Genting Highlands resort tells of one man's dream

GENTING HIGHLANDS, Malaysia (JP): While Las Vegas came out of a dry desert, Genting Highlands came out of a rainforest.

That's what most of Genting's staff believe.

It was Lim Goh Tong, the founder of this city of entertainment, who sold his properties to construct a 38-room hotel by building a road up to the peak of the Uli Kali hill, some 3,000 feet (909 meters) above sea level.

This was in 1965.

According to the resort's senior vice president for public relations, Anthony K.S. Yeo, many people find it hard to believe that Lim, now 83, did it.

"They can't dream of a road being built to the Uli Kali hilltop which is surrounded by rainforest," Anthony told a group of visiting reporters at the site, now home to Genting Highlands Resort which is popularly known by many Asians for its huge casino.

Anthony added that Lim came up with the idea of a resort when he was dreaming of building a retirement home for himself in Cameron Highlands back in 1964.

A year later, Lim led a team of technicians and workers to begin building the first access road to the Ulu Kali hill.

Lim invested, Anthony said, all the money he made from previous ventures like iron-ore mining, an irrigation project, subcontracting and a hardware business.

"He also sold his 810-hectare rubber estate in Segamat, Johor, to raise 2.5 million ringgit as capital," Anthony said.

Three years later, a 20-kilometer road had been built to the hilltop, 12 kilometers of which wound its way from the old Bentong road, through the thick tropical rainforest up to a midway point, heading toward the Ulu Kali hill.

From the midway point, another eight-kilometer road was built to the hilltop, by skirting a granite area.

Overcoming obstacles like electricity supply with the construction of a supply unit at the foot of the hill, linked to the grid system of the National Electricity Board (NEB) and finding major sources of water supply, Lim was later rewarded by former Malaysian prime minister Tuanku Abdul Rahman, with a casino license, Anthony said.

"When Mr. Lim heard the announcement for the casino license, he immediately upgraded the proposed 38-room Highlands Hotel, which was the first hotel to be built here, (later named the Theme Park Hotel) to 200 rooms," Anthony said.

The resort, developed in the following years at a cost of 2.7 billion ringgit, led to the building of more tourist facilities, man-made lakes, a 128-million ringgit cable car system, golf courses and the Chin Swee Caves Temple, among others.

As a result, last year the resort boasted more then 12 million arrivals and an 85 percent occupancy rate at the resort's five major hotels -- Highlands, Resort, Genting, Awana, and Theme Park hotels -- in June this year.

"The Theme Park is already fully booked for next month (September), while the Resort Hotel recently hit the 95 percent occupancy rate," Anthony said.

All the hotels, except Awana, are connected to each other, with guests ranging from black burqa-clad Arabian women with children to chic, jeans-clad Chinese ladies, patronizing the numerous classy restaurants, shops and swimming pools.

The resort also houses the 600-million ringgit indoor and outdoor theme parks, a concert hall which seats 6,000 people and regularly features world-class singers and musical groups, such as Gladys KnightandThe Pips and Chicago. It also offers outdoor activities like horseback riding.

Genting Highlands itself has 10,000 parking lots.

According to Anthony, the management has begun constructing a 6,300-room hotel, to be christened the First World. Its eighth hotel in the area.

"The first 1,000 rooms should be completed this year itself," he said.

The new hotel, if everything goes well, would be dubbed as the biggest in the world, beating the Venetian and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

With the completion of the new hotel, Genting would have a total of 10,000 rooms to offer its guests with room rates for deluxe rooms ranging between 120 ringgit and 280 ringgit per night.

Like many high-class entertainment spots, the resort also offers a wide range of activities for both adults and children.

In a written statement, Lim said he selected the name "Genting" because it literally meant "on top of the clouds" in Chinese.

"A lot of people, including friends, advised me (in the early days) to drop the project.

Today, it is a paradise on top of the clouds, which Malaysians can be proud of."