There was not much planning involved in this trip. It was solely inspired by us wanted to stay in a chalet above water, and off we went. Special thanks to ZhuHan for driving most of the time, and their mother, who made sure everything went smoothly. Thank you also, to ZhuEn's relatives who booked the hotel room at Genting for us, and treated us several meals.
2 February 2017, Sunny, Chaah > Port Dickson
After our Lunar New Year celebrations, I was finally able to make my way to ZhuEn's home. In the morning, we set off for Port Dickson. ZhuHan took the wheel. We stopped by Tangkak, a small town, for very nice Bak Kut Teh. The soup was slightly sweet and the flavour was good. ZhuEn even ordered more fried beancurd skin. We ate till we were all very full. We then continued our journey to Port Dickson, reaching at about 2 in the afternoon. We drank some coffee at a local Old Town Coffee shop. We all ordered a cup of coffee, though with different variations. ZhuEn's was the most interesting: affogato. Seems that someone really like affogato since our Malacca trip. Next, we went to the 3D art gallery nearby. It is a very standard kind of tourist attraction where pictures taken by the camera will appear 3D. We spent about an hour inside taking pictures for each other. Perhaps the most interesting picture was this one...
Somehow, my camera was able to capture the luminescence from the glowing whale. It wasn't exactly 3D, but it is pretty. This isn't the best 3D photo gallery I have been to, but it was still fun nonetheless. After that, we went to check into the chalet above sea water: Avillion Resort, Port Dickson. We also met up with ZhuEn's relatives, Sister Niu, Uncle Yi and their baby children. There, ZhuEn and I stayed in the premium water chalet, which boasts awesome sea views. When we arrived, it was low tide however. ZhuHan bought swimming costume there and brought the babies down to play in the pool. I brought ZhuEn for the evening cocktail, which also coincidentally turned out to be at the circular sofas that she was looking for. We ordered 3 cocktails and 1 mocktail, which was complimentary with the booking of the premium water chalet, and enjoyed them at the circular sofas in the sunset. It made a very calming, peaceful, and slightly romantic scene if not for the other people around us...
At night, we drove out to have seafood, since Port Dickson is famous for its seafood. We ordered prawns, fish, crabs, squid and some vegetables. Turns out the seafood was average. I like the salted egg crabs though. It came with 2 hammers for us to break the shell! We then returned to rest for the night.
3 February 2017, Sunny and Rain, Port Dickson > Genting Highlands
We woke up at about seven. After a quick shower, we went around the chalet for some beautiful pictures of the place. The babies were also allowed to play a little at the beach. After that, we went to have breakfast in the chalet. It was good, the spread was large and it was actually yummy. We then went back to our chalet and packed up to leave. Not wanting to leave this paradise, we stopped for one last picture, flower among flowers.
Our next destination was Genting Highlands. I have visited this place many times with my family, but it was always via long distance coach and the journey always started from Singapore. This time, we are actually driving ourselves up. It was free and easy, and it was a good new experience. We stopped midway up the mountain for a pleasant lunch at a local ZhiChar stall. We ordered big head prawns, but I think they overcooked it a little. ZhuEn was sure to snatch the bill and paid it with my money, which was a good move. We reached Genting at about 3 PM. The others were very tired and took a nap after checking into the hotel, however, ZhuEn and I found the energy to walk around and explore the place together.
It really brings back memories of events that happened the last time I came here, 6 years ago. I cannot imagine this time, I am coming here with my girlfriend. It feels totally different. There is now a newly opened section, called the Sky Avenue, so this was something that we were quite excited about. We walked around, found a rainbow when we went out for some fresh cold air. We then went back and ate some GuiLingGao, and then played some arcade together. At about 7, we met up with the rest and had dinner at an expensive place. Food was pretty good. The most interesting item was the cod. It was extremely well prepared, but came with thousand island sauce, which we all thought was a funny combination. We then went to bowl. It was the glow in the dark bowl in First World Hotel. The machine was quite faulty and counted wrongly many times, but we still had a lot of fun there. After bowling, we went for a second round of arcade, this was when I tried to teach ZhuEn about the fun of shooting themed arcade games. Seems she did not really pick it up. After that, we went back to rest for the night.
4 February 2017, Cloudy and Rain, Genting Highlands > Chaah
We woke up pretty late in the morning. After a quick shower, we packed up and prepared to check out. We had to bring all our luggage to eat brunch, at Dragon-I, which was in the new building. We ordered quite a bit and had a hearty meal. We then went to buy Baskin Robbins ice cream and Llao Llao ice cream yoghurt and sat down while we waited for Uncle Yi to 'do his final battle'. After that, we descended the mountain. We stopped by just below the cloud level to take some last few pictures. It was a very happy moment although the holidays are ending.
We then smoothly descended the mountain, with ZhuHan taking the wheel again, because she knows how to use engine brake efficiently. After that, I took over and drove all the way down to a small town south of Tangkak. Apparently, I drove too quickly and made some rash decisions along the way. Dinner in the small town was excellent. Their signature steamed fish was really very yummy. We had a very good meal at an economical price. Her mum then drove us home since night fell. It was a dangerous drive since it was raining. Along the way, I observed that there was fog just above the road. This was a very rare phenomena in the tropics, It made it extremely difficult to see the road. Finally, we arrived at ZhuEn's home, and that was the end of our short but eventful trip.
