The past few months have been taxing on Shorty and me. We’ve been really lucky that the response of our 2-month old Colony has been great. The insane growth of Colony though comes with a price. It’s been heavy on both of us work-wise and hard with her too having to juggle work and the kids.
Bogged down with the daily grind we realized we’ve hardly had time to spend with each other. We’ve thought about doing holidays together but that runs into a whole bunch of scheduling problems. Our coming weeks are so packed that we can’t put together a meaningful window for us to make a long overdue trip together. We normally go for a trip together, just the both of us at least once a year. I can’t even remember the last time we did that now.
I realized that what we needed wasn’t to go anywhere fancy or experience anything new. Both Shorty and I are fortunate to have had the chance to travel a lot in the past and another trip to Japan wasn’t going to move the needle. What we needed though was to be able to spend time together. Just me and her.
So one day after work I decided to explore the idea of a staycation. Choosing a nice hotel to spend the weekend at in KL. I looked around at a number of hotels and I found that The Majestic Hotel was the best value.
There were a number of different rooms in the pictures I could see online though so I contacted them wanting to see what the difference was and what kind of room we were getting.
The great news was that they unexpectedly recognized my name and offered to sponsor us that weekend. They were amazing hosts and now that the staycation has come to an end, I can safely say it was a much needed break away from home and work.
Here’s why I loved the staycation experience:
- It takes away all the anxiety that comes with travel
We don’t have to worry so much about having to make or miss a flight, or changing to different currency or even packing. If we ever forgot to bring something we could just go home and get it. No worrying about getting a local SIM card or how much it could cost if you were to answer that roaming call. Removing all the anxiety that come with traveling allowed us to focus on the destination itself.
2. The kids are just a short car-ride away.
If you’re like us, parents who struggle to be away from their kids for more than a few days… then Staycations are perfect. Because if we ever miss them we can go back and spend time with them in the afternoon which was exactly what we did. Heck we even brought them over to enjoy the lovely suite that The Majestic team gave us.
3. Going from a world of doing many things to a world of doing nothing.
What did we do on our staycation? Well we went for a 2 and a half hour massage and scrub at the Majestic Spa which was awesome and we ate at the restaurants on property. The rest of the time we were just in the room chilling and doing whatever we wanted to do. There was no expectations about how we should or shouldn’t be spending our time. Shorty was playing a lot of candy crush and reading about this Canadian lady who tattooed her eyeballs. I on the other hand was reading my books and watching David Blaine on TV doing magic tricks in front of Hollywood Celebrities.,
It’s a liberating experience to just have time to do whatever you want. No need for any sight-seeing, no need to think about where to find food and no toddlers calling after you for immediate attention halfway reading your book.
4. There was adventure!
Okay so I’ve been to Majestic Hotel many many times before. Every year I go there at least once for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. I’ve once attended Bryan Loo’s daughter’s birthday at Contango… but what I have never ever explored was the Majestic Wing. That is the really old colonial building that was the original Majestic Hotel that went as far back as… well I hear it was one of the earliest hotels of KL.
Instead of posting pictures of the hotel now, I’ll leave it to you to Google it.
5. It’s a lot more affordable.
For the money we save on air tickets, or airport shuttles and stuff like that we get to stay in a nicer hotel than we normally would. Not to mention we don’t have to budget for falling for tourist scams which is something I always tend to get when I go to foreign countries
All in all I am now in love with the idea of Staycations and I’d highly recommend Majestic Hotel in KL for one if you ever wanted to do one.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space