Hi Loves!
A few weeks back, I travelled to Genting with a group of bloggers and friends. Although we didn’t know each other (except for our plus ones of course), we got to know each other better through the trip and had a blast! We had so much fun that by the end of the trip, I really didn’t want it to end~
There’s going to be so many exciting developments taking place in Genting! A new premium outlet mall is slated to open in mid 2016. 20th Century Fox Theme Park which will be completed in phases, will open by the end 2016. And that’s not it! There’ll also be a Sky Avenue Mall, Sky Plaza & a new cable car system which will connect First World Hotel & the new premium outlet mall. Which only means we totally have to go and check it out when they’re open!!! By then, spending 1 weekend at Genting will not be enough, you’ll need at least 3 days or more. In the meanwhile, read on and find out what we did during our recent trip, so you can get some ideas if you’re planning to head down soon!
The bloggers and I headed to Genting via coach. We met up at Boon Lay shopping centre for the coach ride:
There are a few coach providers, we travelled with The One. I must say that their buses (to and fro) and bus drivers were very good, so I would recommend them. Bus tickets are about S$80-90 for round trip. We took the night coach which departed at 10pm and we reached Genting around 4.30am.
We were welcomed by the RWGenting team when we reached Genting and were directed to our hotel rooms at the newest wing, aka Tower 3, XYZ deluxe rooms. Here’s how the lobby looks like!
Tower 3 lobby.
Terminal 2 cafe located at the ground floor of Tower 3.Plenty of seating spaces at Tower 3 lobby. I like the modern graphic interior design & use of fresh colours. Even more spaces, yes it’s a huge lobby, but even then I think it’s still not as big as the main First World Hotel lobby.
Automatic check out stations.Our rooms are located on the 25th floor. Even though there are 6 lifts, it still takes a long time (15min) for the lift to reach our floor especially during peak hours from 10-11am, which is around check out timing. So plan your time in advance to give allowance for the lifts. 🙂Our XYZ Deluxe Room! I like the modern, simple yet chic interior design and the comfy bed & linens. However there’s no wifi in the rooms. A quick check with the RWGenting team reveals that they have already feedback to the management but it is still not confirmed if and when wifi will be provided in the rooms. If you need wifi, it is available at the lobby, as well as at cafes like Starbucks & The Bakery. You should also bring your own toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo) as they are not provided for. Should you forget, you can also buy from stores like Watsons nearby.After a few more hours of rest, we got ready for our brunch! Here’s the morning view from our #25 floor lift lobby. Am using the miniature lens effect of Casio TR60 camera.
With bestie Fion on our first trip together! ^^With the local bloggers & friends~ Visit what Chiu Yen have to say about the Genting trip here and Eileen’s post here!
We started our day with brunch at Coffee Terrace, for their lunch buffet. We were allowed in earlier than the public crowd (yay to media perks!).
At the Coffee Terrace, you can savour dishes from the Local, Flavors of Malaysia, Chinese, Western, Japanese & Western Asian counters (Last two counters opens only for dinners). There are also very good varieties of appetizer, salads and desserts on the buffet spread.
The delicious spread of food on our bloggers table! We decided that we will each take food from the various counters and combine them on the table. This fantastic idea was suggested by Chiu Yen, who has a lot of buffet experience! Most of us were full from this spread, we didn’t have to go for round 2… Well, only except to get ice cream!:Ice cream and sorbets in chocolate, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, orange and lemon flavours. It’s hard to decide, but my favorites are the lemon & blueberry flavours.
Buffet dining with a view!Love what you see at the Coffee Terrace buffet spread? 😉 The quality & variety of food is great and definitely value for money. I personally really like the local food, char kway teow, chicken rice and the desserts are nice too. I’d recommend this spot for buffet lunch if you’re visiting Genting!
Coffee Terrace Buffet Lunch Prices
RM 38.00 nett [adult] ; RM 19.00 nett [child] – normal days
RM 50.00 nett [adult] ; RM 25.00 nett [child] – Eve PH & PH
For promotions & more information, visit their official site here.
After a very hearty lunch buffet, we headed to Chin Swee Caves Temple. The Chin Swee Caves Temple is situated in the most scenic site of Genting Highlands. Even if you are not a devotee, like myself, you will still enjoy this cultural experience. Within the temple is the statue of Reverend Master Chin Swee, who is also referred to as a deity in Fujian Province for his supernatural abilities to summon rain and drive away evil spirits. Located 4,600 feet above sea level, the temple is about 5-10 minutes drive down from the peak of the mountain. The temple attracts many local and foreign devotees as well as tourists.
Irene explaining the history of Chin Swee Cave Temple. The story goes that the Genting Group founder Tan Sri Dato Seri (Dr) Lim Goh Tong had a dream while visiting the area and Reverend Master Chin Swee aka Chin Swee Deity appeared in his dream and blessed him, so Dato Lim donated this plot of land and built the Chin Swee Temple. Also, the face of Deity Chin Swee is black because he fought the evil spirits and escaped but resulted with a black face. The temple’s relief wall and pillar art works are very beautiful and intricate. They display high levels of craftmanship and artistry.
Lotus floral ceiling relief.
View of the mountains from the temple, lined with incense. Isn’t it a lovely picture? ^^
Gorgeous view of the mountains.
Outdoor pond with many turtles.
Turtles gathering – 乌龟舞林大会. Not quite sure what they are discussing about though. 😛
We headed to the Sky Terrace level to continue the temple tour.With the Sky Terrace arch & Pagoda behind us!Another shot at the courtyard & infront of the gigantic statue of Buddha (blocked in this photo).
Our series of jumpshots! P.S. I checked with the hosting team that it’s not rude to be doing jumpshots here. 🙂
Not quite sure why I was laughing so hard! 😛
Beautiful environment on and around the temple grounds.Then we embarked on the route towards “Journey to Enlightenment” which is a rather similar experience to the local Singapore Haw Par Villa. Our guide explains that the journey is like a walk through hell followed by heaven.
This is the “registration booth”, the beginning of the 18 levels of hell. The statues torturing people are actually very very graphic, vivid and grotesque so I will spare all of my lovely readers and not post them on my blog. Well, actually I didn’t even want the photos on my camera, so I didn’t take photos of them, hahaha. I respect the buddhist religion and teachings, but I sure am glad that I believe in Jesus and I know that I am spared from hell! 🙂
This is the part of the journey where people drink Meng Po Soup to forget their past life and head towards reincarnation – their next life.
There are many scenic spots along the journey.
Doesn’t it look like I’m on a forest trek? 😉Again with the group! ^^
Infront of another Sky Terrace arch. That’s how the #7Heavenbloggers came about! Cause we went through hell and emerged to heaven. Hahaha!!!
Together with some of the Malaysian bloggers. 🙂
After the temple visit, we headed back to First World hotel for Ed Alonzo’s Psycho Circus of Magic & Mayhem!
We were early, so we settled down, finished our water from these cute bottles and did some IG postings while waiting for the show to start. ^^
I won’t give a blow by blow account of what goes down in the show, I’ll just share some of the exciting parts!
The show starts with a dance and there will be many along the way. As the title of the show goes, it’s a Psycho Circus of Magic & Mayhem, so you never really know what to expect and there are many surprises along the way. So it’s exciting to seat, watch and wonder what is the next crazy thing to expect!
Crazy things like this magic act of swopping out the dancer in the plastic wrappings to the little boy from the audience. You can watch the snippet in my video which I will embed at the end of this post!And crazy acts like Ed Alonzo disappearing from the stage and immediately reappearing in the middle of the audience, which is the exact row where I/we were seated!!
And this part was particularly hilarious, Alonzo got a man from the audience and proceeded to burst balloons located all around him. He used a knife to burst the last balloon below his crotch!
We also watched Loughron James Stephen Leslie, a contortionist who also swallow swords from Austrialia, doing BOTH at the same time. CRAZYYY I TELL YOU. We also watched Ed Alonzo in many outfit changes and performing many magic acts with animals, in this case with rabbits. There was also a bird and a very cute dog.There’s also Toru Sato from Japan eating & playing with fire – he definitely didn’t listen, or his mother never told him to “not play with fire”! 😛 With Ed Alonzo, the lovely dancers & Sato. Seems like contortionist Leslie is too cool for photos with the audience. 😛
Group pic with #7Heavenbloggers.
Ed Alonzo’s Psycho Circus brings the best of magic & mayhem to the audience, which is visible from the attractive cast, visually pleasing props, setting & outfits to very crazy and impressive supporting performers. From 7 Nov 2015 to 13 March 2016, catch Ed Alonzo’s Psycho Circus show, tickets starting from RM88 to RM134.50, you can buy your tickets here.
After the performance, we headed to the visitor center where we learnt from Eric about the founder and the history of Resorts World Genting. You can read a summary from this site.A model of Genting highlands, which would require an update when all the new developments open next year!
We also watched a few videos about the exciting developments, one of them is this video about Sky Avenue:
The stunning new Sky Avenue is nestled right in the heart of the refreshed Resorts World Genting, with easy access from all adjoining hotels and leisure attractions. This brand new centre offers a complete and balanced retail mix with 165 retail and F&B lots ranging from 500 sq ft to 15,700 sq ft.
I’m sure I’m not the only one looking forward to this Sky Avenue!
For dinner, we headed to Resort Seafood for seafood steamboat!
Recommended plum ice blended drink! Its sweet, sour and very refreshing. We love it!
We had the set for 8 persons, with crabs, prawns and many more, see the full list below:
What I like about the dinner is the fresh ingredients with big portions and variety.
Set Menu for 8 persons dining
Member – RM 456.00nett; Non-Member – RM502.00nett
For more information & prices, visit their site here.
After dinner, we headed to First World Plaza for some shopping!The First World Plaza has got to be the coolest, if not highest (like literally, hahaha) shopping destination in Malaysia. There are more than 40 Retail and 25 F&B outlets plus attractions for all ages! For more information, visit here.Didn’t take many photos while shopping, except for this one at the Nike Outlet store, haha.
After shopping & chilling at Starbucks, we headed back to our hotel room to drop our stuff before heading out again to check out the Casino! (No photos allowed in the Casino)
It was my first time to a Casino on land (cause I went to the cruise one before, but that was just to check out my friend’s grandma and speak to her momentarily before we went elsewhere) and at the Genting casino, it was really crazy watching all the money that the gamblers were putting on the tables and the dealers counting the notes and stuffing them into the table, by the thousands(!). I mean, ok, I must sound like a sua ku (mountain turtle, lol) but it was eye opening for me ok? 😛 For more information about Genting Casinos, check out here. I don’t recommend nor endorse gambling, unless you have a lot of money to burn. 😛
We woke up early next morning at 7am and here’s the makeup I brought for the trip! Etude House Any Cushion in Peach (Primer), LANEIGE BB Cushion (Whitening range for dewy look). Benefit Air Patrol Eyelids Primer (New and a fab base for longer lasting eyeshadow colours👌) The Body Shop FW Festive Eyeshadow Palettes, am super loving this Golden set which such a lovely combination of peach, gold & Browns 💕 Clio‘s Latest Tattoo Lasting Gel Brow Pencil & Waterproof Eyeliner & Last but not the least Anna Sui’s loose powder & new lipstick from the Holiday Snow collection (Which is love! Look at that star shaped lippie!⭐️😍)
If my make up is not very well done, it probably is, plus puffy eyes because I didn’t have enough sleep, hahaha. 😛Caught up with Chiu Yen, her BF & Warrick at the lobby.
Love the view!
And another view from the ground floor!We checked out and then had our bags checked in before going for breakfast. Here we’re all using wifi hence the engrossed faces with our phones except for Chiu Yen who’s always camera ready and… not sure what Fion is doing, hahaha. 😛
We had breakfast at First World Cafe and here’s what I typically pick for a buffet breakfast! Porridge, salad, carbs, beans, ham & eggs! <3
After breakfast, we headed to the last and final stop of our trip, the ITALGElato ice cream shop!
ITALGElato Head Chef and mini stick ice cream.
ITALGElato is Resorts World Genting’s in house original gelato brand, which makes them the only resort with such a claim. Edward Holloway, the resort’s Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations first came up with the idea of the resort’s own ice cream brand. It started as his team and him were brainstorming concepts for the new theme park and researching how to achieve a perfect Italian gelato in Malaysia. The innovation team then dived into the processes and came up with ITALGElato. The first stall was started for fun during the school holidays and they now have 4 stores and growing. The booth we visited is at Genting First World Lobby area.
There are 21 flavours available.I love the red velvet flavour, it’s tastes like the red velvet cake but in ice cream. 🙂The must try signature flavours are Dark Chocolate & Orange Cheese Cake.
Their Mango flavour is made with the best grade Alfonzo mangoes and I am not a major mango fan (don’t love it, neither do I hate it) but this tastes great! Ice creams are sold at RM9.50 for one flavour, RM19 for two flavours, RM28.50 for three flavours and RM38.00 for four flavours.
The Stick Ice Cream come in 5 flavours, lemon, hazelnut, pistachio, strawberry and Gianduja (Chocolate and hazelnut), priced at RM9.50 for sticks and RM7.50 for minou (smaller sticks).
These special sticks have jam inside! I love these.Chef demonstrated how to coat the sticks with coloured sugar & decorate them.
And we all had a chance to try!Here are our creations! It was thrilling and exciting to be able to step into the shop to have our hand at the sugar coating process and to be able to see our creations in the store’s fridge. ^^
With our creations!And more ice creams! (Did not actually eat this, was too full hahaha.)Mini ice creams are my favourite! I like these as you can try many different flavours. 8 pieces at RM 20 and 12 pieces at RM 26.Children’s favourite! Random guest’s kids staring at the ice cream made for a cute photo. ^^
Before leaving RWGenting, we took more group shots!
A “fierce” look.
Followed by our natural friendly smiles. Really thank God that everyone was so friendly and easy to get along! ^^Thanks to Eric, Wei En & the team from RWGenting for taking such good care of us during the trip!
I really didn’t want to leave, and I hope to be back when the Theme Park & new mall is ready! ^^
I had this Waffle Cake at Yong Peng while on the way to Genting and I had it again on the way back to SG because it’s very yummy! It’s crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. 😛
I opted for the ChocolatePeanut Mixed flavour, RM4.50.
I compiled snippets of videos & photos from this Genting Trip into a video, hope you’ll enjoy watching it!:
Thank you RWGenting for having us and hosting us for such a fun weekend!
Now’s your turn to grab your family, friends & loved ones and plan for your next fun trip to Genting!
x
Ena