Sunday, November 16, 2008

Placing the wrong bets - Genting



What do you do at Genting if you don't gamble, if you are not into amusement parks, if you want to go to a hill station. You don't go!


We planned to cover a modern city and a sea resort by going to KL and Langkawi during our trip to Malaysia in 2006. We then added Genting to our itinerary as a day trip as we felt that we would get to go to a hill station too.


This is when our travel agents let us down. This was really sad as they had helped us chart out a lovely tour of Thailand last year. I would have expected them to know that artificial pleasures of malling, amusement parks, casinos are not our scene. They should have known that we are more into history, natural beauty and food. They should have told us not to go to Genting.


The beginning of the journey was fine as we stopped at chocolate 'factory', a tourist trap after our heart for a change. The cable car ride after the two hour drive was fun too.


The coin dropped when we reached Genting. We figured out that it is not a hill station. It is a complex of casino hotels and you are confined to these. We went into the casino to kill some time and came out soon. There was an amusement park which you had to pay to enter which didn't make sense as it was not our scene. We stepped out of the hotel and figured out that you could only go up to the parking lots. There were some pretty gardens there but that's it. And it was fairly chilly too.


So we went back in and spent time in the coffee shop till our time was over and our coach left for KL.


A precious eight hours wasted!
Traveler's notes:
  • Genting is about 3 hrs away from KL
  • Don't do an an overnight trip unless you are clear that you will be inside the hotel and will frequent the casino
  • The amusement park is supposed to be good and would attract those with kids

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