Weekend in the Highlands

Nay, tis not the land of kilts and bagpipes. There are no handsome Lairds here or grand castles overlooking beautiful lochs. Just good ol' Uncle Lim's backyard of Genting.

The girls and I decided to head off to Genting last weekend. They wanted to catch Su Rey's concert. Who?! Don't ask me. I've never heard of her until they mentioned it. The only song of hers I've ever heard of is "Ciu Kan Than Boey Boh" (in English - Can Liquer Bottles Be Sold?) which is the theme song for this tear jerker movie from my childhood days. So yeah, we can go to Genting for the weekend, do some stuff together, but count me out for the concert.

The concert was a blast, by the way, according to the girls when they gushed about Su Rey's powerful voice reportedly able to rival that of Mariah or Celene.

We decided to take the early morning bus this time as opposed to the night bus during the last trip which was a nightmare. Here's a tip - unless you have a tour guide who is willing to queue on your behalf to get your room keys, don't book your hotel room together with your bus ticket package.

Here's what happened during the last trip. We took the night bus and arrived at Genting about 5 am in the morning. Went to the hotel to get our queue number so that we can check in only to be told that since we booked our rooms as a package together with our bus ticket, we had to wait until about 11 am and check in at the tour counter which is a separate location. Since it was early, no shops were opened and we ended up roaming aimlessly around.

The only place which was a hive of activity was the casino (duh!) and we had breakfast at their cafeteria. When we finally went to the tour counter, the place was packed. There were easily about a thousand people there and only 4 counters open to cater to them. Of course you can imagine the tempers flaring. I actually had to quarrelled with hotel personnel to get checked in.

So this time, we were smart. We booked the bus ticket but reserved our hotel room online. We arrived at Genting around lunch time and get to check in almost immediately. So easy.

The highlight of this trip for me was climbing "The Wall". They have this mock rock climbing wall which I actually wanted to try out last trip but we didn't have the time. After checking out for the easiest route up, Au Au and I decided we were gonna do it. Halfway up, we ran out of footholds. We were stuck there panicking as the only way to get down was to let go and let the guys holding the rope slowly lower us down. OK, 1, 2, 3, let go!!!! I was a screaming mess. Oh how embarrassing! To add insult to injury, as we were leaving, a kid was actually scaling the wall at the same spot we were at and managed to climb higher than us!

This trip was especially memorable to me as it was also to be my last trip with the girls as colleagues. I will be leaving the company two days after we return. As they took turns to take pictures with me at the lobby before we left, I realized that by far, this is the first company I've been in that everyone is close to each other. The only politics and back stabbing was going on at the top management level. I really made lot's of good friends there.

Thanks, girls! I'm really gonna miss working you all.