City in the cloud ... Genting

Genting is located 51km from Kuala Lumpur. There are lots of types of transportation to go up to Genting, by taxi, personal car or Genting bus express. I took the bus express from KL Sentral because it is very economical for me. The express buses are not only departed from KL Sentral. You can take the bus from the Puduraya Bus Terminal, Pasar rakyat, KL Sentral Station and Terminal Putra LRT Gombak in Kuala Lumpur.

It is very easy to go to Genting. You can buy the bus ticket at the bus counter. The counter is located at the 2nd floor of KL Sentral Station. The ticket price (for bus and cable car) is 8.30RM per person for adult. It takes 45 minutes to reach Genting Skyway Lower Station. From the lower station, then, I took cable car going up to the resort. It takes around 10 minutes to go up to the resort. On the way up, you can enjoy the scenery and the view of rain forests below you.


The cable cars

Genting skyway is claimed as the fastest and longest cable car in South East Asia. The maximum speed is 6 metres/second and the distance between the lower station to the top of the hotel resort is 3.38 km. The Genting skyway was formally opened by the Ex-Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1997. It can carry more than 2,000 people per hour each way with 8 passengers per gondola. The cable cars do not operate the whole year. There is maintenance schedule for one month and last year (2007) it was on August. So, it is better for you to check the maintenance schedule of the skyway, otherwise, you will be disappointed.


1st World Hotel scale model

I stayed there for 3 days at 1st world hotel. This hotel is unique. The building is so colorful. There are six hotels that are attached one another, so you can walk around all the hotels, with some of the entertainment activities inside the buildings. So it basically is a huge building divided into compartments with all the entertainment activities inside the building. There is also outdoor activities.
First world hotel is a three stars hotel, so it is the cheapest hotel, with 6118 rooms (can you imagine 6118 rooms?? Because of that, this hotel has been awarded by the Guinness Book of Record as a hotel with the greatest number of rooms). Eventhough,this is a three stars hotel, this is hotel is comfy and clean. You can get a good rate if you do your reservation in advance far before your visit. This hotel is also very close to 1st world plaza. It is easy for you to enjoy the indoor entertainment activities, shop till you drop at the shopping centres; and stop and take a break while you are eating at a restaurant or coffee shop, if you stay at this hotel.


The cloud...

I think the name 'Genting' is from chinese pronounciation of 'yinting' meaning: cloud. Genting is well-known as Malaysia 'Las-Vegas'. Lots of people come here just to gamble. There are international gambling games offered by the Casino de Genting, such as roulette, baccarat, blackjack, poker, jackpot machine. To have permission to enter the casino, you have to be 21 years old (from your passport), dress formally, non-moslem, and should not bring camera or video recorder. Unfortunately, I do not know how to play all the games. So I just saw people spent their money in the casino.
I also visited Chin Swee Caves Temple and did play some games and enter places of attraction; bowling, archery, snow world, ripley's, flying coaster, genting sky venture etc. The most impressive one for me was genting sky venture and the least interesting was the snow world... to be continued...