51 km from Kuala Lumpur is one of Malaysia’s most popular hill resorts- Genting Highlands. No, not a tranquil little place where you can have the misty hills all to yourself; this is a huge amusement complex, and the crowds are noisy and colourful. The bus from KL to Genting Highlands leaves from the Puduraya bus station (a dirty, crowded place reeking of petrol fumes), but the hour’s drive to the Highlands makes up for the pollution at the station. The road passes in front of Batu Caves (home to an important Hindu shrine), through open country and then through the hills, which are thickly forested with bamboo, banana, coconut palm, tree fern, orchids and hibiscus- all of it cool and dense, with a very high tree canopy.The bus ride terminates at Genting, where we got off and took a cable car ride of 15 minutes to the Genting Highlands resort, a vast complex of food-and-beverage outlets, casino, entertainment venues and more. The view over the hills from the bus station up to the complex is spectacular; the wind howls and whistles all around, and the path of the cable car is marked by life-size (and badly made) dummies of monkeys, bears, local people, elephants and rafflesias- all rather awful. But for these monstrosities the ride would have been splendid.
We’d reached Genting by 12.30, and it was by then overrun by tourists of every shape and size. It’s a popular resort, especially with families, and actually encompasses much more than what we visited. There are hotels, with restaurants, discos and a casino; an 18-hole golf course; a horse ranch, two theme parks- and loads of bustle. We didn’t stay the night; all we did was buy ourselves a day’s entry ticket (RM30 each) to the Outdoor Theme Park. Along with the ticket, you’re given a wristband (which you surrender when you’re leaving); the wristband entitles you to free rides all across the park.
The Outdoor Theme Park’s rides are rather outdated and not as great as all that, but they’re fun. There’s the Flying Dragon, Space Shot, Corkscrew, Go-karting, a flume and whatnot- much screaming and shouting. We spent some time on the rides, then went off inside into the closest hotel to wander through the shopping arcade, to check our e-mail at a convenient little nook with an internet connection, and then to have lunch at a coffee shop called World Kafe, where the Malaysian fried rice, though excellent, was expensive. The redeeming feature of the coffeshop was the signboard outside: `Please drop your values ideas here’. An invitation for suggestions or an invite to be as immoral as you please? I’d like to know!!)
After lunch, it was time to go back to KL, so we surrendered our wristbands, took the cable car back downhill, then got onto the bus. An entire day’s trip, a little hectic, at times irritating (when the crowd starts to get to you), but otherwise quite a bit of fun!