When tourists are packed off!

I recently took a package tour to Singapore by Akbar travels. I will strongly recommend against the tour package by this particular company because of the following reasons –

• ·         The tour package is advertised as Singapore tour but has 3 days in Malaysia, 2 days in Sri Lanka (during transit) and 3 days in Singapore.
• ·         To cut cost, the company booked our flight on Sri Lankan air. So we were forced to spend 1 day each at Colombo to and fro during the journey. The worst part was the pathetic treatment and delays at Colombo immigration. They kept us waiting for hours and ate up all the time which could have used for Colombo city tour otherwise. When a passenger complained to the immigration officer who was loitering around giving system error as the reason for delay, he got angry and told the passenger to go back to her home country if she had problems. Finally we got 2 hours to see the Colombo city
• ·         The food was arranged at cheap restaurants with no proper facilities to cater to the large groups of tourists. Only exception was an Indian restaurant in Malaysia called “Gateway of India”
• ·         The accommodation was arranged at hotels outside the city adding to the commutation time. In Malaysia, the hotel was in not so good locality which turned dangerous at night. The exception was the accommodation provided in Sri Lanka by Sri Lankan airways. Both ways, the resorts were exemplary sea side resorts – Jetwing blue and Club Dolphin. The staffs at club Dolphin were rude to us when we were trying to leave in hurry but Jetwing blue Negombo was a exemplary in every respect – property, service, food and staff. I will definitely like to go back there for a vacation.
• ·         The tour is very badly managed. In Malaysia, you are given just 2.5 hours at Genting highlands. By the time, you figure out which rides to try out, it was time to leave.
• ·         The remaining two days in Malaysia was spent on visiting chosen shopping outlets of the tour provider. Obviously the travel company should have got a good cut out of the chocolates and watches the tourists brought from these retail outlets.
• ·         In spite of having 3 days in Malaysia, we were not taken to the best destinations in KL like the aviary (Bird Park), National Museum, Islamic Museum etc. Basically every destination with an entry fee was kept away from. The tour package boasts of an experience where all the charges are taken care of. So to increase their margins, the tour operator takes care that only destinations with no entry fee are covered.
• ·         The worst was the way the ticketing was done. The return ticket for the group was not booked on the same flight and the representative of Akbar travels who was with us left with the first group leaving 15 passengers in Sri Lanka to take care of their own travel.

Akbar travels charges a premium for the ‘superior’ services they provide to the tourists. But the truth is that their tour is as bad as any other small time tour package provider. There were a lot of cases where the tour could be improved with good management and the operator Akbar travels didn’t even seem to realize this. So if you are planning to go on a package tour to South East Asia, Akbar travels is not a good choice.

Welcome to Genting Highlands……Now let me pick your pocket!

Malaysia looks like a developed country from every angle. Kuala Lampur airport is one of the biggest and best in the world; six lane highways take you from the airport to KL city. The route is covered on either sides with lush greenery of evergreen forests which is dotted intermittently only by skyscrapers and beautiful residential layouts. After the bad experience in Colombo of being stuck without money and phone, the first thing I did in KL was to get some Malaysian Ringgits and buy a local SIM with that money. The famous Maxis SIM cards were missing in the vicinity of the airport, so I bought a digi card offered by telenor.

We moved to our first destination in Malaysia – Genting Highlands, a theme resort and casino at a height of 6118 feet above sea level. The now famous Resorts World took birth on these highlands of Genting when a visionary Chinaman Lim Goh Tong concocted the project. Uncle Lim (as the Malaysian saying goes about his casino - "It's very tough to win money from uncle Lim"), one of the richest men in Malaysia (when he died) is said to have come to Malaysia from China with 1 ringgit in his pocket. He then worked hard and built an empire by converting a forested highland into a world class tourist destination. To attract people from every spending category, he built a theme park, a casino and large expanse of malls and shops. Anyone who comes to Genting will end up spending a lot. Every ride, shop and attraction in Genting is designed to encash your emotion. For instance, you will be snapped at various points during your amusement park ride and the pictures will be offered to you at 30 ringgits. Because the tourists feel the ride was once in a lifetime experience, they readily pay for the ride. The best part is that even after spending big, you feel happy about it. You feel that you just had a great time and you deserved this break and a spending spree after all the tough days of work.
Lim Goh Tong made money in construction and mining and investing everything he had in Genting. None of his wealthy friends were ready to invest in his 'crazy' venture because they thought his idea of building a resort at 6118 m was never going to be possible. So Lim did it alone. It took him 3 years to cut a road through the forest. He set up his own power plant and created a drainage system to make the highlands suitable for construction. His efforts bore fruit when the then Malaysian PM visited Genting and granted him the permission to operate the first casino of Malaysia as a reward to his single handed effort to attract tourists to Malaysia. Lim and Genting never looked back; the resort grew in strength and Lim added new attractions in a rope way, theme parks and new resorts. After Genting, Lim also created another integrated resort in the neighbouring Singapore. More about the Sentosa, Singapore resort in the post on Singapore.

Genting also has the world’s largest hotel in terms of the number of rooms. The first world hotel has 6118 rooms (same as the height of the hill in feets) and is a sight worth seeing in the evening with the large plumes of mist engulfing it. The skyway cable car taking tourists from the foot of the hill to the resort is the best attraction in Genting. The engineering marvel will take you on a ride over the lush evergreen forests giving you an experience that’s breath taking. Although the establishment with its mega hotels, fascinating rides (some of them only exist here in SE Asia) and the fastest ropeway in the world is an experience in itself, the service quality is terrible. Almost none of the theme park staff knows English and they are rude to the visitors. One could see the resort staff working without any interest in their jobs all throughout the day and showing maximum energy levels at 5:30 pm when the theme park closed for the day. Visitors were sent back although the scheduled closing time of the park was 7 pm. Lack of maintenance was also visible in most of the rides.

Resorts World is a huge establishment now and they have theme parks in Sentosa islands, Singapore, Manila, Philippines and New York, USA. With expansion into newer economies, seems that the Lim family’s focus has moved away from their first resort. Genting now is money making machine grossing around 3 million ringgits for the family every day. So everything at Genting is about fleecing people. Prices of articles are nearly 4 times the rate outside and the 28 storied One World hotel cram rooms at every possible nook to set the world record. The room will deny you of even basic facilities like room service, wi-fi and even drinking water. With all its positives and negatives, I feel that Resorts World, Genting Highlands Malaysia is an avoidable place. Most of the rides can be experience at Universal Kingdom Singapore under better service quality.