Day 1: 9 February 2025, Sunday

(Exchange rate: RM1 = S$0.3067 / S$1 = RM3.26)

For my first trip in the new year, I headed to Genting Highlands in Malaysia, a childhood favourite destination of mine. The trip was also a pre-birthday celebration for mum, a good chance to spend some quality family time together. We booked a tour package with WTS Travel and paid S$235.67 each. The price includes two nights’ stay at Genting SkyWorlds Hotel, two-way coach, buffet breakfast for two days and two-way cable car tickets on the Awana Skyway Gondola.

In the early morning of 9 February, we walked to the assembly point at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, conveniently located near our home. A shiny, white bus with the WTS company’s yellow and blue livery arrived at 5:02am. The bus was very new and spacious, with a 2-1 seating configuration and 30 seats altogether.

We moved off at 5:09am with 8 of us passengers on board. At 5:30am, we stopped briefly at Woodlands Causeway Point to pick up 5 more passengers, and arrived at Tuas Checkpoint at 5:57am. Immigration clearance on both the Singapore and Johor sides was a breeze at that early hour on Sunday morning, and we left the Malaysian border at 6:19am. Genting, here we come!

At 7:21am, we arrived at Yong Peng, a small town in the Batu Pahat district of Johor state. We took a toilet break and had a quick breakfast of kaya toast, eggs and coffee, before moving off again at 7:57am. The distance from Yong Peng to Kuala Lumpur is about 220km.

At 9:27am, we had another toilet break at a highway rest stop at Negri Sembilan before the drive up to Genting Highlands. About an hour later, we passed by Kuala Lumpur city centre and I had a great view of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, Merdeka 118, Menera Exchange 106 and KL Tower as we drove along the elevated highway.

At 11:00am, we arrived at the foot of the mountain and began our ascent towards Genting Highlands. The winding mountain road made me a little nauseous so I kept my eyes closed most of the time. Before I knew it, we reached the top of the mountain 25 minutes later. Upon alighting at the bus terminal, we were greeted by foggy and 19 degrees C chilly weather. Located at an altitude of 1,800 metres, the temperatures at Genting Highlands are a good 10 degrees C lower than in Kuala Lumpur. I wasn’t expecting it to be this cold but it was a very nice change from sunny Singapore!

We walked through the SkyAvenue shopping mall and reached our Genting SkyWorlds Hotel about 15 minutes later. This is our first time staying at this hotel. We usually stay at First World Hotel, which is the de facto hotel for most tour group bookings. In fact, for this trip, we originally booked First World Hotel but the Triple Room was not available so we each topped up S$58 to upgrade to SkyWorlds Hotel.

Due to its location, right next to the Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park, SkyWorld Hotel is very popular with families. When we arrived just before 12:00pm, the hotel lobby was full of families with young children playing at the slides and running around. The hotel décor is colourful and kiddy, with figurines of mascots like Joe the Orang Utan and Allie the Elephant placed prominently to entice visitors to the theme park.

We used one of the Self Check-In Kiosks to obtain our room keys. We had to pay additional Sustainability Tax of RM3 per room per night, and Tourism Tax of RM10 per room per night. On top of that, we also paid an early check-in fee of RM5, so we paid an additional RM31 in total upon check-in. The entire process was very smooth and hassle free, much better than the check-in experience at First World Hotel. It gets really crazy there because First World Hotel is the world’s largest hotel with 7,351 rooms, so just imagine hundreds of people trying to check in at the same time.

Genting SkyWorlds Hotel consists of two blocks – the Main Block (where the lobby is) and the Valley Wing (at an adjacent building). We were allocated a Quad Room in the Valley Wing. The Main Block is located along the busy road where all the coach buses drive past, so apparently, it can get quite noisy. The Valley Wing is further away and requires a fair bit of walking, but we got used to it after a while.

Our Quad Room was pleasantly spacious, with two king-sized mattresses placed on a raised platform, which was at a comfortable seating height. There was no air-con but it was equipped with an overhead fan and a portable humidifier. In any case, it was cool enough with the windows slightly open. The bathroom had two separate glass-frosted cubicles – one for the shower and one for the WC. The sink and mirror were large too. There was also free in-room Wifi, bedroom slippers and bottled water. Overall, our Quad Room at Genting SkyWorlds Hotel was much, much better than any of the First World Hotel rooms, which are cramped and dark with a pathetic bathroom. Definitely worth the upgrade.

After settling down, we headed out for lunch at Grandmama’s, one of mum and dad’s go-to restaurants for their first meal in Genting. I ordered the beef kway teow but it turned out more like a wet, beef hor fun. It was so-so, not that great.

After lunch, we walked around the SkyAvenue mall to recce the shops. Not much has changed since my last visit in Feb 2023. The usual stores were still there – Uniqlo, Padini Concept Store (shifted to a new location), HLA, H&M, F.O.S., Giordano, etc. There were a few new additions like Watsons Pink but the main changes were in the F&B outlets like the new Zus Coffee and Chagee. If only Decathlon opened a store here, I would be really happy.

As our visit coincided with the Malaysian school holidays period, the Skytropolis Indoor Theme Park was crowded with locals taking the various thrill rides under a huge LED ceiling, reminiscent of that in the Las Vegas Strip and Macau. The whole place was buzzing.

We also walked over to the old Genting Grand hotel to reminisce because this was where we used to stay in the 1980s/1990s before the fancier and bigger hotels were built. It is always a thrill to walk through the revolving, circular glass door and be hit by the blast of cool air outside.

Of course, a trip to Genting wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the casino. Let me just state upfront that we are not hardcore gamblers and we mainly visit the casino to play the slot machines to pass time. We choose the “cheap” 5-cent machines so that we can play longer without breaking the bank.

Actually, when you visit the casino, you should have the expectation that the house always wins, so if you manage to break even, it is already considered a win. The other important thing is to know when to tap out. If you’re on a losing streak, stop playing and cool off for a while before finding another machine to try your luck. If you’re on a winning streak, don’t be greedy. Tap out once you have amassed a considerable amount, collect your winnings and call it a day. The longer you play, the higher the chance of losing what you have won.

On this night, I managed to make a small win so I paid for dinner at LeNu Chef Wai’s Noodle Bar. This is another of our favourite restaurants at Genting. I ordered my usual Signature Jumbo Prawn Wanton and Dumpling Noodle soup. It was comforting to eat something hot and soupy in the cool weather.

We were back in our room at 8:50pm. It was a long day as we woke up very early to catch the 5:00am bus. For once, we had a nice hotel room to spend the night in. End of Day 1!

Day 2: 10 February 2025, Monday

Woke up at 7:00am to cool 15 degrees weather. When we stepped out of our hotel, we were enveloped in the morning fog, a very nice feeling that we will never experience in Singapore. We walked for about 10 minutes to Coffee Terrace at Genting Grand hotel for our breakfast, which was included in our package. Otherwise, in-house guests can also pay RM30 nett/adult to enjoy the buffet breakfast.

Even though it was pretty early at 8:10am, the restaurant was already full of people. The buffet spread was quite good, with Chinese, Indian and Western cuisine available. The food was decent but not fantastic. However, you can’t expect much when it costs only RM30 (S$9.20).

After breakfast, we went to redeem our free cable car tickets at Level 4 of SkyAvenue. A regular return ticket on the Standard Gondola costs RM19 (S$5.83). We were given 8 tickets because we booked a Quad Room and were staying for two nights. In fact, we needed only 3 tickets. At 9:31am, we hopped on the gondola and glided down the 2.8km line towards Genting Highlands Premium Outlets.

The scenery en route was beautiful. After passing through a sea of clouds, we had a gorgeous view of the lush green tropical rainforest covering the mountain slopes. We also had a good view of the winding road with the hairpin bends, reminding me of Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, China, with its famous 99-Bend Road. Along the way, there was a stop at Chin Swee Station but we did not alight because we already visited Chin Swee Caves Temple a few years ago. 

The cable car ride lasted 13 minutes and we got off at Awana Station, which is the last stop located at mid-hill of the mountain. At the lowest floor of the same building is the Awana Bus Terminal. Here, you can take a bus to Kuala Lumpur city centre and vice versa. The journey from Awana to KL Sentral takes around 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, depending on traffic conditions, making it a suitable day trip for those who are staying in Genting for a longer duration.

You can buy bus tickets using the self-service kiosks. There are two companies offering bus services – Aerobus and Resorts World Tours. Their schedules are quite similar but Resorts World Tours has a higher frequency. The bus fare for Aerobus is RM10 (S$3.07) while that of Resorts World Tours is slightly more expensive at RM12 (S$3.68).

From Awana Station, we walked over to Genting Highlands Premium Outlets, right as it opened at 10:00am. There are 150 stores spread over three zones – High Street, Middle Street and Low Street, which correspond to the floors they are located at. The usual brands can be found here – Nike, Adidas, Asics, Under Armour, Coach, Levi’s, Calvin Klein, Onitsuka Tiger and more.

We spent 1½ hours browsing through the shops but none of us bought anything. We have been here several times before so we know what to expect. The prices are not jaw-droppingly low and there wasn’t anything that I really needed, especially since I bought three pairs of Nike shoes in Pune last December. We were happy just to come here to pass time and enjoy the cable car ride. If the cable car tickets were not included in our package, it wouldn’t have been worth spending the RM57 to make a trip here.  

As it was approaching noon time, there was a sizeable crowd waiting to take the cable car up to Genting Highlands. The line was quite long but it moved briskly so we didn’t have to wait too long before it was our turn to board the gondola, but we had to share it with four other people this time. It was rather sunny and warm now so we were happy to go back to the cool highlands. We arrived at SkyAvenue Station at 12:09pm. 

We had lunch at Madam Kwan’s restaurant, which offers authentic Malaysian cuisine. I ordered the Nasi Lemak with curry chicken, dad had Prawn Noodles and mum had Assam Laksa. The curry in my Nasi Lemak was really lemak and the Achar was really good too. The broth for dad’s prawn noodles was really rich and full of umami goodness. In all, it was a very good meal.

After a short visit to the casino, mum went to do some shopping while dad and I had a coffee break at Nyonya Colors, another of their favourite restaurants. I also bought a Large packet of Chicago Mix popcorn from Garrett. It cost RM30 (S$9.20), much cheaper than Singapore, where it costs S$14.

After that, we went back to our room to shower and rest before heading out again for dinner. Since it was mum’s pre-birthday celebration, I let her pick what she wanted to eat, and she chose Swensen’s. The Swensen’s restaurant is located right in the middle of the SkyAvenue atrium, surrounded by all the video advertising screens. When mum and dad visited last year, the restaurant had a design like a fully enclosed container box. It was ugly and business was bad. Hence, they completely revamped the design and it now features a more open concept with a rooftop dining area, fully maximising its prime location potential.

We ordered a Caeser salad to share and I had my usual chicken baked rice. Of course, we needed to have ice-cream so I ordered the Firehouse Happy Birthday sundae for mum. Happy birthday to my dearest mum!

We ended the night with a short visit to the casino before returning to our room by 10:35pm. And that wraps up Day 2!

Day 3: 11 February 2025, Tuesday

When we left our room at 8:20am, it was again 15 degrees and cool like yesterday, but today’s sky was a clear and crisp blue with no sign of morning fog. We had our breakfast at the Coffee Terrace before checking out of our room at 11:00am.

We reported at the SkyAvenue bus terminal at 11:30am. Our WTS Travel bus for the return journey was older than the one we had for the journey here. The seat height was shorter, reaching only up to half of the back of my head, which made it rather uncomfortable when sitting for a prolonged duration.

We departed Genting Highlands at 11:50am and made our way down the mountain. We had three stops on the way back to Singapore. The first was a quick toilet break at the highway rest stop; the second was at a shop in Tangkak selling local food products; the third was a longer 35-minute snack break at Yong Peng.

Traffic was smooth and we arrived at the Malaysian border at 5:35pm. Immigration clearance on both sides was a breeze and we left Tuas Checkpoint at 6:09pm. The traffic in Singapore was heavier as it was the evening rush hour, so we only reached Ang Mo Kio at 7:00pm. End of a short and sweet trip!