The Really English Vacation

To commemorate my arrival in Malaysia back from London, to do something special but not special for this 80th blog post, and also to purposely invoke jealousy (admit it, I didn't even write anything about my trip yet and you're already planning to wage war against me).

1. Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios - very fun.
   
2. Legoland Windsor - nice!(not to mention Britney Spears sighting there!)
3. Eiffel Tower - it's really tall!
4. Oxford Street - Shopping artery of central London.
5. The London Dungeon - scary attraction with live actors and props!
6. Buckingham Palace - boring guards.
7. Hyde Park - peaceful area in the middle of the city.. really nice!
8. EuroStar - fast train that takes you to Paris via Channel Tunnels
9. Fish n Chips - certainly unbeatable! It's soo.. nice :P
10. Candy - just how many Jelly Babies did I consume?
11. Tube - Try not to stray into wrong network lines!
12. Stamford Bridge - Chelsea's Home Stadium! I took the tour there :D
    

So that's the main points of my 2 week trip there.. in case I'd want to elaborate more, I might as well write a damn book and make money out of it.

Life Snippets #30: Nikon-ized

Hey guys sorry (again) for lack of updates. I'm having my exams now, which basically means that I ain't studying and I'm still here in front of the computer every day for hours at length and too lazy to update.

So, as per title. Gonna get a D60 soon.



Did I just say, Nikon D60? Yes, it's a DSLR cam. I like photography but my current compact camera isn't very.. versatile. It runs on two AA batteries and each pair lasts only minutes of use. It's a black Olympus FE-310, by the way.

On Friday the 29th of May, I am leaving for London with my family and also drop by Paris via Eurostar train that runs in the Channel Tunnels, connecting the British Isles and mainland Europe (France). We'll be there for about 2 weeks. I am gonna get to eat some real British fish 'n chips! Also, a perfect chance to fool around with the D60!

A happy British family enjoying fish 'n chips on the pier.

Your Britishness,

Afiq Feisal


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British Family Eating Fish 'n Chips photo taken from Devon-Holiday.

Life Snippets #17: Angpaos

I hope you guys haven't forgotten that 20% of your ang pao goes into the fund that enables me to buy more PS3 games and Blu-Ray movies. It's the Asian time of giving.. as you are probably still in high school Uncle Afiq thinks that we should implement the habit of giving right now.. let's start by giving some $ to me. Deal? Deal. Agreed. You read this already, so it's a deal.


Okay time wasted officially. Anyway today Irfan, Zafri and me went to explore some 'backyard' trails. Well actually they're those tiny dirt paths that the foreign labourers make as they rush to the construction site where they work. From Mutiara Damansara, beside the construction site where my new house is currently being built, is a small road that eventually cuts off to a dirty, muddy trail.

We went along it, and the right fork took us to Damansara Perdana, near the small Pondok Polis. Shortcut! The left fork took us to an area near the electric power lines tower. Many sandpiles, good for dirtbikes. But unfortunately for us, it's been raining alot lately so all of our tyres get moshed into the sand.

Before reaching D-P on the right trail, you can opt to detour. There are two tiny rivers to cross. Both the rivers stank and is glossy over oil spillage. Even the twigs that fell into the small stream got contaminated and is now covered in orange moss, making it look like fish fingers. The first crossing are two wooden poles, each pole being the width of an average thick mountain bike tyre. The second bridge is a concrete pillar, thank god. The end of this particular path is a wooden ladder laid across a 2-metre wide, 5-metre deep storm drain. We turned back to the main path.

Before hitting the tar road up the hill that takes us to D-P, to our left is a river. Quite big. And the upstream part is completely covered with white bubbles, giving it the jacuzzi/bubble bath impression. Actually its those shit that dirty people sooo like to throw in drains, look what's happened. Damn you litterers.

To our right is a mudtrack. We thought that it was a quicksand or something, but I went ahead anyway. It's just cracked industrial mud. But like all muds and puddles in this area, it's pretty deep. My thick VueltaUSA tyres left a two-inch fission on the mud. Then there was mud banks and a large hill full of red sand. Blergh.

Went to D-P, got a drink then went back using a new route. It's a small road which has apparently been used by lorries at some time, due to two different paths running alongside each other with a grass patch in the middle. It looks like the dual slalom course at the Sea Otter Classic in America.


We took a left fork and exited at those unsightly Pelangi government housing flats. Then we went back to Mutiara through another hole in the fence in the Pelangi flats area. It's a singletrack path that we frequently use. It got us back to the Zone B guardhouse in no time.

Picture sources: Pekanawah, Lee Likes Bikes

Life Snippets #16: CNY Holidays

It's been a rather bleak start of the year for me, or some might say, a rude awakening. I found my brain struggling to compress all the information that the teachers are pouring in. No ZIP files to replace your saliva-laced mouth, teacher? Anyways, I'd like to wish a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year to all that celebrate it. Don't forget to send me a cheque after collecting your moolah from your aunts and uncles. All donations would go to the purchase of a PS3 game(s) of my choice.

We had a giant family dinner at Marché. I ate a whole Hawaiian pizza, a plate of potatoes rosti with cheese, half a medium-rare sirloin steak, and one of their giant beef sausages. Then, another part of the holidays are of course the wake-up late sessions. I'll need to catch up with the sleep I lost on school days.

Not to mention.. gaming. Done a couple of good trades with last week and got a Lost: Via Domus game for the PS3. I'm telling you, Lowyat.Net forums are a good place to hang out and talk, and you can also buy/sell/trade your items at the Garage Sales section. There are thousands of people thronging that place trying to get the best deals like you do at the pasar malam.

The seller of this game gave it a RM40 price tag. Second hand, of course, but the disc is 100% scratchless and so is the case. Manual not torn, looks like no one touched before. Played the game and already halfway through it. You play the game episode by episode, and it offers alot of cinematic style plots like the TV series. I received the game through meeting up with the seller who operates a small video game/BluRay movie rental and sales service called Blackmango Games. Free advertising!

I hadn't been mountain biking for days, because both me and Irfan agreed that we should take a breather from battling the massive traffic in One Utama and Taman Tun everyday just to ride a few singletrack trails in Bukit Kiara. Haven't tried the 4k loop though, many riders have recommended this to us.

Evenings nowadays are mostly rainy. It's rather boring, but it's good too. I don't have to water my grandma's plants and flowers. They're lined up all along the side street next to our house. Then again this (the rain) prevents me from going out and cycle.

And oh, and enjoy a random pic below!

Life Snippets #12: Sawasdee Krabi!

So sorry that I wasn't around for the last one week or so. I had been on vacation with my family to Krabi, Thailand. Krabi is a province in Southern Thailand (nowhere close to Yala or Pattani) and it is famous for it's beaches and giant limestone formation and mountains. Also, if you didn't know, it's not very far from Phuket, a more popular tourist destination.


Pre-Journey
I packed my clothes into my bag, and apart from that, didn't bring much else other than my PSP, iPod Nano, handphone and their respective chargers. Uh.. that's all.


Day 1
Woke up early. After getting ready, had some breakfast and a black Mercedes airport limo arrived to send us to the LCCT, a subdivision of KLIA that only serves budget airlines, namely Air Asia. Reached there and had some Coffee Bean. They have free WiFi in the terminus and I left a comment on my mate's Friendster using my PSP. Nice. Some minutes later I had checked in my luggage, scanned my passport, scanned my hand luggage, walk through the metal detector, and sat down at the waiting area. Everyone boarded the plane and scrambled for seats, for Air Asia believes in free seating.

This is my brother playing Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition on his PSP.

Look at the hubbub as everyone can't wait to be the first off the plane.

It is quite rare of Air Asia to provide suspended walkways, now we have to tread on the ground.

The doors at the end will bring you to a horde of taxi drivers offering you his services.

People here are fond of pickup trucks - I especially like that jacked-up Hilux to the right.

They also believe in operating 7-11's in the middle of nowhere.

And we have reached our destination. From Krabi Internation Airport to our hotel, Sheraton Krabi it is only 15 kilometres or so and they charge you RM70 for it. Here, the taxi drivers believe in overcharging tourists. The Sheraton Krabi is situated in Ban Klong Muong, Krabi. It is a 5-star hotel and room rates are more than RM1,000 per night. I will be staying here for 3 nights.

This is the place where you are supposed to sit down while your parents check in into the hotel. The Front Desk Manager will personally take you to the room and show you how everything works and where everything is in the hotel compound. Kind of her, in Malaysia, they will give you the room key and leave you to find the room yourself. Also, in Thailand, ALL hotel employees will greet you by saying "Sawadikap!". The more lowly workers such as gardeners and cleaners will bow down to you as well, to show respect. All you Malaysian hoteliers suck!

Krabi was affected by the tsunami too. They have these signboards all over the place.

They are also obsessed with their royal family. Outside our hotel entrance, a picture of a female royalty has been erected. You haven't counted how many King Bhumibol pictures we saw on roadsides, stall calendars, and even billboards. Occasionally a shop may have "We Love Our King" written beneath their shop name signboard. My dad and me rented bicycles from the hotel's Fitness Centre and we cycled all the way to Thap Kaek Beach and also on another far end, Noppharat Thara Peninsula where the Princess's Residence, or holiday home, is located right next to a small school.

This is a modern pickup Tuk-Tuk and it also displays those ridiculous expensive rates to ride on the back of a truck like a construction workers.

This is Khlong Moung Plaza. There are restaurants, souvenir shops, massage parlours, car rental offices, tour service offices, and a painting shop where a young man paints beautiful stuff on canvas that screams Thailand when you put it up in your house.

Sunset, sea, and tour boats.

This is the smaller leisure pool in Sheraton Krabi.

My sister wetting up before entering the pool.

The hotel has it's own elephant too. Rara the elephant. It enjoys playing with guests, specifically those wearing bikinis. Here Rara is caught red-handed trying to grope a possibly married woman. You can also feed it bananas, which are provided by the mahout.

A monitor lizard in the stream.

Using the hotel's computers.

I left my LOST tag in a restaurant carpark.

Now it is time to go out and eat at out. We walked about 20 m outside the hotel entrance into a bar/restaurant by the name of Palm Beach Bar, but according to the menu front it is 'Rock Devil Cafe'. We ate fish 'n chips. Later, about dinner time, we went out again to another restaurant at the Khlong Moung Plaza which has been shown earlier. The restaurant here failed to spell milkshake properly. I ordered a Strawberry Milk Shank. Well, that's how they spelled it anyway in the menu.

Milk Shanks, anyone?

I was light painting to pass by time waiting for the Tom Yum.

After eating, we left and returned to our hotel room. We were quite surprised to see that the housekeeping also tidied up our room at night and placed orchids on our pillows. Very thoughtful of them. Certainly A++ service.

Orchids on pillows.

Day 2

The breakfast was priced at 600 Bath each or RM60. 100 Bath = RM 10, generally. Instead we had breakfast in our room, eating sandwiches and drinking this really sweet milk we bought from the store outside - it's called 'Nongpho Sweetened UHT Milk'.

Later, we went to the pool and beach, and pool and beach. And then, it was time for lunch, and again, we ate Tom Yum. Then, back to the pool and beach, and pool and beach. This time, I went on catching crabs. No, not those crabs you eat - just those tiny baby crabs. I managed to catch 20 or so baby crabs.

Catch of the day. Note that this is not the final crab count.

And then, it was dinner time, which is Tom Yum time. And then, blablabla, put away those orchids on the pillow, read a book, go to sleep.


Day 3

Everything was like usual. Then at about noon I decided to follow my dad to walk to the nearby island, yes, walk. It was low tide and you can even drive to the island if you want. The island, like most of the islands here, is a huge limestone formation with beaches and basaltic rocks around it. If you didn't know, those basaltic rocks are formed by cooled volcanic lava. The limestone, howerever, are not, and if you are Form 3 you should know what makes a limestone.

The basaltic rocks. They're flat and you can fry eggs on 'em.

The island's beaches have two sampan wrecks - so I dubbed the island 'Sampan Island'. Only the main frames of the sampans are left. One of the sampans, hold a treasure. Heeeeeee.

Sampan Wreck #1.

This is the treasure - a toilet bowl in a sampan wreck.

We walked across the 10m tombolo to the mainland beach and back into the compound of Sheraton Krabi. We were in time to catch an interesting activity which was to hang out with Rara the elephant. At first, you had to play football with him. This stocky white man came up and kicked the ball around and the elephant would use its trunk to throw the ball into the air and do a header or kick it. The man then kicked the ball around the Rara, trying to confuse it. Frustated, Rara stomped on the ball - deflating it completely. The 30 or so audience all laughed, including me. What fun! Then, an European lady came up to Rara. Rara, having a strong liking to ladies in bikini - chased her around!

This is the crowd admiring Rara.

This is the European lady being cornered by a certain Rara.

Day 4

Today we checked out of Sheraton Krabi to try out another hotel which is Sofitel Phokeethra Luxury Resort & Spa Krabi. My dad had picked up the rental car - a Toyota Vios. We packed up, loaded the car and drove about 2 km along the road to Sofitel. The resort is far more luxurious and is 6-star, and room rates are about RM1,000++ and can fetch up to RM4,000 per night. Another 3 nights here.

Note: I am sorry, but from now on there will be no pictures as the camera had spoilt. So I hope you don't mind the sudden absence of pictures.

We reached the guardhouse, where the guard-in-post walkie-talkied to his friend that a certain Toyota Vios would be approaching the lobby. We reached the lobby drop-off point and the guard at the lobby walkie-talkied back to the guard in Thai. We were ushered into the lobby and were made to sit on some really comfortable day-beds. They served us jasmine tea and some moist towels to wipe the face. Like in Sheraton Krabi, the Front Desk Manager, a young lady, appereared and took us to the room and gave us a tour and explanation. We are then left to tend to ourselves. We went to the pool - the pool was really huge and long! I estimate that the lenght of the pool is about half a kilometre. Part of the pool also wrapped around the south wing of the resort. The pool and two slides, a fountain mushroom like in Sunway Lagoon, lots of jacuzzi area, an island where it houses a massage hut, and two bridges which I found useful to dive from.

After some splashing around, we returned to our room and requested an extra bed and a babycot. Two lady housekeeping staff appeared and pushed in the extra bed and babycot. As they left, my dad tipped them and they quickly closed the door when one of the ladies had their toe banged under the door. Quietly snickering, I saw the lady hopping back to the housekeeping storeroom.

We drove about 15km towards Ao Nang, the prominent tourist town in Krabi. All the shops are lined up on either side of the road where applicable. We entered McDonalds there and ordered food. On the menu there is an item not sold in Malaysia, which is 'Samurai Pork Burger'. You can also have your Cheeseburger in pork, if you wanted. Meals here are about 150% the price of those in Malaysia. Say, a set meal would cost RM14. But then again, you don't pay no stupid Government Taxes in Thailand. I ordered a Big Mac (Beef, duh, Big Macs only come in beef!). My brother, he obviously ate a Happy Meal and received a Sergeant Keroro toy. An American couple gave him another of the same Sergeant Keroro toy. Apparently they ate a Happy Meal because it was the cheapest set meal, which is less than RM10.

We browsed around town till it was nightfall, and then we ate this seafood restaurant called 'Kruathara - After Tsunami' which clearly shows that this restaurant was a victim. We were greeted by a dwarf woman, and then another dwarf woman came along. Twin dwarves working in the restaurant! The seafood there is really good! I would recommend you that place. Also they have those tanks where they keep crabs, and baskets where they put live snails and clams and shellfish, etc.

Then went back to Sofitel. The guard waiting at the lobby was the first Thai we saw here who could converse in Malay, albeit in a Kelantanese dialect. The reason for his Malay fluency was because he was raised in Pattani, which was close to the border at Kelantan. Basically Souther Thailanders in Pattani, Haadyai, Yala and Narathiwat also learned some Malay so they can easily get along with the people on the Malaysia side of the border.


Day 5

Usual stuff in the morning. We drove towards Krabi town - not to be confused with Ao Nang. Krabi is the administrative town of the province, Ao Nang is just the tourist magnet. We ate at Choke Dee restaurant - it was raining heavily and my dad was sick of driving around looking for a parking spot where you would be completely dry. In was quite full with those white people escaping the rain and gulping down some Singha beer while pondering over maps. The food was not bad, either.

We then went to Factory Outlet Village. Usually a factory outlet would sell clothes and such at doorstopper prices, but here they sold it all at original prices, which is not quite factory outlet-ish. Instead we bought pool toys, such as a beach ball, a pair of water wings, and also for me - a one-man (or one teenage boy and one small kid) inflatable dinghy.

We then went to Tesco Lotus (as it is called here) which is up the road. I bought about 20 boxes of snacks, all of them being Pocky and Pretz. Dirt-cheap! Also bought 4 tubes of Lays Stax potato crisps and 2 anime figurines (they sell these here!). It was Bandai's Emotive Figure Collection 'Shinn Asuka' and Bandai's Petit Figure Collection 'Mu La Flaga'. Both of them are from the anime series 'Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny'.

We also ate Dunkin' Donuts here - they had this special flavour where even the dough is chocolate - yummy! Tastes like mocha. I did not know if Malaysia DD's have this flavour, must go and check out.

Then we returned to the hotel. The Malay-speaking guard is there as usual, ever-friendly. Did I mention that in Sofitel they too had the night housekeeping? Here, not only they put orchids on the pillows, they also folded the duvet so you can easily slide into bed, put the slippers beside the bed, place 'We Wish You A Good Night's Sleep' card on your bed, and also a packet of SMINT mints on each bed.


Day 6

It is time for us to go back to Malaysia now. We packed up, checked out and drove to Krabi International Airport where we returned our rental car and checked in our luggage. The line at the Air Asia counter was full - many people had taken an overnight bus from Bangkok. If you are too stupid, then I can tell you that the day before there had been bomb blasts in Bangkok and the Kanchanaburi Airport in Bangkok had been closed due to protesters and the threat of another bomb blast. So people took buses to Krabi or Phuket and leave for Kuala Lumpur or wherever else for all I care.

We went into the waiting area and we saw there are seats labelled 'For Monks Only'. The plane had been late for 30 minutes, and we quickly boarded it. We left Thailand.. and back into home country Malaysia.

An interesting thing happened while we were approaching LCCT runway in Malaysia. If you understood aviation physics, the plane will fly further south past the airport and do turn back to line up for the runway. In this case, the plane turns around right above Port Dickson - and I spotted my grandma's house! She is still there, for she returned to her house while we went to Krabi (my grandma lived with us). Soon, we lost sight of the house due to clouds and when we emerged from the heavenly whitish blindness, we are descending towards the runway in LCCT.

After boarding off the plane, around a 500 people are waiting to pass the checkpoint. Malaysian Passport Holders had it easy - if you took the manual counters, all they do is just look at your face, stamp your return in your passport and you're done. If you took the Autogate, you just slip in your passport in the slot and put your right thumb at the scanner and you're done. International Passport Holders were unlucky - the lines are too long, it'd take you maybe an hour to reach the counters. You know how thorough a Customs officer must be when it comes to letting a foreigner step on your soil.

The taxi driver had been waiting for us in a Nissan Serena. As we reached the street where I live, the driver told my dad "This place so familiar. I think I been here before..". Turns out he HAD been here before. He was our driver 2 years ago when we took the airport limo to KLIA to catch a flight to Brisbane, Australia. He was also our driver when we went to KLIA to catch the flight to Bandung, Indonesia! Interesting, how those taxi drivers always turn out to be the same guy. Ha-ha!

And that, concluded the end of my little story. I am dead tired right now - too much typing. I hope you enjoyed my post!

Life Snippets #10: Genting Highlands!

It's gonna be a really long post. I assure you this. I will try to cover everything I can, and put pics where I have it.

I am now back from Genting Highlands, a.k.a. the gambling and entertainment capital of the East (2-in-1 combo!). I had a blast there! It was so fun, every minute of fun is another minute closer to going back home. We tried to make full use of all the time available because it ain't everyday you get to have fun with friends with somewhere other than the local mall. Here's a full report that you may not find on anyone else's blog.. :P

DAY 1

7:35 a.m. I arrived at the 1 Utama Aeroline Bus Depot. Most of the people were there already, some have yet to arrive.

At 8 a.m. sharp we have all boarded and the bus left. As the bus left the car park, Daryl's mom arrived to send his son for the bus.. too late! Lydia was late as well. We left without them.

We reached the Genting Skyway cable car station at the bottom. We waited at the boring bus depot below the station for Daryl and Lydia to arrive on the next bus, accompanied by Pn. Chan. Do you really think we are going to leave them there?!

The Genting Skyway Bus Depot

Animal Kingdom, it is an indoor mini-zoo where they display fishes, exotic birds, amphibians, reptiles, arachnids and even a skunk. There was a male mannequin hidden behind some cages, and we pointed it out to Lydia, who must have thought it was a naked intruder and.. she screamed so loud! Everyone was telling her, "It's fake lah, not real.. it's fake" to calm her down. Daniel flashed at a scorpion and it froze! We thought it was dead.

A worker cleaning the wallaby's enclosure.

The chameleons are posers!

We went out to take the cable car. The line to board the cable cars were super long! While queing up, everyone patted Daryl's back and said "Good Job!" for being late. It took us about 20 minutes to step into the cable car. I shared the seat with TM and Rez. We reached the peak about 8 minutes later.

Waiting for Daryl.

We alighted from the cable car and went up five escalators to reach the First World Plaza, which houses a mall, an indoor theme park and also two lodging towers on top. We went down an escalator to reach the First World Hotel lobby. Here, we all deposited our luggage into a Luggage Area which is really the lobby with smooth polished marble flooring with a metal wire mesh fencing around it. Then, we went down to the ticketing booth to receive our All Park entry wristbands.

First World Hotel (by RW Bhd.)

The Outdoor Theme Park had three sections: Genting Land (Childen Rides), Frontier Land (Very few rides), and the famed Magic Mountain where all the thriller rides are at.

Me, Rez and TM walked slowly towards the direction of the Magic Mountain , which is an area of higher altitude and contain the more daredeviled rides. We saw the Pirate Train ride, and lined up. Each car needs two passenger, Rez went alone first followed by us. The ride sucks! Don't ride it! There is nothing but total darkness in it. The ride was like what, 10 seconds? Before we know it, the ride was over. We saw some European blonde girls lining up for the Pirate Train and felt like warning them about it.

We bought corn-in-a-cup from a stall. Then we sat facing a waterfall, where we saw a woman feeding the koi fishes and another woman washing her hands in the water beriddled with stringy aquatic animal compost a.k.a. fish poop. We left and headed for the spinning Tea Cups. It was fun! I was crazily spinning the cups, feeling like we reached the zero gravity moment. Rezman's head was literally spinning, and TM helped spin the cup abit.

We left the cups, walking with shaky sea-legs. We headed for the Spinner, which are the flying chairs. It was fun too! The sensation of flying through the air.. next stop! The Flying Dragon. It is one of the many rollercoasters found here. The ride was quite fun.. enough juice to pump up our hyperactivity.

We went up the escalator towards the thrill peak. Me and Rez left TM so we can ride the Grand Prix Go-Kart. Roughly the speed of a John Deere, the current drivers drove around the circuit. Half an hour later, it was our turn. But suddenly, it started to rain! OMG, I was so angry.

We ran in the rain towards the safety of the Indoor Theme Park, which is also a mall. Rezman visited the Diadora shop and bought a new sweater which costs RM99.90. Then everyone gathered at the lobby to receive our room keycards and stow away luggage. I shared my room with Rez. Rez didn't feel to well so he burrowed into the bed and slept. TM and me went out to buy some ice-cold choc drinks at Starbucks, even though it was already cold enough!

We spend some time watching the Venetian canal gondolas float by.. when we noticed every single oarsmen (which were mannequins) wore Converse! We spotted mostly white Converses.. a pair of brown ones.. and a pair of the classic All-American red. Rez apparently woke up, he called us and went to find us. Unable to do so, we ended up finding him browsing in the Nike shop.

We all headed back to my room to eat dinner. Me and Rez had some cup noodles which we brought from home, and TM ate some sloppy chee cheong fun she bought from a food court named "Mm Yum Yum Bak Kut Teh". We left the room to play bowling with Daniel and the rest at the Genting Bowl. It was my bad luck day, usually by half-game I would have acquired at least 40 points, but I only scored 56 points throughout the whole game! We left them to start another game while we went to the arcade, Funtasy Video Games Park. Me and Rez played 'Street Dunk', spamming balls into the hoops. Then we drifted through the touges of Mount Akina in the Initial D arcade game. Then we rode the Euro Express, the indoor roller coaster. It was fast but wasn't very fun, it ended after a few seconds.



Day 2

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. so I can have a long, nice, relaxing hot shower. Then Rez did the same. TM woke up later and when she was ready, we all left for the breakfast buffet at the 8th floor cafeteria. Here's to tell you. The breakfast buffet SUCKS. The food the serve to large groups are.. worm-like bee hoon, sloppy-mushy red beans, rubbery sausages, soggy chicken ham slices, sticky nasi lemak, and putrid porridge. If you wanted fried eggs or cereal, you have to walk a distance away to the other side. The cereal has to be eaten with hot milk. TM can't finish her food so I helped her with it, and you have to pay a buck for each 100g you leave.

Food For Thought.

Daryl and Daniel at the breakfast buffet.

Then we straightaway went out. We were the first to enter the Outdoor Theme Park, and everyone ran towards the Grand Prix Go-Kart. I had two rounds or karting, it was fun! I mean, it's a genuine motorized vehicle..



Rez was feeling sick, so me and TM lined up for the Corkscrew. It was the ultimate rollercoaster in the region! A bladder-bursting downhill plus two loops in a row, it was.. I can't describe it. You have to ride it yourself! After that, we went to Dinosaurland. There is a dino island where you can walk about and camwhore with the statues, or you can take a boat 'round the moat. We took the boat first, and upon alighting after the ride ended, we saw Daryl and Brandon. I can't believe they went on a romantic cruise instead of riding Corksrew!

Me posing with a London Double Decker Bus at Genting.

We rode the Tea Cups and Spinner again.. and then me and TM rode the Rolling Thunder Mine Train twice! Next, we bought more corn-in-a-cup. We headed back to the Indoor Theme Park. We bought KFC and headed back to the room. We noticed that on the hallways, the staff laid out bedsheets on the floor and we all stomped on it. Me and TM went out again to buy Starbucks, and to get Pn. Chan a stirrer for her cuppa coffee.

It was time to gather again, this time for Snow World. We entered the premise and everyone grabbed a jacket, which were all sized differently to fit. Then, you have to take boots if you are not wearing sneakers, and nobody wore the boots. Then, you had to take gloves. Choosing the right sized gloves were hard, everyone was scrambling the bins. We pushed past the double doors into the snow room. Immidiately everyone started scrapping snow (shaved ice) from the floor and throwing it into anyone nearby. It was a crazy snowball fight! Me, Rez, TM and others all went up to the second floor of a snow cabin to go down the slide. When you reach the bottom, you skid about 1.5 m away from the foot of the slide. Then, it was the Cresta Run. You had to take ring tubes up some stairs, sit in the tube and slide down a curved downhill track. It was such a blast! It was also bumpy if you didn't sit properly. Lydia was about to go down when she slipped out of her tube and hung on to a railing for dear life. We got the tube back up.. but Lydia was still hanging on. Ken Yi tried to pull her back up but she slipped down. Finally, after some grueling moments she got back up and I pushed off her tube. Then, we continued throwing snowballs and left the place after returning the jackets and gloves.

We had dinner and we went to line up for the 4D Motion Master at 8:00 p.m. But the line wasn't moving at all, so we had to dump the plan and meet up everyone else in front of The Pavillion to see the live-action stage show, Dreamz. There was a magician who played balloon badminton with the audience.. a magic show where they sliced a woman's head and put in on another table.. and it still moves! Also there were four daredevils with dirtbikes, zooming in a spherical metal cage. There was also a white lion and white tiger, so cute! And they're rare! The show then ended.

Three Wild Stooges of Dreamz

While the rest of the group went back to their rooms to play poker and gamble, we went to watch Quantum Of Solace. It was okay, Daniel Craig's parkouring was good, the car chase was okay, but such a waste of exotic vehicles, I'd say. Olga Kurylenko had an ugly scar at her back which looked like her father had poured acid on her when she was three.


We headed back to the room.. watched Poseidon and went to sleep. Tomorrow will be the last day..

Day 3

TM gave me a wake up call, and I greeted her immediately after showering. Rez was pissed that me and TM we awake and all ready while he is still in bed. We went straight to the breakfast buffet, where we ate more or less the same things we had yesterday. It still sucked.

As if it wasn't enough, it was our last day! And there is nothing much left to do. Rez went back to the room to pack up, so me and TM went riding on the Reindeer Cart to get an aerial view of the Indoor Theme Park.

Then, we headed up to the arcade to play more Street Dunk, Daytona Racing, Dance Dance Revolution, and House of The Dead 2. We didn't redeem our wad of tickets, instead we just kept it. It's time to gather again and head back home. We went to my room and I packed up my stuff, and everybody went down the lifts. We walked through the mall.. down the five escalators.. and into the Genting Skyway station. We shared the cable car with Pn. Chan, Pn. Sow and a random old man.

Goodbye, Genting Highlands.

Me and TM in the cable car.

We spent the entire cable car ride snapping photos of the mountains and Genting Highlands, which were slowly disappearing in the horizon. We alighted from the cable cars and we were given 45 minutes before boarding the bus. We went to the pickle market to buy sour sweets and fruit drops. Nearly everyone else bought cup noodles from the Seven Seven store (a real parody of 7-11). We dubbed the noodle snorters "The Maggi Mee Club" after the brand of noodles.

Amateurs of the The Maggi Mee Club.

We boarded the bus. I sat next to TM this time. I passed around a bag of fruit drops, only to receive the empty bag in return. I passed the time in the bus reading Galaxie with TM. We got nearer and nearer to OU and everyone looked quite down.

Ken Yi sleeping in the bus.

We got down from the bus.. and sat at the benches. One by one, everyone disappeared into their parent's cars. Me and TM were the last to leave. We also went back at the same time. I reached home.. and it was so hot compared to Genting Highlands.

That's our bus parked at OU.

My luggage.

And that concludes the end of this post. I suppose mine is the most complete of any posts about Genting Highlands, and I hope it will rekindle those fun memories in Genting, riding go-karts, Corkscrew, and others. Thanks to TM for helping me to remember what we all did so I can complete this entry. My life is back to normal now. Monotonous.