Good Morning Vietnam (GMV): Genting Highlands

Sunday, 26 August 2012

Genting Highlands - 2 decades on

Well...almost. Our last visit to Genting Highlands was when Bryan was like 2 or 3 years old. So it's been more than 15 years since. The reason why we're there (10-12 Aug 12):

This fella ...

was invited to perform at this.

As proud parents, we had a maternal/paternal instinct to show our staunch support for our casino ... oops, wrong ... son during his performance.

He did well, judging from the interested crowds ...

Busking at First World Plaza

Appreciative crowd

A twist here...a turn there ... and voila

Well, we can't be forever standing there staring at our son ... support has its limits ... and he needs a break from us blah blah ... excuses, excuses. So we scuttled off to explore ... the air is great; really 'cool' in both literal and figurative sense, the malls are ok - can get some good bargains, the food a tad expensive at some places, the casinos... now THE casinos ... well...

I don't know about the big rollers but for us small-time social 'gamblers' (not sure if we even qualify for that title - casinos would have long gone broke if they depended on us!!), the Genting casinos are great. To qualify, as we don't play table games, the slot machines are great. Simply because we can stretch our $$$. You get 5 x RM50 for S$100 with some spare change. In HCMC, you get two miserable pieces of US$50 for S$120+. And since the machines are mostly the same in both places (2¢ and 5¢) - so one gets to play (lasts?) a lot longer in Genting than in HCMC, which in a way adds to the fun as we're not there to make serious money and worry a lot about losing it. The variety of slots machines is amazing - I like the way wikitravel puts it - you can have your "vice of choice".

No wonder there are so many uncles and aunties there. We, the new birds, made some enquiries at the agencies in Golden Mile. At offpeak periods, you can get a 3D2N stay at First Hotel for S$88 (inclusive of a return ride on a 26-seater luxury coach). Now ain't that a bargain?

However, you get for what you pay for - so don't expect RW Genting to have first-class facilities and amenities like RW Sentosa. The theme parks are rather old, First Hotel (where we stayed) is ok - can't complain except for the check-in time, food is ok if you're not fussy etc etc.

We boycotted Starworld Casino mainly because of their card system. They require us to sign up a new card which is a pain as we've already signed for the Genting Worldcard. Then their cards have a big problem "talking" to the machines ie 4 out of 5 machines will have problem reading the card. On top of that, the buttons are not responsive and you end up punching your PIN many times, compounding the above problem. After a while, it becomes a real pain to machine-hop. And if you want your money back (if you have any left in the first place!!), you need to queue to get it physically from the cashier. In the end, we gave up. We're there to have fun, not frustration.

Monte Carlo, Circus Palace, Hollywood Casinos use the Genting Worldcard system which is a lot more efficient. All you need to learn is to slide your card into the slot in a specific way. The rest is a breeze. Apparently, you acquire points from playing and can exchange for certain benefits like free hotel rooms etc.

Monte Carlo - the biggest casino there

Another part of Monte Carlo

We stayed at First Hotel - that gawdy, strange rainbow-themed 3-star hotel. It holds the world record for a hotel having the most number of rooms - 6,000 + rooms. No wonder it takes such a long time to check in. We took about a half hour but I read complaints about 2-hour waits.

Really gawdy, isn't it?

Looks better hidden in the mist!

There was no breakfast with our hotel booking so we tried the "Bakery" - which I must say has very good breads. The breakfast muffin (with scrambled eggs and ham) was great and a generous portion to top it; so was the chicken pie and coffee. And that's how "Bakery" became our fav breakfast haunt.