Genting Highland trip

Hello!

Last weekend, right after my Japanese class, my sister and I went up to Genting Highland for 2 days 1 night, without a place to stay.  Her purpose was to visit her boyfriend (let's called him "boyfriend" for now) and to film something for her YouTube video while I went up to take a breather from everything. It's been a while since I've been to anywhere anyway.

The taxi that boyfriend booked arrived at 7pm sharp in my grandma's house. Since I was really tired, I slept all the way to Genting. It wasn't a very pleasant ride though as the ride wasn't smooth and the driver kept looking at his messages even though he was going up the hill with many cars around. We definitely had a heart attack. A serious one. 

We arrived at Genting Grand greeted by boyfriend. It was a really windy, misty and chilly night. Due to the change in pressure, we were bloated and weren't feeling good. So, we decided to just walk around Genting while immersed in the Christmas season. Since it is school holiday now, everywhere was crowded with people. 

It wouldn't be Christmas without Christmas tree

We also booked the latest movie ticket to spend the night. After booking we wandered to and fro First World and other hotels and found this really beautiful Greek structure.

Maxim Hotel

Before the movie started, we had about 3 hours to spend. Around 11pm, we ate in one of the restaurants that boyfriend's friend worked - Bubbles & Bites. It specialised in pasta and they made their very own pasta. As I still wasn't feeling very well, they ordered something while I just "steal" some of their food. That's when I ate the most delicious cabonara pasta. It's a cabonara pasta with lamb (not the exact name).

Cabonara pasta with lamb and some kind of pizza with buffalo cheese

It's creaminess and saltiness is just right, the perfect balance. It doesn't have the strong lamb smell which I found it pleasant. You wouldn't want the whole dish to only be the lamb smell and kill the other flavours, right? Although the portion is quite small (enough to fill up the 'hole' of the plates), it's quite filling but maybe not for those with bigger appetite.

For the pizza, since there's all sort of cheese in it, it's more towards sourness. While I don't hate it, I don't really like it either.

We stayed there until it was the movie time. What I found this restaurant surprising was that as the night went deeper, there were more customers. Since there weren't many staff, their clumsiness was pretty fun to watch.

After the movie, it's about 3am. The crowd was significantly lesser than before and almost all the shops were closed. So, we stopped by a cafe, thinking of spending the night there. Unfortunately, it closed not too long after and we shifted our "bed" to McDonald's. As we arrived, boyfriend ordered something (our "room's" fee) and we stayed there until 8am. During our stay, there were quite a few customers that stopped there for free "room" as well. So, it made us, who were sleeping in McDonald's, less awkward.

At 9am, boyfriend went to took the Pocky that he bought, in total 16 boxes. It was the main objective of my sister going up to Genting - to have a taste test of them.

All from the same company

We later found it impossible to try it all at once as they are all in a packet and are not separated to 2 packets, meaning we had to finish all of them once they are open. Considering that we had to have a buffet later in the afternoon, there was a change of plan.

Since the plan was cancelled and we were all super tired, we went to Mary Brown for our next "hotel" until lunch. For lunch, we settled in Coffee Terrace, where it serves all kind of food, from Malaysian dishes to Japanese to Western Asian. It's a one stop centre to try most of the famous dishes you can find in Malaysia.

The Chinese section

The nyonya section

What we did not expect was the crowd. It was so crowded that the supervisor had to give the customers the choice of - to wait or to go, since the lunch buffet is only from 12 pm to 2.30 pm.

the crowd when we left

We managed to get a table and since we were starving, we immediately went to take our food.

What I took

The desserts

I am not quite sure is it because of the altitude, they tend to make the food more flavourful than what we normally had in the ground, especially the savoury ones.

Since the theme park is closed and we are all in legal age, we got to visit the casino (both casino in First World and in Genting Grand). Too bad that boyfriend could not enter since he is interning in Genting.

The atmosphere is quite serious and it wasn't as grand as what I have seen in the movies. Although it is a smoking area, it is not as smoky as I thought it would be. There's also an area for non-smokers (a smaller one in First World and a bigger one in Genting Grand). Both casinos have a similarity which is, a huge part of the casino is filled with Jackpot machines, about 25% guessing number games, and about 10% card games.

What we did in there was not to gamble but to see what the gamblers do and how they play the games.We were able to understand some of the games' rules by watching how they play. It was really interesting and fun to watch. It's more exciting than playing the game and losing the money itself. It's a thing that we must see for once in our lifetime.

After going to the casino, it was about time we took the cable car down the hill. Boyfriend followed as well since it was free of charge for him.

A must take photo

That's the end of my trip to Genting. We did nothing but eating and sleeping. Since all the food expenses was paid by boyfriend, including all our "hotel" expense, to be honest, I felt really really bad. Quite regret for tagging along and spending people's money. In fact, he is the one who is always paying whenever we go out together. Maybe this will be my last time tagging along, until I have the money to pay for myself and to repay some of his kindness.

However, I'm really thankful to him as well for spending the time with us and taking care of all our needs. Also, we did have a no-hotel experience, which was terrible. We will never go on a trip without booking a hotel anymore (unless it's a day trip).