We were to go to Genting today. As you may recall, we had booked a taxi (more like a mini van, so I wouldn't have to have Sa sitting on my lap for 1 hour) for 9 am. By 9.15 we were down, and had checked out of the hotel. We quickly loaded our bags into the van, driven by one Mr. Ibrahim, made ourselves comfortable and proceeded to Genting. It was a very nice drive out of KL and after some time, up the mountains, and we could feel the air getting cooler. Finally, we alighted at the Cable Car centre (Skyway, it's called). After making arrangements with the driver to pick us up the next morning at 8.30 am, we walked into the cable car station.
The cable car ride is apparently the longest in South East Asia, and the fastest in the world. Don't know about the latter, but the former must be true. After queueing for fifteen minutes or so, we were ushered into car number 5, and for the next 20 minutes we took the longest and most breathtaking ride I've had. It was especially exhilarating, since we couldn't see where we were heading. We knew we were going upwards generally, but after a certain height, the entire place was so misty we could only see the green green rainforests below, and about 10 metres ahead and behind us. For me, the lack of visibility was scary - a phenomenon I once encountered many years ago when sitting in an aircraft cockpit and flying into cloud.
We finally got down from the cable car at the top of the hill - a lovely nip in the air, and the blood rushing back into our feet. It was 11 am, and over the next 24 hours, I forgot how to sweat.
Genting has 4 large-ish hotels all perched on the summit of a hilltop. In between these nestles the Theme Park. The hotels are all interconnected to each other by a series of stairs and escalators and passageways. It's all hugely complicated and confusing; luckily there were plenty of signs along the way to guide us to the imaginatively named "Theme Park Hotel" where we had booked rooms. At check in we were told our rooms were not ready yet, and they suggested we have lunch and come back around 1 to get our rooms. So we left our baggage with the bell boy, and walked over to the Resort Hotel. We had spotted a lunch buffet with an Indian spread there, so that was an obvious attraction. Not much to write home about (quite literally!). The Indian dishes were limited to 6 or 7 vaguely Indianish things, of which only the rice, a cabbage curry and payasam were vegetarian. There were, however, a lot of fruits, and a large selection of local desserts and sweetmeats, which we all tried.
The best part of this was the statue of an Indian woman (she looked Maharashtrian, from her attire) outside the restaurant. She was seated with her hands in a 'namaste' position. There was also a lighted lamp in front of her. For some reason, passers-by thought this was some god and were 'namaste-ing' back to her and putting money in front of the lamp. Obviously this must have delighted the restaurant waiters. Her expression was priceless - a mix of anger and confusion.
Checked back into the hotel, and got our rooms in the Valley Wing. This was another long walk (this trip seems to be full of long walks), but the rooms we got were quite nice. Quite basic as far as facilities go, but the view was quite fantastic, overlooking the Genting Valley.
After a short rest in the room, we quickly walked over to the Outdoor Theme Park, and got ourselves day passes for all the rides. The rides were exciting, especially when we relied on a combination of cajoling and good old-fashioned emotional blackmail to get Sa and her mum on the roller coaster. We also rode paddle boats, did yet another roller coaster (twice!) and generally had a good time :-)
After all this excitement, we ran out of things to do in the theme park, and most of the attractions started shutting down after 8, so we decided to head for dinner. We had located another Indian restaurant in the afternoon, and headed there for dinner. This was called 'Spice Garden', another joint much like Bombay Palace. There was another private party going on in there, and as soon as we entered, our ears were assailed by a gentleman up on stage singing Punjabi songs, and our eyes by a handful of guests dancing in front of the stage. It was not the quality of his singing that was bad (actually he was pretty good), but the volume. For the 15minutes that we had to endure it, we couldn't hear ourselves speak. Literally. Never have I appreciated silence more than after he ran out of songs to sing (or was it dancers to entertain?). After a good grub session and suitably fortified, we headed for the casinos!
Casinos in Genting have a dress code. And we didn't quite fit in.
This was sonething I really didn't expect - after visiting casinos in Las Vegas, being reuired to wear smart casual clothes and shoes was a bit unexpected. Luckily, Sa and her parents were deemed to be suitably attired by the two policemen on duty, and with a jubilant bounce in their steps, ran into the casino. Vi and me were left sitting outside. Not to be outdone, we walked into a pub, watched a football match on a big screen, played 5 games of billiards (I lost 2-3), and drank a glass of expensive beer each. The other 3 were obviously enjoying themselves too much, as they took another hour after this to come out. To my disappointment they lost RM 20. I was disappointed they didn't lose more :)
