One Night at Genting

After learning to our horror that there wouldn’t be any holidays whatsoever in December, save for the handful of public holidays littered about the month, Bryan asked me last week out of the blue on the phone whether I’d like to go to Genting.

“Uh what?” I quizzed, my right hand clicking away on the mouse at my college’s computer lab. Obviously the idea of going to theme parks and whatnot does not appeal to me,

When he further clarified during our Business Communication class that he wanted to go at night, I jumped on it at once. Words like “lepak”, “cold air”, and “enjoy the scenery” completely appealed to me, and with the sufficiently lacking of the holidays for poor Foundation students like us, why not!

Andy and I went to a Financial Management talk yesterday from 10am-12pm (went there separately), then helped him register for a CSD account, then I tapau-ed lunch at McD’s and went back to his house. It rained incessantly between 3 to 4pm-ish, then I finally went back home at 5pm.

It’s quite surreal, I admit, at the thought of going to Genting at night and going back the next morning, but that was what we’ve done and we came back very well alive.

Bryan whisked me out from my house in his Iswara at 10.30pm, bringing along only my turtle-necked sweater. He then picked up Andy, and using the Kesas highway, we travelled past KL, past his area, and blasted all the way up to Genting.

Might I add that it was certainly a ride of my lifetime. It’s an experience that rivals that of the Genting Theme Park; the full throttle of it all, the adrenaline rush that I always, always get while sitting in his car that he might as well open a ride by his name, the tailgating, the drift-like mounting experience up at Genting, the constant moving, going, not slowing down.. all these and I’ve never even considered the possibility of crashing. Amidst the non-stop dashing speed on the road, strangely, I always felt safe.

Climbing up Genting was even better, what with the increasingly sharp bends of the roads that roused the sensation of being in an action movie. Andy and I frequently collided with each other as a result of this, and paved way to seasons of jokes. We gradually entered into misty ol’ Genting, whose weather I loved.

Alighting from the car at almost 12am, the air-conditioned-like weather hit me and slowly enveloped me. I didn’t expect the weather to get any colder, so I left it in the car as I was lazy to lug it around.

Near the lobby of the First World hotel.

We met up with Steffi at the First World hotel, at first with both Andy and I hiding behind a pillar since we wanted to ‘surprise’ her. Truth was, she had bet with Bryan that Andy wouldn’t go to Genting, and the winner of the bet gets to command the other person to do whatever he or she wants. She was moaning “Nooooo” when she saw the two of us, lol.

Anyhow we went back out to the open and lepak-ed around. I also had this persistent stomach upset which I blame the gas inside, maybe due to the pressure thingy when going up and all that jazz. Always seem to have this problem whenever I have to go through a change of different levels of pressure, such as when sitting on the airplane to Langkawi early this year.

Okay I have no idea why my camera did this, but I don’t know if the mistiness of it all was to be blamed, or my lens had some condensation thingy which I have already wiped prior to the snapping of this pic. Oh well, at least you know it’s real that we indeed went up to Genting at midnight. ;D

Steffi and Ching.

Then someone came up with the idea of playing ‘strip 1-2-som’ (dunno what’s the real name of this game lah, one-two-juice?) right in the middle of the cold, bleary night. By the time we ended it, we’ve stopped short of any actual stripping since there were quite a number of people nearby (in fact, there were SO many people in Genting at night that I was quite surprised, maybe because it’s a Friday night?), stopping right at losing our socks and shoes, after taking off quite a number of things from our pockets and other accessories like headbands and watches.

Steffi’s family was residing at the hotel for some company dinner, and she was supposed to share a room with her 12 year-old brother. Her father later phoned her after we’ve done playing our stripping game, informing that her room was empty, so we went to crash her room.

With nothing else to do, Steffi, Andy, and I played Nigel’s (Steffi’s younger bro) PS2 while Bryan (who only had less than 2 hours of sleep) and Ching slept. After finishing a few rounds of Need for Speed Carbon, we played this hilariously funny Japanese game called Gachinko 2, if I recall the name correctly.

It has tons of mini-games which are all unique yet funny that it had us laughing all the time, ranging from a competition of who can climb up the rope the fastest, to pouring the ‘best’ beer without spilling and without the white foam. There was also a game that pits up your accuracy skills, from paper-folding, flower-arranging, cake-making to cup-creating, shadow-matching, and a host of other silly games that will have you in stitches.

Quite a good party game, I say.

At about 3.30am, we finally left the hotel when we were getting increasingly hungry, plus it was getting really late. Went to McDonald’s to eat an overpriced early breakfast but it’s better than paying the same RM6 for 4 miniature dorayaki. I had a Fish-o-Fillet ala carte, and a Hash Brown.

Useless trivia: Since there were no fries served at that time (Genting’s McD’s is open 24 hours btw), and I’ve no idea if any McD’s don’t serve fries during ‘breakfast’ hours, but in replacement of the free small french fries one usually gets by presenting the McD’s Kids Club card, you can actually get a free Hash Brown! Woot.

Our day (or rather, night) wouldn’t be complete without more group photos.

And another.

With Steffi. I realised that my new haircut I had yesterday evening at iCube made me look like a high school kid again, heh.

With Ching.

Imitating the characters on the painted wall.

We finally got in the car at 5am and went down from Genting. I was still mentally alert at that time, and all I can say is that if you ever, ever go to Genting at night or stay overnight there, please make an effort to look at the horizon because it has the most breath-taking night scene I’ve ever seen.

Okay I was supposed to snap said night scene but obviously, with the car moving and the lighting so bad, I couldn’t get it. Pay attention on the right side of the pic.

We could see a city of lights sparkling like little glass stars beneath us, twinkling eternally. I could still see the image of it in my head as I type, the city beneath I presumed to be KL was so innocently quiet in slumber, yet the lights never stopped sparkling. It’s akin to watching the stars above us, but with all the light pollution, it’s hard enough to even spot ten. Seeing the dazzling, glittering stars beneath us is a huge respite, and even though we didn’t exactly stop the car to get a good look at the galaxy underneath us, it’ll be a view I treasure in the longest possible time.

The next thing that we saw in dim lights were clouds and the mist rolling and swirling around the mountains, much like the image you might have come upon when reading about a mystical Zen temple hidden in the green mountains. I didn’t realise, nor really expected, there’s a hidden gem in Genting itself, apart from it being a ‘city of entertainment’ and other sinful gambling pleasures. The irony is that after people gamble their wealth away or sit on endless rides at the theme park, they failed to notice the real token of the place: the natural Zen-like beauty of the surroundings at night.

My eyes couldn’t keep up any longer so I eventually slept when we reached the main roads, and woke up to Bryan zooming at 140-150 lol. Finally reached home at 6am.. and it was an incredible night. A very short holiday without much planning and notice, and I quite enjoyed it. Especially the ride.