Genting 3D2N Day 2

2nd: First World Hotel -> Awana Skyway -> Chin Swee Temple -> Gohtong Jaya -> Genting Palace Restaurant (云华宫) @ Genting Grand

Disclaimer! Due to time constraints, to make blogging more effective, photos posted in this post are unedited. Bus rest assured, it will still be as informative! We welcome email queries about our trip @ all4travel.enquiry@gmail.com

Rise and Shine. We didn't have much programme and hence we woke up a little later today. Had breakfast in the comfort of our room with bread brought over from SG.

USB charging ports at the bedside!

17th FWH Tower 2 lift 

We left FWH at around 10.30am.

Our first stop of the day is Awana Skyway. 

Awana Skyway map

During our stay there, Genting Skyway was replaced with Awana Skyway as such Genting Skyway was not open. Awana Skyway consist of 3 stations (Skyavenue -> Chin Swee -> Awana Station). Skyavenue station is also situated at the top of Sky Avenue shopping mall. We wanted to take the cable car to Chin Swee Temple (Chin Swee Station) however little did we know it was doing maintenance as such was not open. The cable car took us to the Awana Station which is also the future bus terminal. Where all coaches will stop there and visitors will take the skyway up to Genting Highlands instead of now at the Mushroom Farm Bus Terminal.

Directions to Sky avenue stn

Sky Avenue and its ever changing big LED panels

Ticketing counter for Awana Skyway @ Sky avenue Shopping Mall

RM 8 (SGD $2.96) for one way 

 Queue was not long. We only purchased 2 one way tickets as we redeemed the other 2 tickets on our first day with Genting Reward points. Redeemed tickets can be shown to the staff at the gantry. There is no need to exchange for actual skyway/cable car tickets.

Receipt of purchase of 2 Skyway one way ticket

Awana Skyway ticket for 2

Gantries

 There was no queue at all. Glass bottomed cabin and covered bottomed cabin have separate lanes. We took the covered bottom one.

And we present to you the new Awana Skyway!

Boarding the new Awana Skyway

It can sit up to 10 passengers each time per cabin and there are charging docks in the cabin too. Find out more about the new Awana Skyway at RWG web!

As there was really little people, we got a cabin to ourselves. Guess in a few months time, it won't be the same. The interior of the cabin is also really new.

And off we go! With the Arena of Stars as the first scenary!

Arena of Stars

First World Hotel

Major construction below (near Arena of stars)

 We believe the construction belongs to the 20th Century Fox World theme Park that is due to open in 2017. Construction seems to be delayed, barely see any ready structures.

old Genting Skyway in the background

 The Genting Skyway which brings guests to Gohtong Jaya station seem to be in operaton (moving) but not for public boarding.

It starts to get foggy ~

 

Approaching chin Swee station

connecting escalator from the Chin Swee Station to Chin Swee Temple

 

And we reach Awana Skyway

The whole ride took about 10 minutes from Sky Avenue station to Awana Station. Do note Awana station is not at Awana Hotel but Resort World Genting do provide free shuttle bus from Awana station to Awana Hotel.We reached Awana Station (end stop) at around 11.04am.

looks like they are prepared for a huge crowd of guests to Genting!

Basically, Awana Station is for coach to gather their guests and there is also GoGenting bus to KL (Pudu Sentral, KL Sentral, Putra LRT Gombak, One Utama). For more information about the GoGenting bus, look up here at RWG web.

As such in the end we managed to get a cab at the pick up point area. Taxis don't go by meter, instead both passenger and driver decide on a price before boarding. We were initially charged RM 50 and after bargaining we were charged RM 40 (SGD $ 14.81) from Awana Skyway to Chin Swee Temple. It was actually kind of overpriced given that it is only about a 10-15 mins ride.

Inside the taxi with our chinese driver

Along the way

we reached Chin Swee via taxi CCX 3256 safely ~

 We reached Chin Swee temple at around 11.30am. It was foggy. Sky wasn't as clear as when we went the first time in 2012. Read up on our 2012 Genting post here.

There's some minor construction here at Chin Swee Temple too

Resort World Genting hotels at the top

Path to Enlightenment - Visitors can walk through (it is something like Spore's Haw Par Vila)

  

Pagoda

Sun Wu Kong with Awana Skyway in the backdrop

Lim Goh Tong Statue

Vegetarian Restaurant @ Chin Swee Temple

We did not eat at the vegetarian restaurant this time round instead we went to Gohtong Jaya for a light meal. Read up on our 2012 Genting post on Chin Swee Vegetarian Restaurant here.

This time round we book a ride via UBER car. Waiting time was a little long however it is so much cheaper than when we flag a cab or get a ride from those private car. We booked the car via uber at 12.48pm but only managed to board at around 1.15pm. As Gohtong Jaya is big, we put 'Hotel Gohtong Jaya' as our end destination. That hotel is near the food places/ zichar.

Uber receipt

Prior to booking, our estimated fare was RM8 (SGD $2.96). We were a little skeptical but we decide to give it a try. It was supposed to be a short journey, however he seem to detour and took a longer journey but heading up to FWH and then travel down to Gohtong Jaya again. As such we reached Gohtong Jaya at 1.40pm. Nevertheless, we were still shocked when he told us the fare is RM 16.02 (SGD $5.93). His ride is almost 25 mins and yet it cost so much lesser than the first taxi ride we took. We gave him RM 30 (SGD $11.11) with the excess as tips.

Off he goes, and here we are at Gohtong Jaya

 As one of us felt a little nausea after the ride, we walked over to strawberry farm first.

Long road up to Strawberry farm

Entrance of Strawberry farm

Strawberry farm map

Ticketing counter RM 8 (SGD $2.96) / pax to Strawberry farm

 Apparently now it charge for admission to the strawberry farm :( Read up on our 2012 Genting post here on strawberry farm, when admission was free!

As such, we decide to give it a miss and head over to Gohtong Jaya food area. It is a one whole stretch of shop houses with Zichar. Typically people come here for fresh seafood especially steam fish as the price is affordable and they are fresh!

Gohtong Jaya restaurants/zi char

We did not have zichar this time round as we wanted to try Genting Palace Restaurant for dinner and afraid that we couldn't stomach both meals within a short span of time. Instead, we had a light meal at Shan Yuan Restoran!

Shan Yuan Restoran

Inside of Shan Yuan Restoran

Barbacued meat hanging outside the shop

Menu on the wall

 They sell Zichar and noodles too! While we were eating, on and off there are a few families that came to eat too.

Fried Bee Hoon RM 10 (SGD $3.70)

 Homemade Long Han Guo Drink (with Winter Melon pieces) RM 4 (SGD $1.48)

Shredded Chicken Hor Fun RM 8 (SGD $2.96)

Hokkien Mee RM 16 (SGD $5.93)

Food here is cheap and good! There's 2 wonton in the Shredded chicken noodles soup and there's prawns in the fried bee hoon. The homemade Luo Han Guo is the must order. Really authentic - no syrup added. Strongly recommend to eat here, or rather, any food store at Gohtong should be good and cheap too haha

Receipt

Stray dog

There were some street peddlers that approach us while we were eating our lunch, selling Pineapple. We bought a bag of the pineapples (3/4 rubik cube size) for RM 10 (SGD $3.7). Along the stretch of shophouses at Gohtong Jaya we also bought a pomelo for RM 30 (SGD $11.11)

Doggy sit in the middle of the road

Same doggy lying on the road

Ice Cream man

 His business is really good! Lots of customers in the restoran nearby came to buy ice cream.

Chicken floss and salted egg pastry push cart

We purchased 2 boxes of pastries (Chicken floss and salted egg) from this store here. They are freshly baked. Each box consist of 6 pastries at RM 25/box (SGD $9.26)

The filling is a little dry and the salted egg is a little too hard. Might not buy back if we were to visit again.

It was hard to flag a cab at Gohtong. There were no UBER cars in the vicinity too. Luckily while we approaching a car park at Gohtong, there's some private car drivers there and they quoted RM 40 (SGD $14.8) to head up to FWH. We agreed, afterall we had no other alternative.

We were back at FWH at 330pm.

Our private car WC1399Q from Gohtong Jaya to FWH

Temperature check: 21.1 degrees celsius.

We headed to the new Tower 3 to see and thereafter we return to our hotel room to freshen up before we head out for dinner at 6pm.

Tower 3 lobby - Y5 rooms

Sidewalk of Tower 3

 Seems to be a 'balcony' however there's glass panels and visitors can't step out to the grass porch.

Modern Tower 3 with Terminal 2 cafe at the right of the picture

We head out of our hotel and made our way to Genting Palace Restaurant (云华宫）at around 6pm. It is situated at Level 2, Genting Grand (beside Maxims). It is located beside the Genting International showroom, which is where Ultraman is now showing live. Dinner starts at 6pm at Genting Palace Restaurant.

Entrance of Genting Palace Restaurant

Interior

The restaurant is really huge, when we reached at around 6.30pm it was only about 30-40% filled. By 7pm, it is closed to 70/80% filled.

This restaurant serves exquisite Cantonese delicacies and there's member rates for this restaurant. Food is on the higher side as compared to other eateries/restaurants in Genting, but it is worth every penny spent. The food quality is really good. Prices here are member rates. As mentioned in Day 1 post, member's price and non-member's price generally differ by 5-10%.

From top to bottom (clockwise): Jasmine Tea / pot RM 15 (SGD $5.55), Corn with crabmeat soup RM 18 (SGD $6.67), Half Roast Duck RM 58 (SGD $21.48)

The roast duck comes with jelly fish at the side. The portion is really huge but it doesn't matter, as the roastt duck is really sumptious. We thought that this roasted delight is so much better than what we had on Day 1 at Good Friends Restaurant (好友记)! Highly Recommend roasted delights (roasted duck) from Genting Palace Restaurant!!!!

Seafood beancurd in claypot RM 65 (SGD $24.07)

Stir Fried Scallop with Brocolli RM 78 (SGD $28.89)

Dried chilli chicken with cashew nut RM 40 (SGD $14.81)

Food Galore @ Genting Palace Restaurant

Order Chit

Receipt

In total we paid RM 286 (SGD $105.92) for a hearty and sumptous meal. Portions are fixed here (all standardised sizing with no S/M/L portions). The waitress was kind enough to highlight to us that we ordered too many when we wanted to order one more dish. She was correct as we really feel full after eating all the dishes and rice. Genting points here are at x5 basis, i.e. RM 286 spending earned us RP 1430 points.

We conclude dinner at around 7.45pm and we head out to feel the cold breeze. Brrrr. 19 degrees celsius.

Brrr cold foggy weather

Christmas lightings outside of Genting Grand

Christmas Carol at Genting Grand Lobby

 We saw the same choir from Day 1 performing at FWH, at the Genting Grand lobby giving christmas carol again!

As we walked back to FWH, we stop by Baskin Robbins for our ice cream. How can we miss eating ice cream when you are at Genting with this cold weather?

Baskin Robbins

Variety of ice cream flavours

Monthly free up size from Single Regular to Double Junior scoop - for Brown sugar choco chip flavour only

We ordered 2 ( 1 cone and 1 cup) for sharing. Single Regular is priced at RM 11 (SGD $4.07). Hence we get 2 double junior scoop for the price of 2 single regular (RM 22 - SGD $8.14)! Good Deal!

Cup ice cream - Brown Sugar Choco chip

Cone - Brown Sugar Choco chip

Casino

There are plenty of entrances to the casino in Genting. We went for the scratch and win again, and this time round we won RP 200 bonus! In conjunction with Christmas we saw Toy soldiers parade near Genting Rewards Centre at 9pm.

Toy soldiers marching in!

Toy soldiers!

We ended the day with a quick tour around the huge casino at FWH. Just like in 2012, it is filled with smokers and there are ATMs/ free beverages just to keep gamblers in the casino. It was a good experience but I would rather spend my money on food :)

Click here for Day 3