I got to One Utama on a sunny Saturday. It was 8 am, and there was a car parked in the open car park, playing some techno music, and a guy and a girl were practicing some solo dance moves. Another car came along, and out hopped another couple. That was something I hadn’t seen before.
A free ride to Genting Highlands is why I would be at such a place. I can’t remember the last time I went there. The sharp turns reminded me of some Tibetian Need For Speed map, with roads curling like noodles. An interesting sight near the top was the Mushroom Farm. The connotation to drugs (namely magic mushrooms) was amusing.
Stepping out, I felt very much jakun-ish, as I walked through the misty air of the highland resort. The wind blew like a thousand Starbucks mist fans. Oh yeah.
My colleagues from Xfresh and I walked through the indoor area in circles, tunnel to tunnel, escalator up and down. We finally found the skydiving simulator where Xfresh TV was going to shoot. I eyed the pricey training and ride. Thank goodness for this company perk, then, as I donned the jumpsuit for free! 🙂
It looked just like a wind tunnel from your average first-person-shooter. However, this differed from the virtual factories I had visited. I looked at the grille below and saw no fan! It was then explained that the fan was on top. I wondered which was worse – falling into a fan or getting sucked up into one. 🙁
After the short but exhilirating ride, the instructors told us to throw away the foam earplugs. I kept them anyway. Some funky gadget it was – a peanut-shell-shaped foam earplug. I’d have to squeeze the pink end of it till it become sharp, then insert it into my ear, making a crackling sound as it slowly expanded. It wasn’t entirely noise-reducing though, as the fan could still be heard, though at dramatically lower levels.
We then headed over to Lake View Seafood Restaurant. The regular crew sat at one table, while the TV crew and the stars sat on the other. As the expensive-looking fish and crab came, we greedily gobbled. We were all hungry teens anyway, and there weren’t any prim and proper adults at our table, so sauce could freely drip, and we didn’t have to bother with fancy sitting or other niceties. Then again, it wasn’t exactly a top class setting – a red cloth covering the table was missing, the napkins were not folded into fancy 3D swans, and we didn’t get any sharksfin soup!
The crab was probably the messiest, but not to say that we didn’t grab the earlier servings in gluttony. I sat and stared, knowing how I would burst into red rashes upon eating the expensive shelled meat. No biggie, though I missed the distant relatives going “Wah so tall already! So handsome already your son! What form is he studying ah?” to my parents. Of course, I’m not tall, and they’re asking out of courtesy. I’m still in college. 🙁
We then headed over to the rock climbing area for another shoot. I wasn’t eager, having contents almost worth their weight in gold in my intestines. I wouldn’t have minded the fastest indoor rollercoaster though. It was too misty outside by then so nobody was allowed out for the real thing. However, the queues made me thankful I only wasted my money on a 4 Ringgit ticket instead of a 16 Ringgit unlimited all-access tag. Every ride had a long queue.
As the crew waited for some lost souls to come downstairs, I finally got a chance to start a flash mob. I was staring at this plaster monkey in the tree decor above, and told them about the plan. One would check if anybody was looking. People looked indeed! However, nobody stopped in their tracks. My plan may have failed because:
1) Although we were a huge crowd, we didn’t obstruct people.
2) They saw the monkey. If I stared at something less obvious, or stared at nothing, they might just slow down.
We went to a hillside Coffee Bean only to find it closed for stock clearance. Stock clearance? What, was this some shopping complex sale? Fine, so I got some chocolate buns from the nearby convenience store and munched them on their tables.
The immense fog showed no signs of vanishing, so we decided to get down (the hill) before it got worse. The jockey brought in the car drove by my boss. We got in. Fortunately, the jockey noticed a flat rear left tire. He had to drive down quite a bit before finding a flat surface to jack the car up. There was some sort of fridge or kitchen of some sort to the right, while a car park and a garbage dump was on the left. It was only when looking outwards that we saw a sign that said “helipad”, complete with helicopter illustration.
Of course, there was no big square, circle and cross in yellow, no blinking red lights, and it was covered. It looked more like a garage.
Upon jacking the car up, we found the nuts impossible to unscrew. Screwed nuts indeed. (In case you’re wondering, no, the tire wasn’t off the floor yet.)
So we plodded slowly and steadily down the foggy hill till we reached a petrol station, where we pumped air. Some confusion arose as to whether we should have higher or lower pressure in the tires, since we were however many kilometers above sea level. Heck, I didn’t bother thinking about it even though I got an A1 for SPM Physics by fluke. Anybody care to answer?
It was even scarier going down the bends in the fog. It was already past 8 pm then, and the boss, being the cautious driver he was, took it carefully. We hogged at least 8 cars in sight behind. Yeah, the fog was bad, but we could see them, heh. 🙂
Oh, and we saw a lady in white standing by the side of the road. :O A poor lady who lost all her money gambling and trying to hitch a ride, perhaps, or something else?
Another interesting sign caught my attention – “Engage Low Gear“. That just cracked me up.
We reached the Klang Valley safe and sound, albeit late, what with the flat tire and the sharp turns and the fog.
As I pondered what an accident-free day it was on the bus home, a silver Proton Wira clipped the right-side front part of the bus. It wasn’t a swerve; more like a drunken swagger. I didn’t feel the impact, but the clink was there. The car continued on its merry path on the road ahead, like it was Daytona or something.
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