* First World Hotel, Genting Highlands

First World Hotel is the largest hotel in Malaysia and the 3rd largest in the world in terms of number of rooms. This hotel has 6118 rooms and adjoins the First World Plaza which offers endless entertainment.
This hotel is popular and on the day I checked-in , it was 100% booked. It is however not the best available in Genting Highlands. Among the 5 hotels at the peak, it is in fact the least prestigious.  Its popularity could be due to its affordability and its location in the vicinity of the indoor theme park.  

These 2 blocks of colourful buildings are the First World Hotel and The First World Plaza.

This chart shows the hotel rate for the various seasons. As mentioned earlier, the rate is quite affordable.

The hotel reception and lobby area is a mad place. The crowd is enormous and it gives you the feeling that you are in a train station or airport rather than in a hotel. You will have to queue to take your number and wait for the number to appear on the screen at the reception counter before you can collect your keys to check-in. This is something I've never encountered before but which I find rather amusing.

The reception counter is also the longest I've ever seen in any hotel.

This place is definitely over commercialized. Good service?? You can forget about that if you want to stay here.

A word of caution to potential patrons:  Cling onto your luggage and belongings. You may not be able to find it once it has been taken away.

We stayed in superior deluxe room. The room is small, with unsofisticated fittings and furnishing. I'm not complaining as "What you pay is what you get".

The room is air-conditioned as it can get stuffy sometimes even though it is on the peak of the hill.

The washroom is functional and the cleanliness satisfactory.

We opted for the buffet dinner in the hotel restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised to see a very good spread of tasty cuisines .Walk-in diners pay something like RM58 for the dinner. (Prices may be subject to change)

The restaurant was having a Fruit Fest during our stay so there was plenty of fruits served alongside the cuisines.

If you are a foreigner reading this, and do not know what these fruits are, they are the kings of Malaysian fruits called the durians. 

This is the pulp inside the durians .The durians were so good we had many helpings of it.

The next day we had breakfast at the same restaurant but the breakfast spread was a big letdown. The atmosphere was totally different from the evening before and so was the food. May I say the food was wantonly served with a mission just to feed a large crowd.

There's plenty of activities in the First World Plaza that adjoins this hotel. The Indoor Theme Park is like a city especially during the night as neon lights lit up the entire place.

The gondola ride (imitation of Venice gondolas) seems a hit especially for those who have not gone to Venice for the rides. 

There are many shops and  F&B outlets in the plaza. There're also a bowling alley, a cineplex, a casino, an international showroom and others.

There is an outdoor theme park too. This plaza is linked to other hotels run by the same management via covered walkways.

Genting Highlands offers secular entertainment more than nature activities. Many visit Genting Highlands to gamble at the casinos. However gambling is a game of chance that more often than not favors the casino owners. Judging from the depressed looks of the gamblers there, I offer my humble advice : Avoid the casinos if you do not wish to go home poorer. Instead you can visit the mushroom farms and strawberry farms.

There is a strawberry and vegetable farm at Gohtong Jaya, midway up the peak.

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