Genting (I)

It's been ages since I last went to Genting. So when a friend offered to take me to the City Of Entertainment for the weekend, I agreed without even thinking twice about it. Since I was under the weather, I thought that it would be the chance for me to get away from things.

Genting, as I remembered it to be, is nothing but traffic jam, congested queue at the Skyway, and hours of wait before you can check in to the hotel. As I said, it's been ages since I last went to Genting. The trip from KL to Genting is faster than I remembered it to be. My friend and I left KL around 3pm, and there wasn't any jam on the way up. Everything was smooth. We even managed to check in by 5.30pm!

The thing with taking a trip with your friend is that you will manage to see their true colors. And my friend slowly reveals his. It took him almost half an hour and a lot of commotion behind the recption counter before we could get a room. He was polite enough to ask me to sit and wait for him while he checked us in, so I didn't exactly heard what was going on behind the counter. When we got to our room, I asked him about it and I was told that when he booked the room, he requested for a non-smoking floor but as the rooms are all full, we were given a room at a smoking floor. So he wasn't happy about it. Ok, this I can accept.

He then proceeded to ask me if I know that some of the rooms in Genting are haunted. I'm not sure if it's a ploy to get me hugging him tightly in the middle of the night or for the sake of conversation, I answered yes, but I didn't tell him that I could see them. Then he said that another reason why it took him so long during the check-in was because he asked to speak with the manager and requested for a room which is NOT haunted, saying that "they know" which room is haunted and which is not. (If I were to be the manager in charge at that very moment, I would purposely choose a haunted room alreday, at this point!) Happy that he got a room which is persumeably NOT haunted, he started bragging about how he would always do this (ie: requsted to be served by the manager in charged) everytime he comes to Genting. I started pumping the volume on my iPod up.

After putting our bags down, i was told that he had to rush over to Genting Hotel to help his friends check in, as they are driving down from Penang after work and are not able to reach Genting Highlands before the check-in time ends, which is fine by me. But instead of taking a few steps walk over to Genting Hotel for the check-in, he proceeds to pick up the phone and asked the reception to pass him to Genting Hotel's check-in and reservation counter. As I was busy taking in the scenery from the window, (see picture above, we can actually see the whole of Genting from that room), I overheard his phone conversation, which went a little bit something like this:

"Hi I'm name is So And So, I have a booking with you all. My world card number is XXYYYZZ. I'm at First World Hotel right now and I don't think I can make it over to check-in by X:XXpm. Can you help me hold the room?"

"Yes. But Can you please look into your computer system and check if that room is still avaialble. I don't want to walk all the way there and you guys telling me that the room is no longer there!"

"No. Just look into your computer and check first!"

And at that point, the person on the other side hung up on him, which I would also be doing the same if some prick called me on the phone and talk to me that way! He started complaining to me about the crappy service that he's getting and picked up the phone, asking for Genting Hotel once again. I got into the washroom, locked my self in, and pumped up the volume on my iPod. Two songs later, when I got out, the phone conversation was over. As we headed to check-in for his friends at Genting Hotel, I prayed hard that those people wouldn't give his friends a haunted room for the rude lecture my friend just gave them.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dinner, thankfully, went well without further drama. Since I don't usually bathe right after dinner, i told my friend that I wanted to go for a walk. Immediately, the dude suggested the casino! Walk? Casino?! Sigh... I told myself: since you're not paying a single cent for this trip, you're not allowed to complain, so I went along anyway.

The casino was a bore. People throwing chips on the betting table like it's rubbish, dealers happily raking in the 99% of the chips, countless number of people chain smoking; it's the perfect setting for a modern day opium house! I left my friend behind and snugged out of the casino 5 minutes later.

Genting has changed to much, even Ms Liberty and Sir Oscar are now permenant residece there! The indoor theme park is now bigger and looks much more interesting and safer than the seemingly poorly maintained outdoor rides. The air outside is comfortably cold, reminding me of my vacation in Australia.

Reeking of ciggratte smoke, I went back to the casino and asked to have the keys to the room. My friend already got himself a seat at the betting table and is reluctant to leave, so I went back alone for my shower. On the way back, I reminded myself that I haven't and should go pay respect to the spirits of the place after my shower.

Back in the room, as I was taking my shower and comtemplate whether to inform my friend that the room is not as clean as he thought it to be, one of them tried to play with the necklace I left on the basin and accidentally dropped it.

The guy deserves a lesson. So I decided to keep my mouth shut.

- jessism © 19062007 -