GentingHighlands '96

Went to Genting Highlands with Ben Ham, Chinchew, Junhui and Kewei on a three days two nights tour in June 96. There wasn’t a lot to do, to be honest. Only the company made the trip bearable. Took some interesting photographs as well…too bad cannot show here…hee

Day Zero: Departed on my brother’s birthday, but he was out the whole day anyway. Had dinner with Ham and Junhui at Tiong Bahru Plaza and went to arcade after that, arriving 10 minutes late for our meeting with Chinchew and Kewei at Outram. Kewei’s parents were there to get everything going for us, since they booked the tour. Shared the coach with a large family instead of a few individuals, which did wonders for the atmosphere in the coach. Lots of young girls on board though…the father must have lots of Y-chromosomes…

The coach journey was fairly comfortable. Slept, chatted and ate some delicious Chicken-in-a-biscuit which Junhui had brought along. Kewei was virtually sleeping throughout the whole journey. The Malaysian roads had only a few lanes and no mirrors for those tricky sharp bends. Thought it dangerous.

Day One: Arrived at Genting around 5am, stopping by a mushroom farm on the way. Weather’s lovely, around a cool 18C. An interesting note on the toilet door read: (translated) You hurry when you come in, please hurry when you leave”.

Couldn’t check-in until noon, so we went for a round of billiards after a walk. Astonished that most of the shops opened only after 10am. Had to queue up to get into a restaurant even though it wasn’t even half-occupied. Are the complaints filtering through already…?

Hotel rooms were quite nice, at least the bed was cozy. Then there were the live telecasts of the European Championships from England to keep us entertained. Some card games in the room, then ‘twas off to the indoor entertainment center---arcade, 3D movies and so on. Unfortunately, Chinchew hit my spectacles while stretching and the nose support went into my left eye, giving me a shiner. Duh…

The eye was still swollen at night, and I could hardly keep it open. Thankfully Kewei was around to take care of me; sort of soothed any discomfort. Junhui came over to room with me for the night, since the others couldn’t bear his snoring. They probably figured the pain was going to keep me awake anyway…

France vs Romania was on at 2am, and Junhui drew my attention to the only goal, scored by Duggary, methinks. Arghh! Had to miss the football for that watering eye! Had a sweet dream that night, woke up with the eye feeling a tad better.

Day Two: Went to the outdoor theme park and quite enjoyed myself in spite of the swollen eye. Went for an extremely short roller-coaster ride ( a rip-off!) and a boat ride with Kewei, which later turned into a boat race with the other guys.

Second casualty of the trip when Junhui had a nasty crash while navigating the racing track, and the metal buckle of his seat belt cut deeply into his shoulder. ‘Twas a nasty cut, could see his bone, but thought he took the pain quite well.

Lunch at Kenny Rogers’, then back indoors for some bowling and billiards. Buffet dinner, wasted some film, then back to the hotel room. Went for a short walk with Chinchew and Ham, using up more film. Some shots were rather bizarre, I must say. Russia vs Italy game was a boring affair, went to sleep at half time to escape the snoring.

Day Three: Got a room call to wake us up. Couldn’t get into the casino as I was under aged although Ham and Chinchew managed to fake their way in. Have breakfast in room with Junhui and Kewei before boarding the coach to head for home.

Bastards! So many disgusting commission-motivated stops at tourist catchment areas. I refuse to buy anything! Had to eat lunch though…After countless stopovers (four, actually), we finally alight at Skudai, Johore, and went to Ham’s house. There’s a kindergarten in his backyard so we muck around in the small classroom and playground before Ham drove us out. No, he didn’t chase us away, but chauffeured us back to Singapore, lovely lad.