has been called the “spiritual” capital of the world. It was amazing, because then we got to have a cultural honeymoon filled with yoga classes and visits to ancient temples. It was like no other place I have ever been! We stayed at the Purist Villas there.

A Public Park in Hong Kong

After that, we traveled to Hong Kong and had the ultimate big city, urban vacation – filled with shopping, lavish dinners, sight seeing and more shopping! We stayed at a new & hot boutique hotel there called LKF by Rhombus Hotel. It was so incredible to have it all on our honeymoon – the beach trip, the cultural trip and the big city trip. My husband could not have planned it better! As for the hotels, we mainly stayed at trendy new places that are featured on Jetsetter – Jason works for Gilt Groupe! Our trip was 13 days long total!

Why did you choose Bali?

Jason and I chose Bali, because we wanted to go somewhere that we had never been before and that is hard to get to and could probably never go to again! We are extremely fortunate that we were able to take the time off of work and really travel – we wanted to go as far as we could! It’s funny, because now we talk about going back all of the time, and probably will! So much for a once and a lifetime experience, right?

What were the highlights of the trip?

The highlights of the trip were visiting some of the most insanely beautiful beaches I have ever been to like Padang Padang without worrying about a thing and being with my new husband. There was a moment sitting on that beach when I though there was no way that life could get any better. Bali is such an unusual place – it’s special, and you don’t really understand that until you are actually there.

What was your favorite restaurant or cuisine in Bali?

My one complaint about Bali – the food! The local cuisine there is not the best – and they are not known for it. Jason and I like to consider ourselves “foodies” and it was hard for us not to really get into the local fare, but the international restaurants were insanely good. We ate at one spot that was all raw food “Glo” and it was so good. I had never tasted food like that and it was not even cooked. Oh and the ribs at Naughty Nuris in Ubud! I swear, we had to travel across the world to have the best ribs and martinis I have ever had. Oh and sushi and Hong Kong was fantastic as well as the local Cantonese. We tried to eat local as much as possible when we were in Hong Kong – even tried the shark fin!

What surprised or intrigued you the most about the trip?
I was most intrigued and impressed by the people in Bali. They are truly the kindest, most generous and peaceful people I have ever met. They are very religious (mostly Hindu) and extremely spiritual. They pray to so many different gods and practice yoga and meditation regularly. Jason and I are both avid “yogis” ourselves – it was truly amazing to practice yoga alongside some of the most advanced yogis in the world. People flock to Bali for the yoga and spiritual atmosphere. I was so wrapped up in wedding planning that I never really got to research before we went. Once I got there, I was in heaven – literally – with the yoga, the temples, the organic food and laid back vibe of Bali. It was an experience that we will never be abel to replicate. At one of the temples, we got to got to swim in holy water. It was so beautiful visually and knowing what it meant – it was all around so breathtaking.

What was the most romantic experience of the trip?

The entire trip was one big romantic moment! I will say that being nestled away in the jungle of Ubud was incredibly romantic. We had a mosquito net bed and our own pool. We were woken up by a rooster every morning and had an outdoor shower. Not only did we feel as though we had both stepped back into time, but we also felt we were the only two people in the world!