Genting Highlands is one of my favourite weekend getaway destination with my family. Located just about 1 hour drive from home, it is a perfect place for a chill, literally. Resorts World Genting is well known for being the city of entertainment but did you know that Resorts World Genting has much more to offer than just their resident shows and the casinos?
While commonly labeled as a city of entertainment, Resorts World Genting is also a perfect place for some eco adventure for the whole family. Yes. I said eco. Which means, the jungle, flora and fauna and stuffs like that.
Last father’s day, my family and I were invited to spend the weekend exploring the jungle in the vicinity of Awana Resorts, where 130 million years old untouched rainforest lies.
Awana offers a 130 million years old rainforest that is very rich with biodiversity for nature lovers to savor. Resorts World Genting is currently working alongside with Treks Nature Enterprise, a company that aims to present nature to visitors in a fashionable way.
Attractions that we experienced during our 2D1N eco getaway was:
-Nepenthe’s conservatory
-The Fashion Forest
-The English Garden
– A ride on the cable cars in Genting Skyway
– Birdwatching at IBA
– Jungle trekking
– Herping
Here’s briefly sharing with you what we did chronologically:
Day 1
Upon arrival in Awana Genting, we were ushered to Trek’s Nepenthe’s conservatory where we met our guide Eddie and his lovely wife, Pat.
Trek’s Nepenthe’s conservatory
Here at the conservatory, we were shown to all sort of Nephentes, or the common name for it, the pitcher plants.
We were told that pitcher plants comes in varieties of sizes and colours. We learned quite a few things about the pitcher plants here. One of them is that the pitcher plants are not exactly carnivorous, dangerous or poisonous.
It is a misconception that pitcher plants hunts small animals for food.
The fact that it is known as carnivorous is only because the shape of the plants trap insects in it’s pitcher and they get their nutrients from there.
After spending our time in the conservatory, we were brought to the Fashion Forest.
To be honest I was a bit baffled. Fashion Forest?
Assembling at the Fashion Forest, located just about 500 meters away from Awana Longhouse.
Funny name for a forest. Whenever one talk about fashion I will only think of frilly and colourful clothes that models showcase on the runway. But then I was told by our guide Eddie that it is just a concept where Treks aims to showcase the forest to visitors in a safe and fashionable way.
Fashionable? Yes.
Safe and family friendly? That is a yes too. One thing interesting about this Fashion Forest is that there’s WiFi available. Yes. You are reading that right. There’s WiFi available. Which means you can go online and have a social media party while you are trekking in the Fashion Forest. Awesome, isn’t it? But the purpose is not just for you to be glued to your gadget nor merely post your selfies and wefies in your social media accounts while you are spending your time in the forest.
WiFi is made available for a purpose. An educational purpose. Treks hopes that technology will help create and spread awareness on the forest’s conservation.
And as part of the educational bits over here in Fashion Forest, the trees are barcoded. You can actually scan the barcodes by using apps on your smartphone and information on the plants or trees in question will appear. Interesting way of learning, I must say.
After about two hours in the Fashion Forest, we were brought to our next location; The English Garden.
We arrived at The English Garden after just about 15minutes ride, and here, our guide Eddie showed us more pitcher plants and we get to have more fun here than in the conservatory.
Here, we get to fashion the pitcher plants to our liking and decorate the wall of The English Garden with the plants.
Pitcher plants hanging on the wall of the English Garden.
Beautiful, red coloured pitcher plant
A male and female pitcher plant
Pitcher plant in green colour
Pitcher plant, pitchering water as it’s sustenance.
It is certainly fun, I must say.
We were then brought back to Awana Hotel via ride on Genting Skyway to check in to our room and retire for the day.
The beautiful view from our gondola
And here’s our room in Awana Hotel, a spacious one room condo.
The bedroom
The study
The kitchen
The livingroom
The bathroom
The shower
The one room about RM400++ per night if I’m not mistaken. For more information on that, please refer to Resorts World Genting Website.
Day 2
Our second day is definitely much more tough and adventurous than our first day. We kicked off our morning very early and started our day by birdwatching at Awana IBA, where we managed to see some migratory birds under the guidance of our birdwatching guide, Mr. Henry
On the left, Mr. Henry who led our birdwatching session.
Birders spotted. We were lucky that morning. We not only get to see rare migratory birds but also flying squirrel and lizard as well.
It is unfortunate that I do not own a pair of binocular. I guess it is time to invest one. It is certainly useful during birdwatching session.
After the birdwatching session, we trek a little bit in the forest and were rewarded with such a beautiful view.
We then headed back to the hotel to get some rest before our night herping session at Awana Longhouse.
Herping is a term used for searching for amphibians and reptiles. Definitely not for the faint hearted. I have to applause my wife though. She is is terrified of snakes and would cry at even the sight of a harmless albino phyton, but she managed nevertheless. Our herping session was lead by Steven Goh, the President of The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS). With his expertise, he shared interesting knowledge about nature and wildlife with us, particularly lizards, snakes and frogs. We had a successful herping session.
We managed to catch a glimpse of a few kinds of frogs.
Small frog
And also a Siamese Pit Viper. Yes. It is poisonous. But it was handled correctly and everyone had fun photographing the snake.
If there is something I must say about programs offered by Treks’ is that it is not only a family friendly program, but the activities gives opportunities to discover nature in the most fun and up close and personal way. It also helps to stimulate people and help them develop as nature loving individual. If asked if I would go for this again, I definitely would not hesitate to say yes.
The Treks programmes begin in June 2016 and are available from 9am to 10pm.
Self-Guided Fashion Forest walks:
RM35 per adult (12 years and above); RM30 per child (11 years and below)
Guided nature walks:
RM75 per adult; RM65 per child
Special-interest walks (Birding/Herping/Black Gibbon/Helmeted Hornbill):
RM250 per person
For more information on programmes and prices, go to Treks’s website and Facebook page or please call 03-27181118 or logon to www.rwgenting.com