TacoCat’s Travels #217 (KL-Genting): Escaping into the Clouds 🌦🌫

August 2023 · 8 min read · Pahang

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our first time venturing up into the mountains of Malaysia, specifically to Genting Highlands! I've heard about it a lot but never actually been, and Sean was excited to show me around since he used to go there with his family.

But to get there, we had to fly to Kuala Lumpur first and we spent a day there with a friend, hanging out at the mall right across our hotel and feasting on some hipster hawker snacks.

Anyway, we had a nice first day in KL but it was time to head up to the mountains! Let's-a-go!

11 September 2022. Sunday.

We had a nice night in the modern hotel called WOLO and I would highly recommend it to everyone visiting KL! It's in a very convenient location and is quiet and spacious even though it's right in the city.

The next day we got up pretty early but took our time to get ready and check out because the room was so nice we didn't want to leave.

I feel inspired to paint something similar to this lift lobby actually.

obligatory mirror selfie in the very bright lift

But all good things come to an end, so it was time to say bye to WOLO!

Here's what the lobby looks like without all the luggage and people around. It's actually quite a small lobby but it's still modern and welcoming.

Genting Highlands is an integrated resort development perched on the peak of a mountain called Gunung Ulu Kali at 1,800 meters high. It's only an hour away from KL so it wouldn't take us that long to get up there. But there are 2 methods to get there: you can either take a coach all the way up, or you could take the cable cars. Since it was my first time going, we thought we'd take the cable car up and the coach down.

Source: viator

To get to the cable car platform, we had to take a bus from KL sentral first, so we booked a car from our hotel to KL sentral, the main bus interchange.

It was going to be quite a journey so we went to get some breakfast first from this shawarma place just behind our hotel! Our friend told us it was really good, so we wanted to check it out.

They also had 2 humongous spits of meat rotating at the front of the shop that were really enticing too ngl.

Here's the menu, which features different types of dishes with either the chicken or beef shawarma, falafels, and a number of sides but also a few localised dishes like briyani.

They also had a full rice set for multiple people to share that looked good too:

We weren't too hungry yet and we had to catch the bus later so we just bought 1 chicken shawarma wrap to-go.

After we got into a car and made it to KL sentral we had quite a time finding out where to go to board the bus.

There were signs but none of them were pointing to where the bus bay was and there wasn't any staff around we could really ask.

It was our first time being here for both of us, since Sean never took the bus from here when he went to Genting. His family used to just drive up from KL.

It felt like the Shibuya station in Tokyo since there were train lines going from here also. We ended up walking up, down and around trying to find our way.

Thankfully we finally found this secluded bus bay with all the different coaches going to Genting.

We waited for our bus to arrive since we were a little early. Thank goodness we got up extra early since we had lost our way a little bit.

While waiting, we took a break from running around and tried the shawarma. I was pretty hungry by then so was excited to eat it! It was a little thinner than I thought it would be, but then again it's not a burrito.

Inside was chicken, vegetables and some sauce including mayonnaise and it was really delicious! It was still a little warm and everything blended it well together it was so savoury and tasty!

We finished the wrap and waited a little then it was time to board the bus! It wasn't a long ride but we were glad it was still a comfortable coach bus.

After all that hurrying, we were glad for some comfy seats and air conditioning, especially since the bus platform was a little war.

It felt like not 15 minutes later, we arrived at the cable car platform!

Everything was very foreign to me since I'd never been here before, but we were heading up to the Awana SkyWay!

This place seemed like a pretty empty mall apart from a few snack shops, and fast food chains.

It'd been a while since Sean took the cable car also but we just followed the crowd since everyone who came here was probably going to the same place anyway.

First we had to go the ticket kiosk to buy our tickets for the cable cars. They had a sign that said only one person should queue up per party so I didn't follow but everyone else seemed to just go into the line anyway.

Turns out this place was where the premium outlets were too since the next building was just full of different branded stores.

It was about a 10 minute wait for the tickets since a lot of people had trouble with the machines and didn't understand what to click. Sean had no issues though, and soon enough we got our tickets!

There were quite a few lines for the cable cars but Sean got the ones with the Glass Floor so we could see below us as we went up.

I think we did kinda regret going for the glass floor ones though since we had to wait a little longer than those who went for the regular gondolas.

It was about 4 regulars for 1 glass gondola and we saw a lot of people pass before our line moved.

It's alright though since we had plenty of time. I was getting excited since it'd been a while since I last took a cable car too!

It looked a little unstable as the people were boarding but thankfully it was fine. Tbh the glass floors weren't that big of a deal since it looked a little tinted.

About 15 minutes later it was our turn to board! Unfortunately we weren't lucky enough to have a gondola to ourselves but we shared with this 3 person family with a kid who seemed alright.

It was drizzling a little bit so the view wasn't great since it was cloudy but it did look quite high up.

This is what the glass floor looks like. Tbh really not anything fantastic. We ended up just looking out the windows anyway.

We passed by some roads where the coaches would be driving, and soon enough we were in the clouds!

We also passed by this temple on the way up and wondered who could visit it all the way up here.

After we reached a certain altitude it got so foggy outside you couldn't see a thing!

It was unfortunate since I wanted to enjoy the view, but I guess it's always like that up here.

It was fogged up for quite a while too, until we were getting close to Genting that I could finally see a little bit of the theme park up here.

It really felt like we were in a completely different place even though it is still in Malaysia.

When we arrived at the platform, we entered into the mall and it was pretty packed with people.

It had been a long time since Sean had visited so we were kinda lost on where to go from here, but at least we finally made it!

The mall looked huge, and there was this big light installation that reminded me of a similar one in Changi Airport.

Looks like there was a lot of stuff to see and do here, like these amusement areas that included Ripley's Adventureland!

Then we walked to a different part of the place which had an indoor theme park!

But first we had to go check in to our hotel before we could explore this huge area. Thankfully everything is connected so we just had to find our way.

We were going to be staying at First World Hotel, since it's known for being the World's Largest Hotel!

It won the Guiness World Record in 2015 for having the most rooms or something, so I guess that's the hook. I don't think it's the best hotel to stay at here, but we'll get to that in the next post!

Thanks so much for reading!