It was the first time all of us were going from one country to another by train and not surprisingly were asked to disembark just 1 hr into our journey from Singapore when we reached the malaysian border , we had to show our passport and Malaysian visa ( the train was being searched at tht time ) and then were asked to get into the train which took us to malaysian capital , Kuala Lampur.
We were headed to Genting resort on Day 1 of our trip ... In the morning we reached KL sentral ( the central railway station @ KL) which looked more like an airport than a railway station .. it was one single complex which had both long distance train , local trains(monorail) and bus station as well. Genting Highlands was a resort cum theme park about 45 min from KL , we got the tickets and the bus to Genting from KL sentral itself . There was a package deal which covered two way bus fare + 2 way cable car ride to top of Genting resort+ free access to most rides in outdoor and indoor theme park for just 42 Ringgits. It seemed to be a pretty attractive rate compared to what we find in India for similar theme parks where entry itself costs as much. There was 45 min bus ride and one could notice how neat the cit looked and the roads were very well maintained , we could see most of the important buildings enroute. We passed the Batu caves on the way and after seeing the gigantic Murugan statue and the caves , I made a note to myself to somehow fit it in our schedule when we got back to KL for sightseeing.
Genting was a resort cum theme park and also had a a number of huge star hotels and a a very famous Casino. The buses dropped us at the bottom of the hill and the remaining part of the journey was through ropeway .. it was the longest ropeway ride i had taken (about 12 minutes) and there was rolling mists across the hills and we passed literally through the mist. Journey through the clouds was simply awesome !
There was an indoor and outdoor amusement park .. with pretty decent rides (but nothing exceptional n all) and had attracted a good crowd of tourists esp from India ... Im not much of a rides person , still found myself taking on most of the rides and it was good fun. As we were moving around we seemed to be walking in the clouds ! I was sunny in the morning , but by midday it got kinda dark and there was mist all around us , sometimes we could hardly see what lay ahead of us and in the afternoon it started drizzling , however it rained only in patches , whenever it rained , most of the rides were shut down for safety reasons and after a point we decided to find a place servinf veg food . Finally we had 'veg' fried rice at a small eating joint over there , the menu didnt have any mention of veg fare , but the guy at the counter told us they make veg food for Indian tourists. Gotto mention getting Veg food is difficult in South East Asia!
we shifted indoors and started roaming around in the indoor amusement park , there were quite a few nice rides over there , best one was a sky-train kind of thing which had tracks pretty high up and went in loops all over the place and best part was when we whizzed past ( i should say above) starbucks cafe and a quite a few amused ppl over there waved to us. There were a number of attractions like rock climbing and snow world which weren't part of our deal. But overall the place was very crowded and wasnt as attractive as the outdoor one and we went back to the outdoor one inspite of sun playing hide n seek.
Though rain played the spoilsport and with the entire hills covered with mists at some points the visibility was extremely low esp when we did go-karting , visibility was so poor tht the ppl over there did not allow any overtaking spoiling all the fun . Still it was fun driving the slow moving kart with almost zero visibilty during the second round.
We returned by evening to the city , to KL Sentral (thts where the bus from Genting was headed) railway station which looked more like an airport with convenience stores and swanky shops and eating joints like McD , KFC , Dunkin Donuts .It also had a subway joint where we had our veg dinner we waited in the waiting area till we got the call to board the train to northern part of Malaysia to go to the island Langkawi ... we were taking a train to a place called Alor Setor and from there we had to catch a ferry reach the island. The train was at night arnd 9pm and we were supposed to reach next day at arnd 8 am at Alor Setor.
Though we had booked a/c coach and it was quite comfortable , i felt Indian trains were much better they have more space and one could talk/chat with friends and on the whole you could enjoy the trip much more. Here we started chatting n laughing but found that we seemed to disturbing most of the people who had dived into the bed as soon as the train started . In our trains we have this concept of lower berth where everyone in the coupe sit when they arent sleeping , in those trains the arrangement was different with a lower berth n upper berth on both sides and a common central corridor , which made sitting in a group difficult and ur sounds carried across the compartment and we were met with a few icy stares from disturbed occupants across the compartment and finally we also decided to call it a day !!!
Genting was a resort cum theme park and also had a a number of huge star hotels and a a very famous Casino. The buses dropped us at the bottom of the hill and the remaining part of the journey was through ropeway .. it was the longest ropeway ride i had taken (about 12 minutes) and there was rolling mists across the hills and we passed literally through the mist. Journey through the clouds was simply awesome !
There was an indoor and outdoor amusement park .. with pretty decent rides (but nothing exceptional n all) and had attracted a good crowd of tourists esp from India ... Im not much of a rides person , still found myself taking on most of the rides and it was good fun. As we were moving around we seemed to be walking in the clouds ! I was sunny in the morning , but by midday it got kinda dark and there was mist all around us , sometimes we could hardly see what lay ahead of us and in the afternoon it started drizzling , however it rained only in patches , whenever it rained , most of the rides were shut down for safety reasons and after a point we decided to find a place servinf veg food . Finally we had 'veg' fried rice at a small eating joint over there , the menu didnt have any mention of veg fare , but the guy at the counter told us they make veg food for Indian tourists. Gotto mention getting Veg food is difficult in South East Asia!
we shifted indoors and started roaming around in the indoor amusement park , there were quite a few nice rides over there , best one was a sky-train kind of thing which had tracks pretty high up and went in loops all over the place and best part was when we whizzed past ( i should say above) starbucks cafe and a quite a few amused ppl over there waved to us. There were a number of attractions like rock climbing and snow world which weren't part of our deal. But overall the place was very crowded and wasnt as attractive as the outdoor one and we went back to the outdoor one inspite of sun playing hide n seek.
Though rain played the spoilsport and with the entire hills covered with mists at some points the visibility was extremely low esp when we did go-karting , visibility was so poor tht the ppl over there did not allow any overtaking spoiling all the fun . Still it was fun driving the slow moving kart with almost zero visibilty during the second round.
We returned by evening to the city , to KL Sentral (thts where the bus from Genting was headed) railway station which looked more like an airport with convenience stores and swanky shops and eating joints like McD , KFC , Dunkin Donuts .It also had a subway joint where we had our veg dinner we waited in the waiting area till we got the call to board the train to northern part of Malaysia to go to the island Langkawi ... we were taking a train to a place called Alor Setor and from there we had to catch a ferry reach the island. The train was at night arnd 9pm and we were supposed to reach next day at arnd 8 am at Alor Setor.
Though we had booked a/c coach and it was quite comfortable , i felt Indian trains were much better they have more space and one could talk/chat with friends and on the whole you could enjoy the trip much more. Here we started chatting n laughing but found that we seemed to disturbing most of the people who had dived into the bed as soon as the train started . In our trains we have this concept of lower berth where everyone in the coupe sit when they arent sleeping , in those trains the arrangement was different with a lower berth n upper berth on both sides and a common central corridor , which made sitting in a group difficult and ur sounds carried across the compartment and we were met with a few icy stares from disturbed occupants across the compartment and finally we also decided to call it a day !!!
