

So we finally got stamped "Allowed to stay in Malaysia for 30 days, EMPLOYMENT PROHIBITED" on our passports. Picked our luggage and were on our way out.
Our guy stood there with a placard. He seemed so relieved on seeing some one recognize the name on his cardboard that one could see him shake hands with his other collegues, turned out that he had been standing there,one hand up for 2hours.
So looked like we were the only family traveling to Genting that day. Genting is a hill station around 60kms from KL airport.After all the pains we had been through on the flight and at the airport it was very difficult to keep one's eyes open.Still I tried very hard to hear my driver/guide tell about the Malyasian economy, the reason it made such rapid progress and stuff.
It was greenery all around with wide roads at the middle. He was maintaining a constant speed of around 120kmph there the boards used to say maintain speed of 120km/j. I still don't know what j means but whatever...
So looked like Kaulalampur city had come. Tall buildings, but yet greenery never left us.
We took a by-pass road to get to Batu caves. We hadn't reached the hotel, neither had we brushed our teeth, but the driver said we were going to a temple. Well that was not the best news one can hear I thought. The caves came and I fought my fatigue to get down to see the caves.
It is a temple of lord Karthikeya there. There are Indians in all parts of the world and wherever they go they build temples. This was a really mighty temple with a huge statue of the lord. Malaysia surely was doing a wonderful job of attracting foreigners. India has tens and hundreds of such scenic beauties yet no one cares to develop them in attractive ways. These people have so few yet they make every location a money minter.
I was thinking of reasons why a country of the might of India was so far behind countries like Malaysia. Of the many reasons the most important ones probably were
Our huge investment in military to fight against Pak. I was imagining a whole new India if it hadn't been for the ugly split which took place in 1947. Had India and Pak been together they would both have left behind many a countries behind but now 60 yrs after our independence we still are enemies and we both invest very very heavily in military to counter each other.
What a shame.
The other big reason I thought was India has a population which is eating away all its achievements away yet nothing solid is being done to make this problem go.
The 1st problem mentioned may take another half decade to be rectified but if the second problem doesn't get our attention soon then we are going to sink further.
Coming back to the scenic beauty. It was a lovely view which was enough to let our fatigue vanish. We climbed more than 200 stairs, seeked blessings from our god in a foreign land climbed the same number of steps down said hello to the monkeys on our way and were ready to continue our journey to the Genting Highlands.
1/2 hour later we alighted at the rope way station to reach the highlands.
Our driver handed us the rope-way tickets and said he would meet us upstairs.
We climbed on the rope-way and got ready for one of the biggest journeys of its kind.
After a very long queue of tourists later we sat on our car and saw some wonderful scenes. Time flew and we almost reached the end. On top was a huge huge hotel of more than 6000 rooms. Again the comparison started. How come our engineers and architects never made something so gigantic on such height. We have so much scope and so much talent so why this apathy. I would never know. Such sights made me more sad than happy.
Anyways cutting the melo-drama short. It really was one architectural brilliance sitting on top of a hill which I believe would be at least 2000m above sea level. So a 30 storey high hotel cum mall on top of such height. good job people.
We were taken to our hotel by our guide and it was an awesome view
Hundreds and thousands of tourists at a single place. Talking, clicking photos,laughing. Now this is what you call perfect globalisation.
We reached our room which was on the 11th floor. There were I guess at least a 50 lifts in that hotel and each travelled at super speed.I remember my head spinning while using them.
So after a short sleep later we went to explore our new hotel.It had a huge mall inside it.
Roller coasters and mini trains used to take the people for rides inside the mall itself.
People from all nationalities in all languages were psyched to see such lovely scenes.
People after their trips abroad always used to boast about this and that and I always used to think that it is only the stupidest of all people who get so badly influenced by such petty things but seeing the scenes here I knew what they felt like and I was so wrong in calling them stupids.
We had seen many a mall in our own country but neither one had such a creative design to it.
We had water where the boats were sailing, the tracks on top floor where the trains showed the view of the whole mall, Money changer at every floor to make tourists spend. How many of these things one can see here..
Things one could do there .There one felt when would the time come when I would have money in my pocket enough to enjoy all these.Indian money of rupees hardly had any value there. One aloo paratha costing 8 ringits or 8*14 rupees was one hell of a price to us Indians but we came to know that the garden plantors in Malaysia are paid atleast 1500rm per month.Well I still dont know how the currencies came to be valued in the beginning. Who was it who decided that one dollar would have 50 bucks and 1 ringit 14.It all looked so unfair to me at that point to see all currencies so overly priced.
Anyways 3nights flew like 3 hours in this magical place.On the 3rd day morning we left for KL city.......