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| French Town, Bukit Tinggi |
It was yet another foggy day in Lahore with visibility reduced to zero in the mornings and night, the chilly strong winds blowing during the evenings made me shiver as my lips turned dry and my hands became pale and somewhat stiff. Furled comfortably in my thick blanket with a piping hot cup of tea I grabbed my laptop from the table beside me and started watching some TV Shows with an aim of binge watching the entire seasons. As the episode ended I reached out for my phone, a message ringtone emerged from it and I opened my Whatsapp; my father had messaged me
'22 December to 5th January'
'Confirmed'
'Pack your bags (with an airplane emoji)'
All of a sudden my dry, chapped lips and the stiffness of hands didn't bother me anymore as excitement and enthusiasm welled up inside me and a broad smile immediately appeared on my face.
My flight for Kuala Lumpur on the 22 December had been booked, I was leaving for Kuala Lumpur accompanied by my elder brother in less than a week and the thought ignited an uncontrollable passion in me.
The next day on Tuesday and the remaining two days my brother and I packed our belongings and collected the essential things required including getting a proper haircut and shaving my moustache and the little facial hair as calling it a beard would be an absolute sin. On Friday evening we bade farewell to Lahore and headed for the Allama Iqbal International Airport. I tried to walk quickly as I moved my brown suitcase with its not so smooth wheels and identified my flight on the screen displayed, My brother Musa and I hugged our parents in this part of the airport and said our goodbyes.
As we went to the check-in and the immigration counters I pulled out my passport both times placed carefully in my fanny pack tied around my waist; an idea of my father which proved fruitful as the passport was easily accessible this way. After another three hours we boarded the plane and exactly six hours later the Malindo Airlines aircraft landed on the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA1).
There was a certain fragrance, an aroma at the airport which quickly took over my nostrils and served as an indication that it wasn't Lahore anymore. I pulled the luggage trolley at the customs checking and unloaded the luggage swiftly on the luggage belt, on the other side of the luggage belt as we were lifting up the bags the officer pulled us to the other side.
'You brought cigarettes?' he asked Musa in his weird accent.
'Yes' replied Musa casually
'Two packs? one each?' he said while constantly rolling his eyes towards the both of us.
'Come with me' he said without hearing an explanation.
'No, I have the both packs in my luggage, he isn't carrying any' explained Musa while pointing his finger at me.
'Ok but for the next time bring one pack each' the officer said while releasing us from the interrogation.
I breathed a great sigh of relief while wiping the sweat from my forehead. Musa's best friend Faez aka Baig was eagerly waiting at the entrance to pick us up as we were to stay with him for the whole trip, we spotted him instantaneously and behind him I saw a young Chinese looking girl (she was from Brunei) standing there with a wide smile on her face. I knew she was going to be our constant companion and I had mixed feelings; being of an introverted nature I felt nervous and awkward to be socializing with a new foreign friend while on the other hand it also added more to my excitement as I thought it would be a good experience to befriending a citizen of a different country and getting to know about their culture.
On the way from the airport to Baig's apartment that fragrance followed us and it made me feel somewhat relaxed. The very next day as we woke up after a tiring journey I jumped out of the bed and got ready in a jiffy and tied the fanny pack around me with our passports inside it; perhaps my most constant companion without a doubt during this whole trip had been this very fanny pack. We left enthusiastically for Genting Highlands.
On the way we drove on the widespread highways with skyscrapers and lush greenery all around, after some 30 minutes drive we stopped at the French Village or as officially known as 'French Town, Bukit Tingqi'. This was a calm yet a very mesmerizing spot; the eye-catching castle-like pillars really reminded of some medieval French city. We entered the area crossing over the drawbridge like structure and it opened into a lengthy and a widened street and here I could see people from different countries, cultures and ethnicities, be it the Hijab-clad Malaysians, Indians, Bengalis or the white people aka 'Goray'. This street was laden with cafes and eatries. On the top floor the view of the green forest with the misty background was another sight of serenity, from what I concluded this tourist spot was dedicated more towards nature and that was the beautiful and the positive part about this place.
Genting was another hour or so drive from this place. The famous Genting Highlands were now right before my eyes; a tiny yet sprawling city all situated on the viridiscent hills. The skyscrapers and the snaking lights caught my attention and indicated towards the nightlife and the liveliness of this amazing city. As it was a day before the Christmas Eve it further added to the liveliness, however first we decided to visit the Chinese Swee Temple; a scenic site of Genting dedicated to the Chinese religion. It was spacious with small areas of worship all around and a huge pagoda situated right in the middle. On the other side however the most breathtaking site was that of the gigantic Buddha statue, soon all of us embarked on a 'Journey Of Enlightenment'. This consisted of the depictions of the nine levels of hell through statues. Each scene was about each one of the hells, each hell had a different description about who is sent to it depending upon the degree of the crime they have committed. It showed gruesome and ghastly scenes of severed heads, spilling blood and vicious men holding deadly weapons to strike the wrong-doers. This was disturbing initially but it got better as we went on with the flow.
There were different statues of animals, men, women and other creatures situated around the place all over. After successfully completing the journey of enlightenment without receiving any enlightenment we bade farewell to this much awaited destination and went on to Genting city. The Christmas spirit could be felt and witnessed all over the place as the place was laden with Christmas trees and greetings. Right in front of me now stood a huge building; not a tall skyscraper but more like a rectangle-shaped building which was stretched over. It consisted of a mall and a hotel and it seemed like the whole of Genting had been scooped up inside this humongous complex, the cheapest and best mode of transportation there was the Awana Sky Cable car, the ticket was purchased at just 8.00 RM from inside the mall and the entire city could be efficiently toured this way. Even inside this complex a tall Christmas tree stood amidst all the hustle bustle, as we stepped outside to travel on this quite unusual transportation system I noticed the change in weather, it started to get chilly and I absolutely loved this sudden change of weather.
The view from the cable car of the entire place was just stunning; the widespread roads now looked as if they were the toy car tracks I used to play with and the cars looked like little dinkies while despite the night time there were lights all around the place. Finally after an interesting ride we then went back to this complex and this was some other part of it, we now eagerly waited for the famous Christmas light show, we stood around the circular area and just then music started playing and beautiful colored huge winch balls suspended from the roof caught everyone's attention; these balls moved upwards and downwards gently, they formed different shapes as they moved along and this was extremely captivating. As the light show was brought to an end a giant and tall Christmas tree protruded from within the floor and was the perfect tree laden with decorations and gifts obviously while in the background on the slim LED screen the words 'Merry Christmas' were imprinted and this really gave me an idea about the significance of Christmas in Malaysia and the fact that it is celebrated with great fervor and spirit.
I got the name of this complex on the way out; Genting Grand Hotel (though it was more than just a hotel). It had been a tiring yet an amazing day, Genting was absolutely spell-binding in every way and the conduct of the locals here made relived for the remainder of this as this showed that they were extremely nice and helpful.
There was a certain fragrance, an aroma at the airport which quickly took over my nostrils and served as an indication that it wasn't Lahore anymore. I pulled the luggage trolley at the customs checking and unloaded the luggage swiftly on the luggage belt, on the other side of the luggage belt as we were lifting up the bags the officer pulled us to the other side.
'You brought cigarettes?' he asked Musa in his weird accent.
'Yes' replied Musa casually
'Two packs? one each?' he said while constantly rolling his eyes towards the both of us.
'Come with me' he said without hearing an explanation.
'No, I have the both packs in my luggage, he isn't carrying any' explained Musa while pointing his finger at me.
'Ok but for the next time bring one pack each' the officer said while releasing us from the interrogation.
I breathed a great sigh of relief while wiping the sweat from my forehead. Musa's best friend Faez aka Baig was eagerly waiting at the entrance to pick us up as we were to stay with him for the whole trip, we spotted him instantaneously and behind him I saw a young Chinese looking girl (she was from Brunei) standing there with a wide smile on her face. I knew she was going to be our constant companion and I had mixed feelings; being of an introverted nature I felt nervous and awkward to be socializing with a new foreign friend while on the other hand it also added more to my excitement as I thought it would be a good experience to befriending a citizen of a different country and getting to know about their culture.
On the way from the airport to Baig's apartment that fragrance followed us and it made me feel somewhat relaxed. The very next day as we woke up after a tiring journey I jumped out of the bed and got ready in a jiffy and tied the fanny pack around me with our passports inside it; perhaps my most constant companion without a doubt during this whole trip had been this very fanny pack. We left enthusiastically for Genting Highlands.
On the way we drove on the widespread highways with skyscrapers and lush greenery all around, after some 30 minutes drive we stopped at the French Village or as officially known as 'French Town, Bukit Tingqi'. This was a calm yet a very mesmerizing spot; the eye-catching castle-like pillars really reminded of some medieval French city. We entered the area crossing over the drawbridge like structure and it opened into a lengthy and a widened street and here I could see people from different countries, cultures and ethnicities, be it the Hijab-clad Malaysians, Indians, Bengalis or the white people aka 'Goray'. This street was laden with cafes and eatries. On the top floor the view of the green forest with the misty background was another sight of serenity, from what I concluded this tourist spot was dedicated more towards nature and that was the beautiful and the positive part about this place.
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| French Village. |
Genting was another hour or so drive from this place. The famous Genting Highlands were now right before my eyes; a tiny yet sprawling city all situated on the viridiscent hills. The skyscrapers and the snaking lights caught my attention and indicated towards the nightlife and the liveliness of this amazing city. As it was a day before the Christmas Eve it further added to the liveliness, however first we decided to visit the Chinese Swee Temple; a scenic site of Genting dedicated to the Chinese religion. It was spacious with small areas of worship all around and a huge pagoda situated right in the middle. On the other side however the most breathtaking site was that of the gigantic Buddha statue, soon all of us embarked on a 'Journey Of Enlightenment'. This consisted of the depictions of the nine levels of hell through statues. Each scene was about each one of the hells, each hell had a different description about who is sent to it depending upon the degree of the crime they have committed. It showed gruesome and ghastly scenes of severed heads, spilling blood and vicious men holding deadly weapons to strike the wrong-doers. This was disturbing initially but it got better as we went on with the flow.
 |
| The Chinese Swee Temple |
There were different statues of animals, men, women and other creatures situated around the place all over. After successfully completing the journey of enlightenment without receiving any enlightenment we bade farewell to this much awaited destination and went on to Genting city. The Christmas spirit could be felt and witnessed all over the place as the place was laden with Christmas trees and greetings. Right in front of me now stood a huge building; not a tall skyscraper but more like a rectangle-shaped building which was stretched over. It consisted of a mall and a hotel and it seemed like the whole of Genting had been scooped up inside this humongous complex, the cheapest and best mode of transportation there was the Awana Sky Cable car, the ticket was purchased at just 8.00 RM from inside the mall and the entire city could be efficiently toured this way. Even inside this complex a tall Christmas tree stood amidst all the hustle bustle, as we stepped outside to travel on this quite unusual transportation system I noticed the change in weather, it started to get chilly and I absolutely loved this sudden change of weather.
The view from the cable car of the entire place was just stunning; the widespread roads now looked as if they were the toy car tracks I used to play with and the cars looked like little dinkies while despite the night time there were lights all around the place. Finally after an interesting ride we then went back to this complex and this was some other part of it, we now eagerly waited for the famous Christmas light show, we stood around the circular area and just then music started playing and beautiful colored huge winch balls suspended from the roof caught everyone's attention; these balls moved upwards and downwards gently, they formed different shapes as they moved along and this was extremely captivating. As the light show was brought to an end a giant and tall Christmas tree protruded from within the floor and was the perfect tree laden with decorations and gifts obviously while in the background on the slim LED screen the words 'Merry Christmas' were imprinted and this really gave me an idea about the significance of Christmas in Malaysia and the fact that it is celebrated with great fervor and spirit.
I got the name of this complex on the way out; Genting Grand Hotel (though it was more than just a hotel). It had been a tiring yet an amazing day, Genting was absolutely spell-binding in every way and the conduct of the locals here made relived for the remainder of this as this showed that they were extremely nice and helpful.
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| Light show at Genting! |
An excellent piece of work. The parts which are describing your feelings are very interesting. Keep it up!
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