Genting Highlands

Today I was lucky enough to be able to visit Malaysia's famous Genting Highlands! Genting Highlands is a mountain that is home to the Genting Highlands Resort and it serves as equal parts resort hotel, casino and theme park.

A mist-covered view of one of the colorful hotels at the Genting Highlands Resort

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Waterfall (fake)

Wearn's brother and sister-in-law, Cheng Hong and Wen Ping, beneath the GH logo

Wearn's brother and sister-in-law, Cheng Hong and Wen Ping (pictured above), were kind enough to drive us there and show us around!

At slightly less than a mile high, the Highlands is also one of the highest places in Malaysia and definitely one of the coolest, temperature-wise. While the rest of Malaysia can get as hot as 32 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit), the Highlands tends to be more like 24C (75)F, I'm told. It was quite a relief from the heat and humidity of KL. It's also extremely misty, hence the Chinese name yún dǐng​ gāo​yuán ​(Traditional: 雲頂高原 Simplified: 云顶高原), "top of the clouds plateau".

In some places the mist keeps you from seeing more than a few meters away

I wasn't so interested in the casino or resort part as much as the theme park. One of my goals for the trip was to try and get outside of my comfort zone a bit (culturally, gastronomically, whatever), so I decided that I was going to ride some rides. Even the ones that normally make me queasy (read: All of them).

Bumper boats! OK, so these don't make me queasy so much

The Cyclone: Pretty tame for most, but scary for me

Wearn and I in front of the Spinner, which we rode

The four of us in front of the Flying Coaster

The generically named, Flying Coaster, was probably the scariest one. You ride on your belly and there are all kinds of corkscrews and rotations upside-down. It's definitely the most intense ride I've ever been on and I'm glad the Cheng Hong convinced me to give it a try. It was fun, but I wouldn't mind waiting awhile before my next ride.

Genting Highlands reminds me a lot of the California State Fair, which is probably taking place right now back home. I'm sorry that I'm going to be missing out on the fair, but I'm glad I was able to enjoy the climate and the rides of the Genting Highlands here in Malaysia.