Genting Highlands Resort - Cool Air

Hi - Sunday was interesting. I took a bus trip (about an hour) up to Genting Highlands. The bus was nothing special,, but nice and comfortable, with seats that leaned way back. I think everyone in KL has been to Genting Highlands on multiple occasions. They book weddings and other gatherings there, and I don't know how many hotel rooms they have, a bunch though. There is an indoor amusement park, that I didn't even get to, and a good sized outside amusement park. There was a Disney logo on some of their signage, but the word 'Disney' didn't appear anywhere. There was even a Dumbo ride for the kids. The park was not maintained as well as Worlds of Fun, or the Six Flags park, but not terrible, just not shining.

Back in the 60's, a local hydro-dam contractor was working on a new dam/lake, generating facility up in the 'Highlands' (6K to 8K feet tall mountains, northeast of KL). He got the idea to build his family a mountain retreat, just a bungalo with a road to get to it. It is thick 100 million year-old rainforest jungle up there, but about 20 degrees cooler (F). Instead of 90 every afternoon and rainy, it is about 70 and foggy. Before he got the bungalo build, the plan turned into a small hotel, before the hotel got built, the plan turned into a resort. It is huge. It opened in early 70's, I think.

Down at the bottom, there is a golf course and more hotels, and the temp is about halfway cooler (80 most days). They've built a nice road all the way to the top, so plenty of people just drive up for their day or weekend away from the heat. The big draw, however, is the cable lift. They have a 2.5 km cable lift going up and down little valleys on the way up the mountain. It is really cool, going right over the jungle. The view is very awesome, and you feel the air cooling down as you go. It's either the fastest cablelift in the world and the longest in Asia, or the other way around, I forget.

Of course there was lots of shopping and dining (it's a national pastime), a casino (the only one I've seen), night clubs and the amusement parks. Somewhere there was a snow park that I didn't ever see, quite a treat for these folks, I'm sure.

The amusement park was good, if confusing. Either it was not marked very well, or I can't read, which over here is a definite possibility. I only got really turned around a couple of times. The highlights for me were 2 rollercoasters and a tower ride.

The tower ride looks like the one at WOF and in Vegas, but it takes you up slowly, but forever up it seems, then sits at the top (nice view for sure) for 5 to 10 seconds, and drops you. It stops you well above the ground (but of course you feel like you're gonna die) and sends you back up half way or so, then down and up and finally settles down at the bottom. The first big drop was really good.

The 1st coaster was a pretty normal double-corkscrew coaster, but fun. I shot some video from my camera that I can't attach to the blog.

The 2nd coaster was wonderful. You mounted it by climbing up in a standing position, leaning against a pad in front of you. As it slowly moves forward it tilts the top of the cages down, so you're laying on your stomack, like your flying thru the air. The you go up a tower (like the Zambizi Zinger used to do) and take off, round and round, 2 corkscrew loops, the round some more. Amazing! It cost an extra RM10 to ride, but well worth it.

I guess I didn't mention that the package ticket, for the day (bus round trip, cablelift round trip, amusement park) cost me RM39 ($11).

After getting back I went to a Carrefour (Walmart to the World) and bought a DVD player. It is a Chinese brand, plus power adapter (from the Euro-plug that a lot of stuff here is sold with to the Malay outlet shape) for about RM130 ($35). I have it and my wireless router set up in my hotel room now, so I feel more at home.

I settled down in bed, laptop (wireless) on my lap, to blog, DVD (The Island) ready to go, and woke up about 5 hours later, never having even seen a minute of the DVD, that had played to the end. I must have made it about 15 seconds. Oh well - here's the blog now.

Taking it easy this week, working (yeah - there is that). I've a lot of work to do, and it's slow getting started, needing input intermittently from KC, and just kinda figuring out what needs to be done.

Tracy has purchased her tickets for her and Paul to arrive here on May14th, for 2 weeks (good news for me). She plans to work some (Cerner work) and only charge 1 week of vacation. We'll see how that goes. Deena has sold her house, closing on June 22nd, so since she's real busy looking for a new place, she may not make it over here to visit, like she thought she would. She doesn't know yet, for sure.

Well - TTFN - Take care all.




Mockup, showing the whole hilltop resort











Cablelift house, at the bottom, they've also got one going from the top to the golf course down below.






Me and my new best friend
(ok - my 2nd best friend)











On the launch pad. (by a 'Space Adventure' ride at the park)







What do you think?

A bit 'Disney-ish'?










This was awsome! Pretty big line, but worth it.






These next 3 are just views from the Genting Highlands Hotel, out across the amusement park










And finally -

For Brent and Brian - a functioning relic from their past(not exactly, but close), in Malaysia.











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