Highland Escapade with the SISTAHoods!

Prologue: My poor blog has been ignored for the past 10 days. Time to clear off the cobwebs! *blew off dust*

If some of you notice my significant reduction of activity in cyberspace (note: Facebook and Plurk) for the past weekend, that's because yours truly has made an escapade from the scorching coastal island air of Penang to the refreshing and chilly highland air of Genting Highland, together with the beloved SISTAHood! The last time we went there was in 2009 for our mid-semester break and it was only for a day trip before we proceed to KL. This time: Two days one night stay over First World Hotel in two rooms! Pictures courtesy's of TailouWong's and ChanPao's besides my own camera. Massive pics spam ahead yo!

The journey to the sky actually begin at Friday midnight so that we can reached there early morning and being earlier in line in checking into the room, taking into consideration of the monstrous weekend escape crowd. One thing about our bus though is that it's actually operated by tour companies instead of just being express bus hence we're able to purchase our room directly with our bus tickets as package. Being a tour bus means that the bus are not allowed to enter Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal and we have to board our bus from Mobil Station located right across Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal instead even though the ticket counter where we bought our tickets is located in the terminal! Being a tour operated outfit means that anything can happen and that's what happened the other night: delay. We're supposed to depart at 10:30pm but the bus only arrived at 11:30pm. Reason (after we bombarded with the counter auntie so many times through phone seeing a couple more buses went off.)? They need to pick up other passengers from Komtar. Grr. Anyway, boarded the bus, made ourselves comfortable with the reclining seat because it's a 6 hour bus trip!

Penang Bridge. The bus actually has another stop over Butterworth to pick up a few more passengers before we actually head down South so our journey only begins at midnight.

We reached Genting Bus Terminal around 6:00am sharp. The chilly highland breezes welcomes all visitors from lowland. This feel kinda nostalgic because we reached here at the dead of the night as well the last time! No time to lose though because we need to get our queue number for the hotel check in now even though check in will only commence at 10am!

Our number: 114. Not too bad but it could've been earlier if the bus didn't delayed. We dumped our bags at the porters counter and heads off for breakfast while waiting for the hotel check in.

6:30am. Most of the First World Plaza's close but there're quite an amount of places that operated 24 hours besides the usual fast food outlet!

Tailouwong with Ronald McDonald.

But in the end we went to KFC instead because they offer a much better deal plus they have refillable coffee too. Kinda regretted that I purchased the breakfast roll because it isn't as full as the picture depicts. Pfft. Should've opted for porridge and it's cheaper too. Anyway, we ate, we chat, we hang around. Then around 8am something, SzeSze messaged that she's on the bus up from KL. Then we had enough hanging around KFC. While TailouWong, Ah Ham and Ah Bui wanna go to Casino for a little bet...

...I hand around Starbucks First World Hotel's lobby for internet! Best of all, there's a plug over there so I can camp comfortably while waiting for SzeSze and AhPheng to come! Yesh, I brought alone my lappie even on my escapade from reality. At least I did checked my mail and got my co-supervisor's reply on my conference paper so I edited it right away. The Starworld Casino over First World Hotel is a tadbit too....seedy for my liking. Grubby aunties and smoking uncles going up and down the aisle. Urgh.

About an hour plus later, SzeSze reached woot! She tried to call the rest of them who were in the casino to no avail. Luckily, there's me camping outside so I immediately messaged the rest of them to come out and meet our birds. Around the same time, Ah Pheng's are on her way up to Genting too.

Me, camwhore!

And finally they came back from the Casino! We hang around for a lilbit more before we head into the lobby waiting for our turn to check in.

While we're waiting for our turn, Ah Pheng finally arrived! Wee! We have booked two rooms but we can only checked into one first because the other Genting Green Card holder (Note: Green Card holder have discount while buying Genting tour package), ChanPao is still at KL and will only depart from KL at 2pm. Pfft. Anyway, at least there's a room to dump our bags and we head off for lunch.

Went back to First World Plaza again for lunch at Marrybrown. They serve it in paper boxes for easier crowd management.

After lunch, it's time for theme park. We only bought the outdoor theme park pass for RM46. It's RM62 without Green Card so luckily TailouWong is a Genting Green Card member! Because we just had our lunch, it's best we start off mild not to upset our stomach.

So we're waiting in line for the Antique Car!

The ladies in the Antique Car. I bump into them a couple of times haha!

Me as driver...

for Tailouwong.

Genting Highland shrouded in mist...

...while the SISTAHood braves the cold for the next ride. While the ladies has set their eyes on Spinner, we the (failed) men went to the Beryl's Kiddy Chocolate House located right beside it instead. I never like Spinner because it makes me dizzy and the chair looks a tad flimsy for my fat butt while Ah Wong have to stay out for health reason.

So we camwhored in front the Giant Cocoa.

And the clock.

Me with the Giant Cocoa.

Chocolate tree.

The line was pretty long hence when we are done with the chocolate house, it's only the ladies turn to ride the Spinner.

Immediately after Spinner, we head to Cyclone or the first roller-coaster in Malaysia. The ride itself is actually pretty miniscule compared to the two other rollercoasters here but damn the line is still impossibly long. We waited for at least half an hour or 45 minutes before it's actually our turn. SzeSze, Ah Pheng, Ah Ham, Ah Bui and me opted for this ride so me being the odd one out has to ride alone because one car can only fit four people. What happened for me? I shared with 3 very chatty Indian in which one of them actually had the cheek to ask me to sit behind. I sit whereever I want yo. Dammit Foreveralone.

After that, SzeSze and Ah Bui decided to try out the GoKart Circuit but the rest of us who feel that the line over there was impossibly long decided to heads off for milder ride like the Spaceship and Flying Elephant. As we explore around the park there're a few ride that actually closed for renovation such as the Pirate Ship, the Space Adventure as well as the Toboggan. I wonder what those will be upgraded to.

We even paid a visit to the Ghostless Ghost House before we moved on to other rides. Meanwhile, camwhore with the antique car.

We were waiting for the Mine Train Roller Coaster (it was under scheduled maintenance and will only open at 4:45pm) when ChanPao messaged us telling that she finally reached so we went out of the the park to meet her. The entry pass/wristband last for whole day until 10pm at night anyway so it doesn't matter! Met Chan Pao, finally checked into the 2nd room and we head back to theme park again!

ChanPao! We went back to Mine Train and Dragon Roller-Coaster ride and we can see that the line is getting shorter and shorter as we reached dinner time...

The night falls but the park lights up in full splendour! We went to challenge the Corkscrew Roller Coaster not once but twice! The line at night was much more manageable compared to the endless line during day time! Sore necks, hips and arms but it was all worth it for the ride!

The Spaceshot however is the one ride I don't dare to take because of the height *shudder*. But two ladies rises for the challenges instead!

Chan Pao and Ah bui, right there, posing even though it was really blur!

The ladies went back for more Spinner, this time lighting up to its romantic Parisian Charm~

We hang around at the carousel while thinking where should we go next. Ah Bui and Chan Pao.

Ah Wong, Ah Ham, Ah Pheng and SzeSze.

First World Hotel at night. SzeSze, Ah Ham, Ah Bui and ChanPao continues for one last ride over the Bumper Boat while me, Ah Pheng and Tailouwong hangs around waiting for them while chit-chatting.

Dinner: Pizza Hut because some of them just can't resist the smell of pizza dough. It wasn't exactly satisfactory though with slow and unresponsive service. Not good, Pizza Hut Genting Highland. While we had our dinner, suddenly Ah Wong took his excuse to "go to the washroom."

...turns out his "washroom trip" include a quick run to buy birthday cakes as a surprise for Ah Pheng. I was pretty surprise too when Ah Wong pointed out the cake in the fridge! And I was wondering when will he go and buy the cake for Ah Pheng surprise birthday! Anyway, all of us reached our room in the pretense of unwinding while in actual fact executing the surprise. Ah Pheng went to bath while the rest of us snuck the cake over to her room...and we wait.

As soon as she's done with her bath...SURPRISE!

Making the birthday wish...

A picture collage with the birthday girl!

Five consecutive shots, each with different emotions! Anti-clockwise from the first to the last!

We had beer...NOT!

We're just posing for it anyway! We moves on with pillow talk and such but since all of us were drained for one whole day at theme park, the pillow talk was shorter than usual only with us eating up the chips. Only four of us (not me) decided to drink beer while we didn't even manage to touch Ah Wong's leftover Vodka from last time! All of us crash onto the bed soon after. Me being the odd out had to sleep on hard mattress base after I lost a paper-scissor-stone with Ah Wong. Grr.

-24 April (Sunday)-

Brr. Just look at the mist right outside the window!

Itinerary of the day: Check out, a trip to Mushroom farm for lunch before heading back to the lowland (KL for Ah Pheng and SzeSze, Penang for me, Tailouwong, Ah Ham, Ah Bui and ChanPao.). We have two extra visitors joining us though that is Ah Bui's mom and aunt who had their own escape over here too. We checked out using the abundant check out machine, left our bags at the porter and waited outside the lobby for the Mushroom farm's van. The van service is actually free of charge and the only thing we need to do is to call them up and had lunch there!

Group photo outside the lobby.

The mushroom farm which was actually a short 10 minute ride from First World Hotel but a necessity because of the steep road making walking an extreme endeavour. For some reason, all their vans have the 9100 on their license plate.

What we ordered: Stir fried long bean, Kampung Chicken, Kangkung in Belacan, Sizzling Tofu and Mixed Stirfried Mushroom.

Chinese Name for this dish: 三姑(菇)六婆. LOL. The Steamed Kampung Chicken is pretty good too with tender meat and ginger condiments. Da yum!

After our lunch, we had to the actual Mushroom farm which was located right behind the restaurant. All its vegetable are fresh highland produce!

Clusters of mushroom, grow under certain moisture and temperature.

Rows and rows of mushroom!

I am growing mushroom. It...kinda look disgusting on further look.

Group photo under Shitake Mushroom (the signboard that is.).

They also happen to have a tortoise pond outside.

Lot's of cheap decoration outside means more camwhore opportunities! SISTAHood on the Chariot!

One last group photo together with Ah Bui's mom and aunt before we bid farewell. As soon as we are done, we hop on the shuttle van back to First World Hotel, retrieve all 13 bags of ours, bid farewell to Ah Pheng and SzeSze who's heading down to KL hence required to take the cable car to the foothill first as well as Ah Bui's mom and aunt before the rest of us head over to the bus terminus to claim our bus ticket back to Penang.

Claimed our tickets and we went to the platform to wait for our bus. The bus departed on time this time but another 6 hours expected before we actually reach Penang.

Engage low gear dotted alone the way down. I think engineering in automobile and roadbuilding has enabled buses to travel up steep hill is pretty impressive.

Emergency stopping site like this are available along the way with sand and gravel to absorb the speed of screeching bus just in case they lost control.

Went past the temple along the way. What's the thing over here anyway?

Just look at the sturdy viaduct trailing along the side of the steep hill.

One hour and a half later, we finally reached the foot hill at Batang Kali, Selangor. Finally we are ready to hit the highway!

Five hours of traveling north later, we finally reached Juru Plaza Toll, the gateway to Penang. The journey doesn't end that easily though because there're a couple of stops to drop off passenger from Butterworth first as well as a trip to the fuel station for the next leg to Genting later at midnight again.

After taking a spin around Butterworth, finally we're heading to the right direction: Penang Bridge.

Speeding back to the island...

...and around 8pm, we're back where we started our trip, the Mobil Petrol Station over Sungai Nibong.

And with that, our escapade to the highland has finally come to an end. Even though our bodies are sores from the theme park and the gruelling bus trip, it's always great time hanging out SISTAHood! What's left for us SISTAHood? Island Escapades it is! (This plan actually pops up in our discussion too and we went through so many options including the long delayed Langkawi plan.) Can't wait for more trip and can't wait to see all of them once again. And ChiaMin, please don't missed out again! Our group of SISTAHood is incomplete without you!

Epilogue: Stay tune for more random post about everything significant in my otherwise boring postgraduate life! Last but not least, reality check/research update: I am glad I am done with my Conference Paper on Friday evening before heading to Genting. Right now, it's my supervisors to check through it as the co-writer of my paper. Looks like I am going to have something published! One step forward in academia. It took kinda long though and my inbox is terribly quiet. Deadline: This Sunday. *Anxiety creeping in.*