A DAY TRIP TO GENTING HIGHLANDS

It was sometime in the early days of Hari Raya Puasa celebration, we decided to go to the Genting Highlands Resort. We proposed to our daughter, Fifi, for the trip and she agreed. It will be the first day that we could get together, including our son in law, Azal. Almost during the other weekends, he has to go to work, be it on Sunday and this time he was able to convince his employer for a full day rest.

Genting Highlands, situated about 1,800 meters high on the Titiwangsa Range, was originally known as the “casino”, built sometime in the 70’s. When I was working in Bentong, Pahang during those years, my friends and I drove through the winding roads to this highland after office hours. The night was cold and the cool wind rushed into the main building when the door opens. There was nothing else to see then with only the casino operates throughout the night. When I worked with the Ministry of Health, my wife and I attended a seminar here in Genting Highlands sometime in the year 2000. We drove to this resort and brought along Fifi, stayed at the hotel for the whole seminar session. That was Fifi’s first experience, enjoying herself at the Genting Theme Park.

We wanted to use the public transport for this trip and bought the bus tickets early, a few days before the trip. Fifi reminded me to only buy the return bus and the “skyway” or the cable car tickets which did not include the tickets for the Theme Park. It was a day later that there was an accident involving a bus that plunged into a 70 meter deep ravine as it made its way down from the Genting Highlands resort towards Kuala Lumpur. Thirty-seven people were dead, including the driver while 16 passengers were rescued, among the 53 passengers on board. I reminded Fifi on this accident but she still insisted to go as our trip was only to the Genting Skyway, the cable-car station, which is quite far from the winding road uphill towards the Resort.

We left early that Sunday, 25 August 2013, drove to the Putra LRT bus station and left our car at the car park. We manage to board an early bus, travelled along the Karak Highway towards the Genting Skyway station.

Getting ready for the trip

We reached the Genting Skyway and it was packed with those going uphill to the Resort. Each car could carry 8 passengers, and the time taken to reach the highland station is about 15 minutes, if the car would continuously move without any interruptions or stops along the way.

The “Genting Skyway”; sweating you away.

It was a pleasant but sometime scary journey, due to its heights, following the ups and down of the cable and the slow movement of the car itself. Beside, the morning mist was blocking our view and we wonder where we were. We did felt the height, especially our son-in law who seems to experience cold sweat all along the way. He kept on saying to reach the other end soon.

Don’t look down or front; just look upwards or just close your eyes!

On reaching the resort, I found that there are a lot of new developments with new connecting bridges and pathways as an easy access for the tourists. The cool mist is still covering the highland resort, which you could not experience in Cameron Highland.

The new pathways and the bridges covered by the morning mist

Brunch and Lunch

We later had our brunch at a local fast food outlet. We knew that the cost of the same food here is much more expensive than that in Kuala Lumpur, and we had to accept it as we all knew why.

Fifi used to visit this highland resort with her friends and she knew the area quite well. We do not need the service of a guide as she knew where to take us to see the various places of interest. We went around the resort from one building to another, and took photos at various spots especially at its gardens.

We took our lunch at another fast-food outlet. We can see a lot of tourists from various race and religion, packing up the resort. The shops around the area were also full of customers. There are a lot of stalls selling various kinds of products and souvenirs. My wife bought Fifi a new jade pendant engraved with her name.

Engraving the jade pendant for Fifi

Here are some of the sweet memories, a collection using only smart phones!

A day to remember and will never be forgotten

Where’s Fifi? She’s lost in the maze.
Mother and daughter sharing their happy moments

We missed the Eiffel Tower in Paris;
Enjoying the “Musang King” durian

Looking forward for another holiday together

Like mother like daughter, no doubt about it.

Swaying in the sky, on our way home

With all these memories, we hope to get together again, not for a short day trip, but maybe it will be a long week holiday.  We are planning to go for a holiday to Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan. My wife and I have travelled to these states, and during those trips, we were unable to take along Fifi as what we did when we travelled in the Peninsula. To fulfil her wishes, my wife has decided to go to Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Labuan. We told Fifi to prepare herself to take leaves when the time comes. Maybe it would be our last trip before my wife settles down permanently on her retirement, Allah willing.