Awana Trip 05-09 July 2010

First & foremost, the group of nine (Polly, Lyn, Mok Wah, Betty, Edward, Peggy, Tommy Lee, Jimmy & Lionel) would like to sincerely thank Glow for making the accommodation available for our wonderful & enjoyable stay at Awana Vacation Resorts. Thanks also to Peggy & Tommy for arranging the durian treat at their uncle's durian plantation & also for the transportation.

We left 5 Star Office Beach Road at 7 am sharp via the 2nd link with a half an hour break for breakfast at Yong Peng. The journey took us about 7 hours before arriving at Awana around 2 pm. It was quite a prompt check-in, thanks to Edward. We then proceeded to have our lunch at the Golfer's Terrace which serves quite a good range of local cuisines like beef, chicken rendang on Banana Leaf, Spicy Prawn Soup Noodle, Penang Laksa etc.

There's a shuttle bus service between Awana, Genting Highlands & the SkyWay Gondola Station. We had to take the shuttle bus directly to Genting Highlands as the one to the SkyWay Station did not turn up at the stipulated time. Upon reaching the top, we found that the weather was just cool & we did not even have to put on our jackets at all. Some of us did try their hands at the jackpot machines while waiting for the arrival of Peggy & Tommy. We had a good & inexpensive dinner at one of the chinese restaurants.

On the following day, tuesday, we had to go to the bus interchange at First World Hotel Genting Highland in order to take the bus to Pasar Rakyat bus terminus in Kuala Lumpur. We did quite a bit of shoppings at the famous Times Square before making our way back to Awana in the early evening.

Tommy had graciously arranged for us to have a durian feast on wednesday at his uncle's plantation in Karak town. We were rather thrilled to see quite a number of fruit trees like pomelo, rambutan, jackfruit, banana, durian & even brazilian longan trees.

We were told that wild boars love durians too & they are rather good at opening the durians.

As we explored around the plantation, we spotted quite a number of the wild boars' footprints.

We were also very impressed with the wooden house built on stilts with modern sanitary system. It has a very good panaromic view of the hill, the various varieties of fruit trees & even the highway. The wooden panels within the house also give you the cosiness & warmth.

In the early evening, Tommy & his cousin Steve were all armed with shot guns & parangs to set off on a wild boar hunting spree. Unfortunately, they did not encounter any wild boar & came back empty handed.

Anyway, we had a great time & would like to extend our sincere thanks & gratitude to Tommy's uncle & auntie for their kind generosity & hospitality.

On thursday, we again made our way to the highlands & managed to make it to the international game room for those first timers using the green cards. There's free flow of coffee & drinks and it's also a non-smoking area except for a certain sector.

We had a great buffet lunch 50% off for senior citizens at the Genting Terrace. There was a wide variety of cuisines & we really ate to our hearts' content.

After the heavy lunch, we proceeded to the viewing gallery to view the low moving clouds. It was sheer zero visibility, you could not even see the next block of apartments.

With the beautiful ambience, we took the opportunity to practise some of the line dancing steps like electric slide, honky tonk stomp & the 16 steps. We did quite enjoyed the dance steps & had a great time too.

We then headed for the SkyWay Station to take us back to the Awana Station. It was a 15 minutes ride with a good view. Some of us waited for the next shuttle bus whereas some decided to walk back to Awana Vacation Resorts which took us another 15 minutes.

In the evening, Tommy ferried us in two trips to a chinese restaurant in GohTong Jaya about 10 minutes drive from Awana for our dinner. We made arrangement for the restaurant to dish out the wild boar meat with spring onions & spices. The wild boar meat was a complimentary from Peggy & Tommy. It could be the first time for some of us to have a bite at it. The meat was very tender & the dish fabulous. Thanks to Peggy & Tommy.

We checked out of the units at 10.30 am on friday & made our way to Highlands Hotel before going to the bus interchange at First World Hotel to board the 5 Star coach at 2.30 pm for home. Heard so much about their KFC chicken, so we decided to have it for our morning break & agreed that the meat was more juicy than ours. We also had penang char kway teow at the bus interchange while waiting for the coach. It's a bit spicy compared to our local one.

We boarded the coach at 2.30 pm for home & the coach made a stop at one of the local product shops whereby we made some purchases. The journey took about 7 hours & we were lucky that there was no crowd at the Tuas checkpoint. We arrived safely at 5 Star Office Beach Road around 9.30 pm.