Today is the fourth job as tourist guide,
and it is my first tourist guide job that need to overnight at the places of
visit. Such overnight tourist guide job is the tour I yearning for, although it
is not an actual commentary tour. This 3 days 2 nights Genting job is a big
group comprising of 30 buses and over 900 Singapore tourists. All the tourists
guide gather at the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex – Malaysia Second Link Customs
early for briefing. Due to overnight, I brought Melilea organic powder and bread
to standby, and medicine like panadol and stomach ache medicine.
All the tourists guide arrange the buses at
the Gelang Patah R&R to wait for order before drive to Sultan Abu Bakar
Complex – Malaysia Second Link Customs to avoid congestion of the customs.
Singapore tourists start to reach at 7.30am. Due to the bus plate number
identical for the four digits, it causes some mess and tourists board to wrong
bus. We departed to Genting Highlands around 8.30am. There are tour leader in
the group. We reach Yong Peng Fuhua Restaurant for our breakfast at 10am. After
breakfast, we go to nearby native food shop Yoyo and honey shop to let
Singapore tourists to visit and purchase the local products. After that, we
continue our journey. The journey to the Genting Highlands is followed by the
heavy rain along the road. Top of our bus window cover is dripping water.
Fortunately there are 2 empty seats available for them to swap their seats to
avoid the dripping water from heavy rain.
We reach Seremban R&R (Rest &
Repair) around 1.30pm. We have our stopover there for 30 minutes for break and
lunch. Due to most of the Singapore tourists are elderly, the food sold there
are not suitable for them. They buy the snacks over there to fill up the
stomach temporarily. About 2.10pm, I took a big umbrella from bus to fetch them
back to the bus and then continue our journey. In the bus, I start to promote
the optional tour – half day Genting tour, Bingo card and the otak-otak.
We reach our destination at Genting
Highlands First World hotel at 4pm. First World hotel has 3 towers with total
of 7351 rooms. It is the largest hotel in the world took over the honor from
The Venetian hotel from Las Vegas. I proceed to the counter to collect 15 room
keys and 30 pieces of You Ya concert tickets. After room allocation, I pass the
room keys and concert tickets to all the Singapore tourists. I return to my
room which is allocated for tourists guide after 6pm. During these 2 nights, I
will share room with another one tourist guide. We are informed to go down to 2nd
floor food court for dinner on travel agency boss expense. After dinner at
8.45pm, I go back to my room to rest. A busy day ended here. The second day
will be a free and easy day.
The next day 8.30am, I go to Genting
Highlands First World hotel lobby to meet with all the Singapore tourists that
registered for half day Genting tour optional tour. This optional tour touring
the places of interest including Chin Swee Cave temple, chocolate shop, far
sightseeing strawberry farm (who want to enter the strawberry farm must
purchase the strawberry) and enjoy lunch on own expense at the Genting half
mountain. After all my tourists gathered and aboard the bus, I proceed to have
my breakfast with tourist guide who share the room with me and another one
senior tourist guide. We ate our breakfast at Genting Highlands staff’s canteen
food court. By showing tourist guide license badge, we enjoy 25% of discount on
all food there. My soup noodle which sells at RM8.50 sold to me at Rm6.50. At
the end, we have our breakfast, lunch and dinner for the day at Genting
Highlands food court there. The rest of the time, we explore Genting Highland
under the guidance of senior tourist guide. We visited Arena of Stars, the most
important place due to the You Ya concert which falls on the night and we need
to bring our tourists there, casino, theme park hotel (formerly Highlands
hotel), cable car station, visitor gallery and others.
7.30pm, all the tourists guide gather at
Genting Highlands First World hotel lobby to arrange all their tourists to
gather and follow the group to go to Arena of Stars lead by our tourist guide.
There are 2 routes to go Arena of Stars: one is nearer but the pathway uncovered,
another path fully covered for its entire walkway but more far. Due to heavy
rain during the time, all the tourists have to follow the long route to get
there. However, tourists can go there by taxi which cost RM10.
After all tourists reach and enter into
Arena of Stars, all the tourists guide left. At first I intend to take the
opportunity of gathering to inform my tourists the changes of return time, too
bad only few tourists who follow the group to go Arena of Stars, most of the
tourists go there by themselves. I borrowed a spare You Ya concert ticket and
entering the Arena of Stars trying to locate my tourists, too bad the You Ya
concert start when I go into there. I returned back and joined the rest of
tourists guide to have our dinner together at Genting Highlands staff canteen
food court. Over there, few tourists guide with over 10 years of experiences
share their experiences. I learn a lot from them.
About 10.30pm, I saw many people started to
return back to First World hotel from the Arena of Stars. The return path they
took is a nearer path because there are clear sky and no rain. At the time, I
was sitting outside the lobby coffee shop. I observe for a while and then I go to
my Singapore tourists’ room to knock the door to inform them the timing change.
I only manage to inform half of my tourists, the rest are still not return back
to First World hotel room yet. Under a senior tourist guide suggestion, I write
the notice at A4 paper, get the hotel counter service staff to photostat it and
insert the paper into the room door. I also requested for morning call for all
my tourists at 7.30am. When I return back to my room to rest, it is already
1am.
On the 3rd day early morning, I
wake up at 6am. I go to knock the door at 7am to those tourists that I fail to
meet them before the day. At the end, only left 1 tourist that I failed to
contact and inform about the changes of time. Around 7.30am, I joined the two
tourist guide to have breakfast at Genting Highlands staff canteen. I myself
already ate the Melilea organic powder and bread early morning, so I just
accompany them. Around 8.45am, almost all tourists already gather at Genting
Highland First World hotel lobby except 2 families. Finally and fortunately,
all my Singapore tourists gathered at 9.10am. I proceed to call bus driver to
come up to pickup us. Due to earlier notification to bus driver about the
return timing, driver already standby there and it just take 2 minutes to reach
the First World hotel pick up point.
When the entire luggages are put inside the
bus luggage compartment and headcount done, we proceed our journey back to
Singapore. There are 2 stopovers at native food shop at halfway mountain of
Genting Highlands, Tangkak brown rice shop for tourists to visit and make
purchase, and a drive through to Yong Peng Xiao Mei otak-otak store to collect
the otak-otak that we are order earlier. We have our lunch at Seremban Yong
Xiang Restaurant and our gala dinner at Maedo ballroom.
About 4.30pm, we reach Maedo which located at
Skudai, Johor. 4.30pm is the timing arranged to start the gala dinner. However,
there are still buses yet to reach Maedo. Due to not enough time, these buses
not visit to Tangkak brown rice shop and even have bus not going to Yong Peng
Xiao Mei otak-otak store, but request help from other tourist guide to collect
it on behalf. After reach there, we guide our tourists to the table assigned to
them. When the gala dinner started, most of the tourists guide including me
proceed to old Maedo restaurant which located opposite the road to have our
dinner. After dinner, I go back to our bus to pack the otak-otak for our
tourists.
Gala dinner ended at 7.30pm. All the
tourists guide standby at the Maedo ballroom exit to fetch them and guide them
to the bus, then proceed to Sultan Abu Bakar Complex – Malaysia Second Link
Customs. In the bus, I pass the three free 2 nights First World hotel voucher
to 3 lucky tourists and tell them the voucher validity and how to book and
present the free hotel voucher during check in. Around 8.45pm, we reach Sultan
Abu Bakar Complex – Malaysia Second Link Customs. I inform all the tourists to
just bring passport and important belonging to go down bus for Malaysia
immigration and customs side, but need to bring everything belong to them
including luggage and all the products they bought down together when at the
Singapore Second Link Customs – Tuas Checkpoint. After all tourists return back
to the bus and headcount done, I thank my tourists for the trip and say goodbye
to them. After that, I cross over to another side of customs to take my bus to
go back home.
About Genting Highlands
Genting Highlands, also known as Resorts
World Genting, is a hill resort in Malaysia developed by Genting Group.
The hill resort is at an average elevation
of 1,740 metres (5,710 ft) within the Titiwangsa Mountains on the border
between the states of Pahang and Selangor of Malaysia. It is accessible by car
from Kuala Lumpur in one hour, or also accessible by a cable car called Genting
Skyway (3.38 kilometres)which at its opening was the world's fastest and South
East Asia's longest gondola lift.
The idea of a hill resort located near
Kuala Lumpur occurred to the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong during a business trip
to the Cameron Highlands in 1964. He mooted this idea while enjoying the fresh
and crisp air from the balcony of his hotel room. In 1971, the first hotel at
Genting Highlands was successfully completed and was named Highlands Hotel (now
renamed Theme Park Hotel). The Genting Highlands Resort continued to expand
since the opening of the first hotel in 1971. Development of the area continued
with care taken to ensure the maintenance of the natural beauty of the
rainforest of the region. In 1997, Genting Highlands Resort added the Genting
Skyway cable car system that provides a 3.38 kilometres transport to the
hilltop. Genting Skyway is also recognised as the "World's Fastest Mono
Cable Car System" with a maximum speed of 21.6 kilometres per hour (13.4
mph) and the "Longest Cable Car in Malaysia and Southeast Asia".
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