As we walked out of the examination hall with a sigh of relief that the exams are over and a 3 week holiday has begun.
We have been planning this trip for over a month now and I was glad for once that one of our hare-brained ideas finally bore fruit.
The 4 of us including a good dozen of our batch-mates decided to leave the sleepy town of Seremban and travel to Uncle Lim's sovereign nation, Genting Highlands.
Lim Goh Tong's story is one of inspiration. He is a shining example of a rags to riches story. A Chinaman with only a change of clothes and a few worthless coins worked through sweat, blood and tears. From a rubber tapper to a successful contractor, risking all he had earned over the years for a gamble to further multiply his fortunes by Tunku Abdul Rahman. A plot of land on a mountain out of nowhere in the state of Pahang was the site he picked on a helicopter to build his very own city, check that his very own COUNTRY. There he built his theme parks, his resorts, that cute little mushroom farm. But most importantly he picked that site to build his casinos. People from all walks of life have tried time and time again to beat Uncle Lim not because they need the money, but for the sheer thrill of one-upping the great man himself.
This weekend, it was our turn to try.
We arrived at Genting and checked in around 5 in the evening. After placing our bags in our rooms we decided to freshen up a bit before heading downstairs to survey the tables.
We met up with our other batch mates and after more cam-whoring we decided it is best to eat a full meal to sharpen our wits before the great battle ahead.
As it was the 8th of August 2008, we hurried ourselves to the nearest sports bar to witness the great opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. It was nothing less of spectacular and we were all proud to call ourselves Asians after witnessing what a great job the Mother Land did. After cheering our national squad and observing some strange sounding country names we have never heard off, it was off to the tables to test our fortunes.
Because the do not allow cameras into the casino, I am unable to show you what went on. However lets hope my description is accurate enough for me to paint a picture for your imagination. :D
The night began badly for me. I came in with RM 200 as my capital and less than half an hour I lost half of it. I was barely winning back my money on the Pontoon/Blackjack table even after the tutoring of a seemingly "caring" auntie who pitied my plight. Despite the advice I got I was still loosing money. I decided then the smartest thing to do was to retreat and fight another day. Caution is the better part of valor as the saying goes.
Then as I walked with whatever I had with me, I saw an Indian dude in his 30s, stocky and short in built placing his bets on another player who seemingly had all the luck in the world. I peeked at his cards and saw that he had a 15, the dealer showed a 9 so he had to hit. He hit and got a 6. Another time he had a 17 and the dealer had a jack, he hit and got a 4.
So, I thought to myself should I try this method instead of winning it back by playing myself? I saw that thick stack of chips the Indian dude had in his hands and decided why not? So I placed my bet on the old Chinese gentleman who had extremely good luck and started winning of him. I managed to win back my capital and was about to make a nice profit when suddenly the card dealing machine "broke down", suddenly there was a change of dealers, suddenly they had to open up a new deck of cards and suddenly I took my chips and went running away.
I decided to use the formula I learned from the Indian dude and placed my bets on the dude with all the luck on another blackjack table. I indeed made some winnings and was content to stop then.
After cashing in my chips I met up with some of my old Josephian friends who were holidaying in Genting as well. I watched as they played the roulette wheel with some moderate success. As the temptation to go back to the tables increased as the night prolonged, I said farewell to my former school mates and started walking back to my room.
Good ol' Kevin too made a handsome winnings from his humble capital of RM35. The others too did well.
