If our trips to Melaka and Sugi island has shown us any one thing, it’s that our 3.5 year old girl is ready for further trips outfield. She survived the 4 hour bus journey to/fro Singapore and Melaka very well and quite fuss-free, took to whatever we fed her – even Indian food – and generally listened to Mommy and Daddy’s instructions. No tantrums, no standoffs etc. Maybe it’s just that we have got a relatively compliant daughter to begin with, so here’s to hoping that our second child will be the same.:)
Our stay at The Majestic was near perfect. Housekeeping was brisk and so prompt in fact that we had to on several occasions turn housekeeping away. Comparatively speaking, I don’t think the staff service at this hotel has been the warmest I’ve observed – that accolade still goes to Telunas Beach Resort – but The Majestic comes very close. Staff were consistently friendly and went out of their way to please. One incident especially sticks in my mind: we were waiting for the sixth floor lift to take the lift down to the lobby. The lift door opened to show a staff member with a small push-cart of maintenance items. The lift was comfortably large enough for all of us to join in on our way down, but the staff immediately exited and vacated the lift for us and courteously kept it open and assisted us in pushing the appropriate lift buttons (not that we needed it).
Every staff we encountered – the concierge, the restaurant waiters, the doormen, and even the maintenance workers contracted to do some painting work while we were there – all offered greetings at every turn. Several even engaged Hannah by chatting with her, though our girl – shy as she normally is – normally needed prompting from us to reciprocate. Likewise, we returned the courtesies whenever we received it. Hopefully it goes a bit of a way to show that not all Singaporeans are unhappy or grouchy.
Our daily breakfasts at the hotel’s restaurant were idyllic and quiet affairs well-attended to by staff, and yep no screaming children or Singaporeans tripping over themselves at the buffet queue. There was one minor hiccup though; the concierge staff mistakenly advised us on our third day that ala carte items didn’t come with our stay package even after our repeated requests for clarification. Thankfully, that still got resolved pretty quickly by the duty manager who overhead our discussion with the concierge, and immediately stepped in to apologize on behalf of his staff, clarified, and followed-up to make sure everything was in order in the subsequent days.
The hotel’s pool was pretty small too; at perhaps around 10 by 3 meters. But the pool was very clean and though the hotel was fully booked during our period of stay, we had more/less the pool to ourselves during the two occasions when Hannah swam – or paddled about rather.
Apart from fine-dine breakfasts, we ate like the locals everywhere else. The cleanliness of the eateries took some getting use to, especially us as Singaporeans spoiled on normally clean eating surroundings. In fact, the less seen about the possibly less than savory preparatory conditions for some of the food we had, the better it was for me! Ling was especially bothered by the pollution. The coffee shops we ate at had no rules about patrons puffing away indoors, so on several occasions, we hurriedly had to finish eating if only to escape what seemed like Smokers Wild joints. A couple of smokers did notice that we had a young girl with us, so helpfully accommodated by moving to a further seat whenever it was possible, but others couldn’t care less.
There’s always just one question we ask ourselves to gauge whether a vacation was generally worth the expense:would we return to the place again? For this trip to Melaka, the answer would be a reluctant ‘no’ for myself, but not for any reasons to do with the cuisine or the stay at The Majestic. The food was on the overall decent and accommodation was great. It’s just that there wasn’t very much to do in the city itself outside eating and lounging around. There were a couple of sights worth checking out of course, but they were also quite crowded. Probably because the core area of Melaka is so compact, everyone zeroes in on the same place. There’s about a day’s worth of sight-seeing in the core city itself, but that seems about it.
In sum, If your intent for the vacation is to just spend time with family and to just relax, a small and luxury property like The Majestic fits the bill nicely. I’m already thinking of which other place to go to on our next short trip in the next 6 months; we’ll probably check out Batam. A visitor’s blog has some notes about a property stay that she’s frequented, and it looks intriguing.:)
I think one of the major differences in our respective stays at Melaka is that I don’t recall it being busy or crowded at all. In fact, the two times I took a stroll down Jonker I had it mostly to myself, and the restaurants were nearly entirely empty. The historic sites were a little more crowded, but I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as brisk.
What I remember most is that I got burned to a crisp during the river cruise. That and a Singaporean family adopted me during the bus rides to and from our hotel, even buying me treats at our stops and insuring that Malaysian customs stamped my passport properly. I doubt I’ll ever down as many egg tarts in the span of a single trip again!