Tuna
Friday 17 May 2024
It was cool enough last night to keep the air conditioning off and get a good nights sleep. Unfortunately, the wifi doesn’t quite reach the bedrooms, so I had to get out of bed earlier than normal, but only after my morning coffee was delivered.
After puddling around the apartment doing very little except appreciate the great views and wonder at all the new construction of hotels and who is going to stay there, we hit the road. Heading further up the hill we stopped at the Chin Swee Caves Temple. Constructions was started in 1975 and the temple opened in 1994. It the idea of the same businessman who developed Genting Highland as a resort town. There is a temple, pagoda, buddha statue and great views over the mountains and down the valley to KL.
Wandering around you go past figurines depicting the Ten Levels of Hell and the punishments for each. The crimes you need commit to get into one of the Level range from tax fraud, stealing, adultery, killing animals including poultry, disappointing your parents, and any other sin you could imagine.
The other attraction here is the story of the monk who travelled to the West to collect sacred scrolls and had a monkey, pig and sand demon as travel companions. The best things were the big than life statues of the characters from the TV series.
Next stop was the top of hill and the main resort area of Genting Highlands. The road consists of about 100 hairpin turns to get to the four hundred resort hotels at the top of the hill. The might Bezza and its massive 1.3lt engine struggled, a lot! It always wanted to be in the top gear despite only being able to go 30km/h and refused to stay in a lower gear. I spend most of the time with the foot literally flat to the floor and chugging away very slowly in the left-hand slow lane typically used by trucks.
Our destination was a huge shopping mall, which features included the Skytropolis Indoor Theme Park (none of the rides were open), Jurassic Research Centre (doesn’t do research, but has dinosaur models and is more an indoor playground for kids) and Zombie Outbreak (another kids playground). It is all attached to the biggest hotel in the world, the massive First World motel with 7,351 rooms.
By this time our footsies were getting a bit sore and it was past lunchtime. We headed down the hill and the 200 hairpin turns to get a late lunch at one of the local little restaurants near our apartment. Time to do some laundry.