JUST TO SHARE (Lau Tai Onn): April 2022

I went with my former colleague Lim Soo Lian who has booked a complimentary triple room (room with one king-sized bed and one queen-sized bed) for a 3D2N stay at First World Hotel, Genting Highlands from Tue., April 19, 2022 to Thu.. April 21, 2022. Meanwhile, my wife had gone for a 4D3N vacation to Pulau Langkawi with her friends from Sun. April 17, 2022 till Wed., April 20, 2022. So we went outing separately this time.

Day 1: Tuesday, April 19, 2022

After finishing routine task on Tuesday, namely buying a copy of Nanyang Siang Pau where my weekly column article is published, having breakfast and taking away food for Wai Kei, uploading my blog and etc., I left home with a Grab taxi at 10.30am to Pudu Sentral bus terminal. The fare was RM26.00 + toll RM1.30.

Reached Pudu Raya at 11.00am. Tickets are to be bought in the bus at the basement floor. I went to the toilet at first floor and found that the complex was totally empty and quiet without any people. The bus fare was RM7.00 for senior citizens to Genting Skyway (the old cable car station) while the normal fare was RM10.00.

Reached Genting Skyway at 12.55am and met Soo Lian who had been there about one hour ago waiting for my. He came from Seremban to KL Sentral by commuter train from about 7.10am, reached KL Sentral at 9.30am and had breakfast there. Then he took the 10.30am bus from KL to Genting Skyway.

We went up by the Standard Gondola (cable car) at 1.00pm, reaching Awana Skyway at 1.25am. Senior citizen fare was RM5.00 (Soo Lian used his Genting Point of 9). Normal fare was RM9.00.

We checked into First World Hotel room No. 16980 of Tower 3 at 1.50pm. As Soo Lian is holding Resorts World Gold Card, we need not wait till 3.00pm to check in.

The rest of the day and night was spent in the Sky Casino and even the dinner using 9 GW point to redeem meal voucher (noodle soup + 6 pc. yong tau foo combo set plus 1 bottle of mineral water) at Good Luck Kitchen inside the same casino. The meal would otherwise cost RM22.00 standard for all types of food.

I played the slot machine for a short while and the computerized machine of “The Big Wheel” betting game (minimum RM5 per bet). Hardly realized I easily lost about RM500 in a few hours. Very bad luck indeed! I returned to the room early at about 8.30pm and bought 2 pieces of bread (about RM6.00) for breakfast the next day.

Breakfast at BSL

My noodle breakfast

Notice at Pudu Sentral

Selfie at Pudu Sentral bus terminal before departure

Genting Skyway ticketing counter

Inside the cable car or Standard Gondola

First World Avenue

Our triple room at First World Hotel Tower 3. I took the smaller bed.

Entrance to Sky Casino

Day 2: Wednedsay, April 20, 2022

I had bread for my breakfast before leaving the room at about 8.30am. Soo Lian had gone out much earlier, maybe 6.30am as he used to wake up early at 5.30am every morning.

We went to the Genting Hotel old casino this morning and I played the computerized machine of “Roulette” game (minimum RM1 per bet). I thought I lost another RM250 in the morning. But I had recovered some losses in the afternoon/evening and I enjoyed the excitement of striking single lucky number such as 0, 8 and 29 many times (winning RM36 or RM45 or even 54 for RM1 bet). Overall, I lost RM530 from this casino trip in 2 days just by playing with the slot machine and computerized machine. I heard Soo Lian didn’t do well too and he lost more than RM1K.

Anyway, I skipped lunch and I bought Oat Yogurt ( 有燕麦酸奶, RM18.00) at Yomie’s Rice x Yogurt (有米酸奶) at Level G of First World Hotel at 1.00pm and took it back to the hotel room for drink. I took a rest in the afternoon.

Soo Lian came back to the room later and took a rest too. He showed me using his latp-top computer (which he brought with him to Genting) how to evaluate and invest shares based on Chart analysis and Fundamental.

We went to Genting Hotel at about 4.30pm and had our dinner at the rather grandly decorated Hou Mei Restaurant at about 5.30pm. Again I used my GW point of 9 to redeem a meal voucher and went for steamed minced pork rice (蒸肉饼饭).

After dinner, we continued to play in the casino for a short while and decided to leave at 8.15pm. We went to Starbucks Coffee where Soo Lian had a buy-1-free-1 coffee voucher from his Berjaya shareholding. I paid for 2 cups of the Caffe Americano for RM13.25 (including 6% service tax) at 8.30pm.

We returned to our room after the coffee drinking at about 9.30pm.

A view of Skytropolis Indoor Theme Park

Sky World outdoor theme park at the far end

My dinner

Night view of Genting Hotel

Day 3: Thursday, April 20, 2022

I woke up at 7.30am and packed up my luggage after brushing teeth. As usual, Soo Lian had already gone out to the casino at about 6.30am.

We met and had breakfast at Good Luck Kitchen, Sky Casino at 8.40am. This time both of us took the Western breakfast (2 pc. fried eggs, 2 pc. Sausages, ham, French fries and croissant) by deducting GW points of 9.

After breakfast, we didn’t gamble at all at the casino and proceeded to check out from our room at 9.15am.

Took the skyway cable car (Soo Lian had two complimentary vouchers for the ride and we saved RM5 each) at 10.00am and reached Awana Genting at 10.15am.

My bus ride from Awana Genting to Pudu Sentral was scheduled to depart at 11.30am while Soo Lian’s bus ride to KL Sentral was 11.00am. So he left half an hour earlier than me.

I reached Pudu Sentral at 12.25pm and walked to Jalan Petaling to buy half salted duck (咸鸭 RM34) and 4 pc. of “duck leg wrap” (鸭脚包 RM2.50 each) from road-side Sze ingan Chye (四眼仔咸鸭). The duck leg wraps are made of duck leg, pork (with both lean meat and fats), pork liver and wrapped with duck intestines. The wrap will then be braised and roasted -- a unique Cantonese delicacy!

I boarded the RapidKL bus No. 590 from Hub Lebuh Pudu at 12.50pm to return home via Pasar Pudu, Jalan Sungei Besi, Balakong (skipped KTM Serdang), Bdr. Mahkota Cheras then finally Bdr. Sungei Long (BSL). The bus fare for me is only RM1.50 and it took about 1 hr. 15 min.to reach home at 2.05pm.