And then we were flying.
My two friends and I went to Genting Highlands for a day trip. I don’t suppose I have to describe Genting, since most of my target audience already know where it is, but here goes, just in case.
Genting Highlands is (supposedly) located 6000 feet or 2000 metres above sea level. According to my calculations, this makes it about 12 degrees Celsius cooler than it is at sea level, but that’s just a rough guide. If I’m not wrong, the whole mountain (or at least relevant money-earning bits) is owned privately. It’s kind of hard to classify Genting. There’s no reason to go up there except for Genting-the-bit-that-is-commercial, such as the occasional concerts, and the theme parks, and the casinos. But at the same time, its commercial ventures are made special by the fact that it’s up there on a mountain peak. I suppose it’s one of the best examples of “build it and they will come”.
Well anyway, the 3 of us girls went to Genting early in the morning, on the 8am bus up to the Skyway terminal. Their cable car service is the fastest and easiest way to go up the mountain, because the winding roads will drive you mad. I’m afraid of heights, so the cable car was a wee bit frightening at times, but nothing I couldn’t handle, and anyway we were too busy yabbering away for me to have an anxiety attack.
It’s beautifully misty in the morning, large rolling clouds just envelop you, and as you approach the hotel on the peak, it gently appears out of the white veil. So pretty. At night it’s lit up, but I left the peak a wee bit too early and wasn’t able to capture a shot. From afar (meaning the Skyway lower station), the hotels on the peak and the streetlights form a very pretty constellation in the mountain jungle.
We went for a very disappointing MotionMaster simulation ride. I don’t think it was the ride itself, it was the movie. Alice in Wonderland. I ask you. What happened to the exciting ones like Mine Train or something? It was mostly bewildering, and the 3D effects didn’t really work for us. We wandered off for second breakfasts at Burger King, and then decided to hit the outdoor theme park.
First we went on the Spinner, which hurtles you in a circular motion at breakneck speed. It was a wee bit scarier than I expected it to be, mostly because I had underestimated the height at which the ride operated. And being 10 degrees short of parallel with the ground might have made me a little insecure, I dunno.
Then we went on the Space Shot, which had a very long queue (about 45 mins) and a fearsome reputation. Its stature overlooking the park is very commanding, and my friend’s estimate is that it’s about 12 storeys high. As previously mentioned, I have major height issues, so this was a real challenge for me. Just the thought of sitting in the open air at the top of a 12-storey tower was enough to turn my stomach. The ride itself is short and scary, they drop you from the top, bounce you back up and do it a few more times. My mother is going to scold me if she finds out I went on this ride. Nearly 5 years ago, she wouldn’t let me ride it.
It would have been nice if it had been misty when I rode it, but the sun was out by then. Gee, you’d think I’d never seen clouds before in my life, the way I kept snapping pictures of wispy clouds.
After a leisurely monorail ride on a yellow-and-black bug, and a not-very-nice putt-putt on an antique car, we rode the final challenge. But first, a word about the antique cars. Our car was weak on gas and didn’t accelerate as much as we would have liked, so the car behind kept ramming into us. Most rude of them, I must say, especially since they could have controlled their speed, but we couldn’t do anything about ours. The culprits? Two grade-school-age girls. You’d have thought they were adolescent males with an attitude, and we were shocked at both their age and sex. Road rage maniacs in the making.
We queued up for this monster, and though the queue was long, it moved fast. All through the wait, we were psyching each other up, saying things like “if I faint, just roll me out” and “this is what Harry Potter’s Quidditch feels like”, along with the more usual “why did I queue for this? Why?” There are 4 cages on the Flying Coaster, which is the monster of metal you see above, and cage number 4 is not used. I don’t know if it’s for superstitious reasons, but it completes its rounds with no passengers. Creepy. Anyway we were in the cage after number 4, as we resigned ourselves to our fate.
Grabbing the metal handles for dear life, we were gently tilted into a belly-down position, and a spiral took us ever higher. Can I just say how much I like this spiral? I think it’s a really inspired way of raising the cages to a greater height. Most roller-coasters just pull you up an incline. I didn’t enjoy the ascent, due to the aforementioned height issues, but once we were moving there was no blood left to think with.
The first plunge comes right after the ascent, but it’s not as prolonged as one would expect, which is good because we’re already scared to the point of becoming human jelly. A few twists and turns, and the 360-degree rotation comes into play. The G-force here is awesome. We were screaming our lungs out the entire ride, but if we could have varied the volume of our screams, this would have been a full-throated shriek. There were 2 of these rotations, and the requisite ups and downs elsewhere. Towards the end, the cage approached a flat platform and slowed down so that a camera can take your picture, which the ride operators try to sell to you for an exorbitant sum. I made the excuse that I didn’t look so good, and didn’t buy it. Besides, you don’t need a picture to prove you went on it. The experience speaks for itself. *shake shake*
After this final adrenalin rush, we went off to eat a very delayed lunch and reward ourselves for being so brave. Then we hit the casinos, where we probably chased Lady Luck away from all those who were hoping for her patronage. After that we went for a stroll in the bracingly cold air, and I took this cheesy look-ma-I-was-there picture:
Look, I’ll never get away with this pose in future, and my kids will run away screaming before they’d be associated with a madwoman doing this pose, so might as well do it now while I still have the excuse of youthful folly. Besides, it was a madcap adventure so it needs a similarly mad picture to sum it up.
Good day trip, definitely. I enjoyed myself most thoroughly.
January 2nd, 2006 at 1:16 am
Gawd. I can’t go on those things. I went on one SMALL one, once, and was so terrified that I couldn’t even scream. All I could think was, “What if something goes wrong? WHAT A STUPID WAY TO DIE!”
I know people don’t usually die on them, but I MIGHT, OK? And that would be stupid, so I don’t go on them.