Genting Highlands

Genting is a cluster of hotel towers, malls and theme parks built on a ridge at about 1,800 metres, roughly an hour north of Kuala Lumpur, and it is unlike anywhere else in the country: cold, foggy and entirely constructed. The Awana SkyWay cable car climbs from the mid-station in around ten minutes, passing over forest, with glass-floored cabins available at a premium. At the top there is an indoor amusement park inside the mall, an outdoor theme park built into the hillside with rides based on film franchises and arcade floors, all under one roof. The temperature difference from the lowlands is the other draw, cool enough for a jacket.

History

The contractor Lim Goh Tong conceived a mountain resort close to Kuala Lumpur in 1963, while working on a hydroelectric scheme in the Cameron Highlands, and on 27 April 1965 he co-founded Genting Highlands Berhad; between 1965 and 1970 the company gained 12,000 acres of state land from Pahang and 2,800 from Selangor (Wikipedia, Genting Highlands).

What's there

• The Awana SkyWay - a ten-minute cable car over forest, with glass-floor cabins.
• The outdoor theme park - rides built into the hillside at the top station.
• The indoor park and arcades - covered amusement floors inside the mall complex.
• The cloud line - fog rolling through the towers at 1,800 metres.

When to go

Weekdays are much quieter; weekends and school holidays produce long queues for the cable car and the rides, and the road up can jam completely. Cloud usually thickens through the afternoon, so early is better for views from the cabin. Bring a layer, since it can sit under twenty degrees and wet.

Before you go

This is a built environment, not a hill retreat, and anyone expecting nature will be disappointed. Queues for everything are long at weekends and traffic backs up for kilometres on the access road. Food and tickets are expensive by Malaysian standards. Fog frequently reduces the cable car view to plain white, and outdoor rides close in heavy rain and wind.

Nearby

Batu Caves lies on the road back to the city; Fraser's Hill is further along the same range.