[ SPONSORED TRIP ]
Greetings! I’m happy to see familiar faces again as we head to Genting Highlands to have a FIRST LOOK at its latest attractions – mainly the opening of SKY AVENUE which I’ll elaborate in a bit. A quick recap of my previous visits featuring the other great attractions of Genting Highlands can be found in the links below.
Genting Highlands 2015 – First World Hotel, Coffee Terrace Restaurant, Chin Swee Caves Temple, Ed Alonzo’s Psycho Circus of Magic & Mayhem, Resort Seafood Steamboat, ITALGELato
Genting Highlands 2016 – First World Hotel, Snow World, Aaron Crow Fearless Award Winning Mystician, Bubbles & Bites, ITALGELato, The Food Factory
Genting Highlands 2016 – First World Hotel, Ice Age Collision Course, The Food Factory, Power Rangers, Awana Rajawali, Hou Mei
Genting Highlands 2016 – Awana Hotel, Fashion Forest, Golf Terrace, Skyride Forest, Rajawali Restaurant, Night Herping, Bird Watching
Genting Highlands 2016 – First World Hotel, Hou Mei, Self Check-In Kiosk, First World Hotel Laundry, English Garden Pitcher Plants, Ultraman Show, Awana Hotel, Rajawali Restaurant, Night Herping, Fashion Forest, Bird Watching
Now, let’s get the ball rolling for the highlights of this trip!
No matter how many times I revisit First World Hotel, I will still get excited because as long as I’m out of Singapore, I get excited. This round is a little more special, because the thoughtful sponsors arranged a double bed room for my partner and myself. Thank you Resorts World Genting for having me with you!
I just want to make special mention to the separate toilet facilities inside the room. How convenient it is because you can do your big business with the toilet bowl while your partner can bathe slowly and comfortably with the standing shower. No need to snatch for one bathroom!!!!!!!!
Our first itinerary for the day was to experience the Awana Skyway glass door gondola ride. I still remember that I rode my very first glass door cable car in Taiwan’s Maokong gondola, and I’m super pleased that I can now find this similar experience just in GENTING HIGHLANDS!!!!!!!!! My cravings for a glass door gondola ride can now be easily satisfied with a simple weekend getaway! Hooray!
The Awana SkyWay is the fourth cable car system at Resorts World Genting and is located at the new Awana Transportation Hub. The 99 cable cars can each carry 10 passengers and a total of 3,000 passengers every hour on the 620-metre ascent from Awana station to the final stop, SkyAvenue station. With a top speed of six metres per second, this 2.8-kilometre journey takes a mere 10 minutes!
The thrilling ride up the mountain begins at Awana station. Passengers have the option of disembarking at two stops to explore the attractions around Resorts World Genting. They can alight at Chin Swee station to enjoy the panoramic views or they can remain in their gondola until the final stop at SkyAvenue station which connects directly to the SkyAvenue shopping mall.
It takes approximately six minutes for the cable cars to travel from the Awana station to the Chin Swee Temple station which is located at an altitude of 1,514 meters. Passengers that disembark at the latter can proceed to the temple via a descending covered walkway equipped with escalators. The station also has its own car park, washrooms, and automated ticketing kiosks for the convenience of visitors. Passengers wishing to continue their journey on the Awana SkyWay from Chin Swee station can expect an additional four minutes to reach the landing at the SkyAvenue station.
The maximum capacity for the glass door gondola ride would be capped at 6 pax per cabin. Out of 99 gondolas, only 10 of them are fitted with glass floors, allowing for unobstructed views of the surroundings. One very interesting feature implemented is that every gondola is also fitted with two USB ports allowing visitors to charge their mobile phones!
How did I feel about the ride? Initially, I screamed because I looked down at the glass floor and saw the transparency and a super high height. I scared myself more when I realised there’s no turning back because I’m already trapped inside the cabin!!!!!!!!!!!
So, the only way is to learn to relax and enjoy the ride. IT IS SAFE. DEFINITELY. One tip is that if you’re scared, you can actually look straight and far, and it’ll feel like any other normal cable car ride. Otherwise, you can just hold tight to the railings and wait for the passing moments of mist and clouds, where you’ll not notice you’re being surrounded by transparent glass and even stepping on it! So fear not, you’ll end up praising yourself for surviving the ride for breathtaking view of the 130-million-year-old rainforest surrounding Resorts World Genting.
Behold the beautiful waterfall that your eyes will get to feast on during the ride!
With the launch of Awana SkyWay, we can all get easier access to the peak while travelling at a leisurely pace. Think about parking your cars further down the mountain, and simply sit back and relax while enjoying a bird’s eye view as these new gondolas make their way to the top!
Compared to the old Genting Skyway of 3.4 kilometres long and can only transport 1,600 people per hour, Awana SkyWay can carry almost double the number of people per hour and a slightly shorter ride overall.
Mr Thomas Ng, Senior Vice President of Theme Park & Tenancy said, ‘The Genting SkyWay was open to the public from 1997 and was South East Asia’s longest and fastest cable car system at that time, and was a great attraction for the Resort. We are proud to say that we have since ferried 109 million people.’
‘Genting SkyWay will be temporary closed while Awana SkyWay is in operation. Both systems will take turns to service our customers.’ added Thomas.
Visitors to Resorts World Genting can take cabin-sized luggage on board the gondola, while larger luggage can be stored at the new Awana Bus Terminal for RM5 for 24 hours.
Attraction: Awana SkyWay
Location: Awana Station / Chin Swee Station / Sky Avenue Station
Ticketing Prices: Standard Gondola RM8 for individuals or 5GP per trip for Genting Rewards Card Members / Express Boarding Pass RM40 / Glass Floor Gondola RM50 for individuals or 40GP for Genting Rewards Card Members
Operation Hours: Daily from 7.00am until midnight
Lunch was served at Burger & Lobster which specialises in premium 650-700g fresh lobsters from Nova Scotia, Canada, which are delivered weekly to the hilltop via KLIA. Due to the volumes the group buys on a weekly basis, they become very affordable and saleable.
Burger & Lobster is the first in Asia with a focus on decorative lighting. “Keeping to the Burger & Lobster’s interior and concept, lighting needed to be very mellow to set the mood and ambience. It will be the border between club and fun dining,” shares Dato’ Edward Holloway, Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations at Resorts World Genting.
The burgers at Burger & Lobster are made purely with 100 percent Australian beef, with no fillers. The patties are served in a custom baked sesame seed brioche bun, and will be topped with beef bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, the restaurant’s own, in-house pickles, and Burger & Lobster’s secret sauce.
The Mayfair, at 168 grams, is their entry-level burger, served with chips.
The Original is 224 grams of beefy goodness, also served with chips.
The B&L brings the best of both worlds together, with a 224 gram burger with lobster meat served with chips and salad.
Being a small eater, I would recommend the rolls which feature chunks of fresh lobster. The variants are all served chilled in a signature toasted brioche roll, accompanied by chips and salad to complete the meal. Alternatively, the B&L burger would be a great pick as it is a mini burger topped with lobster meat.
The wild live lobsters are steamed or grilled with clarified butter or the restaurant’s famed lemon and garlic butter. Served with chips and salad, the lobsters are available in three signature styles, namely The Original, The Big Boy and Chili Lobster. In fact, the chili lobster sauce is actually very Singaporean style and taste!
Don’t belittle the drinks that are available at Burger & Lobster, especially their interesting soft shells such as ginger soda, six pack, grapefruit soda and time keeper. You’ll be captivated by its specialty taste. A safe and refreshing drink to order would be the one that I had. And that’s none other than the mango coriander lassi which consists of yogurt, mango and coriander that would leave a lasting impression on your tongues and down your throats.
I felt a major sense of completeness after a lobster-filled lunch and I will definitely want to come back over and over again. JUICY GIANT LOBSTERS ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN GENTING HIGHLANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our happy smiles simply showed that these lobsters have satisfied our stomachs very well and they are definitely worth all the wait!
F & B: Burger & Lobster
Location: Level 1, Sky Avenue
Operation Hours: 11am to 10pm daily (weekday) and 11am to 11.30pm (weekend)
I’ll touch on Cafes Richard, Motorino and The Food Factory within the week, so stay tuned for the full post!
Thanks for reading!