Remember this song by The Carpenters. Yes and that was exactly the feeling when we went to GENTING HIGHLANDS for a short holiday recently. Because December is usually a wet season, things can get a bit cold and misty. Beautiful.

But before that we visited Kuala Lumpur ( or rather SELANGOR) and visited a very popular religious site . The Beautiful BATU CAVES . The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, and is dedicated to Lord Murugan. For the pious and believer, they would climb up the 272 steps , the kids wanted to but one of us wore a shorts and was not allowed to go up, therefore we gave up the thought. So remember – no shorts if you want to climb up the 272 steps. The steps used to be dull , but now they are painted with colors of the rainbow which give it a very striking and beautiful appearance.

BATU CAVES is a limestone hill that has a series of caves and cave temples in Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia , and yes caves are not only located in Perak. See my article – A look back at 2017

In Kuala Lumpur , we also paid a visit to the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre in SETAPAK . There is a good museum to walk you through the history of ROYAL SELANGOR, the Cafe with a good spread of western and local food where you can have tea from the Lucky Teapot (in the shape of a pumpkin) and highlight of the day , for an opportunity to make their own ice-cream dish

Now back to the highlands. If you ask me I would say you can spend one week there and not run out of things to do , other than trying out your luck in the casino. There is the shopping, the indoor theme park , the outdoor theme park ( although when we were there , it was open for preview with only one ride ) , the cable car trip , praying for good health, good luck , high tea and lots of dining.

The indoor theme park , SKYTROPOLIS is located within the shopping mall (SKY AVENUE) . As the nation has just begun to slowly crawl out of the COVID-19 restrictions, the outdoor them park (GENTING SKYWORLD) was only under preview with only one ride. In addition , there was some changes in decision by 21st Century Fox to pull out in the joint venture with GENTING to build a outdoor theme park supposedly because its parent , DISNEY did not want to be associated with gaming business. Notwithstanding , when we were there it was drizzling and we didn’t spend too much time at the outdoor theme park.

In addition to the shopping here, you can also shop at the Genting Highlands Premium Outlet which is located on the way up to Genting Highlands. Other than Genting Highlands, there is another Premium Outlet in KULAIJAYA, JOHOR. For us we feel that other than the good feeling of chilling weather or shopping in the mist , otherwise the number and variety of outlets are the same.

In the JALAN – JALAN CARI MAKAN category , at SKY AVENUE there are a few brand that are the only outlet in Malaysia i.e Burger & Lobster , Five Guys. However we choose to take a ride on the cable car two way just for the fun of it . It will go to CHIN SWEE Station and SKY AWANA Station , and then go for dinner at Mushroom Farm because we wanted something local, open air dining and reasonable price. It is just located behind the Petron Petrol kiosk station and on the way home to our hotel at GRAND ION DELEMEN Hotel.

Other than western brand, there are many local restaurants at SKY AVENUE as well as GOHTONG JAYA and GENTING PERMAI (Midhills) , halfway down the highlands but equally cool weather.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022