Anyway, this story is about this place called Genting Highlands. Genting Highlands is this holiday "resort" located about an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is a mountain resort by the way and it used to be quite a nice place. I went up there with my boyfriend last Saturday night. You see, he had to see some friends about doing some art work and they congregated at this apartment which was halfway between Kuala Lumpur and Genting Highlands. I thought that it would be nice if we went up there after the meeting and trust me when I say that I was immensely excited. You see, I haven't been up there in about 8 years (the last time I went up there was with him). I convinced him to go. He wasn't too enthused about it but he agreed to go.
So up we went. The air was quite refreshing for a while, till we hit the boundaries of Genting Highlands itself. What used to be a pleasant place to go for a break is now a concrete jungle. I used to look out my bedroom window and see this speck of light in the horizon. Now, when I look out the window, it is this mass of lights. However, I didn't realise the extent of the development until I got up there. There was construction everywhere. There were huge trucks moving earth all over the place and seeing that the road up there is rather windy, we were moving at a rather slow pace.
Genting Highlands is famous for its casino. I think that it is the only casino is South East Asia, thus, it draws a huge number of people from all over Asia. Bus loads of tourist go up on a regular basis. Eight years ago, Genting Highlands had only one hotel. This time round, I counted no less than three hotels and 2 apartment buildings. Seeing that the casino caters for the adults, the developers of Genting Highlands needed some sort of attraction for the children and teenagers, thus it is trying to develop something like Disneyland with a few nightclubs thrown in.
Now, I have been to Disneyland and trust me when I say that the developers are WAY off. They had things like Frontierland and the "It's a Small World" attraction. They divided the attractions to two main categories, outdoor and indoor. I have been on the Small World ride in the States and it is nothing like the one here. The dolls and attractions were made up of polystyrene and it did NOT look good. There was dust everywhere, music only worked in certain places and half the animated figurines didn't move! It was VERY obvious that they didn't maintain that ride very well.
The indoor attractions was built in architectural maze without much signage, thus it was very confusing. It was as if we were walking through dungeons. The air in that place was smelly... in all honesty, it smelt like urine and from the look of the crowd, I would NOT be surprise if people were urinating everywhere. It was dark and gloomy, it stank of human excrements and it was smoky, even though it was a non smoking zone (try telling that to those standing near the bins).
Half the outdoor attractions were under repair / maintenance or just not
working. We didn't go on any of the other ones seeing that it closed by the
time we got up there. I understand now why he was reluctant to go up
there. It was a huge mass of people, concrete and algae. Yes, algae. We had
algae growing everywhere as the entire area is cold and moist, perfect algae
conditions. Still, we had heaps of fun and it was great doing something new
together 
.
The biggest attraction of the entire trip was the Motion Master (we went on it twice). This was my first Motion Master experience and I didn't know what to expect. It wasn't very good and I am sure that the one overseas is a lot better but still, I had a ball. It was to a James Bond theme. Basically, it is a cinematic experience with a difference. One has to strap oneself into the seat and grab hold of the handles on the side (for safety reasons). The seats move per the action shown on screen i.e. in one scene, James Bond was falling out of a helicopter and thus the seats were moving to follow the action. Quite exhilirating I can tell you! However, the sound wasn't very good and the handles on the seats were grimy. Also, the seats needed some maintenance work seeing that the motion was rather jerky and I didn't like the fact that my seat was scrapping against my neighbours.
The indoors attractions consisted of a few rides i.e. the Motion Master, a small indoor roller coaster, the "Small World" train ride and a carousel. The other attractions were video arcade games. No kidding!! I have never seen so many video games in one location in my entire life!! We are talking hundreds upon hundreds of machines. Good family getaway huh? We have got the adults going up to the casino, and their kids, playing video arcade games. I am willing to bet that the atmosphere in the casino was a LOT cleaner than the one in the amusement center.
Genting Highlands, in my opinion is a sad place to go away. It is dirty, noisy, congested, grimy and expensive. The worse part of it all is that it used to be a serene place to get away to, now it is a concrete jungle with a matching tourist population. Oh well, I think that one visit every 8 or so years should keep me satisfied.
